Thursday, May 27, 2010

Flint Postcards: Flint Park Dodgem


Flint Park has come up in the comment section, so I thought I'd re-post this item from June 4, 2009. Thanks to Randy Gearhart for this classic postcard.



10 comments:

  1. My mother frequently talked up the glories of this place, but, by the time the boomers arrived, it was well past and torn down.

    Of course, the carousel was famously reborn at Autoworld (one of the horses later turned up in the office of a Six Flags exec ... he'd replaced it on the ride with a repro and was caught), but that was it.

    Great postcard, one I've never seen.

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  2. Who out there remembers the pole sitters at Flint Park during the 1940's and early 1950's? These were crazy guys who would sit in a chair at the top of a really tall pole, for days...weeks...at a time. It was high times, 50's style.

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    1. My twin brother and I walked past the Pole Sitter guy every day for months, on our way to Merrill Elementary in 1953-1954. We lived 2 blocks north of Flint Park. We were kind of afraid of him, never said a word to him, but always wondered why he was up there and how he ate and went to the bathroom! maryanndobson@gmail.com

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    2. I do too. I went to the same school. I lived right across the Devils lake. On Conniff st. Spent a lot of time at the park. pitching nickels for plates.

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  3. I only remember one or two visits to Flint Park when I was a kid. But, I do remember how awestruck I was with the "dodgems." What fun they were--the cars, the chaos, the noise, the sparks--and the pure joy of intentionally targeting and smashing into strangers who, with grimaced faces, braced themselves for the inevitable impact! It had it all! :^)

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  4. My dad worked on the Dodgem and met my mother there.They were married in 1932.

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  5. yankeedp, if you feel like it, please feel free to elaborate. That's a great story.

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  6. My dad and his family were quite familiar with that amusement park. They lived over on Mason St. near the corner of Pasadena Ave. beginning in the late 1920's or early 30's, the back of their house facing what I knew as Forest Park. It made a fantastic playground for all the kids in the neighborhood back then. Is the Flint Park amusement area the place that had the bears in it?

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  7. My dad also worked at Flint Park. I mention it in my book THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST arriving in the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Genesee Valley Mall November 2010.

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  8. Hi I am writing a fiction book based in Flint and some of the book will contain info about the history of Flint.

    I am curious about Flint park for a couple reasons.

    One for the book and because part of my house was supposed to have been a building that came from the park. Supposedly my grandfather bought one of the buildings when the park closed then built the house around it. I couldn't tell you which part it was but I'm curious.

    Where exactly was the park located? Does anyone else have any more photos of the park? Maybe some memorabilia , brochures, ticket stubs....anything?

    If anyone has info about the park can you please email it to me at RoxanneRhoads @ aol. com

    Thanks

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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.