Letter 10 Blaire, Dearborn, Michigan

May 26, We flew to Rockport, TX to see our granddaughter Blaire graduate. It was also fun to see our other grandchildren Daniel and

Rachel and their parents. The night of graduation (May 28) we gathered at a popular eating place called

Panjos for pizza and hamburgers.

The graduation ceremony was in their football field and afterward everyone found their

graduate for pictures.
Sunday Teenya finally was able to get Olivia into her

kayak in Copano bay. Angie, Rachel and Kylie were also given lessons.

We spent a week in Texas and were ready to head north to get out of the heat. The flight back was interesting trying to figure out where we were. Olivia kept trying to see the Mississippi, but just as we turned to cross it, there was a huge, beautiful

thunderhead we went through so she couldn’t see the river.

Back in Cincinnati area we recovered from the tiring flight. The Wick’s came in and we stayed over with them. Friday night (6/4) they took us on a boat trip on the Ohio.

We all enjoyed the sunset over the town of Rising Sun. This part of their river wall was set up for

concerts.

The ride was very nice until the propeller wouldn’t retract as we loaded.

Saturday, June 5 we drove, via the freeway all the way to the Detroit area. Probably 275 miles. We only stopped for gas and potty stops and a stop at the Michigan visitor’s center. Olivia came out with two sacks of information. She could have had nine sacks full, according to the lady in the center. We were really looking forward to Michigan.

Olivia & Teenya talked, then all of a sudden we were arranging for Blaire to fly up the next day for a 10 day visit and tour of southern Michigan.

Sunday, June 6 In the night we had about 4” of rain and there were tornados all around us, but we slept through it all. We didn’t know about the storms until we noticed all the water when we attended the

Faith United Methodist Church where they were talking about the storms. We enjoyed communion with their church family. After church as they found we were traveling, the members started telling us places to see in Michigan. Olivia couldn’t write fast enough.

Blaire came in

after our bed time, so we were quick to buy some groceries and get home to settle in.

Monday, June 7 we slept in (hello, this is Blaire. That might have been sleeping in for them but for me it was early! Ok back to your readings.) then headed to the Ford Museum and bought tickets for two days of entertainment. Our first day was to see part of Greenfield Village. There was too much for us to see in half a day. We rediscovered the America that made us what we are. Our first interest was the

Ford Motor Company where Mr Ford created the first assembly line.

Such a modest beginning for a huge company.

All of the buildings have been brought from their original location and are special to America’s past. For example Mr Ford’s childhood home, his Bagley Avenue workshop and Model T loading dock were all there. We rode a Weiser steam engine train around the perimeter of the park past the Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Roundhouse.

Famous homes were from the families of Heinz, Wright and their bicycle shop, Luther Burbank’s garden, William McGuffey's (McGuffey speller) birthplace and school, Noah Webster, Robert Frost and Edison Homestead were among many others.

We were treated to a ride in a

Model T convertible and the driver pointed out a lot of the houses. As we waited in line we enjoyed an early

Ford Advertisement. All the homes were open but our five hours were not long enough to see inside but a few.

The Wright Bicycle shop was where the brothers built the

first airplane, then took it apart and along with all the equipment took it to Kitty Hawk NC, where we saw a replica last year.

We watched the

clock on Sir John Bennett’s Jewelry shop which recreated the mythical story of Gog and Magog, the ancient protectors of Britain. The figures toll the chimes of this shop every 15 minutes. The shop was moved to Greenfield Village in 1931.

Ice cream

fell into the agenda before we visited the Edison section. Mr Ford and Edison were good friends and Ford felt Edison's Menlo Laboratory and workshop should be preserved here at Greenfield village.

A Thomas Alva Edison quote was “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

so we tried to do our best. Alas, we were 99% geniuses, only lacking the inspiration!
Edison’s goal was to have one major invention every six months and one minor invention every 10 days. He came close to achieving that goal. The Menlo Park, NJ Laboratory was the home of the first

electric light bulb, (look hanging from the ceiling) the first phonograph and many others inventions. He believed in team work and his team brought both traditional craft skills and new scientific knowledge to the exciting challenges facing them at this lab. These structures were rebuilt in Greenfield Village in 1929.

The

Edison dynamos, or electric generators were assembled and tested in this building. This area became the world’s first electric generating plan. These dynamos supplied power to the laboratory and nearby houses

Edison and his workers entertained themselves and relaxed with the

organ on the second floor and it was the heart of the Menlo Park complex. Many of his most famous experiments were created on the second floor of this lab. Edison used the best scientific equipment available at the time.

We also toured the Sara Jordan boarding house from Menlo Park where the bachelors lived. It was unique with a four way stair case in the middle of the home, leading to private rooms on the second floor.

Edison and Ford both had winter cottages in Fort Myers, FL and often took vacations together. Edison also had a laboratory there to continue his experiments even while on vacation. This lab was described as “Nature’s Workshop” where he and his staff of botanist and chemist did a lot of research experimenting with alternate sources for rubber.

Our last stop at 4:30 was for

Blaire and Olivia to ride the Carousel. Blaire was especially interested in the drums playing in the calliope in the center.

Parts of the village we missed were:
* working farms showing rural life in the late 19th century,
* craftworks with eight workshops filled with skilled artisans practicing authentic period crafts such as glassblowing, potters, and tinsmiths.
* Railroad junction exploring the railroading culture that shaped American growth.
* Main street with bustling shops and attractions, and many porches and parlors that included varied families who lived inside. There were homes of the privileged, the humble the practical and even the enslaved.
* And Walnut Grove, home of historic baseball, Discovery Camps and events connected with the Old Car Festival and America concerts.
* And probably much more.

Pooped! You bet! And the next day had even more adventures at the Ford Museum.

Tuesday June 8, was day number 2 at “The Ford.” This time we started at the

Rouge Ford Factory. Our first stop was the roof top to see how

large and how green they were. In fact, they even have a

green roof. It covers 454,000 square feet, which is almost 100 times bigger than a basketball court. And it is cost effective. It can absorb up to 4 million gallons of water resulting in significant storm water management. The roof is natural insulation and saves millions of dollars in energy costs. It also absorbs sunlight preventing many roof leaks and cracks and will last twice as long as a traditional roof.

It also lowers summer temperatures inside by up to 10 degrees. And weighs less than 15 pounds per square foot even when wet. The plant life are several varieties of Sedum ground covers that thrives in drought conditions and also grows in shade. Sounds good to a Texan too.

They wouldn’t let us take pictures of the assembly line, but it was fascinating to watch the workers put in headlights, carpeting, seatbelts, airbags, or door attachments. We also saw the bed of pickups and the cabs inserted into the frame. We didn’t know they weren’t attached to each other. That way the truck can be flexible. As we left the museum we saw

some of the older finished models.

Side track: while waiting for the bus to be taken to the factory we met a young mother who is planning a trip with her 9 year old son to the four corners, (Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) and planning on going through Texas. We started telling her places to go and things to see and her little receipt was so full of notes by the time we left we weren’t sure she could read it. She went her way with the school group, but later we ran into her again. We hope to hear from her later and want to know what she ends up doing.

The afternoon was spent in the Henry Ford Museum filled with history that tells the stories of men and women whose vision and courage changed the world around them. The first item was the

Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile, then the

Goldenrod” race car that flashed across the Bonneville Flats at 409.277 mph in 1965.

Our next stop was the

fully furnished section of household items

and doll houses.

Blaire tried out a

large farm vehicle in the agriculture section before we went into the “Your place in Time” to see the

Dymaxion House, an all aluminum house from the 1920’s.

From the “Made in America” area Fred & Blaire enjoyed a

contest to see how many light bulbs they could light up with electricity via a hand crank.

In the automobile section one of many displays was the

assembly of a tin lizzie. Blaire was even taught how to put the

running board on the Model T.

"With Liberty and Justice for all” was the very moving section of American rights and freedoms, including the

Rosa Parks bus.

Another section was “Heroes of the Sky” starting with

this 1939 Douglas DC-3 suspended from the ceiling.

We skipped the railroad section and went straight to the area of fast food places, including McDonalds, the drive-in’s with a

1956 Chevy like we owned when we married. Ours wasn’t a convertible though.
Next was a

Diner where Blaire wanted to order a $1.50 steak, but the docent explained when this was in operation she would only be making $.25 an hour. She decided to get a tube steak (hot dog) for $.10 instead.

We finished the museum by seeing the

Presidential limousines from Roosevelt through Kennedy.

As we left the galleries we passed this 6' x 20’ painting of a reception for

Edison at the White House in 1929. Each face was a portrait of an actual person. Quite a feat for that artist!

Wednesday, June 9 with one more museum to see in Dearborn we headed off to the

Arab American National Museum. We saw their

music display and learned of the Great Migration (1880-1924) when more than 20 million immigrants entered the US. Approximately 200,000 were from Greater Syria, present day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. Much of this migration was because Christian and Jews were forced to serve alongside Muslims in the military along with widespread famine and poverty in the region. We noticed on a huge map that Iraq and Iran are NOT Arab countries.

So folks, Arabs are mostly Christian and Jewish, not just Muslims and we also learned they are just plain old folks, like us. There was also a whole section on

famous Arabs, names like Christi McCauliff and Danny Thomas and the author of the screenplay for “The Exorsist,” however Olivia isn’t sure he was normal.

One panel that caught our eye was the sacrifice the Fordson Football team went through to win state in 1993.

With 92% Arab American population. The “Tractors” not only had to balance academics, family and football, they were faced with another challenge. “Fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan while striving towards the state championship. Fasting means abstaining from food and drink during daylight hours. This holiday occurs approximately 11 days earlier each year and in 1993, it began in October and extended into Nov. That year it affected the team heavily as all but two players were Muslim.
The head coach worked hard to accommodate his players and made sure there was no water on the field during practice and some practices were held at night. Most teammates took time out during practice to break the fast at sunset. One Tractor commented that fasting did what is was supposed to do—gave him a sense of inner strength.

Fred wondered why Dearborn has the largest concentration of Arabs in the USA. He asked several people. Mostly he got “I don’t know.” Several people answered with this story. Henry Ford was having trouble in his foundries. The intense heat affected worker reliability and production. He then decided he should recruit desert dwellers who are more accustomed to the heat. His search ended in the Arabian desert. He recruited Arab families for these jobs in the USA. It True? We don’t know. It has worked very well. Today thousands of happy Arab Americans are living in this area. We hear about the high crime rate of Detroit, but we don’t hear much about the extremely low crime rate of Detroit’s inner city neighbor—Dearborn. It is a city that works very well.

Fred was a little disappointed that there wasn’t a mention of The Hagar Slacks Company and its owners, descendants of the Lebanese founder. The Hagar patriarch and wife sewed pants in their living room to fill the orders Mr. J. M. Hagar managed getting during the day. It is a real rags to riches American success story from Dallas, Texas.

This museum was very well done and a recommended stop if you are in this area.

The hostess in the gift shop told us to be sure and go to

Shatila Bakery, so we struck out to the center of the Arab community passing at least six bakeries before finding Shatila’s. It was as the hostess said, “The jewelry shop of bakeries!” This was only one

section of at least a dozen displays. We chose several and shared them.

We had heard a lot about downtown Detroit so we drove down to see for ourselves. It was sad to see all the

empty streets until arriving in the heart of downtown. Detroit is on the
Detroit River connecting Lake St Claire to Lake Erie. The water was very blue and Windsor Ontario looked inviting, but we headed back to the trailer.

We would be moving the next day to the Elkhart Indiana area and we rested the remainder of the day. Our friends, Ralph and Sandy Jones called last night saying they were in Kentucky and would be joining us soon.

Please let us hear from you at least once in a while. We love to hear comments and what is going on in your life so write us at Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com

Next Letter, RV Capital (Elkhart, IN) and Michigan