End of the Year greetings

Here's to a great New Year in 2019. I hope 2018 treated you nice. I am happy that you guys have stuck around during my hiatus, which ended up almost four years long due to work and other commitments. What were your favorite blogs from the past few months, and what would you like to see more of in 2019? Any video requests for YouTube Friday? My favorite blogs to write about were the stories of Northern Calloway and Curtis Jones. Their stories really made me think about what mental illness can do to people, and what can go on when any particular condition goes untreated. It also made me consider ways to help others.

Earth to (Facebook) Portal

When I was getting my Christmas shopping done a few days ago, I ran across the Facebook Portal device at Best Buy. I stopped and took a look at this new device. The Facebook Portal is modeled like Amazon and Alexa and the Google Home system, and it connects to your Facebook account so you can connect with family and friends, go shopping and do what you need. Sometimes, I worry about technology getting a little too intimate into your personal affairs, especially seeing all these data breaches out here nowadays and people getting a little too close to others and their personal affairs. At times, we can't stop progress, but we can control how we choose to participate in it.

YouTube FridayBoz Scaggs - Georgia (HQ)

For the last YouTube Friday of 2018, I have selected this video from Terry Gordy's YouTube channel. This song has been on my mind for a bit lately, mostly showing up while cruising YouTube. From what I hear, this album, Silk Degrees, was pretty popular back in the days.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from The World as Seen by Lauren! Here's hoping you have a great holiday. Here is a video from YouTube that is usually played on radio stations this time of year. Here's hoping that the season is a great one for you.

YouTube Friday-Holiday Edition: Joy to the World by Mannheim Steamroller

Today's holiday installment of YouTube Friday is from the channel of Mannheim Steamroller. This is a really peppy and fun arrangement of the classic Christmas carol Joy to the World. I first heard this on  the limited edition Mannheim Steamroller channel on Satellite radio. This, as well as their version of Deck the Halls, is one of my favorite songs by them.

Playing and learning

Yesterday was the first day that the National Letter of Intent could be signed for those who wish to play football on the college level. I have been seeing this for years in various sports, especially with high profile players who wish to get a scholarship to continue their education and play football, as well. The National Letter of Intent program was started in 1964, with only a few schools participating. One of the requirements of the program is that the student athletes have to stay on campus and enrolled in classes for one school year, or if an athlete decides to attend a Junior/Community College, they have to graduate in two years. If they decide to transfer schools, they must sit out one year to regain eligibility. This is where you hear the term "Redshirt", as in "Redshirt Sophomore," or "Redshirt Senior" if a fifth year is needed to finish the college degree. If you are/were a student athlete, what was your experience like with the NLI? For all those thinking about signing, what are you most looking forward to?

With the Angels

Looking through the archives of the past, and the tragedy of the Our Lady of the Angels Fire of December 1958 came to mind. This was one of the deadliest fires in Chicago History, behind the Iroquois theatre fire of 1903.At the time of the fire, the school, built around 1910 in the Humboldt Park section of Chicago,  housed students from Kindergarten through the eighth grade.  According to the remembrance site OLA Fire, the fire occurred near the end of the school day on December 1, 1958, when a fire was spotted at the bottom of a staircase. The fire spread upstairs to the second level of classrooms, where fourth-eighth graders were located. The fire alarm was sounded too late and many of the students on the upper floors were first told to pray by the nuns, and when the conditions became unbearable, the students went to the windows of their classrooms and began jumping out of windows, where many died or suffered broken bones. When the firefighters and medical personnel arrived, they evidenced many of the students near windows waiting for help. The victims were taken to various hospitals on the west side of Chicago, with a separate facility being used as a makeshift morgue so parents could locate their children. After the last victim died in August 1959, there were 95 souls taken, 92 students and three nuns. A week after the fire, funerals and Interment services were held at the Illinois National Guard armory in Chicago and Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois, where many of the fire victims rest today. A new school was built and opened in 1960, nearly two years after the fire. As I read the book To Sleep with the Angels, I find out that the case has never officially been solved. A young man that attended the school at te time had confessed to setting the fire, but later recanted his confession, because he feared punishment from his parents. The Chicago Tribune recently posted some pictures of the event on the 60th anniversary.

Changing Corktown

As I am reading the Detroit Free Press, I run across an article about the changing face of the Corktown neighborhood in Detroit. With Ford's purchase of the former Michigan Central Station in 2018, and many people, restaurants, and businesses moving into the neighborhood, making it somewhat gentrified in the process, many longtime residents wonder what would become of the neighborhood they knew. Many people wondered if their taxes and utility bills would rise over time, forcing them to move out in the future. There are many homeless and transient people in the area, and one article mentions the soup kitchen at the Episcopal church, which many of the newer residents in the neighborhood wanted shut down to avoid seeing people without homes near them. I feel that the city can at least help people already living in Corktown before all the progress began to work something out so they can stay in their homes, and work on a program for the homeless and transient population, so that they may be able to get food, shelter  and assistance when they need it. Also, the newer residents can also can learn more about their new neighborhood by speaking with their new neighbors  who have been living there a while.

Crane-ing around

I was going through my pictures from this past summer, and I ran across this picture of a Sandhill Crane. This was my first time seeing these majestic birds. I didn't know what they were until someone nearby mentioned these. The Sandhill Cranes pictured here were very docile creatures, as long as you are standing at a distance. These are not native to Michigan, but from what I have read, they are pretty common in the Nebraska area of the country, and migrate north to breed in the summer. These birds are huge, about maybe 3-4 feet in height, and the wingspan shown here. They are best known by the red patch on their heads.

Fire Boating

I was just thinking of the Detroit fireboat Curtis Randolph, seen here giving a salute in June 2014, which battles fires on the Detroit River. It was most recently in service when the Boblo Boat Sainte Claire was destroyed by fire in July 2018. The boat is named for Curtis Randolph, the first black firefighter killed in the line of duty. Randolph, a member of the class of 1972 from Martin Luther King High School in Detroit, was a probationary firefighter for the Detroit Fire Fighter. He was killed at the age of 22 while fighting a fire on the east side of Detroit in October 1977. His funeral was held a few days later, and he was buried with full honors at Elmwood Cemetery in the firefighters plot. The fire boat bearing his name was put into commission in 1979. 

Kresge Headquarters

While attending the Veterans Day festival in Cass Park in Detroit last month, I ventured over to this building, which held the Metropolitan Center for High Technology and now holds startup companies. . It was built in 1962 for Sebastian Spering (SS) Kresge and his chain of Kresge's department stores/Five and Dime stores, which later became K-Mart. These were their main offices. It became the home of the Metropolitan Center for High Technology, and as of 2018, the building is owned by Wayne State University. Check out this blog entry from Detroit D'Votion, who took a tour of the building in 2012, and looks at the fantastic interior.

YouTube Friday:Toni Tennille and her three sisters sing "Little Saint Nick" 1976

Since the holiday season is here, here is a song that I enjoy, courtesy of Caroline St. Clair's YouTube Channel. These are the Tennille Sisters, Toni (of Captain and Tennille fame) and her three sisters. I hope you enjoy this version as much as I do.

News of the past

Washington Boulevard trolleys '80 Thu, Mar 13, 1980 – Page 3 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States of America) · Newspapers.comAs I look at some of the articles I have clipped  on Newspapers.com, I run across a few I would like to share with you. This first article is about the old Washington Boulevard trolleys that ran between Grand Circus Park and the Renaissance Center  in downtown Detroit from the 1970s-2003. The Detroit Department of Transportation ran these trolleys way back when. There is a group on Facebook called Detroit Transit History Memories that has some info on the trolleys.   I clearly remember the "Watch for Trolley" signs in front of Cobo Hall.. The Trolley Plaza apartments on Washington Boulevard were named for these trolleys. 

Cold out here '84. I was a couple of weeks old when this occurred Sun, Jan 22, 1984 – Page 1 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States of America) · Newspapers.comCold out here '84 pt 2 Sun, Jan 22, 1984 – Page 2 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States of America) · Newspapers.comThis article was about the coldest day since 1872 in Detroit, January 20-21, 1984. I think this got beat by a cold snap 10 years later in the winter of 1994, and possibly again within the past 10 years. I was a few weeks old when this happened. 




July tornadoes '97. The sky turned green this day Thu, Jul 3, 1997 – Page 1 · Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, United States of America) · Newspapers.comThese tornadoes, I still remember.I was 13 years old, on summer vacation between the 7th and 8th grades The sky turned a yellowish-green and tornadoes tore through Hamtramck and the Grosse Pointes, enclave and suburbs of Detroit. Thank goodness my parents house or my grandmother's house didn't see as much as a power outage. Many people lost most of their possessions in this storm, and were cleaning up for a while after this. 

Fultz Quads at Bethune Cookman Homecoming Parade '65 Sat, Nov 6, 1965 – Page 6 · The Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.comThis picture is a first for me. These ladies are the Fultz Quadruplets, who I wrote a blog about in 2014. These young ladies were at Bethune Cokman college at this time, and were participating in the homecoming parade The last of the Fultz Quadruplets, Mary Catherine, died in October 2018.

Learning about Maurice Stokes

In my travels on the internet recently, I ran across a mention of Maurice Stokes on The Charms, Inc. website, where the club made a donation to a foundation bearing his name. I decided to do some research on him. He was born in 1933 in Pennsylvania to a steelworker and a domestic. After attending High School at Westinghouse High School, Maurice went to St Francis University in Loretto, PA , where he won the NIT in 1955. He was drafted to the NBA in 1955 by the former Rochester Royals. While there, he was named 1956 NBA Rookie of the Year, and led the league in rebounds and assists. He was an all star for the three seasons he was in the league. In March 1958, he was knocked unconscious after falling and hitting his head on the court, and after a game against the Detroit Pistons, he had a seizure and was paralyzed, only able to move his eyes. His teammate, Jack Twyman, was there with him, and became his legal guardian, since his parents, brother and sister were in Pennsylvania, and could not be with him. He handled  Maurice's medical expenses and his daily care, all while taking care of his own family. There were Benefit Games held to raise money for his medical bills and other expenses incurred. He died of a heart attack in April of 1970, and is buried at the Franciscan Friar Cemetery on St. Francis University's Campus. He was inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame with the class of 2004. Learning of this story, I learned about the meaning of friendship, perseverance and keeping a positive outlook on life in general, especially when things are not going as planned.