Davison Gang Reunion

In these ethnic neighborhoods of Detroit/Hamtramck there were not only people of Polish descent but Lithuanian, Ukrainian and other Eastern European countries and groups. The reason I make reference to Detroit/Hamtramck is obvious to people that were from this neighborhood. But, for those of you that are not from the "old neighborhood" is because we all lived no more than an 1/8 of a mile from the north and south dividing line which is/was Carpenter St.

This was a little reunion of friends that hadn't seen each other, in some cases, for as much as 48 years ago! Starting with the man in the far left front of the group with the brown shirt and glasses on we have Ed, Vic, Mike, Joe, John and Frank. John and Joe stood up for Mike's marriage on October 29, 1966.

Frank was the guy that taught Mike and the others "The Day the Music Died" way before the phrase coined by Don McLean in his song "American Pie" had meaning. It refers to February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash. We were aware of these important cultural happenings in our ethnic neighborhoods because we were busy assimilating but didn't know it at the time.

Ed was the guy that was the daredevil that with Mike on a dare walked around the outside edge of the 2nd story windows at White Elementary School, hung around Joannie's Candy Store sipping lemon and chocolate cokes and listening to six songs on the Juke Box for a quarter or 25₵ and smashing pumpkins on people's porches just for the thrill of being chased. And then wondering all these years later, 50+ years later, if Joannie's Juke Box was still in the storefront that has been vacant for more years than we can remember.

And, there was Vic that had some Greek in him that would filch a lemon from his grandfather's house and he and Mike would go into his grandfather's garage with a salt shaker and eat that delicious lemon with some salt sprinkled on it. The reason being that we did it on the sly was because we were told not to eat raw lemons with salt because they would eat the enamel on our teeth. Those were good old days when we were innocent and had so much to look forward to!