  Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 201 Registered: 06-2007 |
When I joined the Forum in June, '07, I was amazed as well as pleased that some of the members enjoyed my 'posts.' I have never lusted for my “fifteen minutes of fame” in the spotlight, but a few ‘seconds,' here and there, are certainly pleasant. I soon discovered that I was out of my element in the “Discuss Detroit” sector. I still read many of the postings, looking for, maybe a silver lining but there are too many clouds in the way. When a certain area or landmark is mentioned I can immediately associate it with one or more good experiences that I had there, a long, long time ago. Therein lies the crux of the matter. Perhaps I am in one of those time machine warps. I have read many of the hummers, (singing its praises) and bummers, (not singing) regarding attitudes and experiences (read life styles) of people who have lived in and around Detroit. If I had to use one word, and one word only, to describe my personal experiences as a Detroiter, from the time I was born to the year, 1987, when I retired, it would be, “GRANDILOQUENT” (From Noah Webster’s Third ): marked by a lofty, extravagantly colorful, pompous, or bombastic style, manner or quality, especially in language [e.g.(a grandiloquent and boastful speech about his great accomplishments)] Note: I would substitute “its” for “his” in that last line, meaning Detroit. Does anyone have a ‘one’ word remark? | ||
Ravine Member Username: Ravine Post Number: 1799 Registered: 01-2006 |
Tponetom, I would like to participate in your thread here but, as I imagine you and everyone else around here has noticed, I am absolutely incapable of ever having only one word to say, about anything. However, if there is a single word which represents the term, "ignorant, and proud of it," that would be a word that I, regretfully, would say fits a great many of my fellow Detroiters. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2554 Registered: 01-2005 |
For the Detroit I knew, "Grateful". For the Detroit I see now, "Saddened". | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 578 Registered: 08-2007 |
Heart | ||
Gannon Member Username: Gannon Post Number: 11323 Registered: 12-2003 |
Spirit | ||
Rickinatlanta Member Username: Rickinatlanta Post Number: 130 Registered: 07-2006 |
PROUD | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 5946 Registered: 11-2003 |
hardscrabble. jjaba, Westside. | ||
Rax Member Username: Rax Post Number: 93 Registered: 11-2007 |
Trapped. | ||
Gazhekwe Member Username: Gazhekwe Post Number: 1304 Registered: 08-2007 |
Tenacious. | ||
Raggedclaws Member Username: Raggedclaws Post Number: 117 Registered: 08-2006 |
Divided. As in between a slowly blossoming downtown with great potential and neighborhoods in various states of decay and despair. | ||
Ookpik Member Username: Ookpik Post Number: 371 Registered: 01-2007 |
Birthplace. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2563 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'm surprised Ookpik didn't reply with "Photoop".  | ||
Ookpik Member Username: Ookpik Post Number: 372 Registered: 01-2007 |
Or "COPY."  | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 273 Registered: 11-2007 |
My family has been documented here since the 1670's. I'll go with the big "T" - Tenacious. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2566 Registered: 01-2005 |
"My family has been documented here since the 1670's." And what tribe were they associated with? | ||
Malcolm_t Member Username: Malcolm_t Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2004 |
WORD ••• | ||
Defendbrooklyn Member Username: Defendbrooklyn Post Number: 668 Registered: 11-2005 |
aching | ||
Bigb23 Member Username: Bigb23 Post Number: 470 Registered: 11-2007 |
Ray1936 - My "tribe" is the Odawas of Michigan. Luckily, my Mom had a aunt back in the 50's who was a professional genealogist and did a history of our family using government and tribal rolls. Information was also documented by a white minister back in the 1830's on family/tribal lineage. I am very happy to have these papers with me now. | ||
Chuckjav Member Username: Chuckjav Post Number: 376 Registered: 09-2007 |
Esotericallyarcane&lovingit | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2728 Registered: 01-2005 |
Ah, my question was tongue-in-cheek, Bigb, and you provided an exceptional answer! Bless your aunt for documenting the family tree. It's also a great hobby, but I don't know how they found things before the computer age. Actually, I have you beat. Mine goes back to England in 1530. Paternal line arrived in Philly in 1717. | ||
Kathleen Member Username: Kathleen Post Number: 2775 Registered: 10-2003 |
Just to chime in on the family genealogical roots...and Native American lineage... My earliest Detroit ancestor Pierre Roy was in Cadillac's advance party. Pierre married a Miami woman named Marguerite Oubankikove; their daughter Madeleine, born in 1704 and baptized at Ste. Anne de Detroit, was my ggg...grandmother. That's my earliest known paternal ancestor. On my mother's side, we have been able to trace back to three passengers on the Mayflower: Richard Warren, Francis Cooke, and Francis' son John, who married Richard's daughter Sarah. Another maternal ancestor Benjamin Nye arrived in Massachusetts in 1635; his homestead still stands in Sandwich. The Nye Family of America Association has traced our family history back to the 1300s, descended from the King of Sweden. I did most of my genealogical research some 25-30 years ago when I was in college, and the Burton Collection was right across the street, so when I had a couple hours to kill, I would head there and go through census records on microfilm and county histories and the like. I wrote to many churches and cemeteries, and distant relatives. All accomplished before the computerized access to genealogical records! One of these days when I have some spare time, I may pick the search up again, this time from a more historical perspective, not just names and dates. Like you said, Ray1936...it's a great hobby!! | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2733 Registered: 01-2005 |
I used to scroll through those reels of microfilm myself, Kathleen, until my eyeballs began to spin like a slot machine. Thanks to Ancestry.com and HeritageQuest.com, you now can find them indexed and on line (fee required). I was at the local LDS family history center scrolling through the 1900 Sedgwick county, Kansas census, searching for my great grandfather, J.C. Redfield. As a page came into view, there he was with his wife, Hannah. For some reason, my gaze wandered to the upper right hand corner of the page, and would you believe that the signature of the census enumerator was.....J. C. Redfield! Startled, I just instinctively exclaimed, "Well, I'll be damned!" The two little Mormon ladies on either side of me were not amused. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2734 Registered: 01-2005 |
Kathleen, for a lady who landed with Cadillac, you've held your age quite well! | ||
Alfie1a Member Username: Alfie1a Post Number: 30 Registered: 10-2007 |
fleeting | ||
Shotcaller Member Username: Shotcaller Post Number: 4 Registered: 02-2008 |
not a word, but one of my favorites lines (by percy shelley) that i associate with detroit and the music that's come out of the city the last few decades... "To hope till hope creates, from its own dispair, the thing it contemplates." | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 5532 Registered: 10-2003 |
Undaunted | ||
Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 234 Registered: 06-2007 |
And a few more words: A Treasure Hunt: I never thought about it until just today. I keep going over many of these posts mining for nuggets, gems if you will. I am not talking about the subject content, but rather, the means of expression. For instance: From Ravine, 02-02-08, Post # 1891, his quote: “Tponetom, those of us who have come to look forward to your looking backward,,,,,,” Wammo, Bammo! The phrase “to look forward to your looking backward,” floors me. Forget the vanity issue entirely. The simple construction of simple words have a far greater impact on the average reader than the use of more exotic words that many people will not understand. Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2657 “I don't know if it's particularly healthy, but as sunset gets nearer I find myself delighted in remembering the past. Not just MY past, but all of history.” The word, “sunset” suggests the antiquity and the truth of our lives and its implications are obvious.. We have a great and all embracing language that we can use and adapt to all audiences. I try very hard to avoid the nomenclature of my youth, that being, the four letter words. Oh yes, I had a dirty mouth, the remnants of same that sometimes regurgitates, and later, I wonder why I allow myself to use them? Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 4696 "I found myself writing about things that had little or no relevance in today’s world". “no relevance in today’s world .” and: “I always wanted to travel in time...” Together, they speak volumes for the past and promise for the future. Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 735 Thanks for another one of your "rememories!" (Now why did I not coin that word?) I will use those examples in the future, plagiaristic or not. So, sew me. (Sew is a teaser, to get a response!) | ||
East_detroit Member Username: East_detroit Post Number: 1521 Registered: 11-2003 |
Romantic | ||
Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 236 Registered: 06-2007 |
East_detroit; You found me out for what I am! | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 862 Registered: 08-2007 |
Tp - you inspire us with your writings. I'm always waiting for another one of your posts. You never disappoint me. And I would be thrilled if you were to use "rememories" in your posts for our pleasure. Keep 'em comin'. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2779 Registered: 01-2005 |
Rememories is a good word. Certain words bring back certain "rememories" with me all the time. Let's see if I can recall a few. Seminary. No, I wasn't religious at all. But when I was a kid I had a hard time pronouncing "Cemetery". It came out "Seminary". So today, when I hear the word "Seminary", I think of Cemeteries. Then again, at my age, I think of cemeteries a lot on its own. Locomotive. One of my favorite kid words, being a train buff that I was. Only a locomotive was a coal fired, steam operated, smoke belching monster that gave me a love-hate relationship. I was awed in the power, and scared of the smoke-darkened sky. Today's diesel-electrics? Naw, small potatoes. Dentist. A word of terror. I had my share of dental problems as a kid, and our dentist, on the eighth floor of the David Whitney building, was a butcher. Oh, he was a nice man, his name was Dr. Siegel. But he was never introduced to novocain in dental school, and had a drill that operated at about 20 rpm. To this day I dread dentists and only go when I have a problem. Anyway, Dr. Siegel's office overlooked Grand Circus Park and the Fyfe Shoe Store building, along with the "Smoke Camels" sign that blew smoke rings next to it. The big sign of the Wolverine Hotel was in clear sight. Doc died decades ago, and I wish he could take a look out of his old window today. Kaiser. No, not that German guy, the car. My grandfather had a 49 Kaiser that I learned to drive in. God, that car was a Sherman Tank with rubber tires. But I bonded with that car, and looking over web sites with photos of those old Kaiser "Travellers" brings a rush of.....well, rememories. Swing. This was a heavy steel 'glider' on the front porch, not a kid's swing. Nice cushons on the seat and back, and in the summer, chances are you found me spending the night on the "swing" on the porch. Crickets chirping and occasional traffic along Schoolcraft was all the sounds of the night on that porch. It sure beat my upstairs bedroom on a hot July night. I hear "swing", and my thoughts turn to crickets. Yup. Rememories. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 4627 Registered: 12-2005 |
From today's Freep: Word-watcher counts on English hitting 1 million words | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 1819 Registered: 02-2007 |
resilient | ||
Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 237 Registered: 06-2007 |
I like 'resilient. It is not a trite word. It makes me think. How on earth did I ever get to live this long. I must be resilient. Jimaz: A thought spoken? Definitely? How many times have I had a thought and then groped for the proper verbal expression. A million times? Ray1936: Check DC in a day or two, regarding "Dentists and Kaiser." | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 873 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ray - you've got some great rememories there. Thanks for sharing. We had one of those gliders too. Many a hot summer day was spent on the front porch with a pitcher of lemonade, and us gliding back and forth, while telling stories, reading, or just watching the bees pollinate the flowers. Yeah - good times. | ||
Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 240 Registered: 06-2007 |
Eriedearie; I have always believed that as we progress, we regress to our youth. To things like, a glider on the front porch, a neighborhood friend we used to have, a childhood Christmas present we did not expect to get or any other miniscule thing you can think of. They are not just memories. They are the philosophies that make us what we are. The values that we hold so dear. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 886 Registered: 08-2007 |
You are so right Tp - "They are not just memories. They are the philosophies that make us what we are. The values that we hold so dear." On that quote alone I got to thinking and I decided that I have some of my own rememories to share. Strawberries - whenever I read that word or see the berry I am instantly taken back to when I was a little girl living in Virginia with my maternal grandparents. I called them Nanny and Papaw. Me and Papaw would take our berry picking buckets and go for a walk across the road, cross over the creek to the railroad tracks. There were wild strawberries growing all along those tracks that we would pick. Some made it in the bucket and some traveled home in our tummies! Nanny would always tell us to bring enough home so she could make jam or if there were enough left she'd bake us a pie. Very rarely did we get a pie! To this day the word strawberries never fails to bring that memory back to me. And you know what? There has never been a strawberry that has tasted as sweet and looked as perfect to me as those that me and my Papaw picked down by the railroad tracks. Railroad tracks...When I lived in West Virginia with my paternal grandparents (Grandma and Grandpa) their house was on a hill and below the hill there were railroad tracks. Every day at noon the train would go by hauling cars full of coal that had been mined from the mine where my daddy worked. There was a side walk on one side of the road with cement steps that had been built into the hill. I'd hear the whistle of the train as she rounded the bend about a 1/2 mile up the tracks. That was MY signal. I'd go running for those steps and I'd stand there and wave to the engineer and he'd wave and toot the whistle for me. I'd watch as all those coal cars went by and listen to the clack, clack, clack of the train on the tracks. I'd always wait to see the guys in the caboose so I could wave to them too. They would wave back and holler hello to this barefooted, pigtailed little girl. I'd continue to watch till the train went out of sight all the while wondering where all that coal was being shipped off to. So today, anytime I get stopped at a train crossing I don't get all miffed up because I have to wait for the train to pass. I just watch it go by and think of when my daily encounter with my train friends made me smile. Chocolate Easter Bunny - Now since Easter is approaching I can't help but remember that every time I see a chocolate Easter Bunny about my encounter with one when I was 7 years old and living in Pennsylvania where Grandma and Grandpa had moved to. Grandma helped me get dressed up in a beautiful navy blue suit that she made for me. Grandma had bought me a Easter hat, white patent leather shoes and brand new white gloves that had little pearls on them. Oh I looked so pretty and felt so special in my new Easter outfit, holding my little white Bible that zipped and had a chain with a gold cross hanging from it. It was a warm Easter morning and I had to walk over two good sized hills to get to the little church in the valley. I arrived at the church and went directly to my Sunday School classroom and it was there that the Sunday School teacher handed out beautiful cellophane wrapped solid chocolate Easter bunnies to each of us children. She told us that we should take them home with us to enjoy after we had eaten our Easter dinner. Once class was over we all went upstairs for Easter Services. I had my chocolate bunny and sat him on the pew next to me during services. Once services were over, I started walking home, clutching my chocolate bunny in one hand and my Bible in the other. It had been a warm morning and after two hours indoors it had warmed up quite a bit more. Once I got to the top of the second hill my hand holding the chocolate bunny felt weird. I looked at my hand and that darn bunny had melted through the wrapper and my white glove was covered with runny chocolate. I stood there and cried - How would I explain this to Grandma - I had ruined my beautiful pair of gloves that she bought me! Not only that, I had killed that chocolate bunny in the process! I was so upset with that bunny for melting and ruining my beautiful gloves that I mustered up all the strength I had and I flung him as far as I could over that hill. He went pretty far cause I tried to look where he landed but I couldn't see him. I remember it just like it was yesterday. I walked up the steps into the yard and to the back porch and I was crying. Grandma came to the door and asked me what was so wrong that I was crying. I looked up at her and I said "Grandma, you can whip me if you want too. My Sunday School teacher handed out chocolate Easter bunnies to all us kids and I was holding mine and walking home and he melted all over my beautiful gloves that you bought me and now they're ruined. So I got mad at that bunny for doing that and I threw him over the hill!" She very kindly said to me "I'm not going to whip you. I would never whip you. I've got plenty of soap and water that will take out that mess. I'll wash your gloves and they'll be as good as new." So that's what she did and I was able to wear those gloves several more times for other church services. So every time I see one of those chocolate Easter bunnies my mind goes back to that Easter Sunday when I lived in Pennsylvania with Grandma and Grandpa. And learned a valuable lesson that day - no matter how dirty something gets you don't have to get upset over it...there's always soap and water to fix it. Toy trains...My daddy knew about me waving to the train men and knew about my interest in trains and such. I was surprised Christmas morning 1952 when I came downstairs and Santa had set up a train set under the Christmas tree for ME! It was working too. The engine was pulling all the cars around the track, the wigwags were working, all the lights were on and the engine was puffing smoke! There were even some little buildings and trees placed around. I had my own personal train! Daddy taught me how to use the controls and place the cars on the track. I played and played with that train so many times. Turned out that was the last Christmas present I ever got from my Daddy. He was killed in a car wreck that next October when he was coming home from working a double shift at the mine. He fell asleep while driving, smashed into a milk delivery truck and the steering wheel jammed into his chest and crushed the life out of him almost instantly. The milk truck driver was okay, but the box part of his truck was knocked off its axle. Anyway, I still have my American Flyer, tracks and accessories. I set it up once in a while and remember the one bond that brought me and my Daddy together for a brief time. I'll never part with that train set. But every time I see one set up somewhere I have the rememory of playing with my Dad and my train set. Car factory - Fast forward to summer 1956 (or would that be...fast backward?) - first time I ever heard the words "car factory". Grandma and Grandpa told me that my mom and step father were coming to pick me up and take me to Dee-troit for summer vacation because that is where they lived now since there was so much work available up in the city at the "car factory." I didn't know what a car factory was but figured it must be a pretty big place if that's where cars came from. And I figured that if a factory was a pretty big place, then Dee-troit had to be a lot bigger than any town I had ever lived in. So I arrived in Dee-troit June 1956. The very first street sign I recall seeing in the city was the exit sign at I 94 East for Van Dyke Avenue. Turns out the house wasn't too far off of Van Dyke and that street name would become an integral part of my life from then till present time. First chance he got, my new Dad drove us around Detroit - by that time I had learned from a couple of the neighborhood kids how to pronounce the name of the city properly, however, my parents still say Dee-troit. Anyway, Dad took us for a tour of where the car factories were. And wow - was I ever right about them being big places. Gosh, a whole town like the ones I had lived in before could of fit inside those car factory walls! I remember going by some on Mound Road, Lynch Road and one in a place called Hamtramck. Dad worked at one on Mound Road. I think it was called the Chevy Plant. So when I hear the words "car factory", I am reminded of how a little girl, born in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, shuffled back and forth between there and the mountains of West Virginia, on to the Allegahny mountain region of Pennsylvania landed in such a flat, big Metro Area we all call Detroit! Oh, and BTW - my parents are still living and they have NEVER lived very far off of Van Dyke Avenue. | ||
Ookpik Member Username: Ookpik Post Number: 383 Registered: 01-2007 |
Eriedearie, Wow. That is one of the funniest, saddest, best posts I have read in a long time. What "Chevy Plant" did your Dad work at? Was it the one at 9 Mile and Mound? If so, my Dad worked at that "Chevy Plant" too! Ookpik | ||
Tponetom Member Username: Tponetom Post Number: 244 Registered: 06-2007 |
Dear, Eriedearie I have received your compliments in the past and I am extremely happy to reciprocate. Your "rememories" are what all of our lives are about. They reveal your own life and the things you hold dear. Each and everyone of us have had similar experiences with just a little shading here and there to make ours unique. My happiest moment came when I was about 45 years old. I just let my emotions flow in a torrent of exposure, in both speech and letter, and I discovered many people also felt a relief of not being alone in their simple reveries. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2792 Registered: 01-2005 |
Hear, hear, Eriedearie! Great rememories in that post! I'll even forgive you for loving American Flyer over Lionel, but that's a minor matter. I'm 71. Every Easter for all my life I received a chocolate Easter bunny from my mother. Seven decades; she never missed once. Mom passed away at age 90 last May 25. This year I will think about not getting a chocolate Easter bunny for the first time in my life. Just as good. Chocolate gives me the shits. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 7711 Registered: 10-2003 |
Damn you Ray, that last line caused me to laugh so hard my sides hurt. Eriedearie, Thank you for sharing that. | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 894 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ookpik - Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed my rememories. I do believe it was the Chevy Plant on 9 and Mound - I'll have to ask my dad. I remember us doing a drive-by one time and there were men lined up around the building. Dad explained that he had stood in a line like that waiting to get inside to fill out an application, and that was what all those men were doing there. Tp - Some of those rememories were so hard to bring out of my soul and put into words, but I'm glad I did it. They've been inside me for a very long time. I thank you for giving me the inspiration to finally express myself on paper. Ray - I'm sorry to hear about your mother's passing. However, since she saw to it that you got a chocolate Easter bunny for all those years, why don't you see to it that you have one this year? Never mind that chocolate gives you the "shits" - do it in memory of your Mom. Jams - You're welcome - And Ray does have a colorful way with words, doesn't he? I think that's why I like him so much! | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2795 Registered: 01-2005 |
Heh, heh! Okay, Eriedearie. I'll do that and nibble slowly! Here's mom's obit.  | ||
Eriedearie Member Username: Eriedearie Post Number: 905 Registered: 08-2007 |
Ray - your mom was a very pretty lady, yes indeed. Good to hear about your decision on the chocolate Easter Bunny - nibble slowly and pace yourself for God's sake! You don't have to scarf it all in one sitting! Then maybe the dreaded "shits" won't happen... |
