 
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 304
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 - 10:01 pm: |    |
All of us have shared parts and/or pieces of the 100 years that make up the 20th century. Different impressions abound for a particular year or group of years. Many persons left an impact on my life.
I got to thinking of the most influential "Detroiter" who had the greatest impact on my life, not just as a Detroiter, but also, as a human being.
I have been tossing and squirming ever since I got the idea.
My wife? My parents? My Grandparents or other relatives? My friends? A neighbor? A stranger on the street? An educator? A priest. rabbi, minister or nun? A politician?
I know who my nominee is. No trick answer!
It will take me a day or three to prepare my nominating speech for this person.
There will be no vote or discussion on the nominees.
The single, and only reward, will be the satisfaction of,,,,recognition of that person, by whomever submits a name.
I hope a story of any duration will accompany a nomination. |
Gazhekwe
Member
Username: Gazhekwe
Post Number: 2315
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 10:17 am: | |
That is quite a challenge! When you think of the one with the most personal impact, it makes it really hard, so many people to choose from! |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 2193
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 12:21 pm: | |
I agree Gazhewke! I've been pondering on this ever since I read this Tuesday evening! 
Our Tp has given us something to really scratch our heads about. I can only think so much, then my head begins to hurt and I hafta stop...at my age I need to be careful now! LOL
edited for typo
(Message edited by eriedearie on July 04, 2008) |
Ray1936
Member
Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 3357
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 1:30 pm: | |
A girl, long ago, and in a galaxy far away......sigh....... |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 305
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 2:36 pm: | |
Ray:
You touched my soul! Your post makes me edit, and add, to the one I am preparing. Nothing whimsical, I assure you. |
Ragtoplover59
Member
Username: Ragtoplover59
Post Number: 281
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Friday, July 04, 2008 - 2:39 pm: | |
"A girl, long ago, and in a galaxy far away......sigh......."
Wow, we came from a different generation, and yet, we seem to know the same girl.
and yes, she was that special!
Ray, I see your ....sigh...., and raise you ....quickened heartbeats......
But also my Dad. With his love for the city and family history, and the weekly road trips to every part of the city and beyond!
Having been removed from the city for 33yrs now, I still know as well as where I live now!
Thanks Dad, This Buds for you! and Happy 4th to everyone else! |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 307
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2008 - 1:27 pm: | |
My Nominee for The Greatest Detroiter of the 20th Century
Eva Neu.
This is a sad story,,,,,with an incredibly happy ending, on a deathbed.
It began in the year, 1907. Eva Neu, was born on the east side of Detroit.
Presumably, her parents (?) took Eva , back to Germany while she was still an infant.
At the age of seven, Eva, was sold, yes, sold, to a farmer as a farm worker in Germany.
Sometime, during the Twenties, Eva, returned to Detroit, accompanied by her adopted ‘Godmother.' The Godmother was Eva's dear and devoted friend for the rest of their lives.
That is the sum total of Eva's early life until she returned to America in the middle twenties. We knew nothing more. Not a single detail.
Eva never once spoke of her life in Germany. The family learned, very quickly, to never ask her any questions during that period of her life.
Peter K. met and married Eva Neu, sometime in the Twenties. They begat four children, starting in 1929 and the last one in 1941.
Their first child was named Margaret and the second child was named Eva..
Grandpa and Grandma K. lived on Filbert, near Gratiot. They adored their two granddaughters.
There was a ten cent Movie Theater on Gratiot nearby and I cannot recall the name but Grandpa was a Western Movie Junkie and he would take the two girls to all of the Saturday Matinees.
There was an omnipresent black cloud of despair hanging over their family and millions of other families across the country.
The Depression would break the hearts and spirits of many of them.
Eva and Peter, with their two girls, lived in Centerline for a couple of years, in a three room house with an "outhouse" in the back yard. No indoor plumbing.
In 1935, they moved into the four family flat on McClellan . The rent was 17 dollars a month. I think that Grandpa K. helped them out. Steady jobs for an immigrant like Peter were all but impossible, so they skimped, scratched and improvised, on everything.
Eva was the main breadwinner. She did domestic work for anyone who would hire her and she accepted any amount of pay that was offered her. She would bring dirty laundry home with her and stay up half the night to hang it out to dry and then wake up early to iron it. Two dollars a day was the going rate for a good domestic. Occasionally, a twenty five cent ‘tip.' would make her work even harder. Eva's ‘leisure' time, at home, was spent sewing all the clothes for the family
In 1936, Eva gave birth to their son, Robert. Like,,,,,,,,when it rains,,,,,,it pours.
Catastrophe stuck in 1938 when Pete came down with a serious case of ‘lead poisoning.'
It made him unemployable throughout the war years. It allowed Eva to work seven days a week and half the nights as well.
There was the ‘dole,' welfare, if you will. Welfare agents would come right into your house to check the kitchen cupboards, your basement storage shelves, look under the beds and anywhere else, hoping to find "evidence" of affluence in the form of non-welfare food.
Eva and Pete lost two weeks of welfare support because a single can of peaches was found in the kitchen cabinet. It was given to them by Grandma K. A treat for the kids. The welfare agents position was this: "If you can afford to buy a can of peaches, you do not qualify for welfare."
The WPA (Works Project Administration) offered jobs that paid about 15 to 60 dollars a month, depending on your qualifications.
In 1941, another daughter was born. Carol.
Margaret and Eva went to Nativity Grade School through the sixth grade and then transferred over to Barbour Intermediate when Eva could not afford the $ 7.50 annual tuition. Then they went on to Eastern High on Mack and the Boulevard.
Margaret found part time jobs, after school, at the Dime stores, Sears and Hudson's. Pete found temporary jobs to help out and together they managed to save a few dollars.
Whoa! I jumped ahead of my story.
1945 was the pivotal year for 130 million Americans.
Here is where the story of Eva gets going. In early spring of ‘45, Margaret, (aka Peggy) and I began our 63 year odyssey. I asked her to our J-Hop. She accepted. I then asked her to go on a hay ride before the Prom. She said yes.
Her family was thrilled and Grandma K and Aunt K. chipped in and bought her a gown for the Prom. Everything was coming up roses and Chrysanthemums, for a bouquet. We went on the hay ride and then, two weeks later, to the Prom. Then there was a party date and then a couple of Movie Dates and then the curtain came down with a crescendo
After seven or eight ‘dates' Eva knew something was getting too serious for her 16 year old daughter. Eva decreed, to Peggy, that she could not date me, see me, visit with me and in so many words, stay the hell away from me.
Eva was one hell of a protective mother. A lioness, with cubs, had best keep her distance from Eva. She was a force!
So the next two years were pure agony, sneaking around just long enough to hold hands.
Peggy graduated from Eastern in 1947. She got a full time job at the Michigan Unemployment
Compensation Commission.
In 1948 Eva and Pete bought one of those nice, new, shiny asphalt shingle homes on Annott Street, just north of E. Seven Mile Road. The 300 dollar payment came from her ‘change' jar.
Pete was in poor health and they depended on Peggy to make the house payments which she did. I became admissible, if not acceptable, to the K. household.
In fairness to Eva, she wanted her prize daughter to marry a good "Churman" boy instead of that wild Irish boy. Well, a truce of sorts came to be. I was tolerated.
Our marriage was inevitable and it came to be in 1949.
Eva was still working as a domestic. Her problems were just beginning. Pete had suffered from his lead poisoning for a number of years and then his heart problems began.
Eva just dug in a little deeper with her resolve and determination to keep her family together.
In 1956, Bob, their son was drafted. Pete's problems became worse. Peggy and I had bought our first home in St. Clair shores. The financial picture was bad for Eva. We insisted that she move in with us and rent their house on Annott. Fortunately we got a good family to rent the house and they made their payments regularly. Pete died a few months later at the age of 51. We helped with the funeral expenses and Eva vowed, "I vill pay you back when I can." This woman was not to be deterred from her personal oath of paying her own way ."
Her tenants had given her notice that they would be leaving and that fit her plans to move back to her home on Annott. Bob was being discharged from the Army so he could help to maintain the household.
Eva had a Catholic faith the we were never aware of. She could never spare the time to go to Church.
Finally, something good happened to Eva. A family on Oxford Road in Grosse Pointe was looking for a full time housekeeper. I am going to call them, John and Mary Doe. They were very affluent. I do not know how Eva connected with them.
After one week of Eva's services, the Doe's thought it would be a good idea if Eva moved in with them. She would have a private room and bath and the usual one day and a half off for her personal affairs. The Doe's were not cheap. So it came to pass.
The Doe's had a daughter and son-in-law and an infant grandchild and that offered the need for more services from Eva, which she provided.
As winter approached, the Doe's begged Eva to go to Florida with them and spend the winter with them. The Doe's had a canal home in Fort Lauderdale. Their neighbors were Susan Hayward, the actress, and Jackie Gleason.
Age was starting to catch up with Eva. The Doe's gave her presents of clothing, jewelry (?) and bonus's. Eva saved her entire paycheck.
There was one episode that endured us, the family, to the Doe's. One Sunday morning, the Doe's called Peggy and I to tell us that Eva was not feeling very well and they thought she might want to go home with us for a few days. We drove over to the Oxford Road home and found the Doe's personal Doctor administering to Eva. It turned out to be nothing more serious than a cold . The incongruity of the situation was apparent. How do you get a prominent Grosse Pointe doctor to make a ‘house call' on Sunday morning? Mr. Doe had a lot of dough, and influence, I thinks.
Eva had sold the house on Annott. When she retired, she bought a condominium in Roseville, near Gratiot.
In 1945, when Eva tried to disenfranchise my interests in Peggy, a mutual attitude of smothered resentment existed between Eva and I. Never an argument, never a raised voice, we had a reserved and civil truce for all those early years.
Then a strange feeling came over me in my early forties. I can only describe it as being, in a word, "maturity." I began to understand the pain and suffering that Eva endured during her childhood, and even more, her determination that she would raise her family the as best she could, come hell or high water.
In 1991, at the age of 84, Eva sold her condo and went into the ‘assisted living' Catholic nursing home on Cadieux Road, just south of E. Warren. It would be the two happiest years of her life. Why? Because there was a chapel in the home where she could go to Mass, every morning.
In 1993, Peggy and I were living in the U. P. We received a phone call from her sister, Eva. Their mother, Eva, was in the hospital, undergoing a lot of ‘tests.'
The next morning, we left and headed for Bon Secours Hospital in G. P. We arrived about six o'clock in the evening. We talked to the Doctor. Short and sweet, he told us that Eva was riddled with cancer. He said it was only a matter of days.
On the third day, in the afternoon, the whole family was in her room. Her breathing became labored. Eva had told us of her wishes, many times in the past. "If it is my time to go, let me go, no fuss, I don't vant to be a bother!"
I left the room for about ten minutes. The door to her room was closed when I returned. I pushed it open, gently. Eva turned her face toward me, her eyes at half mast.
She turned to Peggy, and said, "Who is that who just came in the room?"
Peggy replied, "It's Tom, Ma."
Eva hesitated a minute and then said, "Oh, it's Tom. He is a good man."
And that 48 year curtain of gray gossamer, that separated us, dissolved into nothingness.
My Note:
I nominate my Mother-In-Law because I KNOW she is the personification of tens of thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands of Detroit Mothers, Fathers and any other parental figure who fought tooth and nail to give there children the best that they could give.
I sometimes wonder if I had told Eva that my paternal grandmother was a Schumacher and my maternal grandmother was a Heimiller.....????????
Never play the game of, ‘What if?" |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 2197
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2008 - 2:15 pm: | |
Tom, I am in tears. Such an emotional tribute deserves more words than I can supply right now. Sorry. |
Bigb23
Member
Username: Bigb23
Post Number: 2131
Registered: 11-2007
| | Posted on Saturday, July 05, 2008 - 4:31 pm: | |
Thank you, Tponetom. You have a gift.
Duly copied and printed out, for future generations, when we are gone. |
Rickinatlanta
Member
Username: Rickinatlanta
Post Number: 156
Registered: 07-2006
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 4:03 pm: | |
Tom,
That extremely eloquent story, while not the same in actual historical content, DOES describe in many respects my Mom and Dad who are both gone now. A parent "who fought tooth and nail to give there children the best that they could give." |
Islandman
Member
Username: Islandman
Post Number: 1662
Registered: 08-2004
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 5:00 pm: | |
Great story Tom. Poignant is not the word for it. |
Alley
Member
Username: Alley
Post Number: 376
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 8:51 pm: | |
I love your stories and, yes, this totally made me tear up. Especially the part about Bon Secour because that's where my grandma died. |
Jams
Member
Username: Jams
Post Number: 9284
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 9:25 pm: | |
Tponetom
You will always have an interested audience here!
Lowell,
Is there any way to have a mega-Tponetom HOF thread?
I thank you for your posts, you've made me laugh and you've made me cry, but I light up every time I see a new post from you.
May there be many more! |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 658
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 9:30 pm: | |
"And that 48 year curtain of gray gossamer, that separated us, dissolved into nothingness."
What an extremely elegant way to describe the moment, Tom. I could literally feel the tension slip away from your relationship, and you must have been very proud to have fulfilled your desire to place somewhere in her life.
I know, if I had heard that about me, I would have thought I reached the pinnacle.
Patience is indeed a virtue, and your years of waiting to hear that paid off in spades. I believe you "earned" every word. |
Eriedearie
Member
Username: Eriedearie
Post Number: 2213
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 9:44 pm: | |
Lowell - If need be, I second Jams' request for a mega-Tponetom HOF thread. His posts are just too impressive to lose. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 309
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Monday, July 07, 2008 - 11:33 pm: | |
I really forgot the post script that I honor Eva with, at least once a week, when I go grocery shopping. Eva taught herself the English language and did an excellent job of it.
She always admonished her family to eat their vegetables. She pronounced the word, vegetable, "VE-GEE-TABLES."
To this very day, I pronounce it the same way, to anyone and everyone.
The Hispanic Produce Manager at Fry's Super Market now pronounces it that way as well, after I had a discussion with him about it.
Peggy and I love VE-GEE-TABLES! |
Dianeinaustin
Member
Username: Dianeinaustin
Post Number: 64
Registered: 02-2008
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 08, 2008 - 5:16 pm: | |
Please make a Mega-thread of these stories. They are to be treasured. It would be nice to not have to search for them in all the threads. The stories are lovely to read. |
Bulletmagnet
Member
Username: Bulletmagnet
Post Number: 1453
Registered: 01-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 - 5:52 pm: | |
I love all the DDD stories, Tponetom. I would go with a nomination for you. |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 710
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008 - 8:13 am: | |
I second that, Bullet!
I hope that your head doesn't hurt too bad today |
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