Monday, April 14, 2008

Flint Artifacts: I.M.A. Safetyville





27 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for posting this article!! I went there with my older brother and loved it so much. Can anyone tell me where it was exactly? I know it is gone now but I would like to go there next time I feel brave enough to drive around Flint!

    Cara

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  2. Cara,

    It was in Kearsley Park on the East Side. I think it closed for good in 1982. The Kearsley Park pool is also closed.

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  3. OOOOOHHHHH I loved this place! It is one of my earliest memories I think! I don't think I ever went more than once or twice but I always remembered the place with the stop signs and little cars. We might have taken a field trip there from pre-school. I am amazed at how much stuff you've saved!!!

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  4. I loved Safetyville! My car always died 5 minutes after I got in it. My brothers were usually kicked out for crashing their car into someone. We spent all summer at Kearsley Park. The pool was the coldest on earth no matter how many warm days there were in the summer. I remember a friend being injured on the tobaggan run they had.You had to be careful and bail out before you either hit the trees or slid into the creek. good memories!

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  5. Wow,
    Safetyville, very good times.

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  6. Wow! I remember Safetyville!!! I remember the pool right next to it! We had a blast there as kids!

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  7. Safteyville was great. Little orange Corvettes to drive made us all feel bigger than we were. Its too bad that kind of stuff isn't around any more in Flint.

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  8. omg dude, I was JUST getting ready to email you and ask you if you had anything relating to that cool "go-cart track" they had at kearsley park!! I vaguely remember my dad taking me there once and this was it!!

    Thank you so much!! Teh memories are priceless!!

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  9. A Google search for safetyville flint yielded this...I can remember going there only once but it's a memory burned in the brain...I wanted to live in that child-scaled town...I'd forgotten where in Flint it was. We used to go Kearsley Park to toboggan, too...as a nearly 30 year expat from Flint, I'm glad to find this site, too...thanks!

    kate

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  10. I worked there and so did my sisters; it was a wonderful summer job. When the kids weren't there, we pulled weeds and did other yard work.

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  11. There were two bridges in Safetyville, the Big Mac and the Little Mac.

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  12. I only got to Safteyville once when I was in third grade at the Brendle (sp?) Elementary School in Grand Blanc – this would have been sometime around 1967. We went as a class. It was all very exciting. I remember thinking the track was very cool and chaffing at having to sit through the basic delivered by the staff. I guess I should have listened more closely. As soon as I got out on the road in my little car, I did something that got me booted…believe me, it wasn’t intentional, just a lack of basic coordination or something. Anyway, I had to sit out the rest of the class visit. It was very disappointing because I really, really, really wanted to drive over Little Mac and Big Mac (as well as go under each bridge). Very sad I never got back again.

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  13. I too have my license from Safetyville. I also have the Pamphlet from 1964 (my mom saved everything). If I knew how to attach a scan I would do so.

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    1. Wow! I was the little girl in the picture on the pamplet that is sitting in the car! I don't have that information. Can you please email a copy of the picture to me?
      My email address is elizabeth_vestal@yahoo.com

      Thankyou so very much!

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  14. Anonymous,

    Feel free to email me the attachment if it's convenient.

    gordieyoung (at) sbcglobal (dot) net

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  15. I loved the place,went there as much as I could, loved the pool, too. Taught me a lot about driving and respect for the road, not to mention respect for others. My mother does have 1 pic of me sitting in the car....need to get that from her. Anyway, I would have to say that as growing up as a kid, it was one of my most favorite things to do, and always looked forward to going. Ahhhh the good ole days.

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  16. Dan/Redwood City, CAJune 22, 2010 at 9:35 PM

    Wow, Safetyville, how fun! It was THE PLACE my grandparents took my sister, brother and I to everytime we visited them from Florida. Very fond memories! I remember during one intro demonstration, they had my sister drive down the main street as all the kids watched. They stepped on this foot activated switch, with a doll attached to it, and boing, this doll springs out between 2 safetyville parked cars as though she were running out into the street after a ball. Needless to say, it startled all of us, especially my sister, and well.....to this day when I'm in a neighborhood with parked cars along the street, I'm always looking out for kids playing....thanks to Safetyville! Fond memories indeed!

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  17. The Shriners have bought the old Corvettes and are using them in Parades

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  18. I have to say that this wonderful place was etched in my head also, I was so young, wnt to Hazelton School in flint...prolly around 1963 or so...It was one of the greatest things I ever did in my school years!

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  19. Oh my, I can't believe I finally found someone else from Flint that remembers Safetyville. I was beginning to think it was a childhood fantasy!! Thanks so much for all you sharing your stories. I went to Sobey Elementary School and went as a class once there. It sure stuck in my mind. I wish someone had pictures. I also have been out of Flint for 35 years...

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  20. Glad you liked it. Go here for a few more references to Safetyville:

    http://www.flintexpats.com/2008/04/flint-artifacts-ima-safetyville.html#uds-search-results

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  21. We went there every summer with park leaders from Mannhall Park......great times driving!

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  22. My dad has some super-8 film of me driving the cars at Safetyville - I'm gonna try to transfer it to digital and post it... :)

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    1. I too remember IMA safetyville,I was telling my kids about it, man that was very cool back in the day very good memories, it would be nice to see some pics of the site.

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  23. Never attended safetyville, but remembrr it well in 1976 going to see my cousins from acrosd town. Rembered the fun we had just grtting to the park from davison rd, sn sdventure in itself!

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  24. Hey Gordon, I noticed your Illinois address on here. Did you go to Washington Elementary?

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    1. Illinois Ave. was my grandparents' street. I went to Homedale for one year when I lived with them, but then the family moved to Civic Park.

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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.