Spring has Sprung!

Yes it's that time of year again. Spring had sprung in the south which means one thing, yard work!

Pigeon Forge TN

Last week found me visiting a CVS in Pigeon Forge TN.

During the late 1700s, settlers from the Carolinas followed old Indian trails through the Smoky Mountains along the Pigeon River to what is today, known as Pigeon Forge. Pioneer Isaac Love established an iron forge in 1820 and his son, William, built a tub mill ten years later. The Old Mill, now a National Historic Site, remains operational. The iron forge and the flocks of pigeons that fed along the river banks in the early years gave the town its name.

Located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee, Pigeon Forge is within a day's drive of two-thirds of the nation's population east of the Mississippi River. The resort town is 33 miles southeast of Knoxville, four miles south of Sevierville, six miles north of Gatlinburg and five miles north of the most popular park in the U.S., Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Pigeon Forge is equally famous for its more than 200 factory outlets and specialty stores. Packed with music theaters and family attractions, it is also home to the state's top attractions like Dollywood.

For more visit: http://www.mypigeonforge.com and http://www.dollywood.com

Leaving NYC

Bye, Bye NTC! See you in a few months!

Several months of trips to NYC and Detroit have finally come to an end but LA seems to be in my future!

Flintstone Park

Like most of the area Flintstone Park is in decline. Now surrounded by a chain link fence to either keep something in or out the park is sadly in need of repair! The stately Flintstone house has been long since removed and replaced by a play set!

My sister will shed a tear when she looks at this picture.

Neighbors!

Here's a picture of the Hamborsky and Sarc houses on Ashton Street.

The yard between are two houses was the best camp ground and ice rink two kids could have ever had :-)

S.S. Kresge

Before discount stores popped up all across America, there were the variety stores. For decades, Middle America shopped at these stores for their basic needs – housewares and kitchen items, linens, basic clothing, shoes, school supplies, toys and so on. Many variety stores had snack bars or luncheonettes.

S.S. Kresge Company, based in Detroit and officially founded in 1911 by Sebastian Spering Kresge, was the number three variety chain in the US at the dawn of the sixties, behind F.W. Woolworth and W.T. Grant. At the end of 1960, Kresge had 759 variety stores.

Pictured here was the Rosedale Park S.S. Kresge were I worked after school in the toy department under the supervision of Mrs. Bauer for a $1.50 an hour, lol!

Now a Dollar Deals it sits in the decayed plaza where as children we use to roam.

Cunningham Drug Store

Longtime Rosedale Parkers will recognize this building as a former Cunningham's drug store. Cunningham's was once the leading local drugstore chain in Detroit but it has been supplanted by national retailers and is now out of business.

The ghosts of children drinking vanilla cokes with their sting ray bikes outside in a pile can be seen by many of us if we close our eyes :-(

14551 Ashton St

In 1966 our family immigrated to the US from Canada and moved to the Rosedale Park area of Detroit MI and 14551 Ashton St.

The area was beautiful with shaded tree lined streets, well kept homes and lawns.

In the 1970s, when Coleman Young, the city's first black mayor, took office in the wake of civil rights strife, many whites fled to the suburbs, polarizing the area and seeding bitterness that remains palpable to this day.

As many longtime Detroiters fled the crime and grit the city slowly became a fortress of malfeasance and poverty.
Now Detroit sits on the verge of bankruptcy, beset by political scandal, a declining population, troubled industry, high crime and unemployment rates and one of the worst school systems in the country.

It's sad and deeply depressing to see our area now.