I am standing in front of my tent made of a quilt attached to the former chicken house, at that point storage shed, in Nanny and Poppy’s (my Graham grandparents) backyard. It was a June Saturday in 1958. I was 11 and would turn 12 in August. My cousin Barbara had her own quilt tent built over the wooden slide.
In the header we are eating lunch in the yard the same day. Sitting at the table from L to R is my aunt Mary V., my grandmother, my greatgreat aunt Abbie, my grandfather at the head of the table (of course) me, cousin Dee Dee and cousin Marilyn on the end. My mother probably took the picture.
More posts about my grandparent’s house on Theodore.
I saved this article from the Detroit Free Press years ago during the 1980s, because my grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr was one of the founding doctors of Dunbar Hospital and the article featured my aunt and cousins. By August 2014, Dunbar was being auctioned for unpaid taxes, after being closed up for years. I should have written the date on it. Click each article to enlarge so that you can read.
Dr. Ernest Martin, Warren Evans, Anna Cleage Shreve and her daughter Dr. Maria Shreve Benaim.
And here is an article from The Michigan Citizen about the Dunbar Hospital being saved. Let’s hope something positive is done with it now. Saving the Dunbar.
I have posted this photo several times as I try and figure out who these children are. In one post I wonder if they are on the ALLEN side and on another I speculate that they are on the GRAHAM side. I’m leaning more towards the Graham side because of the writing on the side which I make out as “date/18 On Barrons Farm” . My grandfather Mershell Graham’s sister, Annie Graham and her children lived on the Barron Farm in rural Elmore County Alabama. You can read more about these speculations here S is for Sibling, Annie Graham? The other post speculated that the family the McCall branch – “More About Annabell’s Family”. These are both families that I have lost and would so appreciate any cousins in those branches getting in touch to help me solve the mysteries.
For more information about the camera used to take this photo follow this link to the Photo-Sleuth’s post about the Autographic camera.
I found this poem in my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s large scrapbook. She just pasted stuff in there without much rhyme or reason. Edward McCall, who was a poet and publisher, was her first cousin. Her mother Jennie and his mother Mary were sisters, both Eliza’s daughters. I remember seeing Jo Mendi ride around the ring at the Detroit Zoo in the 1950s on one of our annual Graham family Zoo trips.
Jo Mendi 1950
The note in my grandmother’s scrapbook says he died in 1934, but the photo I found on the webb says it was taken in 1950. It turns out there were 4 of them and you can click here for their stories The True Story of Jo Mendi. And here for a Chimp Trainer’s Daughter telling about the brutal side of training chimps.
My grandfather Mershell Graham holding little Mershell and my aunt Mary V. They are sitting outside of the Conservatory on Detroit’s island park, Belle Isle. The photo is dated 1925. Usually my mother and her sister had their hair cut short but in this and a few other pictures they have braids.
On Belle Isle. My grandmother Fannie, Mary V, my mother Doris, Mershell – who looks like he has his arm bandaged. This photo is dated 1926.
A photo of the Belle Isle Conservatory taken by Maya, Mershell Grahams 2X great granddaughter August 2014.
Only the skeleton remains. It used to be covered with gossamer thin white material with little sparkling threads, like the fan below. All rotted away now.
The fan once looked similar to this one. Click photo to see another fan.
Fannie Turner before marriage – 1909.
I wonder if she carried the fan when she was married.
Today’s mugshot is of James Edward Williams, my husband. He was arrested for driving without a license on the Wayne State University campus in March of 1972. This mugshot was included in his ‘red file’ which included local police files and FBI information from the 1970s. He was arrested for driving without a license often because he either lost it or forgot it. He didn’t spend time in jail but was released either with no bail or very low bail. After we left Detroit, it never happened again.
I took 4 years of Spanish in high school. It was with the 3rd year that the total number of students in the class fell to 2. We sat in the back of the 2nd year class and worked on our assignments. We missed a lot by not being in a 3rd and 4th year class geared to learning to speak and understand the language. Both of us, I can’t remember his name, received awards in our senior year at the awards program in the auditorium.
I supplemented class work with listening to Radio Habana Cuba on the ancient short wave radio and the Mexican music program once a week. I also bought magazines and records, but I never had anybody to actually talk with or listen to. Once my Aunt Barbara suggested that I work at one of the grocery stores in Southwest Detroit that my uncles printed flyers for because I could practice my Spanish on the customers. My mother nixed that plan.
Book for year 1.
Intermediate book. 3rd year? There was a great grammar book with samples and examples and explanations but I can no longer find it.
My Spanish teacher Señor Velasco.
I remember that he shared a letter from his sister once. She was a teaching nun in the Dominican Republic. I don’t remember anything about the letter.
The Northwestern High School Honor Society. I am in the center.
When I got to college I studied a year of Classical Arabic my freshman year. I also took a year of French. Finally, during my sophomore year, I decided to finish my language requirement of 2 years with Spanish. I tested out of the first 1.5 years and needed 1 quarter more to complete. I should have taken more after that until I was fluent, but I did not.
Here is a photograph including 3 signs from the early 1940s and a rough sketch of the same area that I did in 1968. Both were taken from upper floors on Wayne State University buildings looking on Cass Ave. I did the sketch from an upper floor of State Hall. I believe that the photo was taken from Old Main, (the only tall building facing that direction on campus at the time), by my uncle Henry Cleage while he was a student at Wayne.
After looking on Google maps, I no longer think this was taken from Old Main, looking down Cass. I wonder where it was taken from because that is definitely the Macabee building.
Photograph taken from Old Main in the early 1940s
The Macabees building on the upper left corner use to hold the Detroit Board of Education. My husband and I went and picketed there the first day we met, in support of the Northern high school student boycott in the spring of 1966. You can read more about that in I Met My Husband in the Library.
I received some photographs from my friend Historian Paul Lee recently of Dunbar Hospital in Detroit. My paternal grandfather was one of the physicians and founders back in the 1920s. I combined the photo from July 2014 with a photograph from 1922. You can read more about Dunbar Hospital in previous posts at these links A Speech on the Graduation of the first class of nurses, Births, Deaths, Doctors and Detroit, Part 2. Click to enlarge the photograph.
I have linked this post to the Family Curator’s World Photography Day post. I participated in 2011 with a post of photographs from Springfield, Then and Now.
