Saturday, September 15, 2012

Flint Photos: Family Gathering in Evergreen Valley


Flint Expatriate Joe Dennis passed along this photo of a family gathering on Wood Lane in the Evergreen Valley neighborhood around 1975, possibly at Thanksgiving. It includes Joe's parents, aunt and uncle, grandparents, and older brother. That's Joe in the high chair on the right. Joe's father, Dr. Benjamin G. Dennis, seated at the head of the table, was born in Liberia and taught both sociology and anthropology at UM-Flint. He held a dual Ph. D. and was recruited in 1970 to help form the Africana Studies program. Dr. Dennis retired in 1992, the same year Joe graduated from Flint Central. "He was a great man," Joe said.

6 comments:

  1. Great shot! Thanks for sharing it. When I first went to work at UM - Flint in 1987, my office was right next to Ben Dennis's, and I got to know him and his work quite well, though I never got to know the Dennis kids. And I recognize the inside of that house, too -- I think it's the house Richard and Claudia Mach now live in, right?

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  2. With Prince Harry and Kate Middleton cavorting about in the nude it is nice to see a picture of a wholesome royal family.

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  3. Jan, Kent, I'm Dr. Dennis's middle son, Joe. Thank you for your kind words. The Mach house is the last house my family owned in Flint, and was located in the East Village, but this photo was at the house we lived at immediately before, in the Evergreen Valley. We lived here until 1980, when we were supposed to actually move to Liberia. Then Civil War broke out in my father's home country mere months before we were supposed to move, but we'd already signed the contract for the sale of this house. So we moved. This house still looks great on the outside. I always try to drive past when I'm back "home" (and Flint will always be home).

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  4. Nice to hear from you, Joe. I showed this photo to Richard and Claudia Mach and they confirmed (and pointed out) that this is not the home they bought from your parents -- still their current home. But they remember your family vividly and send their greetings.

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  5. Wow, nice to see. We lived in Evergreen Valley also.
    The Garners of Providence Street.

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  6. This is so neat, we also lived at
    1930 Woodlane in Evergreen Valley from 1956 about, untill 1968. The Hubbard Family.

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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.