I’ve been hunkered down in the house today. It’s been raining off and on all day, but so far the storms have stayed at bay. Because of the weather, I missed another walk this morning and tomorrow morning is looking a little iffy too. It always rains here when my boss is on vacation, and that is where he is – in the Upper Peninsula for five days. I am holding down the fort, and was left with plenty of work to do – I never seem to catch up these days.
I’ve had the news on in the background as I waded through that work. I decided that Detroit made its mark on the national news for most of the day, pushing the latest presidential titters or Tweets aside, and, even the wildfires’ status is at the bottom of the news stream. The haze from these wildfires has now reached Michigan and made our already-gray sky look hazier and grayer, although, as a result of the wildfires, we are promised some beautiful orangey-pink, and even magenta sunsets … that is, if the sun remembers to show up. Practically speaking, what are a few hazy skies in our state, when people have lost their lives, homes and possessions, and wildlife and natural beauty have suffered as well?
All eyes are on Detroit today and I mused that usually Detroit, Michigan is well known for its crime, (just Google the 1967 Detroit riot), or renowned for the mischievousness that used to occur on Devil’s Night. And, who can forget when the Tigers won the 1984 World Series and fans’ celebrations got way out of hand?
But, today the City of Detroit is darn proud of its moniker of “The Motor City” with the impending “Woodward Dream Cruise” and it also shines as people remember home-grown talent Aretha Franklin, who passed away from pancreatic cancer earlier today. The airwaves have been chock full of tributes to the Queen of Soul, and I heard quite a few things I never knew before about this legend. In the local news, as soon as Aretha Franklin’s death was announced, it bumped the Woodward Dream Cruise reporting to the bottom of the barrel of news stories for today.
You might recall back in June when I made a pit stop at Cruisin’ Downriver, the classic car cruise that passes through my city, I mentioned this event was just one of a parade of classic/vintage car cruises held by various localities all Summer, until the granddaddy of all cruises happens this weekend on Woodward Avenue. Its website proclaims the “Woodward Dream Cruise” as the world’s biggest car cruise: http://www.woodwarddreamcruise.com/
It is only fitting that Woodward Avenue should host such a grand affair because this was the first paved street in the nation. The cruisers have been out day and night since Monday, though they might have tucked their little gems away today while this rain has been pelting down.
When I was at the “Model A Rendezvous” last Saturday, I took some pictures of a 1955 Chevy Bel Air.
You can see it parked behind this Model A.
When I was done checking out the 86-to-90-year-old cars, I meandered over to this one. I especially like the hula girl and the sticker about White Castle burgers, a/k/a “sliders”.
Sometimes, I wish I’d been around for the fun 50s era to hang out with the likes of Richie Cunningham and his crowd from the “Happy Days” show. Maybe I’d be Richie’s main squeeze with a bouncy ponytail and I’d don a poodle skirt, a blouse with an “L” on the lapel and saddle shoes. It might have been more fun than my teen years, those turbulent times of the 60s and 70s.
Before the flood of Aretha tributes and reflections monopolized the news, there was some car trivia on WWJ this morning. I learned that to be called a “classic” vehicle, it must be at least 25 years old; a “vintage” vehicle must be 50 years old.
Well this Chevy Bel Air is beyond vintage.
Speaking of old, and since it is Throwback Thursday, just for good measure, I threw in a couple of black-and-white photos of me posing with the family car back in the day. Hmmm, I guess this girl could be labeled “vintage” too.
P.S. – Detroit is also known for its Coney dogs, even if they don’t sell ‘em at Arnold’s Drive-In.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
A lovely post. Adored your youthful photo – and identified! 🙂
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Thanks Jan – evidently my father liked the car more than me since my legs and feet did not show up in the picture! My entire life when he took my picture he’d cut off part of me, especially when I got older and was taller than him (5′ 9″ to his 5′ 3″). I had another good picture of the same car, which was likely taken the same day and there was even more car and even less Linda, so I used this one instead. I think I remember my parents referring to it in later years as “the Pontiac” and I tried to enlarge the name of the car, but couldn’t make out the words.
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I remember seeing a Pontiac like that one when we and another family were on a beach vacation – this particular model had been done in some kind of fancy metallic shiny paint! We kids couldn’t get enough of it! 🙂 You obviously didn’t inherit your photography skills from your dad’s side 🙂
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Hi Jan – I wish I could have seen the name of the car, as I would have mentioned it, and, in fact, I Googled “types of Pontiacs through the years, then narrowed it down to 1956-1958” and I found a list (I think on Wiki) but still was not sure. What did we do before Google? Thanks for saying my photography skills were better than my dad’s side – he cut my mother’s head off all the time too! And here, clearly he liked the car to show up. My mom had a small box-shaped “Baby Brownie” camera and she used that for taking pictures when I was young. Many of the photos in the old album that I have scanned in were taken with that camera. The small photo at the tail end of this post was taken by the Baby Brownie.
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Linda, I think it’s a Pontiac Starfire.
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Thanks Jan! That part I don’t remember, just calling it “the Pontiac”.
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Nice bonnet!
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Dear Miss “Vintage”………………………I do love Coney Dogs ……………..and was just telling my Hindu Indian friends about them……………………….so Detroit is known for them……………………………..good for detroit!
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You must have Meeta try a Coney Dog, if not from American Coney Island, then from A&W. I remember when my grandmother was here the first time from Canada. She had never had one before and we were out and stopped there and she was talking about them, the onion rings and the root beer for days! 🙂
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The weather with you this year also seems quite crazy. You were very cold at the end of spring and early summer, I remembered you wrote. Then very hot and now rain and storm. Here in Europe, many southern countries have had a lot of rain and cold, we in the north have had extremely hot and just a little rain. Beautiful pictures of the amazing cars.
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Hi John – I’m having some computer issues at work and was troubleshooting with computer guy this a.m. and didn’t get a chance to respond. I went outside and like a steam bath – his dew points and humidity and 73 degrees when I left the house. I did want you to see the Chevy Bel Air after you expressed an interest in it so incorporated it into yesterday’s post, but I wanted to give you a site for live streaming in case you wanted to watch tomorrow. The radio station is WOMC and there is live streaming on Facebook – I know you said you are on Facebook. Here is how to get there – I hope the link goes through due to this new internet privacy protection, etc. It starts at 9:00 a.m. our time on Saturday. This is an “oldies” radio station.
https://womc.radio.com/blogs/how-watch-woodward-dream-cruise
Scroll down to where it says in red font: “Click here to watch it live” and when you click there you get this:
https://www.facebook.com/104.3womc/
I hope it works for you since you love old cars – we are supposed to sun and moderate temps (for a change).
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The owner of the radio website don’t like Swedes, it look like!😁😁😁
The owner of this website (womc.radio.com) has banned the country or region your IP address is in (SE) from accessing this website.
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Well that’s a bummer – I just looked to see if you were able to access it – we had some storms last night and I didn’t get to Reader and I was curious if you could access it. This radio station is a sister station to the new station I listen to and they were CBS owned and just bought about 6 months ago by Entercom (I think is the name … a huge conglomerate) … sorry, I thought I could give you a bird’s eye view. I have one more idea and let me check it for you – we have a steamy day out there.
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A fellow blogger wrote in response to my post about the cars about a car museum in Michigan – she is not located near me, but passed along her blog post and this link to the Stahl’s auto museum. I looked at it last night and thought they were streaming the cruise, but I misread it – they will have a special tonight at 7:00 p.m. and I’m sure they will make that available later so people can see it and I’ll look for that for you. Bummer about WOMC though. Here is the Stahl’s museum … it has music … I had my speakers turned off last night and the music nearly blew me out of the chair as it was on full. 🙂 http://www.stahlsauto.com/
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Thanks Linda!😊
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Hi John – I am uploading some pics and looked around for a live stream for you – I thought I’d try WXYZ, which was mentioned in the Stahl’s Car Museum website. It looks like they are live streaming here …
https://www.wxyz.com/dreamcruise/live
So, give this a whirl and if the link doesn’t work Google “WXYZ.com” or “who is streaming the Woodward Dream Cruise?” But try here first … I still think they’ll make a podcast or a YouTube video of the 7:00 p.m. recap tonight. Unfortunately it looks like it might rain there in the northern suburbs where it is held. I’m not close to there, maybe 25 miles away and it is one huge traffic jam for miles around.
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Thanks Linda!😊
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You’re welcome John – maybe that will work better for you. Too bad WOMC is not streaming where you can access it. It is an “oldies” station and they play all songs from the 50s and 60s during the cruise. Every time there is a cruise the radio station goes to the cruise and sets up several places with their various DJs along the route. We have a big bridge/expressway project that is gong on right now and has messed up the street where our cruise is … it’s been like that since February of 2017 and so WOMC decided not to set up at our cruise the last two years.
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I found a link to the photo gallery and was about to send it and my internet went down … so here is a photo gallery sometime when you get a chance to go through it … https://www.wxyz.com/news/photo-galleries-2018-woodward-dream-cruise
This morning on the news they said there were 40,000 vehicles too part in the Cruise yesterday and the route is 17 miles long. If you go on YouTube, WXYZ has posted parts of the Cruise, maybe 11 or more at this link, or just google 2018 Woodward Dream Cruise … https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=2018+woodward+dream+cruise
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Thanks for the links, Linda!😊 So many beautiful and well-behaved cars, amazing!
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Yes, they were beautiful cars – I am glad you could access the link this time and enjoyed the pics.
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Linda,
I was going to write, you had a Vintage Chevvy too back in those good old days but I read in the messages above that it was a “Pontiac” car. If you had it today, it would probably be vintage.
As with wine, I believe, man grows better with age.
I love the vagaries of the weather this year. Back in my home state, there are floods and people are cut off from everywhere. There has been no power supply for days on end and no fresh water.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/kerala-floods-rescue-mission-launched-as-hundreds-stranded-in-buildings-in-pathanamthitta/articleshow/65419128.cms
I know you worry about making the 4oo miles but if you try to focus on the 4 miles you do today that will make you real glad that you could do it. How do you measure the miles ?
Susie
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Susie – My Buick Regal, which I just adored was 21 years old when I had to get rid of it because it just had too many electrical issues. I was telling Anne Mehrling about it and sent her this link. I cried like a baby when I had to get rid of it as I felt like a little princess riding about in this car. I saw it when I passed by a car dealership and it was out on the lot – I was going to get a new car as the Pacer was always stalling and dangerous (and had the same trouble with my first car, a VW Beetle). Someone had ordered this car with the Landau roof, the pin-striping, mirror trim and plush velour seats and then they cancelled the special order. I got it and all the neighbors wanted to know when I would sell it. https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/11/10/just-another-mundane-monday/
I looked at the news article – my, so much water and just devastating and they are having the same issue where Carol lives. She lives in a village and the village is called Honeoye Falls, NY. They have a big waterfall there and they worried the water would overflow as it was so high. The weather everywhere has been devastating this year and no rhyme or reason to it. A Swedish blogger I follow writes about their drought – the hottest weather in 256 years and the farmers have lost crops, their farm animals as they can’t feed them and slaughterhouses are six months behind in being able to slaughter as they can’t feed the poor animals. Such a tragic loss. Your home state looks like after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas last year. Pictures of flooding in Houston were like this – water everywhere, houses submerged and people on their rooftops waiting to be rescued. Just horrid. And Puerto Rico is still trying to recover. Mother Nature has certainly had her way with us the past few years.
I am still hoping to make that goal Susie. Yesterday I couldn’t walk and today I got out, but just in the neighborhood. I didn’t want to stray far because we were expecting rain mid-morning and it was dark out – very humid out too – 90% humidity and already hot and sweltering when I left – nothing like the heat you’ve endured this Summer though.
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Susie – Three times I remembered I forgot to mention the pedometer and just thought of it while writing today’s post, so I bopped right over here. I measure the miles using a pedometer. i know people use a Fitbit, but I got this pedometer the first year I began the walking regimen and really like it – it has no bells and whistles, save to tell you what you walked from the previous seven days and measure while you’re walking. I got a “leash” for it so if it falls off, it still will be clipped to the leash and to my waistband. I don’t take it with me on an everyday basis if I’m going to Council Point Park, because I know each loop is one mile and I know the roundtrip, including crossing the parking lot is two miles. But I wear it if I go grocery shopping, or to any other park so I can keep track of my miles, and I have a log that I’ve kept for each year as well. Sorry I kept forgetting to answer you. (Blame it on the heat!)
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I have never had a working pedometer- but did use a fitbit at various times.
Wish I could have seen Parker’s pictures.
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I got here about an hour ago and did a fast draft then thought I would check in at comments as I didn’t do them this morning – I tried to leave earlier because it was so hot, so that I could walk while it was cooler. I still have to sort through my pictures then finalize the post … where did the day go Susie? I look at the clock and it’s 1:00 p.m. and next thing I know it is 5:00 p.m.! And, furthermore, where did the weekend go?
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You are right about the news today – it was all Aretha. I didn’t listen/watch all day but never saw anything about dream cruise. Since you have been posting about antique cars I wanted to share a post about our visit to a local museum that is all antique cars and music machines. It is only open a couple of days a week. It is run by volunteers and free to visit. They have an amazing collection. If you ever venture this way I am sure you would enjoy it. https://donteatitsoap.com/2018/01/07/pizza-chocolate-chocolate-chocolate-cake-and-a-history-lesson/
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I actually could not believe how much time that WWJ spent covering Aretha’s death to be honest Ruth. I didn’t go out yesterday as it rained and so decided I was going to start work early as I had a lot to do. Before Aretha’s death was announced, there was to be a press conference at 10:00 a.m. about the hit-and-run driver who killed Lee Smith, the sheriff’s deputy run over in Hines Park. I was interested to hear it because they were adamant to find this driver and determine whether it was a deliberate hit as he’d recently been involved in a trial, or whether it was an accident. It was hours before they even mentioned the suspect. It was like that on WJR too. I listen to the “Mitch Albom Show” and I suspected he would dedicate a large portion of his show to her death. This morning almost as much coverage and nationwide as well. I will check out your post. I really did enjoy the Model A event last week.
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Old American Car are just so big.
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Almost too big Andy. Those older American cars looked like boats going down the street.
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I always thought I would have fit in way better in the 1950s:)
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Oh me too AJ and years ago, in our last year of high school, we had a classmate who belonged in a 50s band. They were called “Little Davy and the Diplomats” and he was the youngest, the others were out of high school, and either working at jobs or going to college. We used to go to the “hops” sometimes and get dressed up a bit like the 50s. They were a good band and they still play together in the Park on occasion. In fact they always close out the season and are on Thursday August 30th – every year I say I’ll go over and see them. “Davy” is a judge here in Lincoln Park and his brother is the City attorney. The same group of guys have an orchestra-type band (Ed Zelenak Orchestra) and for years they’ve gone to Jamaica and play a gig down there for a week. I could totally see myself being back in that era.
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Oh you should totally go to that concert so you can share it on your blog! That way I can live vicariously through you:)
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You’re right – it’s been ages. I went one time when they first started up the Thursday Concerts in the Park and I thought I’d visit with the guys beforehand and they had it roped off and the cement in front of the bandshell so people could dance I guess. So I stayed awhile but didn’t talk to Dave. Ed was a little older – I knew Dave better. First time I saw them was at the high school talent show in 1973, the year I graduated, so they have been together a long time. I don’t know if they do their 50s gig or they are more an orchestra type. In high school they dressed like greasers and did strictly 50s song – they were very good.
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Oh that would be awesome to see! I hope they still do their 50s stuff!
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I hope so too AJ because I Googled last night and found a video of part of their show at the Park and they were not in their 50s attire (which helped make it even more enjoyable in their greaser outfits) and they were playing other songs … they do function as a wedding band and play a lot of street fairs in the Summer so I just assumed they were playing 50s only. I will check them out though.
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It will be a neat experience regardless of the musical genre
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I agree AJ. Well I had the worst time uploading pics today – Shutterfly acted up and I had to keep starting from scratch. My planned post entitled “Got Peanuts?” will have to be deferred and I’ll go with a shorter post instead as I am quite behind in Reader … it started rumbling last night and we were expecting storms, so I never made it over there – OMG … one day away … well you know how it is. So when I come back a later, it will be short and sweet. I did almost six miles today and it was sticky out … 93% humidity and dew point in the 70s and temp of 70 (21C) … it was supposed to be overcast, so I thought it would not be as bad walking, but such a little breeze and on the sunny side of the park, it was bad and I was sorry I embarked on that last mile there before I have another mile to walk home. Now hydrated and doing better, but wow –
I am ready for Fall and I never say that, but it has been an ugly weather Summer and Spring and Winter were not so great either.
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You all really have been having bad weather! We’ve had hotter for longer than normal and really need our usual rain, but it will be here soon enough.
It’s overwhelming when you miss a day of the reader! Just so many posts to catch up on!
6 Miles is awesome- that much closer to your goal! Sorry you were uncomfortable though:(
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I spoke to a few walkers at the Park this morning and the general consensus is we’re ready for Fall, and that is sad as we had a bad Winter last year – total snowfall of 62 inches (157 cm) and the snow extended into the Spring. I was keeping up on Reader til I got so busy at work and had to stay late a few nights and that started it … never got there at all last night! It was hot and humid this morning – the humidity and high dew points are the worse I think and supposed to be same tomorrow.
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We didn’t have that bad of a winter this time so I am ready for Fall, but not to go back to work!
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I don’t blame you for that … it is hard to get back into the routine. I used to find that when I saved some vacation time up to take between Christmas and New Year’s, you get into a whole new routine that you don’t do just in a weekend or long weekend. I would have a hard time adjusting, especially since, being Winter I was not out and about as much, so more reading or really enjoying some R&R, staying up late to catch up TV shows or movies I taped. I don’t have TV anymore but at one time I had gotten a second VCR as most shows were on at 10:00 p.m. and a few times three shows were on 10:00 p.m. the same night, so then had to catch up on them all at once – binge watching was not a “thing” back then!
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Yup I find it very easy to get into the habit of holidays and very difficult to get back to school routines and not being able to do whatever I want whenever I want
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I love this post! A journey down memory lane, including a few side trips and observations. That picture of you with the car is adorable. I’m about the same vintage as you are and have similar black and whites with me and/or my brothers and the family car (although ours were ALWAYS Fords 🙂 ).
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Thanks Janis – I do remember we are the same vintage 🙂 I wondered why there was more car than me in this picture, but I can’t really complain since, as an only child, believe me the photo albums were filled to the brim with pictures of me beginning with the day I came home from the hospital. Our parents always posed us didn’t they? I think this was a Pontiac and I told Jan, another blogger, that I can remember my parents referring to a car as “the Pontiac” and I enlarged the lettering on the side, but it still wasn’t clear so I didn’t reference it. My dad worked at Ford in Oakville, Ontario and was transferred over here to Ford of Woodhaven. I saw last night that Norm was from Canada … I am a Canadian citizen, even though I have lived here since 1966.
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I wonder how many miles on that Bel Air? The term “slider” must be American as I’ve never heard it before?
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I just looked at my other pictures that I took of the Bel Air that day, but I didn’t take any of the instrument panel. The owner left the windows open so I could see right in. It was in good shape though. The “slider” is just about White Castle hamburgers. Their specialty are tiny hamburgers, a little bigger than a silver dollar. When we moved to the States in 1966 they were 15 cents. People have called them “sliders” for years. I think that White Castle is a hamburger place only found in the Midwest. They do such a thriving business shipping on the sliders that people who move from Michigan and miss them will order them and White Castle ships sliders that are them frozen all around the U.S. I was at a Model A car show last Saturday. They were celebrating 90 years since the first Model A vehicle rolled off the Ford assembly line. I was walking around looking at the vehicles and spoke to two owners for a while and took pics of their vehicles. The one guy had a 1931 pickup truck with the original paint job – not one thing had been restored/altered, except he had put on tail lights as he drives the car around town and was concerned someone would rear-end the car. But he showed me the odometer – I tried to take a pic but it is very faint – 73,000 miles on it and he bought it in 1961. He does not know if it had already rolled over once already! His truck is in this post if you want to look at it. It was in really good shape, but the only car that was not shiny due to the dull paint finish.
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there is a really big difference between a car that has 73,000 miles & one that has rolled over & come back to 73,000.The one with more miles will not only have more things already replaced but it’ll look beaten up too.
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Yes, this guy wasn’t sure if it had rolled over before he bought it. I don’t know how many miles it was when he bought it, but it was in good shape considering it had no restoration done and the paint job was 87 years old. The other vehicles had been refurbished inside/out.
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than it sounds like it was a true mileage.Something that would of rolled over would be dilapidated by now.
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I agree – the only part that looked really old was the instrument panel.
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