Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Your own private Idaho

Was it possible to attend an Our Lady of Lebanon dance in the early '80s and not hear this song?



6 comments:

  1. The memories keep coming---thanks for posting that. I never did get to those parties at Our Lady during the 80's. The ones I attended were in Mt. Morris Township, rockin' to the Go-Go's and B-52's Rock Lobster.

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  2. OLOL dances were great. I remember getting dropped off, and dancing to the point of exhaustion. I don't think I've had that much fun dancing since then. Somehow, trying to explain to people that the best dances were at Our Lady of Lebanon simply cannot capture it.

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  3. Memories...

    How about Safetyville, Tammy at the Sloan Museum, face painting at the Flint Art Fair, music lessons at FIM, pottery at FIA, Barry Manilow at Whiting Auditorium, the Romantics at Capital Theater, Clove cigarettes at Paul's Pipe Shop...

    My husband, also from Flint, lists his memories as rust, racism, and hate. We balance each other out pretty well.

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  4. I got my first traffic ticket at Safetyville! I remember there were some old cars and a select few orange Corvette-like little cars.

    Sadly, Safetyville is gone, but some of the racism and hate remain. Just check out the Flint Journal online forums.

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  5. According to the Book of List's 1990's, Flint was the most segregated city of its size. I was amazed driving south when I was 22. The further I went, the less segregated it was. The racism and hate are just as prevelant.

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  6. Would you believe that was the first time I've seen that video? I never had MTV growing up... my parents are still cable free. :) First time I heard the B52's was at a "punk" party at the Flint Swim and Racquet Club. OLOL dances were fun... but those New Year's Eve partys at the Capitol Theatre were better (or was it Halloween?). In any case, I'm glad we had places to go in Flint where you could meet people from different schools. Seems HS kids in my town are very school centric with their activities. By the way, I'm notorious for commenting on blogs that are 6 months old. ;)

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.