 
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 894
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - 10:00 pm: |    |
I'd like to get rolling on a Wikipedia page for Miller High School.
If you have information, remembrances or a web link to share, please do. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 330
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 1:57 pm: | |
circa, 1942-1946.
Good memories of walking eight blocks or so, down Jay Street, from St. Joe's to the Miller High School Gym to scrimmage with their basketball team. (I ran a 'post' on that story some months ago.)
1947. Miller beat St. Joe's for the City Basketball Championship.
Incidentally, in those days, neither the fans of the winning team nor the losing team,ran out of the building to tip and torch cars, break store windows and loot and beat up anyone in their way.
(Yes, I remember the 1943 riots and that is a whole different story. We still walked down Jay Street AFTER the riot.) |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 897
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 2:38 pm: | |
Tponetom...thank you for sharing.
During the mid-1960s, I lived on Maple St. (between Chene & Jos Campau); Miller was a short walk away.
Folks talk quite a lot about how the '67 Riot affected Detroit; more difficult to get good information on effect upon Detroit of '43 Race Riot |
Neilr
Member
Username: Neilr
Post Number: 816
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 5:07 pm: | |
There a show that often reruns on Comcast's Channel 10 about Miller HS. Many of the alumni share their memories of the school. |
Neilr
Member
Username: Neilr
Post Number: 817
Registered: 06-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 5:13 pm: | |
Comcast's Channel 10 often reruns a show about Miller HS. Many of the alumni share their memories of the school. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 902
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 5:43 pm: | |
Neilr...That sounds like solid gold to me; I will investigate. |
Tponetom
Member
Username: Tponetom
Post Number: 331
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 6:05 pm: | |
Chuck:
Maple Street. I wonder if the Moceri family still lived there during the sixties. Joe M. was my classmate at St. Joe's.
Re: '43 riot??
There were many people from all parts of our country, looking for employment in the defense industries in Detroit.
Some of them brought unwanted philosophical baggage with them. That is as polite as I can describe them.
The ignition of one match can transform an audience into a howling mob.
What effect did it have on Detroit? I do not know. I know how it affected me.
I delivered U. S. Mail during the Christmas Season of '44 and '45. I worked out of the Arndt Street Post Office Station, near Chene and Gratiot. (75 cents and hour.)
Those were two cold, COLD, VERY COLD winters!we worked 2 weeks. A supervisor seemed to drive by, in his warm car,about every 20 minutes, checking on my speed to deliver the mail.
By the second or third day after I started that first Christmas, I was stunned by the poverty of the colored people in that area. Young children dressed in rags that Goodwill would reject. Mother's wearing hand-me-down Hoover dresses.
My thoughts were on the '43 riots.
"Why would any human being want to hurt, cripple or kill another human being? Especially, the downtrodden ones.
I was invited into some of the 'homes' by kindly mothers who thought I would like to warm myself, a little. Most of the homes were sparsely furnished. Some had 'orange' crates for tables.
I still smile when I read some of the reasons for "WHITE flight" from Detroit.
There was also "COLORED flight"
BOTH groups wanted to better themselves!
The whites could afford the 12000. to 15000. all brick, cracker boxes in the suburbs.
The colored looked at our vacant houses as mansions compared to the squalor they had been so used to.
P. S. More often than not, I repeat myself.
I do not like the word "black," in describing a race. In my very early youth, I heard the older guys talk about: those black bas., or those black s.o.b.'s or those black mf's.
Perhaps, some day, we will all be called, "People of Color," without specifying what color. I have never in my life seen a 'black' person or a 'white' person.
Wait a minute, I do recall our 'coal' delivery man. He was always covered with black coal dust. |
Jimg
Member
Username: Jimg
Post Number: 1026
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 6:55 pm: | |
Many great musicians attended Miller during its years as a HS (1937-57), including...
Kenny Burrell
William Evans
Milton Jackson
Willie Anderson
Art Mardigian |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 903
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 02, 2008 - 8:22 pm: | |
Jimg....that is one heck of a Hall-of-Fame list!
Tponetom...sure do appreciate your remembrances.
By the time my family moved to our circa-1880 shack on Maple Street, hard times had been around for a while. Our stretch of The Bottom, at that point, was about three years away from extinction. I can still recall an abandoned schoolhouse from the 1880s (Brownell?); it was on Maple - about 100 yards from Chene...razed in the summer of '65. Seems to me, homes on the other side of Jos Campau...toward Elmwood Cemetery, were much nicer places to live.
PS our Maple Street home still had gaslights, a gas powered refrigerator...and a cast iron water heater. |
Reddog289
Member
Username: Reddog289
Post Number: 619
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 3:10 am: | |
Boy Chuck when you moved and went to Mac, YOU musta thought"Damn what a great place to be" |
Barnesfoto
Member
Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 5477
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 3:25 am: | |
tponetom: thanks, once again, for bringing to life times before my actual existence. As usual, your narration makes it all real and believable. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 904
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 6:42 am: | |
Reddog289...from my perspective, the difference between Maple St. and the Grand River/Meyers neighborhood was distinct.
The Bottom, 1965-1967: old-school folks from Mississippi & Alabama (99.5% African American) clinging to old ways; raising children in a rapidly changing city...in a neighborhood that would shortly be bulldozed. Yet & still, I felt as though folks cared about me.
Grand River/Meyers neighborhood, 1968 - 1976: an area that had only recently integrated; from 1968-72, the "white flight" was in top-gear...folks coming & going...much rage and violence. Things got somewhat better as the 70s progressed...and I put some meat on my scrawny bones.
(Message edited by chuckjav on October 03, 2008) |
Kimistree
Member
Username: Kimistree
Post Number: 184
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 11:10 am: | |
Chuckjav,
My Mom and Uncle both went to Miller High in the late 50's. I'm sure they have lots of information. I know my Mom has a yearbook. They both grew up in black bottom.
Let me know if you would like talk with them, I'm sure they would be more than happy to give you info. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 906
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 12:22 pm: | |
Kimistree...thankyou; I visit Detroit on a regular basis - I would enjoy talking with your Mom and Uncle. Are they still living in Detroit? |
Kimistree
Member
Username: Kimistree
Post Number: 185
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 2:07 pm: | |
Hi, yes they are both still in Detroit, and they live within 6 blocks of each other on the Northwest side. The Bagley community.
My Mom says she has 2 yearbooks, '55 and she thinks 54. Okay so not the late 50's..the mid 50s, but they do remember Miller fondly.
When I mentioned to my Mom what you were doing ...she said "good ole Miller..yeah I have some stories"
Let me know when you will be in town next and we can set something up. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 907
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 2:25 pm: | |
Kimistree...will-do; I'll holler here, by the heading: "Chuckjav to Kimistree" - hopefully Oct. 17/18 |
Kimistree
Member
Username: Kimistree
Post Number: 186
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, October 03, 2008 - 3:36 pm: | |
Chuckjav,
I'll look for it. |
Jita1
Member
Username: Jita1
Post Number: 110
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 8:53 am: | |
My Dad went to Miller. In fact, I found an old yearbook while cleaning out his place. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 1024
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, October 30, 2008 - 10:50 am: | |
Jita1....that is very cool; what year is your dad's Miller yearbook from? |
Jita1
Member
Username: Jita1
Post Number: 112
Registered: 08-2008
| | Posted on Monday, November 03, 2008 - 8:47 am: | |
I think the one I found is from 1958 and I think my mother found another one, but not sure of the year. I'll find out. |
Cbetsey
Member
Username: Cbetsey
Post Number: 1
Registered: 12-2008
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 - 10:27 pm: | |
I just found this list by chance while looking for info on coaches Will Robinson and Leroy Dues at Miller High. I wasn't an athlete, but they both made an impression on me from PE classes.
I was in the first middle school class to attend Miller, 1957 and 1958. Which meant we overlapped with the last class of Miller High students. Most of the older students were pretty tolerant of us 11-13 year olds, but it was interesting at things like school dances, etc.
My family moved in 1959 (part of the Black flight from the neighborhood) and I seldom get back to the area. But I have lots of good memories and wish I could find more written about those times. |
Chuckjav
Member
Username: Chuckjav
Post Number: 1254
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 5:37 pm: | |
Cbetsey...thank you, and welcome to detroityes !
Please feel free to keep the Miller High information flowing - it's all 100% Good.
Chuckjav |