Wondering through the memories of my mind..
January 2002:
Kerrie Cook
I was never “pegged” as a southerner, most probably because my Mother (being a former British subject) would never let us adopt that special accent people who live in the south acquire. It actually is dregs from ancient accents brought over from the mother country’s of the early settlers. Where I was born, in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountain’s…you can see them from my “Pharm”, the land my grandparents homesteaded and passed to me thru my Dad….. not much interrupted those accents for many years. Now when I visit, everyone is sounding more like television news anchors than anything…tells you how much time listening to TV is going on. Pretty soon, thanks to satellite’s everyone will be talking pretty much with the same accent.

But accents are not what I want to tell you about. I want to tell you a little about me, and I think that many of you will find bits and pieces that are like you. After all, we share on thing in common already. We attended Waterford-Kettering High School. So right off, we have something in common.


Like you, there is a lot that has gone into making and being me. I could just be brief and to the point: I went to several schools in Elementary years: Baldwin, Hawthorne, Jane Adams, and Wilson. I attended Eastern Jr. High School and Pierce Jr. High. Graduated 1964 from Waterford-Kettering High, at a much lower class rank than I was capable of. Soon after High School I got married. Bought a house, had three children (girls), got divorced. Left Pontiac in 1978 moving to Asheville, North Carolina , got married again. Got divorced again. I have owned my own business since 1979. First an advertising agency. Then in 1980 I opened Asheville Professional Wallcovering Service. Still do. I am now a grandmother of 6 with number 7 due in April. And so on….

That sort of format is a bit dull. No color. What I would like to share with you are the pieces that make the picture. My life is not anything spectacular, just a regular life. Ups and downs, laughter, sadness, happiness, challenges, successes , changes and learning. Perhaps this will encourage you to open up and tell us about how you arrived at the places in life you occupy.


I got to Michigan from North Carolina because of my Dad. My Dad, like a great many Dad’s traveled the long way to Michigan following the promise of a good paying job. One where he could work 40 hours with regularity and thereby achieve his sworn duty to be a good provider for his family.

He had a lot of company, men from all over the south were arriving in record numbers to fill the empty slots created by the post war manufacturing boom. Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Pontiac were hot spots for employment. I don’t think that my Dad ever really owned a car of his own until he worked for Pontiac Motors. I know he never owned a home before that.

Not so long ago, before my Dad died, during one of those slow lazy sunny late fall days, I asked my Dad. “Just what got into you, what convinced you, to make the trip up to Pontiac ?” His reply was soft , like he was treading many years memories, scanning them for the full answer. “Well, I had been married for 6 years. And all I had to show for it was $60.00 in the bank and a paid for cook stove. On Wednesday, I’d have to borrow $10.00 from my older brother (who had the top job in the lumber mill where Dad worked for low wages and never a 40 hour week) and then I’d pay it back on Friday. Come the next Wednesday, I’d borrow it again, and so on. So when my friend Chief, ( a boyhood friend) came home to visit, driving a new car, wearing good quality clothes and good pair of shoe’s and offered me a ride north with him, I took it. There did not seem to be much of a future here. So, I borrowed $100.00 from Birdie Higdon (our landlady) and the rest is history.”

My Dad worked at Pontiac Motors for 30 years. Not all of the job’s he had there were easy, some were back breaking…like mounting the dashboards in the cars as they traveled the line. He worked in repair (now called Quality Control) and finished up driving a lift truck. Many times as a child, Pontiac Motors would host an evening of OPEN HOUSE. That was a great time for me, I loved seeing how the automobiles were manufactured. I also loved learning about the workings of the automobile.


When I was 13, I learned how, with the help of some of the neighborhood boy’s, to remove, disassemble, clean and reassemble and the reinstall the carburetor on one of my Dad’s old car’s. I held my breath when he went out to start it a few day’s later. When it fired up! Whew! Now I figured, it would be alright to announced my handiwork. WRONG!! It was the beginning of many lesson’s I was to learn about the acceptable perimeters that “Girls” should confine themselves within. I was sternly warned NEVER to let my head or hand be found under any hood that belong to Dad. Looking back, I can say I never accepted those perimeters, they just don’t exist. I still find myself challenging them today. My interest in “men’s” things has not only led me into success business wise, often it has come in down right essential. I have yet to be stranded because the vehicle I was operating failed. I don’t overhaul my engines, but I do know generally, what that “funny noise” is and what it is going to take to get it fixed. Bubble gum, gum wrappers, tin can’s and other “things” often were what enabled me to get the car running and got me home safely until my mechanic, who is often amused with my diagnosis, can make the proper repairs.


I travel to some off the wall places, both for work and recreation, often alone and have never given a second thought to “what if”. I believe it is a combination of inherited “grit”, natural curiosity fueled by my Mother and my teachers. I can remember one of the math teacher’s I had along the way, saying to me when I wanted to know Why x plus y equaled z saying…”Just do it, don’t ask”…I could not just do it When I finally found out why, I was able to do it.

When my daughters became drivers, they had to demonstrate to me that they could change a tire, point out where the oil, water, brake fluid and gas were added. They had to have a basic understanding of the machine they were operating. I also made them drive 1,000 miles over all sorts of roads and conditions before their solo drive. As a result, they have never had an accident, a ticket of any sort and never been stranded due to a flat tire. This practice is now utilized with the grandchildren.


I can remember when the school would have a fund raising drive, selling candy. My Dad would take a shopping bag in and sell it all for me. You know, to this day I feel like that was cheating a bit. I never won any prizes for selling the most candy because everyone else’s Dad was doing the same thing.

Dad did real well with his life, and it was due to his willingness to work and the availability of a job. For that all of my family is thankful. The term “SHOP RAT”, was never heard in our home, nor as a term to describe any choice of one’s vocation. The work in the factory of Pontiac Motors changed our lives considerably, offered opportunity’s we would have never had otherwise. I think this is true for many of us who attended WKHS.


At the beginning we lived in Pontiac. I did not know much about Waterford in the l950‘s. I can remember when M59 was a single lane highway. Summer evenings we would go to the Airport Drive in or the Pontiac Drive In. Dad would drive us out to Pontiac Lake for a picnic and swimming. It was a long trip, not in distance, the traffic would be backed up until well after airport Road. These used to be a garden nursery on M59 ( the Big Boy is there now) where the proprietor strung air filled floats and swim rings, all gaily fluttering in the wind.

I can remember when there were very few large grocery stores anywhere, nothing like we have today. There was Tenuta’s on Walton and Sasabaw. A few “corner grocery’s” like the ones on Hatchery Rd, Williams Lake Rd and a host of others. It was a few years before the large brick A & P was built on Dixie and Walton, Farmer Jack’s a little further up Dixie. What was the name of the Italian Restaurant where Outback is currently?

Pontiac was still the main shopping area for most of us. Anyone remember Tom’s on Orchard Lake Rd close by Beaudette Park. Or the People’s Markets….they had a few scattered around town. Can anyone remember when the East side was almost all “white” and Indian Village was the High Dollar side of town? Remember Waite’s Department Store, Osmun’s Men’s clothing Store. The Tastey Bakery, The Homemade Cafeteria. Remember Grinells Music, JC Penny’s (downtown with the skinny blond elevator operator). Simm’s Department Store with the creaky dusty wood floors. Sam’s the men’s clothing store where the radio advertisements promised the possibility of a $20 bill in the pocket of the suit coat you just bought. After Sam’s I think it became the sight of a controversial Coffee House called the Purple Onion.

Remember the soda fountain at Kresge’s and Neisners . Walgreen’s Drug Store on the opposite corner had one , too. The Oakland Theatre? Or the fire that took it and almost the entire block. There were a lot of stores. Which ones were your favorites? One thing downtown Pontiac didn’t have was PARKING!

My Dad would drive around the block time and time again, hoping to spot an empty space. Usually not lucky. Often we, my mother, sister Valerie (now Church) and I would catch the bus downtown. Fare was 10 cents each way with a 5 cent transfer fee. We shopped till we almost dropped, then it was to the White Tower for a snack of their postage stamp sized greasy hamburgers with onions . I liked mine with a dollop of mustard, which was before the establishments started giving it out in those impossible to open plastic packets. I still dislike those things. You can’t open them with your fingers, you have to use the teeth, God knows who or how many hands or where the packet has been before it lands in your plate!



This was all before McDonald’s arrived. (Remember the McDonald’s on Perry Street. Morris Hastings used to work there, and I seem to remember his brother Fred did , too. I vaguely remember hearing that the brothers rose in the corporate structure. McDonald’s was a good company to get involved in during the early stages of the franchise expansion. Management still pays fairly well.)

After shopping and snacking we would then catch the bus home. They ran every 10 minutes on weekdays and every 15 on weekends. Store’s were open until 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. During my senior year at Kettering I landed a co-op job at Sears Roebuck in the credit department. I remember they were just introducing the Sears Credit Card…something we did not think would be of any great success with the public. Boy did we have our heads under the covers! The credit Card business took off with a bang and has been a land slide business ever since. My first charge account was at Arthur’s. The statement came monthly, all carefully hand typed. Payments were accepted at the store, checks weren’t so prominent then.

Then came Miracle Mile. For really special shopping it was a trip to NORTHLAND! Remember Stoffer’s Restaurant? (Are they the same company that sells all those frozen foods in the grocery?) Shopping centers provided plenty of parking for everyone. Goodbye Downtown!

West on Huron at Telegraph Road was Tel-Huron. Remember Winklemans, (where the little old ladies would drag out what they thought you were looking for and got you to try it on…no racks of dresses on the floor store…which was how they merchandised at Arthur’s downtown, that soon was to change) and there was Awrey’s Bakery, Saunder’s where the best ice cream soda’s were made, and Cunningham’s Drug Store, another soda fountain. What was the name of the women’s shop on the corner across from Tel-Huron? The Huron Theatre had movies 7 days a week, with Saturday and Sunday matinees. Later came the Big Boy on Telegraph and later another on Dixie Highway, and finally on M59.

Waterford was beginning to grow. The main drags were Dixie Highway and M59. Finally land premiums were high enough to encourage development on roads like Walton/Williams Lake Rd, Sashabaw and others.

Family’s in Pontiac were moving to Waterford in DROVES. It was quietly called WHITE FLIGHT. Minority’s were also becoming affluent as a result of the auto industry. Receiving for the first time perhaps, equal pay for equal work. The union insured that they would no longer be the last one hired and the first one laid off, so life was getting better for everyone.

Housing in the Pontiac area was at an all time premium. New arrivals found it a hard task locating places to live. Single family houses were quickly being divided up into multiple family residences. This raised havoc with quality housing , to say the least. Housing became run down and shabby quickly with this system.



Flush with money and job security , attention was drawn to the wide open space of Waterford. Close enough to easily commute to work and shopping Waterford began developing. At high speed! Fields that once grew wheat, corn, beans and onions became housing subdivisions. All attractively laid out, with paved streets and skinny little trees planted here and there. Schools were built, shopping strip malls seemed to pop up over night. Family’s filled the houses, the restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, movie theatres, schools and churches. Mothers started taking employment seriously. Life as we knew it, would never be the same.

We moved to Waterford in the middle of my 9th grade. Moving from Pontiac where our home was on a 45 by 80 lot to a lot encompassing 2 acres was almost culture shock . Arriving that first day at Pierce Junior High School was another experience.


The first day at school I was greeted by a great many of my former classmates. It was almost as if I was back at Eastern. Rosemary Serra is remembered especially because she lived not to far from me in Pontiac. There were many others to greet this new “cuke” and although it was over 40 years ago, it seems like almost yesterday.

The difference between Pierce and Easter was that of day and night. First of all there were no Negro’s. The term “black” had not become vogue yet. Although I recall Martin Luther King using the term. The school was very new, as compared to Eastern. All on one story opposed to three floors. The thing that flabbergasted me was shower time after gym class! I had never seen a “gang shower” or the “gang locker room”. At eastern we were issued a towel when leaving the gym, and dressed in a curtained area usually with only one other locker mate, wrapped a towel on, to and from the shower, showering in a curtained cubicle (ALONE) and then to dress for class in the same privacy within the curtains. Heavens! At Pierce it was one free for all. 35 girls all stripping, showering and dressing in one huge area. Modesty was not recognized here. I think I was “sick” a lot on gym days. I can’t remember.


We, as students had a lot less freedom than we did at Eastern. While attending Eastern, I was on my own to get to and from the school, I walked most of the time. At Pierce the bus picked me up and delivered me to the school door, and then in reverse. At Eastern during lunch time, we could walk over to Furtney’s drug store where there was a soda fountain, manned often by the handsome young John Burgess. I still wonder if we went there to for the lemon and cherry cokes or just to oggle John. Then, there was the Auburn Hotel on Auburn Avenue, a bit of a seedy place, and the Grill there was also past it’s prime, but the hamburger’s were good. They also had a cigarette machine, and allowed kid’s to smoke at the booths like the grown ups we thought ourselves to be. Pop in a quarter and get a pack of Marlboro’s , a pack of matches and 3 penny’s tapped to the pack. That would pretty much blow my lunch money allowance, but I thought that was BIG STUFF.

Time at Pierce must of past fast as I remember very little of that school.


Then it was onto Waterford-Kettering High School. THE BIG HOUSE.

It was a brand new school. We were the first students to scuff the floors and make plenty of noise in the corridors. Well laid out, nicely appointed. Large windows for daydreaming.

We had some terrific teachers. I don’t know about you, but I felt they really cared about the students. They all had distinctive personality’s and philosophy’s . They were always there, smiling, full of energy and encouraging. Mrs. Pety, and her Corvette…I can remember one winter morning I was riding my usual big yellow bus watching her navigate the lake sized pot holes on Bender Street. Sometimes it appeared that the water filled holes would engulf her little vet. Bender was a terrible street. A disgrace to the road commission for sure. It took far to long to get it paved. It should have been paved at the opening of the school.

There was Mr. Seward, the long tall drink of water, another of the Art teachers. Same vocation, but worlds apart in approach and content. Mr. “DUKE” Chaffee and Mrs. Patti Loomis brought out our self confidence in Speech Class. Mr. Koski supervised the High School’s Co-Op program where many of us got our first “real job” experience. I had Mr. Tolfa for typing class…that was a bust for me, but my buddy Willene Hamilton was a wizz on the keys…she could really make them smoke.

Did anyone really learn enough about the stock market in Mr. Coleman’s or Mr. Smith’s classes to make it work today? At least we can read it and know what it means.

The social hour, actually it was less than half an hour, was lunch. I heard so many kids say the food was terrible or that they were on “ a diet“.

Marilyn Smith was always on a diet. Jerry Schemel was always watching his weight due to the weight restrictions on the school wrestling team. Charles Soldwish and Karen Rehbine, were usually scrunched off in a corner “courting”.

Does anyone remember “food fights”? I can’t remember any?

Back to the food: I thought that it was pretty good, well most of it. I hated those things they called PIZZA BURGERS…hamburger buns, crumbled hamburger meat with cheddar cheese melted on top. But I loved the spaghetti, Chicken a la King on Mashed Potatoes. The toss salad was a bit limp, but it passed. You see, my Mom, who was a perfect Mom in many ways, was a horrible cook, with reasons. She had never had to cook before she got married. She could make some fantastic fudge, candied citrus and cakes…but regular cooking was a mystery. Where she went to school they did not have Home Economics. Thank goodness, that void in her life is past, she has become an excellent cook. She started catching on about the time I was in High School. Home cooked meals are now a reason to drive 650 miles to Waterford .


After I left High School , armed with the office machine skill’s learned in Mr. Kosk’s business machine class, I worked several nondescript jobs in offices, Commander Aviation was the most interesting. I got married, had children and got a divorce. Soon after the divorce, needing to support 3 little girls, I asked my Dad if he could get me into Pontiac Motors. He had already “helped” my brother-in- law to get in, but he bailed out in a day or so. Never came back even to collect the pay for the day’s he worked. Dad said I had to come to the plant and take a look at it before attempting to secure employment. I agreed. Well folks, it was just too HOT, too NOISY, too DUSTY. It scared me. I just did not think that I had what it took to work there. I did not embarrass my Dad.

A lot of my classmates DID have what it took to work there, some for a full 30 years. The “factory’s” provided a solid base for many family’s. It not only provided them with adequate funds to live on and to save for the retirement years, there were also the benefits, one of the best medical insurance plans in existence . There are a lot of negative arguments about the factory’s yet the positive far out number them by far.


For a short time I rented a house at the end of one of the streets that backs up to Pontiac Motors right at the end of the assembly line. The place where someone jumps into the car, starts it up, squeals the tires and parks it in the lot, from which it eventually ends up at the dealership and then at someone’s home. I could hear those tire squealing all night, which did not bother me, for I knew it was the sound of money rolling off the line.

There are so many jobs that make this country function in an orderly manner. My most applauded is the GARBAGE MAN. Ever think where we would be without them. Then there are those who pour our coffee, wrap the burgers, checkout the grocery’s, bag the grocery’s, there are a zillion jobs, all interrelated. ALL IMPORTANT.

It can be called the GREAT AMERICAN WAY.

We can not all be Doctor’s, Lawyers, and Business people. Nor can we all be wallpaper hangers. But I can, and I am.

It is interesting work, not very hard, and most importantly, I love what I do, and get paid to do it.


For the past 21 years, going into the 22nd, I have hung paper in commercial sites and private residences from Michigan to Florida. I have lived in Asheville for the past 24 years, missing the great restaurant foods available in Michigan, but not the cold and snow. You can’t have it all. At least that is what I once thought. Now I know different.

About 5 years ago, while papering an O’Charley’s Restaurant, I bumped into Mr. Right and Perfect. We have been inseparable since. He is a Painting artist. For a long time he painted billboards. And now he paints murals and specialty signage. So our work takes us together many places. Decorating interiors and exteriors of homes and businesses offers the challenges we love to take on. We actually have fun doing our work. Best of all we work together.

Everyday, while driving somewhere in this mountain paradise, I think to my self: I wonder what has ever happened to so and so……if you remember those whom I have mentioned or anything in addition to what I have written about…would you please add to these “remembrances” of the days and times gone past? We are today, a total sum of where and what we have experienced. Let’s hear from you.

December 2001:
Hi Folks: Just a few wonderings from Kerrie Cook
What ever happened to:
The members of "MOTHRA"...Steve Golden (last seen as a drug store supplier..cosmetics and such) or Bob Dustman (last heard on Pontiac’s own WPON radio or Don Douglas...is he the president of GMC UAW?.....and the ever laughing and smiling Pamela Spaysky...and tall slim and smart Cynthia Dalton...and Quiet but funny John Alexander or laughter of Thomas Bailey...last seen boarding a truck bound for Washington state with our English Teacher Mr. Bevan. Where is the quiet and unassuming Bill Aspenwall? Or the Petite Linda Beauchamp, wise beyond her years...last seen at A White Lake Grocery, Remember Sharon Hoffmans memorable performance as the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz, under Patty Loomis's capable direction or Sue Jackson 's skipping performance in the same oz . And Christine Hofman, saw her a long time ago at one of those annual walks across Mackinaw Bridge...burr was it cold....or Carole McDonald who was my nurse at St. Joseph’s hospital in the nursery when I had my first daughter (who now has two children of her own...born at St. Joseph’s here in North Carolina.....Is Karen McKenna still as SKINNY as she was then in 64?.....or Gladys Maxim, and Diane Irish, talented and always kind to all....Gary Ormsby...are you still inventing mechanical wonders?...Remember smoking in the "john" and Ms. Puhl relishing the policing of the johns...or the Varsity club taking issue on their own and policing the "johns", or lovable Larkin and common sense Moffitt guiding our minds on the field or driving range...Mr. Lyle Anger a great drivers training coach..mine at least...still can hear him instructing us on what and how and so on while behind the wheel....or Mr. Kaminski trying to inspire Beowolfe and Chaucer ( I finally caught on 30 years later and often say thank you silently). Kitsa Iakovides, the salt of the earth, a pillar in any storm, where are you? The cheerleaders, drawing out and magnifying our "school spirit", THE DEBATING TEAM " SHOWING OUR BRIGHTER SIDE, The swim Team, The football, basketball teams...Earl Hook stands out in my mind, and most of all, all that worked on the yearbook committees...for without all that work, we wouldn't have the BOOK to pour over and remember those really carefree days...and what a world we graduated into...the VIETNAM WAR, recession, inflation, one little war, then police actions, peacekeeping exercises, and on it goes. Life has never been the same since we walked the last time thru those "Hallowed Doors". I often wonder if our teachers foresaw what awaited us. Many of the dear souls who framed our minds are long since gone, Bless them all. We have a lot to be thankful for. Right down to the pretty good meals served in the cafeteria...have you eaten lunch in the public schools lately. UCKKKKK!!! We had it good then. And for once, I can truly say,
THOSE WERE THE GOOD OLE DAYS.
Kerrie Cook Gregory apw_W@hotmail.com
Waterford, MI USA - Monday, December 31, 2001 at 22:27:04 (EST)
November 2001:
MY, my,my! It has been a long time . I fled the Michigan winters and headed south, settled half way south in Asheville, NC. Close to where I was born, but a city about the size of Pontiac (without all the problems and SNOW). I make frequent trips to Waterford, where my mother and sister still live. Drove our l964 Ford up for this summers DREAM CRUISE and had a ball. Ran into Brian Palzack who is now retired from GM and living in St. Helen...he was showing his nifty street rod. Also bumped into John Burgess, with his vintage corvette. We do the DREAM CRUISE, as my "life partner" loves anything to do with cars. I have owned my own business for 22 years now, thought at first we would starve, but hung in there and it is going great. I have 3 beautiful daughters, who managed to bring 6 more (and one more on the way) grandchildren. I enjoy visiting Waterford and checking out all the new places, things, and so on, and find myself at times thinking of times in the past. The only one I see every trip is SANDY ALLEN, and we just sorta always bump into each other unplanned. Often I find myself staring at faces, thinking...that looks like so and so...no that was how they used to look, they can't look like that now, cause I sure don't look like I used to in 1964! Makes one think about a face lift more seriously. Actually, I haven't changed much, I still think I am a younger person than my drivers license says I am. I spend a lot of time in the mountains hiking and even manage to catch my dinner . I am getting more eccentric as I get older, have a tree house that I can live in, up in the mountains of Graham County. It has all the comforts of home EXCEPT a TV. I call it the PHARM...it is on the land my grandparents farmed, but I call it the PHARM, which is short for Pharmacy...a place for stress relief! And it works. After 24 hours , I am completely recharged and can take on the customers clambering to redecorate their houses, businesses and so on. I wonder at times, when the class of 64’ is going to have a reunion? I am along way away, but it seems to me that these computers have eliminated any distances what so ever. And I can help. Anyone else out there interested?
Kerrie Cook apw_W@hotmail.com
Asheville, NC USA - Wednesday, November 21, 2001 at 22:04:11 (EST)