You know you're from Detroit if . . .

  • You used a pillowcase to go "begging" on Halloween, and you yelled, "Help the Poor!" at every door. ("Help the poor, my pants are tore, I need some money to buy some more.")
  • You remember what Devil's Night used to be. 
  • You remember the huge elm trees forming lush green tunnels over many Detroit streets in the summertime. Or when they'd come around to spray and tell you to stay in the house.. And, the autumn smell of burning leaves, after you'd rake huge piles to the curb for burning.
  • You remember honking your horn as you went through the tunnel to Belle Isle at the end of East Grand Blvd, where it went under Jefferson Avenue, even though the sign at the entrance read "Don't Sound Horn." And you remember the submarine that was tied up at the Brodhead Naval Armory alongside the Belle Isle Bridge.
  • You took a class trip or a moonlight cruise to Bob-Lo with Captain Bob-Lo & stopped at Verner's for a Boston cooler.
  • You remember running home from school so you could have lunch with Soupy Sales.
  • You rode a bus to Edgewater Amusement Park or Eastwood Park to ride the wooden roller coaster (again and again) or the Salt & Pepper Shaker.
  • You remember "A fantabulous day for the family, at fantabulous Edgewater Park ." P. O. P. Meant pay one price.
  • Your Mom packed the car with kids, swimsuits, towels, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to spend the day at Metropolitan Beach.
  • You played in the "Big Ditch" as I-94 was being built.
  • You played tennis on Belle Isle's courts, or golfed at their par 3 course, both lit after dark. Or went ice-skating, or for a horseback or canoe ride, rode in a pony-drawn carriage, hand-fed the animals at the zoo, visited the aquarium (remember the teepee), or attended an event at the Casino.
  • You rode the big white roller coaster or found your way out of the Fun House at Jefferson Beach Amusement Park .
  • Took a day trip and drove way out to Walled Lake Amusement Park where they had lots of rides, a roller coaster, and to the Walled Lake Casino for dancing.
  • When ice-skating was outdoors and Palmer Park or Belle Isle was the place to do it. You also remember its tennis courts, wading pool, golf, ice-skating, and horse and buggy rides.
  • Or how about the Detroit Firefighters working the crowds at the fireworks, selling tickets to their Field Day, and giving out firecrackers to the kids.
  • You rode a streetcar that ran on tracks down the center of Gratiot, Woodward, Jefferson or Michigan Avenue. Or the electric buses on Warren and Grand River.
  • You remember how all of the lights from the auto dealerships lit up Gratiot and Livernois -- and that they only sold American-made cars.
  • You remember when Eastland, Wonderland and Northland Malls were open, not enclosed. And when Wonderland had animals in circular cages.
  • You know how to pronounce Gratiot and Schoenherr and Cadieux.
  • If someone told you it's on Outer Drive, you knew to consult a map first.
  • You thought driving to Southfield was going "out to the country."
  • You checked out books for two weeks from the Bookmobile that came to your elementary school once a week.
  • You vividly recall the mineral bath smell (rotten eggs) when you drove through Mt. Clemens .
  • You bought candy and nuts from window-lined, walk-around counters and wooden floors at S. S.. Kresge or Woolworth's ("dime" stores).
  • You went to Sock Hops at Notre Dame high school on a Friday night where you heard Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and the Last Herd, or the Rationals.
  • You drank Faygo, Towne Club, Grilli's, Oso, or Atlas pop (we never heard it called "soda").
  • Your Mom saved Top Value, Holden Red, S&H Green or Gold Bell stamps.
  • Cunningham Drug Stores soda fountain and their raspberry phosphate.
  • Your school took a bus trip to the cider mill (with donuts and cider after the tour), or to Kellogg's in Battle Creek.
  • Silverstein's was the candy store of Army and Navy surplus stuff.
  • You had a subscription to the three Detroit newspapers, including The Detroit Times.
  • You remember news anchor Jac LeGoff who eventually worked at every TV station around Detroit .
  • You visited the Wonder Bread Bakery and got to take home a mini-loaf of bread (but you weren't cool unless you ate Silvercup bread).
  • You had a Shaffer's or Awrey's breadman and a Brickley's milkman Or a Twin Pines milk man, a Jewel Coffee man, and a Fuller Brush man (and they were always men).
  • You remember Pure, Penzoil, Speedway 79, Monkey, Dance, Purple Martin, Sinclair, Danny's Dino, Kayo and Gulf gas stations, and when "gas wars" meant 17 cents a gallon.
  • You remember Dino's Pizza, Carbone's Pizza, Red Barn, Powers, Henry's, Herc's Beef Buffet, Cupid's, Tom's Tavern, Ted's 5x5, Totem Pole, Red Devil, Marcus, or Richard's drive-in. (car-feteria).
  • You attended a wedding reception or a banquet at Roma Hall.
  • You attended "Wendy Ward's Charm School" at Montgomery Ward.
  • You remember when Ben's Hi-Chaperelle and Watt's Club Mozambique were the places to go to catch Motown acts.
  • Every year when the Blue Angels came to Willow Run Airport .
  • Or always wished you could be one of the Hudson 's Teen Panel girls whose pictures hung on the wall in the Juniors Department .
  • You had friends or relatives who could get you into Camp Dearborn for the canteen dances in the summer and to go swimming. Or the pond at Belle Isle near the Conservatory where the sign warned you not to touch the water.
  • You had a reverb unit installed in your car at Mickey Shorr's or Crazy Jack's (a.k.a. Michigan Mobile Radio or MMR) on Livernois.
  • You remember the riots of 1967.
  • When the bleacher seats at Briggs Stadium were only $2.00 to watch the Detroit Lions play. And when they won the National Football Championship (before there were Super Bowls) in 1957 against the Cleveland Browns, 59-14.
  • And when the Red Wings won all those Stanley Cups in the 1950s, and balcony seats at Olympia Stadium were only $1.25!
  • You remember Detroit wrestlers Dick the Bruiser, Bobo Brazil, Leaping Larry Chene, Wild Bull Curry, Ernie "The Cat" Ladd, Lord Athol Layton, Edward "The Sheik" Farhat, Fritz Von Erich, George "The Animal" Steele and Johnny Valentine.
  • You remember bowling for a quarter a game at Chandler Park Lanes, Falcon Lanes (next to The Ginos/Falcon Showbar), Parkside, Woods, Ritter's or Ritz bowling alleys.
  • You worked at Detroit Bank & Trust, Manufacturers National Bank, Bank of the Commonwealth, City National Bank, or National Bank of Detroit.
  • You "parked" at Belle Isle, either to watch the color-changing waterfall or the submarine races -- depending on how old you were and who you were with!
  • You were in awe of the Big Stove on East Jefferson at the entrance to Belle Isle (before it was moved to State Fairgrounds entrance).
  • You remember your mom taking your burned-out lightbulbs to Detroit Edison to exchange for new ones.
  • You remember the J L. Hudson Co. (known to us as just "Hudson's")  building on Woodward Ave. that occupied an entire city block.
  • And you remember the white-gloved elevator attendants operating the expandable gate and lever- locked door, and just before letting you out, she would call out the names of the various departments on that floor.
  • You ate a Maurice Salad at a J. L. Hudson's cafeteria.
  • You went shopping during Downtown Detroit Days.
  • You remember Women's Hospital before it became Hutzel Hospital .
  • You remember that Hudson 's hung a HUGE American flag on the front of the building every 4th of July.
  • You would ride the bus downtown at Christmas and stand in line at Hudson 's amid a fabulous winding, animated Toyland just to see Santa.
  • Or you remember going to see Santa Claus at the Northland Mall igloos because it was televised and you hoped your friends would see you.
  • Thanksgiving was not complete unless first you went to the Hudson 's Parade, then to watch the Detroit Lions play the Green Bay Packers (always the Packers back then) at Briggs (later Tiger) Stadium.
  • You know guys who put up big antennas so they could pull in the Lions home games on channel 6 out of Lansing .
  • You watched the 'old guys' play bocce ball at Buddy's Rendezvous Pizza or sang the Schnitzelbank song at the Dakota Inn.
  • You remember when Mayor Cavanaugh would give Santa and Christmas Carole (who always looked like she should be freezing in her short red velvet outfit trimmed with white fur) the keys to the city at the end of every parade.
  • You remember the Detroit Tigers pitcher, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.
  • You remember watching the Detroit Pistons and the WHA Michigan Stags hockey games at Cobo Arena.
  • How about Al Ackerman ringing Big Al's bell for the Sports Hero of the Day.
  • And watching Cadillacs being made on Clark Street .
  • Or the giant, three-dimensional "Elsie" the Borden Cow (head) located on the side of the Ira Wilson Dairy off the I-94 service drive.  (Now, it only says "ILSON" -- much of the stack has been taken down).
  • Going to the Better Made potato chip factory and getting small bags of brown chips or shoe strings before going to the Jewel movie theater.
  • You remember hearing the air raid sirens on Saturday at 1 p. m.
  • You remember the RAF bomber flying from England in 1962 that exploded over the Detroit River near Grosse Pointe Park .
  • Your neighborhood had a man who came down the alley on his horse-drawn carriage honking his horn and collecting the stuff no one wanted, like bicycle parts, wheel rims, etc., and he was called the "sheeny man." 
  • Or the guy who came through your neighborhood on a bike to sharpen your scissors, etc.
  • You remember the ice man delivering ice to be placed in your ice box (we didn't have refrigerators then) after you placed a card in your front window indicating whether you wanted 25-, 50-, 75-, or 100-pound blocks.
  • You remember the milkman delivering milk and cream in glass bottles from a horse-drawn vehicle.
  • You remember going to the drive-in and getting blasted by mosquito spray from the back of a pickup truck that drove up and down the lanes.
  • You ordered Cold Duck at the Ponchartrain Wine Cellars (the restaurant/bar where it was invented) and enjoyed a frog leg dinner.

THOSE WERE THE DAYS!