Hines Park: The Summer Shapes Up

Is it improper to post about Nankin Township after Nankin Twp. was no more? I don't care if it is.

If you're ever in the mood for fourth-rate high school journalism then
the "Fifth Estate" (think Peter Werbe) is the perfect rag for your
tastes. I mean, they are leftists so you can't really expect reason or
good taste to prevail but this is the bottom of the barrel in written
media.

This article from the spring of 1971 deals with party
goers in Hines Park at Valley View in Westland. The revelers in "ripple
and joints" were apparently raided by busloads of marauding cops who
wanted to put an end to the nightly partying on the drive.

A guy
named Glenn got throttled by the "pigs" as did countless others
according to the Marxist propaganda. Brent Little of Garden City spoke
for everyone when he said "Why don't they just leave us alone? We can't
get jobs, and can't afford to go anywhere else. What do they want us to
do--go back and start hanging out at the drive-ins again. Shit, you
can't sit down there for more than five minutes without the pigs
hassling you."

Which is a good point if you're a full-time party
kid but otherwise is a revolting notion to anybody with a properly
functioning brain.

Brent Little was having none of this
rationale, finishing his rant, "If they don't let up, people are going
to start fighting back--I mean REALLY fighting." Which sounds like
something that a Bernie Sanders supporter would say as he's calling
Donald Trump a Nazi while spitting at and punching people and silencing
supporters of the orange man with threats of further violence.

Anyway, I bought this and another copy of the rag at a rummage sale
several years ago. Since it's becoming fragile and decaying I figured
that I should post some of the more interesting and pertinent schlock.
Enjoy.

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A Dudley Randall Poem in Milestone 2

I bought this Milestone 2 poetry Magazine at a Livonia estate sale this week. Milestone was the literary publication of Wayne (State) University and this second issue dates to 1949. While I don't recognize most of the names, Dudley Randall was both a nationally known poet and the librarian for the Wayne County General Hospital at Eloise via the Wayne County Library System. The poem featured is The Southern Road which was a revised version of the completed poem from 1948 that h as a handful or two of word differences between the two. I don't know if Randall edited the poem for later collected works editions or earlier but this link features it in its likely final form in 2009. Neither version particularly enchants me but the block print in the magazine is an added bonus.

A Cabinet Card of a Dead Man Lying in Repose From Wayne Photographer Susan Doolittle

The City of Wayne, Michigan was not a large village at the turn of the 20th century so it stands to reason that there wasn't a glut of photographers practicing their trade there. As such, the 3 cabinet cards and carte de visites that I own represents roughly a quarter of the early ones. Considering that the wives of Frank Hickok and William Corlett, first Village President of Wayne, took over after Frank's death in 1892 the list grows smaller beyond those two families. Had I snagged the Doolittle dead man cabinet card I'd be even that much more Wayne-rich in photographs. Speaking of Susan Doolittle, of whom I have learned very little about, it is interesting to note that Wayne had three women photographers in an era oft dominated by men in that very field. This photograph of a corpse is a startling example of her work.

Frederick Soop: Not An Equal Opportunity Restraunteer

Detroit Free Press , March 28, 1890 If you don't want to hear a racist tale of a suburban namesake then close your eyes now. As early as 1876 Frederick Soop had left his Belleville farm once again, having done a stint at the Hawkins House in Ypsilanti during the Civil War and the City Hotel in Detroit thereafter, and ventured off to Chatham, Ontario to run the Rutley Hotel , which was conducted as a Temperance House. Detroit Free Press , August 17, 1879 In 1879 he was searching for a good restaurant or small hotel to operate. Eventually he ended up on Washington Avenue near State Street running a dining hall which he ran until around 1890. Detroit Free Press , April 16, 1890 It was in 1888 when the aforementioned racial incident occurred at his dining establishment. It was then that William H. Haynes, a black doctor, sat down with his former classmate S. W. Barkwell for dinner. The men ordered but when the food was served none was placed before Mr. Haynes who, ironically, ha...

The Nankin Township Historical Society

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