Born in Detroit then moved to Milford, Michigan. Went to school in Highland, and then moved to Drayton Plains where I finished out my Junior High and High School years.

Very touched by the music of our day. Yes that was when “Rock n´ Roll” was music. Cannot figure out what they call the music now.

I remember the first song that got me interested in Rock and Roll. Bye Bye Love by the Everly Brothers. I was madly in love with a Ginger Rogers look-a-like, Barbara Hall. She went to Our Lady of the Lakes.

We were all very fortunate to have drive-in movies. A&W drive-ins. Sock Hops. RC Cola and peanuts. Bobby Socks and sneakers. Ivy League shirts and pants, even pointed toe shoes. 45 RPM records, a Zenith portable radio, and a telephone in our room. Still have a longing for a good ole’ Big Boy hamburger. I was one of those guys that cleaned up the tables at the local Bob Big Boy’s. Lasted just about a week.

I loved those pleated skirts and Bobby socks on the girls. And when you had that `real special girl´ she would make `steady shirts´ in Home Economics. The guys would scamper off to wood shop to make that wooden letter holder. Some times we had to eat that special meal cooked up by the girlfriend. Ugh!

Friendship rings. I saved my lunch money for weeks to buy a friendship ring. I think they only cost a dollar at the time but I had to buy a few 45´s along the way.

Those starry nights at the favorite parking spot. I can remember many a night necking on Mosquito Hill, or of course, in the back seat of my parents car. Your head resting on your gals shoulder listening to the radio and worrying if the battery was going to run down. Hoping you had enough money to buy gas for the next date. A dollar got you nearly 4 gallons, enough for a date. I can remember Kaye often reaching in her purse for that dollar of gas, pulling out that funny little plastic rain bonnet that folded up into a little ball. The things you girls had in your purse would boggle the mind.




Two favorites that we all visited for those gourmet meals. The Dog n Suds, and McDonalds. McDonalds was the favorite after all the school games. I seem to remember the gals rolling around in roller skates taking our orders, but that could have been at another driver-in too. This one picture does not do the ‘Dog n Suds’ justice since I don’t ever remember it being empty. I seem to recall being able to drive our cars through and showing them off to other classmates.

See if you can pick out a few of these faces. Looks like Tom Nolan way in the back, maybe Marsha Slade, Carol MacAlpine, Barb Secan. You tell me! I understand this has finally gone where all the good McDonalds go..

Carole Bane writes:
I can help with three of the names there Mike...the one standing outside the car in the front is Connie Shell....the middle girl in the front seat is our MsChell's Mom, Marsha Slade...standing behind her is Sueanne Armstrong......

Looking back it is difficult to put everything in order. I remember going to John D Pierce then on to Waterford Township. I believe I was enrolled in Kettering during its first year because of that class we had called “Reasoning”. I understand it was a very unique class at the time. That was a scary class for me since it was ‘in the round’ so to speak and we had to stand up and give little speeches now and again. Ms Looman was the teacher at the time.(You will find that I have revised my memories throughout the sight as I put things in order)

There was a young lady named Barbara Smith that caught my eye and that was probably when I first discovered that this was going to be a difficult time for me. Going to a school with so many pretty faces, and be expected to do school work too. There was a popular tune at the time that should date that memory, a song by Conway Twitty, Its Only Make Believe. If I look up the date of that tune I can then piece together the memories. I think that was around 1959 or 1960. Barb may not remember this but at that time, when Conway Twitty had such a big hit with that tune, I bought a copy and had it given to her in school by a classmate. I was so shy I could not do it myself. She probably never knew that I gave her the record.

I lived on Bird Island, on Lake Oakland, next to the Forbes family. Ken, John, Walt, Linda and Susan. You must know the Forbes since Kenny has kept the family business running in Drayton Plains, Forbes Printing and Press.

John was a very good friend for many years but we lost touch when I left Michigan for the last time in late 1964 on my trek out to California to see Norene, via Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, back to Enid, Oklahoma, down to Texas again and then out to Long Beach, California where I found she went back to Michigan. He was going with Nancy Ray at the time. She and I were good ole’ phone buddies.

Don Card lived at the beginning of the street I lived on, Island Park Drive. I remember he was the first kid I met that was adopted and he had really great parents. I often wondered how it must have felt to be an adopted child but he seemed to except it and he did have a nice family.

Tom Nolan and I planned a trip to Miami. I left without him. Still think of him often. He had a neat Turret Top car that ran like a charm.

Tom and I installed Ms. Pety’s rug for her. A very abstract design by her own admission. Took us a couple of weekends but it looked very “Ms. Pety” when finished. She was probably my favorite teacher. Note:  From a Forum visitor! Carrie Smith('70) and she had talked to Denise Pety earlier in the day. Lois Pety is alive and well and living in Grand Blanc! Denise lives in Clarkston with her two children.

This is how I remember Toms car. Maybe gray or something like that.This is how I imagined it would look after he finished tinkering with it.

He had great plans for that car. I think he said black or red would be a nice color. Would have been nice to have traveled to Florida in a car rather then hitch hiked.

Not to far away lived the Carriers, I can’t remember their first names but I almost bought a car from them. It might have been Brad and Tom Carrier.

Just off the Island were the Verheys, Bob, Bill, Janice. A very religious family that I spent a lot of time with. I went to their church often and enjoyed the enthusism and friendship at the church and the church events. Those particular memories are still with me to this day. That’s back when John Simon was an exchange student and he lived with them for awhile. John was and has been my only true friend although he died sometime in 1964.

John Simon Class of 62. A very good friend. Carole Bane sent in these photos from the year book. They should bring back many memories for all those that were touched by John’s presence. He was a fantastic student and friend. He had a very friendly personality and was a big flirt. He would spend hours on my phone calling girls from his little black book. John, Peggy Turner, and my date Pam Frantz went to the Ringley Brothers Circus. And I am sure that was one of the highlights of his stay here in the US
Thats my cane from the good ole’ daze.

Judy Ott lived at the opposite end of our street and I remember her since so many guys had crushes on her and went wild when she got on the bus going to school.

There was a small grocery and dry clean at the corner of Sashabaw and Island Park Road. Eventually the dry clean turned into a small pizza parlor. There was a gas station across from there that we all gathered around while waiting for the bus in the morning.

This is what I remember about Michigan. Those good ole’ Root Beer stands. And that fabulous Root Beer float. Nothing better on a date then a Root Beer and a hot dog. And of course that very special ‘someone’. Waterford Drive In or the Pontiac Drive In were my favorites.

Another special memory was of a girl named Jean Smith. I have looked for her for years. We were in grade school or junior high together but she did something for me that was so very special I have never forgotten it.

 A very Special Someone Jean Smith
One of the reasons I am able to look back on the past and relate to so many special moments is that Polio thing. On December 24th, 1949 I was in the hospital paralyzed with Polio. For the next 16 months, all I could do was lay there and look up at the ceiling. A difficult task to understand for a previously mischievous little five year old boy.

Fortunately I was one of those they experimented on with that Sister Kenny treatment. The Sister Kenny treatment was something that was later banned but it worked for me.

I dreaded it at the time but now am so glad that I was exposed to it. I can remember waking up in the morning to the sound of rolling wheels on a washing machine, one  of those ole’ crankers. It was filled with boiling water and cut up pieces of army blanket.

The nurses would roll up to my bed and take off my hospital gown and proceed to lay hot towels all over my body. Very painful but it worked. It stimulated other muscles and eventually after years of therapy and operations I was walking again.

During those years of just being able to look up at  the ceiling, having no other movement but my eyes, I fine tuned my other senses. Sound was a very important part of my day, listening to the radio, the sound of the nurse bringing me food, or the different sound of a nurse bringing me that dreaded shot with that 10 inch needle.

The very first tune that embedded itself into my memory was Tammy by Debbie Reynolds. I started to associate the music from the radio to the good times, the nice nurses, like Mrs. Delores Johnson. The people that wandered into my life.

Years later, when I was able to walk, get rid of the braces, the crutches, I still continued to view life a little differently. I could not enter into any sports or tackle any of those potentially bone breaking events, so I just absorbed those minute details of the day that most others just ignored.

My friends at school were most important to me and there were many that I can still see getting on the bus, or sitting in front of me in class. Even that very special ‘first crush’ is with me to this very day. I know they will not remember me in the same way but they were all so very important in the way I managed the rest of my life.

A very special person in my life was Jean Smith. My first crush in Junior High! I was very shy and still do not know how I got by the ‘hi stage but she did something very special for me and that was invite me over to her house on my birthday, and present me with a birthday cake she had baked.

Now how can you forget a person like that? Very caring, very giving and very, very pretty to boot. No telling where that relationship would have grown if my parents had not decided to move to Drayton Plains, Michigan.

I never saw Jean again but I have thought of her often through the years. I still get a flash back into memory lane when I hear that song, A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation. I was wearing a red sport coat, which she probably would not remember way back when. She was and is a very special memory, a very Special Memory!

Jeans Mean Machine.
This was Jean Smiths most favorite toy. Somewhere, someone is very happy tooling down the lane in this Fairlane 500. “I hope they are as thrilled with it as I was”, Jean says!. Jean is now happily motor homing somewhere out west with her lucky husband and family. Baking cakes and pies in her spare time
 
I have been dragging my yearbook around for years. Even my ole’ photo album from our good ole’ school daze. Had some great times back then and loads of memories to go with them.

Kay was my one big serious romance. Lasted a pretty good while until she got sick of me and dumped me for that tall lanky basketball player guy. Actually the night I graduated we agreed to breakup. I hitchhiked to Florida the next morning.  (All Alone Am I by Brenda Lee) Her parents were happy about that since they didn’t like their daughter going with an older guy. Actually we  did break up, rather she broke up with me. It took along time for that to sink in (Another Sleepless Night by Jimmy Clanton)

Her parents were really nice to be around and they did everything in their power to see that we did have a good time together. I somehow think they liked me although I know they were in favor of us breaking up.

While I was gone, she started up with that tall lanky guy and when I came back I knew it was over. Took a long time for that to sink in as I said! Several years for that matter.


I started to date and went steady with Norene. One night as Norene and I traveled up to that favorite spot of mine, Mosquito Hill, another car pulled up to our left. And who do you think it was? Yup that new boyfriend of Kay’s, and Kay of course. I felt a little tingle since only Kay and I had been to this spot before and I knew it had to be her idea. Wished she had not shared it with that tall lanky ugly guy. But then I was now sharing it with Norene. Both the car windows now got all fogged up and we were the first to pull out.  I sometimes misspell Norene, I’ll have to work on that memory. Norene).


John Simon was my favorite buddy back then. He taught me much about the guitar and how to have a good time. I received a letter from his parents sometime in the late sixties letting me know he passed away with cancer. That was a rough one to handle.

Norm Wilkins was another good ole’ buddy. He used to lift car bumpers to build up his muscles. We always arm wrestled in class and he was the only one that could beat me. Ruth Ann Eakle was Kay’s best friend and our double date companions. She was dating Terry Stein at the time. Very fun guy, and loads of laughs. I believe he went into police work. Where’s Ruth Ann Eakle?

We used to double date to all the National parks for picnics and what ever. And of course went to all the drive-ins. Waterford, Pontiac Drive-in were our favorites.

Norm Wilkins, Ruth Ann Eakle and Peggy Turner. Anyone remember what happened to Peggy?

Well anyway, try and browse through the site I have to build it up in what ever fashion I can as the new pics and information come to me, so don’t get discouraged, just bop around and you’ll find loads of pics from those days, photos I saved and new photos from what life looks like now. I wonder what Norm’s up to!



Notes:
My oldest daughter Michelle, my middle daughter Lisa, and my wife Sandy. Going on 36+ years of marriage this July, 2002. Lori the baby was busy in the background somewhere.

I took a pic of our bikes. Mine was the one pulling the trailer, which we manufactured. A Kawi 1100, Sandy had a Suziki 1000. Sandy got me into biking because one day she just wanted to try it. Her first was a 125 Honda. Which the kids took out one day and never got it out of first gear, so burned it to a crisp. Her second bike was a sparkling new, Endura 175. Bright Pink! It proved to be way to powerful on the take off’s. So I got her another, a 450 Honda, then a 550 Kawai, then the Suzuki 1000. Witnin the first year she had five bikes until we found what she wanted. I got rid of the boat in the background. The upkeep was getting to us. Nothing but a ‘hole in the water, in which you throw money’.

Although my life in Michigan, going to Waterford Township and Waterford Kettering  has been a very memorable time in my life. Nothing can be more fulfilling then the time I have spent with my wife Sandy and our three daughters, Michelle, Lisa nd Lori. Nothing has brought me more joy then watching my wife grow, my children and my grand children. And I owe it all to my life and times and to the many people that have impacted my life while a student at Waterford Kettering and Waterford Township

This site is not just about me and my family. There are pages and pages of photos from the good ole’ daze. You’ll have to browse for a few minutes to locate those pages. Be patient, the pages are slow loading. If you don’t see a Classmate from 1950’s-1990 just let us know and we will try and locate one from the class books and post it. If you know something about one of our former classmates please let us know just E-mail.

Thanks! and please drop by now and again. Send me something. Email photos, just a little something to add to the site.