Our 10 Days Near Detroit, Visiting the Family...

This video was made in Southgate Mi. just a few miles from Detroit. We were just on Fort St. last week on our way to my Father in laws house. a.k.a. Papa Jack. Detroit is what it is, but this is what is really going on there in the "Burbs" Nice people enjoying real life. This is the real Michigan. Enjoy the Video.

I'll be posting tid bits about our trip in the coming days, and believe it or not it's mostly positive and funny, except one incident. We were going through Ohio and we drove past a nuclear plant, and I asked my Grandson Corgan if he knew what it was and he said, "if it blows up we will all be killed!"

 Detroit's problems began decades ago with corrupt mayors and crooked unions. I was in the UAW, though I did not choose to be, I had to be. I worked at the Fisher Body plant in Ypsilanti, Mi. Yes, this is a real place, just outside Ann Arbor. The attitude of the workers in the plant was pure hatred and disdain for the company. They would do anything they could to impede production, or stop the line. I really didn't get it. I asked one guy," if we get more cars out the door isn't that a good thing". He told me to shut up, if I knew what was good for me. That was forty something years ago, and what happened in Lansing is the work of "paid thugs". You ask where are the cops?  Did you know that this type of union activity is not against the law? Google it! The car companies were Detroit and the Unions got anything they wanted or they went on strike and stopped production. The cars were crap but we all bought American back then. Now the #1 car company is Toyota.

Guess what, that was in 1968, since then almost a million people have left Detroit proper, and about a 1000 families a month are leaving currently. Michigan used to depend entirely on the auto industry to run their economy, not so today. Detroit as a city is just about finished, the latest idea floating around is to make it into a "Zombie Land Theme Park"  An added note, they added Casino gambling several years ago , with the usual promises, rebuild the city, improve education, blah,blah, blah. The real problem with Detroit is that all the taxpayers have left. The biggest Liberal City failure, ever is on its way to bankruptcy. This video is an example of what is happening in Greece. It's in the beginning stages here.

The City of Detroit, 1962
Play both videos at the same time
the effect is haunting.

The City of Detroit, 2014 Some homes can be purchased for less than a $100. but you have to live in them and take care of the property. This is a video of what's available. Copper plumbing, not included.

 

What's goin' on?

 

What's That I'm Smellin'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Perfect Watermelon

Pontiac "Goat Trailer"
Posted 10/12/11

I remember as if it were yesterday, I was driving down I-94 in the  now famous Pontiac "Goat Trailer"It was very warm that day 90 degrees and the AC wasn't working but I did have a back up. In those days we called it a "460" (4 windows down at 60 miles per hour) At that time I was working at the Chevrolet plant in Ypsilanti (pronounced Ipsilati). It was a huge plant which at that time built the biggest POS ever to take the open road, The Chevrolet Nova. The Covair was made and put to rest there. So we were 2 for 2.

This was a very hostile union plant and if you weren't driving a GM product bad things would accidentally happen to your ride, if you know what I mean. Any Ford product parked in the plant lot was a car fire waiting to happen.





Lepus Everywhere!

I'm getting way off track here. Back to the story, my wife worked for a small local grocery in nearby Belleville and she would always take stuff home to feed the goats, horses and rabbits. I say rabbits because my wife didn't want them caged up. So one day we opened their cage and let them run free.


"Honey Wagon"

 I keep Dejevuing, any way I'm driving down I-94 and I keep smelling a "Honey Wagon" (garbage truck) behind me, in front of me, beside me, I was awash in stink! But I was the only car on the road, I'm thinking. the goat poop and pee has somehow returned with a vicious vengeance, I felt like Seinfeld after the BO guy." I've gotta sell this car". It kept getting worse and worse. I finally pulled into the driveway, did a Capt Kirk onto the drive way and  I could still smell it. It was coming from the car! A very strange feeling came over me. Could it be, no, could it be coming from the trunk, did she kill somebody at work and forgot about the body. I was afraid to open it. I finally did, The whole trunk was full of the most stinky, rotten watermelons you ever smelt.
When she finally came home, I asked her about it. Her response "I got them free from work, they were for the animals, I forgot about them!" I asked how long ago did you get them. "about a month ago" Another mystery solved. Wait until you hear the "Horse Apple" story! Oh! my wife wrote a song about me. Take a listen.
til next time

 

Summer Vacation in Detroit, part 2

We arrived at Papa Jacks house, a neat little 2 bedroom, 1 bath home with a "Michigan" basement. I was a real estate agent for a time, and you couldn't count basements in the square footage, so it is less than a 750 square foot home. A "Michigan" basement was added well after the home was built, because you needed some more room. They would shovel underneath the house, raise the house. put it on rafters, and dig the basement. For me that task has "move" written all over it. They were affordable and built and designed for one purpose, to house workers who were coming in from all over the country, to get a great paying job, from the car companies. Henry Fords idea about affordable cars for the workers, took root in the housing market as well.The car companies hired anybody and everybody they could. The demand was incredible. Glass makers, housing, retail, if you relocated in the Detroit area, you were going to do well financially in a very short time. Back to the vacation, we had two grandkids with us, Zoe and Corgan, Butch and Zozo to Papa Jack.

Our arrival dinner was the usual, Caprara Pizza, right down the street on Northline Rd.(Nortline to the locals) It was a fresh dough ready to bake pizza in an aluminum pizza pan for $8.50. You took it home, followed cooking directions on the bag. and viola, dinner time.

Check out my first vacation blog, and play the parade video and the Detroit 2012 video at the same time, it is eerie. I did it by mistake, but what a story they tell.

Next blog, "Arrive at Merry Lake"