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Elias12
F L I N T O I D
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I sometimes, as I close my eyes at night, have little scenes flash by. I remember Slim Chipply, the Paramount Potaoe Chip mascot on commericals from Channel 12 . I flash back to the little diner on Franklin, I think it was called Blanche's , where my brother would take me from onion rings and a pop. The place was small, it had a small counter and several tables and chairs but I see the buidling now, fallen into sad decay, and see just how small it was and how big the world seemed to me. I remember going down to Kresege's with my mom,every summer we would go there downtown for the sidewalk sales. Each summer my mom would let my buy a goldfish ,which I would take home and add to the school of goldfish I had bought during our other downtown forays . These were big goldfish, not like the feeder sized ones pet stores sell now. And I had some of them live up to 7 years for me.
I remember on Dort Highway the delicatessen on the corner of Court and Dort, and the Blossom Shop across the street.
Today it is a few days away from Thanksgiving. I have these memories of the hustle at the area grocery stores in evey neighborhood of people trying to get every last item the could to make this dinner even better for their familes. Neighbors would greet each other in the stores, some catching up with each other for the first time in months. They would talk about who got married, who (sadly ) had died, who was coming home for Thanksgiving , who couldn't make it home.
I have to stop here, I am longing for too much. That town is gone, my parents are gone. All I can say ,before I get too morose ( I know,too late) is that whatever goes on here in this town moments like those in those grocery stores of my childhood still do happen here. Enjoy them, let them sink into your skin,into your pores. These are the things that may become your future dreams, they are the things that make up mine. |
_________________
You fool all the people all the time,if you control the press. By pass the "offical channels" and see what is really going. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:25 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| I didn't grow up in Flint, but I could almost see those places through your imagery. Thanks. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:02 am |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| I remember all those things plus a bunch more. Another really great memory, this time of year downtown. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:48 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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The smell of peanuts roasting at Schippacasse's.
The bridge over the river had buildings on it on the West side, mostly Coney Islands.
Downtown movie Theaters: State, Strand, Capital, Palace, Garden, Regent, Rialto.
Kresge's, Smith-Bridgeman's, Buckinghams, AM Davison, Flagg shoes, Pennys, Woolworths, Vogue, Maas Brothers, Lerners, a lot of other stores.
Flint Army surplus, at Saginaw & Water, later became Yankee Stores.
The Bowling Center where I set pins for 10 cents a game; now the parking lot at St. Michael's Church.
The original Flint City Hall where the McRee court building is now. Montgomery Wards before it became the court building. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 3:17 pm |
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Elias12
F L I N T O I D
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| Does anyone remember people coming around the neighborhoods with the pony and them taking pictures of the kids on the ponies dressed in the cowboy hat and chaps? Or the Wonder Bread company giving away real small loaves of bread at the grocery stores? Or what about the Bozo show ( no, not the city council , the guy with the red nose and oversized shoes) ? Or the Union toy store that set up around the Christmas season? Does anyone go around the neighborhoods singing Christmas carols like they did when I was growing up? Or how about visiting the McFarlan home to sing for the people there? We did that in my Cub Scout troop one time. Channel 12 is still here,maybe we can get a new clown show or some sort of kids program going up there again. Locally produced , of course. |
_________________
You fool all the people all the time,if you control the press. By pass the "offical channels" and see what is really going. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 4:03 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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ha ha ha. both my sister and i have a picture sitting on that little horse on clifford street. man, i thought i was roy rogers that day!!! 
also remember walking the neighborhood singing christmas carols. the forest east of dort between atherton and lapeer where we as kids would go back in time exploring. i also remember always being in awe of the junkyard behind contos. my friend wesley bye's dad owned it and i would walk through there simply in wonderment.!! to this day i still get a charge out of junk yards!!i remember going to the magic shop (playland?)near the bridge on s.saginaw to get the latest magic trick and play pinball. the food bar at kresges ( i swear their hotdogs were the best!). also remember bozo!!! i also remember the shock at seeing santa had actually taken a bite of the cookies we made and left out for him christmas morning!! the snow was beautiful ahhhhhhhhhh memories!!! |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 5:58 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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Well how about N saginaw St, Downtown Buick, Supercity, , that book store that had any and all books, the Schwinn bike shop. Dort Hwy, Robert halls, the gas station on lip and dort $1.oo cruise all night in my 57 powerpack 3 on the floor black belaire, the royale of course, dort drivein movies , mcdonalds 15 cent burgers, eastside buick, pure gas station lapeer and dort, sportorama indoor gunrange, Damn it sure all went in the crapper.  Hey Backagain I agree on the junkyard tours. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 8:57 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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| supercity, damn thats one i had forgotten!!!was the bookstore your referring to the one on detroit st. a door or two north of the head shop? i got some great metaphysical stuff there!! the guy who ran it was very wise.. oh man, i was a chubby kid and every new pair of shoes i got were those wingtips from robert halls, the ones that had a thick sole that extended an INCH outside the shoe!!! man, i hated those shoes!!!! i worked at the pure station while in highschool. a a matter of fact, that was the first legal job i had!!! think i cleared $600.00 that year!! |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 9:29 pm |
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John Wilson
F L I N T O I D
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| I was born in 1963, I remember the Bozo show, was on the show twice. I also remember the Yankee store .I remember thinking this city was the center of the universe. Buick, before it was called Buick City, right across the river, AC on the other side of the house. Across the river the DuPont plant, the meat company. Growing up on the Eastside, trying to cross Leith Street, the entrance into Buick was like playing Frogger for a kid. A few kids I went to school weren't so lucky as I was, some them had extended stays at home with broken legs from being it by cars. I remember when the Genesee Valley as being this far away place, to we Eastside kids Miller road was the boonies. My dad's family owned the El Rancho, they opened it in 1947 and sold it 1961 due to my grandfathers bad health. I heard from my grandad when he and my grandmother opened that place people told it would never fly, that is was too far out of the city , too far in the boonies to attract any customers. Well those critics were proven to be wrong. Like , I hope the naysayers will be wrong about the new places in downtown Flint. I am very exicted by the possiblities this town has now opened to it. Sure I am very nostalgic about what Flint used to be, I still think Kogels makes the best lunch meats and hot dogs , I still would love to have some Paramount chips but who knows what will come to this town with it being a college town. Great places to eat, maybe new industries being created from the kids now going to UofM , Kettering or Baker. Maybe some college student will come up with some new computer platform, beating out the big boys of today. We have a lot of property now freed up and empty,but that can be a good thing. Cheap land and lots of it was what brought people to this area in the first place. |
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Sun Nov 22, 2009 10:46 pm |
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twotap
F L I N T O I D
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| It just came back to me that gas station on the corner of lip and dort was the zephyr gas station, it had an old guy as attendent that a lot of the folks cruely referred to as "gumlips. Hey John Wilson we had our wedding reception at the El rancho." which I believe was known as the El rancho Stable hall. That was after your grandparents sold it. Lots of dances were held there on the weekends. That bookstore was on n. saginaw and 3rd I believe. Anyone remember cruising the bricks on saginaw cause even the most mundane car could get its tires to squeal on them? I still remember around back of the old Royal as the place where myself and another lad settled our differences over both dating the same gal. Found out a bit later she wasnt worth the effort and the bruises. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:11 am |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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Cruisin' through the Varsity, then the Royal, A&W behind the jail, Colonel's on Leith, A&W on Stewart, Colonel's on Carpenter, Walli's in Beecher, A&W at Clio & Pierson, then repeating the loop.
The articles in the Journal when Dad's Carfeteria changed it's name to the Varsity bemoaning the "undesirables" that would infest any drive-in that opened. Flint would be over run with evil "hot rodders"! The police stationed at the Varsity telling anyone who pulled in that they had 5 minutes to eat, then they better get out or face arrest for loitering. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:39 am |
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John Wilson
F L I N T O I D
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| Twotap, My own parents had their wedding and reception at the Stable Hall . I saw pics of it of course, wasn't there myself. By the time I was old enough to remember things the hall had been sold and had become Flint Wholesale Jewlers. My dad told me all about the huge bowling banquets ( yeah, bowling banquets, to the snobs out there ,they were a big thing back in the 50's and some of the 60's) they used to have out there. Jules Cantin bought the place off my grandparents in 61 and the place was in Jules hands again , he just got it back from the 3rd owner, when it burned down in (I think ) in 1982. I have a lot of pics from there I am going to put on the webiste my friend Steve Myers started for me some time back. My grandmother died in 1992, my grandad had died n 1982, two months or so after the El Rancho burned down. And my dad died in 2005 , so I want to make that website as a memorial to them as well as having a place for people who remember the place can post their stories about the Ranch as well as stories about Flint . I have ran into so many former employees over the years myself, many of them up in years themselves. And I know, my grandad was a hard person to deal with, I used to work for him duing the summers at their place up north. I have good memories of the El Rancho, it provided well for my grandparents and they were grateful to have been part of a very bright part of the history of Flint. |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 9:39 pm |
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back again
F L I N T O I D
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| does anyone recall the name of the rib place that was near the corner of dort and lapeer???? those folks made great ribs!!! |
_________________
even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:00 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Flint isn't gone,,, we can make it better.
quote:
Elias12 schreef:
I sometimes, as I close my eyes at night, have little scenes flash by. I remember Slim Chipply, the Paramount Potaoe Chip mascot on commericals from Channel 12 . I flash back to the little diner on Franklin, I think it was called Blanche's , where my brother would take me from onion rings and a pop. The place was small, it had a small counter and several tables and chairs but I see the buidling now, fallen into sad decay, and see just how small it was and how big the world seemed to me. I remember going down to Kresege's with my mom,every summer we would go there downtown for the sidewalk sales. Each summer my mom would let my buy a goldfish ,which I would take home and add to the school of goldfish I had bought during our other downtown forays . These were big goldfish, not like the feeder sized ones pet stores sell now. And I had some of them live up to 7 years for me.
I remember on Dort Highway the delicatessen on the corner of Court and Dort, and the Blossom Shop across the street.
Today it is a few days away from Thanksgiving. I have these memories of the hustle at the area grocery stores in evey neighborhood of people trying to get every last item the could to make this dinner even better for their familes. Neighbors would greet each other in the stores, some catching up with each other for the first time in months. They would talk about who got married, who (sadly ) had died, who was coming home for Thanksgiving , who couldn't make it home.
I have to stop here, I am longing for too much. That town is gone, my parents are gone. All I can say ,before I get too morose ( I know,too late) is that whatever goes on here in this town moments like those in those grocery stores of my childhood still do happen here. Enjoy them, let them sink into your skin,into your pores. These are the things that may become your future dreams, they are the things that make up mine.
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_________________
Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:37 pm |
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Ryan Eashoo
F L I N T O I D
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Well join forces with people who are working to improve Flint, and lets make it a better place.
quote:
Elias12 schreef:
I sometimes, as I close my eyes at night, have little scenes flash by. I remember Slim Chipply, the Paramount Potaoe Chip mascot on commericals from Channel 12 . I flash back to the little diner on Franklin, I think it was called Blanche's , where my brother would take me from onion rings and a pop. The place was small, it had a small counter and several tables and chairs but I see the buidling now, fallen into sad decay, and see just how small it was and how big the world seemed to me. I remember going down to Kresege's with my mom,every summer we would go there downtown for the sidewalk sales. Each summer my mom would let my buy a goldfish ,which I would take home and add to the school of goldfish I had bought during our other downtown forays . These were big goldfish, not like the feeder sized ones pet stores sell now. And I had some of them live up to 7 years for me.
I remember on Dort Highway the delicatessen on the corner of Court and Dort, and the Blossom Shop across the street.
Today it is a few days away from Thanksgiving. I have these memories of the hustle at the area grocery stores in evey neighborhood of people trying to get every last item the could to make this dinner even better for their familes. Neighbors would greet each other in the stores, some catching up with each other for the first time in months. They would talk about who got married, who (sadly ) had died, who was coming home for Thanksgiving , who couldn't make it home.
I have to stop here, I am longing for too much. That town is gone, my parents are gone. All I can say ,before I get too morose ( I know,too late) is that whatever goes on here in this town moments like those in those grocery stores of my childhood still do happen here. Enjoy them, let them sink into your skin,into your pores. These are the things that may become your future dreams, they are the things that make up mine.
|
_________________
Flint Michigan Resident, Tax Payer, Flint Nutt - Local REALTOR - Activist. www.FlintTown.com |
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Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:40 pm |
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