About 5 years ago, I moved to AZ from MI and went thru all kinds of Delray memorabilia and photos...much which I left with my sister who now resides in Ida, MI. I will be searching storage boxes and share your site with my sister who will hopefully have time to find some of the old stuff!

 

Grandma ran a blind pig during prohibition (the front was an ice cream shoppe with an old marble bar which my family later moved to our then home on Longworth near Woodmere). The old thick glass gigantic fountain glasses and stemmed sundae goblets as well as some of the Old Green Parrot Inn whiskey and beer glasses were stored for years in the garage and later moved to the basement of the new home in Southgate). The original building "plaque" from The Green Parrot Inn: 1933 was moved to our then home in SW Detroit when the original building was demolished for the 1-75 bridge construction in the early 60's.

 

Stories later surfaced about the "true" family stories of which we were sheltered from us in our youth. Grandma (the typically dressed Polish immigrant woman) use to take the train down to KY in the winter months with her suitcase and overcoat pockets filled with empty bottles and flasks to gather moonshine from the stills to sell at the bar. Fort and Green officers use to sit at the soda shoppe with gigantic "free" sundaes and sodas and later being provided with their "envelopes".

 

There was a video DVD transferred from old film of Grandpa's funeral (looked like something out of a gangster movie!) The family plots are at Holy Cross cemetery and Our Lady of Hope.
There was snapshots of the steam locomotives rushing by along with horse drawn delivery vans. I hope I can find it...

 

Supposedly, the Grzywa clan operated a section of the Rouge River, Mom's family, The Britz clan was a rival family who operated the Detroit River from Rouge to Wyandotte, and The Gasiorek's (Aunt Frances and Uncle "Lefty") operated the Detroit River from Wyandotte to Lake Erie (he owned the original Pier 500 along with several other businesses along Biddle/Jefferson). I went to school with one of the Nykiel girls (Joey's stables) both oblivious to our backgrounds back then! Dad later bought the Capri Bar (Michigan Ave between Lonyo and Central) in the 1960's.

 

The Britz homestead still stands on Pleasant Street in River Rouge (The garage had a hydraulic floor which dropped into a lower chamber of tunnels and underground storage facilities). The "formal" home was also nearby in Allen Park.

 

Each time I go back to the old neighborhood, it brings a tear to my eye. I remember the good times as a kid...riding our bikes along the "forbidden" routes between the tracks with the hills and valleys...use to be like a roller coaster ride! And what fun when the trains roared past! Bike hikes and picnic sack lunches to the Rouge River bridges to watch the Ford ore steamers slide past after the drawbridges were lifted...the blast of the horns from the bridgemasters in the tower to chase us off the center of the bridge as we would bounce up and down when a truck or bus rolled by. The oil slicked river was a thing of beauty in the night as the lights from the old Rouge plant shimmered on the surface...the sounds of the factory whistles blending with the blasts from the trains was music to my ears!

 

Then there was (and is) the Delray Tower...and just down the street, nothing but a stroll down memory lane! PS. I would be honored to be included on your memory story page.