Slim Chiply Lives: You Know You're From Flint if...

This happens to be the most popular post in the history of Flint Expatriates, originally published March 19, 2008. I got the list via email from a friend after it had been passed on by more than a dozen people. I later found out that Flint Expatriate Rich Frost, who has contributed mightily to this blog, originally penned #1-#40. He mailed the list to about fifteen friends and before long it was all over the internet. So it's about time that Rich got some credit. Be sure to check out Rich's rapidly expanding list, as well as numerous posts about Flint, on his What the Hell blog. And take a look at the comment section for this post, where there are dozens of additions to the list.

Here's the original post:

There are tons of “You’re from Flint if…” lists floating around the internet, but this one seemed remarkably well-researched. Feel free to add to the list in the Comment section.

1. You remember attending a “Battle of the Bands” at 60-Second Pizza on Clio Road.
2. You remember that the jocks on WTAC were “The Good Guys” and WTRX was “The Home of the Jones Boys.”
3. You can remember those Sunday afternoon free concerts at Wilson Park — where not only could you enjoy the music — but there was the smell of baking bread at the Taystee bakery not too far away from the park.
4. You can remember when Channel 12 was the home for “Rae Dean and Friends” and “Mr.Magic” for the kids and “Michigan Polka Party” and “The Connie Dycus Show” for adults.
5. You can remember seeing “Viva Las Vegas” at the Capital Theater, “A Hard Day’s Night” at the Palace Theater and “Deep Throat” at the Royal Theater.
6. You can remember getting your first license at Safetyville .
7. You can remember going to Kearsley Park to go swimming and for the 4th of July fireworks.
8. Your first savings account was at Citizens Bank and you started that account with the booklet that Citizens Bank gave kids to save their dimes in.
9. You can remember going to Cook’s Drug Store for a ten cent Chocolate Coke or Cherry Phosphate.
10. You signed petitions against the antiballistic missile and the Vietnam War at Peace Watch on Kearsley Street.
11. You can remember the cement Indian at the Trading Post on Franklin Street and Utah.
12. You can remember the sign on the Miller Road Dairy on Corunna Road that read: “You can’t beat our milk, but you can whip our cream.”
13. You can remember going to the Friday night movies at U of M and having to tolerate Michael Moore’s speeches before the flicks.
14. You can remember “The Freedom Reader” (the alternative newspaper before Michael Moores Flint Voice).
15. You remember that man who worked the cash register at Halo Burger on Harrison Street shouting out your change as “one hundred and one dollars” when it was only $1.01.
16. You remember such places as “The Beaver Trap” and “Titty City,” but never knew anyone who went in those places.
17. Everyone knew someone who said that Bob Seger owned that big house in Grand Blanc and that they saw him there.
18. You can remember as a kid playing with the white light electric eye that opened the doors at the A&P store on Dort Hwy.
19. You knew that if you couldn”t find what you were looking for at Yankee”s then you could find what you wanted at Arlen’s.
20. You remember watching “Sesame Street” on Channel 12 because Flint didn’t have a public television station.
21. You picked up the latest paperback, magazine or newspaper at Readmore on Saginaw Street.
22. You remember getting your hair cut at the Barber College when it was near the tracks in downtown Flint. Or at Johnny’s Barber Shop on Lewis Street.
23. One of the ways that you knew it was January was when the Shrine Circus came to IMA Auditorium (not the sports arena).
24. The only bologna and hot dogs in your house had the Koegel label on them.
25. You didn”t associate “The Colonel’s” with Kentucky Fried Chicken or “The Varsity” with any school.
26. Your family didn”t eat Thanksgiving dinner until everyone got back from the Northern/Central game at Atwood Stadium.
27. There was nothing that could compare to a King Arthur pasty.
28. You can remember one or two items that you purchased at the Touch Boutique.
29. The Juvenile home was known as “The Pasadena Playhouse”.
30. The only place to go for ribs and sweet potato pie was Bob and Ethel’s Rib Crib.
31. Weekend television on Channel 12 meant watching monster movies on “Creature Features” and scary movies with “Christopher Coffin.”
32. Your generation’s “Krispy Kreme” went by the name of “Dawn Donuts.”
33. You avoided driving during certain hours of the day because of “shop traffic.”
34. If you lived on the Eastside, you went to Aunt Nina’s for a hamburger and a shake.
35. You remember Wild Bill’s before it became L-L-T.
36. Halo Burger is and was the only place where you could order a cream ale with your burger and fries.
37. The best fish n’ chips in town were at Third Avenue Fish n’ Chips.
38. The two most trusted sources for weather were either the Citizens Bank weather ball or Channel 12’s John McMurray.
39. You can remember a Hire’s Root Beer Float (bottled by Buckler Beverage on Lapeer Road) or a ice cold bottle of M&S Red Pop or Orange Soda.
40. You remember the Paramount Potato Chip Slim Chiply jingle. ("I'm Slim Chiply, the guy you see on the Paramount Potato Chips bright red pack. I'm the flavor deputy, protecting crispness in every pack. They're delicious, and so nutritious, yes sir'ee, they're pips, Paramount Potato chips.")
41. You remember late night trips to Freddie’s Donuts.
42. You remember Dan, Dan the Vegetable Man.

Flint Artifacts: Key To Life Crusade

Flinty Writers

Jan Worth-Nelson — a novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, and long-time writing teacher at UM-Flint — was recently named "Flint's Best Writer" by Broadside, a local independent newspaper. It's always nice to be honored for your work, but it's even better when the prize is a lighter, which is far more impressive, useful and Flint-like than a plaque of some sort.

Jan's novel Night Blind is a great way to discover her writing. Here's the Amazon description:

Melanie, a beautiful young Peace Corps volunteer, is murdered one October night in the Kingdom of Tonga. For young American Charlotte Thornton, the killing sets off an unnerving cascade of questions. Charlotte can’t help but wonder if she’ll be able to survive and work in the tense postmurder atmosphere.

She plunges into her job as a public relations officer for a Tongan noble. But during her off hours, she drinks too much at the Coconut Club and awkwardly tries to adapt her sexually bold inclinations to Polynesian customs. After getting thrown out of a party for cavorting naked with Melanie’s ex-lover, she retreats — embarrassed, depressed, and haunted by Melanie’s death — to her Tongan family. She then falls in love with Gabriel Bonner, a married Peace Corps psychologist.

When Gabriel abruptly leaves and an earthquake rocks the area, Charlotte’s life seems as if it is about to collapse. How will she navigate her way through this tropical ordeal, night blind and 9,000 miles away from home?

Medicaid Cuts Hit Home

Kevin Sack of The New York Times reports:

It has not taken long for communities like Flint to feel the downstream effects of a nationwide torrent of state cuts to Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor and disabled. With states squeezing payments to providers even as the economy fuels explosive growth in enrollment, patients are finding it increasingly difficult to locate doctors and dentists who will accept their coverage. Inevitably, many defer care or wind up in hospital emergency rooms, which are required to take anyone in an urgent condition.

Al Jazeera Comes to Flint

Mayoral Recall Effort Sidetracked by Lack of Spellchecker

The Genesee County Election Commission has rejected Flint Board of Education member David Davenport's initial recall petition against Mayor Dayne Walling.

The reason?

He spelled a word wrong.

Melissa Burden of The Flint Journal reports:

The three-member commission said that David Davenport’s language “jeapordizing the safety of the citizens of Flint” wasn’t clear.

“I don’t know what this word is,” David Leyton, Genesee County Prosecutor and an election commission member, said of ‘jeapordizing.’ “Therefore, it’s unclear on it’s face.”

“It’s not a word,” added Jennie Barkey, an election commission member and Genesee Chief Probate Judge.

Davenport — who is facing a recall himself and also working to recall six of his fellow Board of Education members — quickly filed new recall language against the mayor.

Flint Photos: Atwood Stadium 1939

Flint Photos: Nancy Kovack on Star Trek

For more on Flint-born Nancy Kovack, go here.

Adler Auto Parts

BJ has a question:

I'm happy to keep the most popular blog going with a question that seems most appropriate to be asked in this column. I recently crossed paths with a New York native who said her father grew up in Flint and worked for Adler Auto Parts. I lived in Flint for 32 years before moving out east but I don't recall the store. Does she have the wrong city for her dad's birth, or can a fellow Flintoid out there jog my memory?

A Disgruntled Flint Fire Fighter, I Presume

What exactly does this photo have to do with Flint? Keep reading to find out. And, no, it's not a reference to Paul's Pipe Shop.

Sometimes crediting the source of a blog item takes up more space than the item itself, which is one of the reasons many lazy bloggers (which may be redundant) don't even bother. But I have high standards for Flint Expatriates — except when it comes to spelling or making a profit — so bear with me.

Here's an item from Ron Fonger at The Flint Journal, who got it from an email in response to another Journal article — actually, just a reprint from The Florida Times-Union, a strange paper that runs a daily Bible verse in its editorial pages — that referenced a website called Eighteen in America, which is where Fonger ultimately got the quote he used.

Hello? Are you still with me? Are you wondering why I don't just reprint the "You know you're from Flint if...", which is the most popular post in the history of Flint Expatriates? That would be more interesting, right? But we've come this far, so let's just get it over with.

Apparently, some kid from Williamstown, Massachusetts named Dylan Dethier decided to golf in every state in the country, excluding Alaska and Hawaii, and he got in a round at Swartz Creek Golf course, where a former firefighter allegedly told him: "Be careful around here. Keep your wits about you. I was a firemen in this city for 27 years, and it's as bad now as ever. If I were you, I'd play this course and then get the hell out of Flint by the time it gets dark."

Not sure that was even worth it.

By the way, are there people out there — besides troubled individuals trying to sound like Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson — who actually say things like "Keep your wits about you"?

Flint Postcards: College Inn

Special thanks to Valerie Haight for this artifact.

Re-Habin Da Hood: The Reality of Flint's Housing Market

Flipping houses in one of the worst markets in the country is inherently dramatic, so Flint Central grad Sophia Taylor created her own public-access reality show about the process. It's called Re-Habin Da Hood.

Kristen Longley of The Flint Journal reports:

Taylor, a self-described singer/actress/writer with a passion for real estate, got the idea for the show after moving back to Flint a year ago from California to manage some of her rental properties.

Anyone can renovate a home, but with her natural on-air personality and a flair for drama, Taylor decided to have a camera start following her around as she rolls up in her Hummer and performs a top-to-bottom extreme home makeover.

If an opportunity for footage comes up, she calls in the camera crew. The show is put together locally, too, at Flint’s Inner City Productions, she said.

Don't Be Fooled...T-shirts Are Still Available

Don't be alarmed...Flint t-shirts are still available. We sold out the initial inventory — hence the SOLD OUT message some of you may have got earlier. But we have more and they're available from the Slow Loris homepage. But they do seem to be selling fast and supplies are limited. Okay, I should stop because I fear I'm starting to sound like a Flint car salesman.

Just click here and select the "For the Love of Flint" shirt option.

UPDATE: Now you can get an Extra Small version in white with blue ink.

Flint Expatriates T-Shirts Are Here

At long last, Flint Expatriates has official t-shirts, thanks to artist extraordinaire Jessica Lynch at Slow Loris Designs. They feature the infamous Genesee Towers, the Mott Foundation Building, the historic Vehicle City arch, the Citizens Bank Weather Ball, and my Grandma McFarlane's Buick Electra 225 all lovingly rendered on a slate gray American Apparel shirt in deep blue ink. The original art for the shirt is hand drawn by Jessica.

Click here to order your shirt now. Just click on the "For the Love of Flint" shirt.

Please note that I don't make a dime off these shirts. Jessica generously waived all her usual fees to create them, and she covered all the costs for materials and labor herself. That means she needs Flintoids to buy shirts to make her costs back and turn a small profit.

Umm, I sort of implied that she had absolutely nothing to worry about, proclaiming that Flint types were a proud and generous lot who would certainly reward an artist who took such a strong interest in the Vehicle City. I also mentioned that people who log a lot of time in bars tend to be free spenders. So don't let me down.

I first noticed Jessica's work when I was visiting my girlfriend's hometown of Anacortes in Washington state's San Juan Islands. Her drawings immediately reminded me of Flint, and I've bought several of her shirts over the years. I was even wearing one in a photo of me at Angelos that ended up The Flint Journal. (Very slow news day.)

Then I just happened to meet Jeanne Lynch, Jessica's sister, in San Francisco. We got to talking about Flint, and she suggested I contact Jessica about making a shirt. And, well, here we are.

How about a little more info on Slow Loris.

Slow Loris came to life in Oakland California in the spring of 1997. Inside a very small storage room (located in the back of a parking garage) of an old cannery building, the very first shirts were printed.

After graduating from CCA(C) in 1998, Slow Loris founder Jessica Lynch left Oakland and returned home to Washington state. Re-locating to Guemes island, Slow Loris continued to thrive, screen printing drawings onto shirts, paper and clothing for people around the world, and for touring bands like "Tv on the Radio" and " my Brightest Diamond." While keeping true to the hand made quality (no computers are ever used for design making)

Jessica had her "hands" full and in 2007 teamed up with good friend Arlo Rumpff. Arlo had been a fisherman in the Bering sea, and brought his hard working enthusiasm to Slow Loris just in time. He learned how to screen print, (he's better than Jessica now) models most of the shirts on the web site, and deals with a lot of the business side of Slow Loris, a part of the job Jessica was NEVER good at. Team Slow was now complete.

Any average workday in the studio consists of drawing, singing, printing, and beach walks with a bunch of dogs. There's also a pig named Marnie-biddles who likes to observe through the windows and get into things, (this makes Jessica somewhat crazy, but she still loves him). The adopted motto "feeling strong and not in a hurry" reflects the pride Team Slow feels standing behind a quality hand made product .

We screen print on Alternative apparel organic cotton clothing and American Apparel sweatshop free clothing, as well as various FLA (fair labor association) brands.

Click to enlarge all images.

Housing Crisis: Paying Homeowners to Leave

How many Flintoids will line up to take advantage of this? David Streitfeld of The New York Times reports:

In an effort to end the foreclosure crisis, the Obama administration has been trying to keep defaulting owners in their homes. Now it will take a new approach: paying some of them to leave.

This latest program, which will allow owners to sell for less than they owe and will give them a little cash to speed them on their way, is one of the administration’s most aggressive attempts to grapple with a problem that has defied solutions.

More than five million households are behind on their mortgages and risk foreclosure. The government’s $75 billion mortgage modification plan has helped only a small slice of them. Consumer advocates, economists and even some banking industry representatives say much more needs to be done.

Welcome to Flint Central High School

If you just have to have the welcome mat from Flint Central High School, it's for sale on Craigslist.