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Tponetom
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Username: Tponetom

Post Number: 90
Registered: 06-2007
Posted on Monday, August 06, 2007 - 11:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

1967-1973. Good years.

In the early spring of 1967, we bought a house on Lannoo, near Moross and Mack. I went to work with the D & P Plumbing Co. as a service repair man. The office and shop was located two blocks away from the GM Building and the Fischer Building. D. & P.’s customer base was most of downtown Detroit. Hudson’s, The Book Building, Book Cadillac, Movie theaters and on and on. The ten plumbers
who worked for the company each had their own private ‘turf.’ Knowing the “innards” of all of those buildings was essential to providing the service that was needed. The GM Building had their own maintenance staff, but when they developed a major problem they would call on D. & P.
I soon caught on to the routine and started to take the emergency calls at night and week-ends. The overtime pay was generous. I had been working but a couple of months when the riot erupted. After it was over there was some apprehension when I would take a midnight call to go to the downtown YMCA or YWCA. When walking the corridors of the Women’s Y. it was mandatory to chant, in a very loud voice, MAN ON THE FLOOR! A few doors would open for the ladies to ogle the subject. Some remarks were inviting and others, deflating.
I never carried a gun in my truck. I did carry a piece of 3/4" iron pipe, 30 inches long with caps screwed on both ends of it. (A cap added weight to one end and the other cap kept it from slipping out of my hands) There were a lot of strange characters roaming the streets and alleys at 3 in the morning. When responding to one of those emergency calls, I would call the night manager/custodian/ watchman to tell him that I would be there in ‘x’ minutes or so and to meet me at the front or back door. When I arrived I would blow the horn until someone came to the door. Then I would drive around the block and through the alleyway, if there was one, and then turn around and circle the other way to make sure there were no opportunistic boosters hiding in the doorways. In winter, I ran into more than a few who were sleeping in those doorways.
I never exited the truck without the iron pipe in my hand, brandishing it like a cane. Some years ago a good friend of mine, a cop, gave me some advice. “Don’t go for the assailants head or face. You might kill him and face a lawsuit. Go for his forearms or his upper arm to disable him.
That was just the start of six good years.
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 1753
Registered: 01-2005
Posted on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 12:15 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Point of the shoulder to fracture his clavicle, or just a good whack to the shinbone will disable anyone. Good advice. Never hit them in the head; all that does is make them bleed and make them mad.

Another good post from Tp.
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Rsa
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Username: Rsa

Post Number: 1201
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Tuesday, August 07, 2007 - 10:38 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

thanx for the story tp. i'm quite fascinated with hearing about what life was like in the d during the seventies.

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