Friday, December 15, 2017

In Memory of Patricia McFarlane Young

Pat Young during her days as a department store model.


Patricia McFarlane Young, who lived an adventurous, unconventional life guided by her generous spirit and sense of humor, died on December 8, 2017 in Tacoma, Washington. She was 87. 

Pat was born and raised in Flint, Michigan when it was a thriving hub of the automotive industry. “I grew up on the Eastside and recall the unexplained pride I felt when the 3:30 Buick factory whistle blew and the roughly dressed workers poured out of the General Motors’ labyrinth swinging their lunch pails,” she wrote in an essay about her early life. “Some were headed for home and some for the corner bar, but all with the determined step of an army after a battle won. I somehow felt as if I were a part of this giant assembly line and the city it fed.”

But she also knew there was a bigger world beyond Flint, and she was eager to explore it. “Nostalgia, I’m sure, is the opiate of old age,” she wrote. “Memories over ten years old automatically become the ‘good ol’ days. We remember only the happy things and leave the shaded areas behind. And yet, faintly sifting through the sands of time, I seem to recall saying, ‘The day I’m 18, I’m leaving this town.’"

After graduating from Central High School in 1948, she lived in Detroit in the early fifties, where she fell in love with jazz and a jazz musician or two. She moved to New York and became a department store model at Bergdorff Goodman’s and a regular at clubs like Minton’s Playhouse when Bebop was exploding. She had great stories about seeing legends like Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie perform. She remembered loaning saxophonist Gerry Mulligan money to buy coffee and a newspaper early one morning in Harlem. “He still owes me a dollar,” she said.

Pat eventually worked for National Airlines as a stewardess — she wasn’t fond of the term “flight attendant” and refused to use it — and regularly flew out of Miami, Havana, and New Orleans. 

Later, as a Navy wife, she set up houses all over the country — San Diego, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Florida, and Olathe, Kansas, to name a few — but she eventually returned to Flint. There was a part of her that was disappointed to be back, but she wasn’t the type of person to mope. As a single mother, she worked hard to create a stable, happy life for her four children. She was an admitting clerk at McLaren Hospital for many years, earning money to send her kids to college. 

As a devout Catholic, she attended Mass at St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s. Her love of football was intertwined with her faith. She was a regular at Powers Catholic High School games when her kids were students. (The hot rum cider she brought to Friday night games in a thermos was legendary in the parents’ section of the bleachers.) And she energetically watched Notre Dame football after dutifully placing a small statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the television before kickoff. That didn’t stop her from berating the refs when calls went against the Fighting Irish. Expletives were not always deleted.

She loved her parents, who moved to Flint from the cornfields of Iowa in the 1920s. She described her father, Verne McFarlane, as “my gentle hero all my life,” and credited her mother, Leone, with giving her the determination to deal with life’s setbacks. “Their love, and growing up in Flint, made me into a person who could handle tough times and appreciate what really matters,” she wrote.

Pat worked at Jacksonville University, organizing performances for the School of Fine Arts, after moving to Florida in 1986. It was the perfect situation for someone who, by her own count, had around 50 different jobs during her life. She enjoyed talking to agents in New York and getting updates on the places she remembered. Many were long gone, but not all of them. And she had an easy rapport with the performers, making them feel welcome in a way that the college professors could not.

Cooking down on the farm.
After retiring, Pat put a lot of miles on a red pickup truck she called Bubba. She had taken more road trips in the last 20 years than most college kids, often driving from her home in Jacksonville to the family farm in Maple Leaf, Iowa. She slowly but surely restored the century-old farmhouse where her mother grew up. Pat had visited the farm for long stretches every summer as a child, so in many ways this was also home to her. She liked the solitude, and she looked forward to seeing old friends and relatives, people who had known her folks. She certainly wasn’t a farmer, but she understood the rhythms of life in small-town Iowa and liked being a part of it. 

When she visited her kids on the West Coast, she drove cross country, lately with her 90-pound dog, Rob Roy, by her side. (He was a lovable guy, even though he looked fairly menacing.) She listened to unlikely musical combinations on her cassette deck. Frank Sinatra might share time with country singer Dwight Yoakam and Rod Stewart on a stretch of highway. She relied on a dog-eared atlas with handwritten notes detailing where to get blueberry pie in Montana or a good burger in Missouri. She knew where obscure Frank Lloyd Wright houses were located on her northern route. And she knew how to find the Palm Court Jazz Cafe when her travels took her to New Orleans.

Pat made these trips so often she had friends along the way, people she had quickly bonded with over lunch at a diner or during conversations in hotel lobbies. She even exchanged letters with some of them over the years. She could easily turn strangers into confidants. She was someone people liked to be around, an open, unpretentious woman who had a way of understanding what you were going through, whether it was good, bad, or in between. 

She spent the last few years living in Tacoma, Washington, where she could be close to her son, Matt, and daughter, Martha, who lived on the same street. She often talked about how much she loved her daughter, Catie, who lives in North Carolina. She got to see her grandkids and great grandkids regularly. This summer, she got to hold her newest grandchild, Larkin, when her son Gordie visited from San Francisco.

Pat often described herself as a dreamer. She admitted that she was always searching for something in life, even though she wasn’t quite sure what it was. (That’s probably the case for most people, if they are brave enough to admit it.) But she never stopped trying, and she never let the search overwhelm her. She maintained her independence, her intense love of her family, and her kindness for those who were struggling until the end.

It’s hard for her children to imagine life without her. But she taught them that sometimes the hardest things in life can be the most meaningful, and that our memories of those we love can continue to guide us and comfort us. 

We love you, Big Mama.

Pat is survived by her daughters, Catherine and Martha (Patrick), and her sons, Matthew and Gordon (Traci). She is also survived by her grandchildren Claire, Grace (Michael), Hannah, Dylan, and Larkin, as well as her great-grandchildren, Violet and Cash. She was preceded in death by her parents, Verne and Leone McFarlane.


In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Luke M. Powers Catholic High School in Flint, Michigan.

Pat Young with her dog, Rob Roy, on the family farm she restored in Maple Leaf, Iowa.



Tuesday, December 5, 2017

The Streets of San Francisco




Saturday, December 2, 2017

The Flint Effect and Unsolved Homicides

Just when you thought there were no new ways to catalog Flint's decline...


murder in Flint Michigan
 “The Serial-Killer Detector," The New Yorker, November 27, 2017




Thursday, November 30, 2017

Flint Artifacts: AutoWorld Security Patches

Flint Michigan
Not to be confused with job security.



Flint Artifacts: The Shawn Chittle Flint Fashion Collection







Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Flint Artifacts: UAW Jacket Flint Truck and Bus


UAW Flint
Flint Michigan



Flint Artifacts: Flint Buggy Co. Invoice

Flint Michigan

flint michigan



Monday, November 27, 2017

In the Future When All's Well

"The role of humans as the most important factor of production is bound to diminish in the same way that the role of horses in agricultural production was first diminished and then eliminated by the introduction of tractors."
         — Wassily Leontief


Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Streets of San Francisco: A Helping Hand




Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Flint Water Crisis: Dr. Eden Wells

What could possibly go wrong?

Steve Carmody of NPR's Stateside reports:
Gov. Rick Snyder has appointed a top state official criminally charged in the Flint water crisis investigation to head a new council tasked with improving Michigan’s response to emerging public health threats.
Perhaps the thinking is that if you helped cause a public health threat, you'd be good at spotting others?

The Streets of San Francisco: Chevy Van

Chevy Van




Monday, November 20, 2017

Flint Artifacts: O-Jib-Wa Laxative Herb Tea

laxatives



Sunday, November 19, 2017

Flint Artifacts: Uncle Bob's Diner Matchbook

books about flint michigan



Friday, November 17, 2017

Flint Artifacts: Farm Motel Mug

motels in flint michigan



Flint Artifacts: Arrowhead Riders Patch

Flint Michigan



Thursday, November 16, 2017

Flint Artifacts: Joan Rivers and Peter Marshall at the Michigan Star Theatre

Joan Rivers

Friday, November 10, 2017

Flint Photos: Deuce and a Quarter



Flint Artifacts: A.C. New Fuel Pump




Flint Artifacts: O-Jib-Wa Reducing Tea

history of Flint Michigan



Thursday, November 9, 2017

Body Language

Gordon Young Journalist

Love this photo. Jake May of MLive captures the "warm rapport" Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, left, and U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp. must share with each other with this photo taken at the grand opening of the Ferris Wheel building on Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. You don't have to be a body language expert to figure this one out.

On a side note, I'm with Kildee on the clothing choice. If you're going to wear a suit, wear a tie. Otherwise, why bother?


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Election Day in Flint: Mayor Weaver Faces Recall Vote

books about Flint Michigan

It's election day in Flint, and Mitch Smith of The New York Times gives an overview of the recall vote:
Mayor Karen Weaver sailed into office two years ago promising to clean Flint’s lead-tainted water and to restore trust in government, after previous leaders brought poisoned water to the city and ignored residents when they complained. Ms. Weaver declared a state of emergency, met with the president and made the rounds on cable television, quickly becoming one of America’s most visible mayors. 
But as her celebrity grew, so too did a revolt within her own City Hall. She now faces City Council members accusing her of corruption, a court battle over Flint’s long-term water source and, on Tuesday, a recall election that could snuff out her four-year term at the halfway point.
Read the rest here.


Saturday, November 4, 2017

Books About Flint, Michigan






Wednesday, November 1, 2017

New Buicks for Sale

New Buicks for Sale
New Buicks for Sale


Flint Water Crisis: Long-term Health Issues Caused by Lead Exposure

Flint Water Crisis

Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, who helped expose the Flint W
ater Crisis, talks to Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson about confronting the long-term health issues affecting Flint residents.
Hanna-Attisha says the city is building programs to help support children, so they can overcome future challenges caused by lead exposure. She says interventions like universal preschool and access to nutrition are key to reducing the impact. 
"We have a robust investment in early education," she says. "We have Medicaid expansion. We have mobile grocery stores, breastfeeding services, 24-hour mental health care. These are things that all children need everywhere, but these are things that we are putting in place for the kids in Flint."


New Chevys for Sale

New Chevys for Sale
Brand new Chevys for sale.


Friday, October 27, 2017

Flint Water Crisis: Curt Guyette on the KWA Pipeline Project

Flint Water Crisis

Photo Illustration by Robert Nixon via Metro Times.

If you are trying to understand how the KWA pipeline project is intertwined with the Flint Water Crisis, this story by the Michigan ACLU's Curt Guyette in the Metro Times is essential reading.
Last year, a task force appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the causes of the disaster urged prosecutors to do a "complete and thorough review of the development and approval of KWA and of the City of Flint's commitments to KWA water purchases." 
Since then, four officials — including two of the city's former emergency managers — have been charged for allegedly using false pretenses to obtain an $85 million loan needed to finance Flint's share of the new pipeline.
And then there's a report issued earlier this year by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, which spent nearly a year investigating the crisis to determine what role, if any, racism played in creating this completely avoidable manmade disaster.
Read the rest here.


Flint Photos: Greenway Avenue

Gordon Young Flint Water Crisis
Thanks to Jim Holbel for the photo.


Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Flint Water Crisis Event with Curt Guyette and Gordon Young

Flint Michigan



Saturday, September 30, 2017

Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City by Gordon Young

Books about Flint Michigan

"One can read Teardown and go 'My, my, my! What a horrid town! Thank God I don't live there!' Oh, but you do. Just as the 'Roger & Me Flint' of the 1980s was the precursor to a wave of downsizing that eventually hit every American community, Gordon Young's Flint of 2013, as so profoundly depicted in this book, is your latest warning of what's in store for you — all of you, no matter where you live — in the next decade. The only difference between your town and Flint is that the Grim Reaper just likes to visit us first. It's all here in Teardown, a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once great American city."
— Michael Moore, filmmaker, author, activist

Purchase Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City here.


Thursday, September 28, 2017

Streets of San Francisco: 1963 Corvair On Cortland Avenue

Flint



Monday, September 4, 2017

Happy Labor Day from Flint Expatriates


Fisher Body Plant #1 in 1937.


Saturday, September 2, 2017

A Strange Place


"It's not a mystery; it's just the past."

— Martin Cruz Smith, Gorky Park


Monday, August 28, 2017

Civic Park in Decline


A screenshot of Civic Park in Flint from the Flint Property Portal. The purple sections indicate publicly owned property, which frequently means parks and abandoned houses and lots.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

American




Harold C. Ford on "Detroit"


Harold C. Ford reviews Detroit in East Village Magazine:
As I drove myself home from the empty house at Rave Flint West 14 at 1 a.m., I passed The Keg Bar at the corner of Van Slyke and Hemphill Roads. The parking lot was filled beyond capacity; some 50 cars overflowed into adjoining parking lots. The fenced-in outdoor terrace was abuzz with 40 to 50 happy, imbibed patrons while many more were inside. The juxtaposition of a rollicking packed pub and an empty movie house showing a film about the deadliest civil rebellion in Michigan history, one that unfolded a mere 65 miles down the highway, was dispiriting.
Read the rest here.

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Flint Photos: Flint Springs Water and Ice Co. Wagon




Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Adventure




Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Flint Artifacts: Chevy Logo




Streets of San Francisco: There's No Place Like...




Sunday, August 13, 2017

The Need for Narrative

This got me thinking about Flint, and all the stories written about the place, by me and many others.
"As far as I could tell, stories may enable us to live, but they also trap us, bring us spectacular pain. In their scramble to make sense of nonsensical things, they distort, codify, blame, aggrandize, restrict, omit, betray, mythologize, you name it. This has always struck me as cause for lament, not celebration."
— "The Red Parts" by Maggie Nelson


Saturday, July 1, 2017

Streets of San Francisco: GMC Diesel


If you're going to own a GMC Diesel like this one in San Francisco, it goes without saying you better have some serious parking skills. And the ability to climb out the rear window when you're done.


Sunday, June 18, 2017

Flint Photos: Jim Cunningham's Retirement from Buick


When Jim Cunningham retired from Buick, they gave him a starter motor mounted on a plaque, like the thousands he had bolted on to engine blocks every week for 32 years at Factory 36. Thanks to Joe Cunningham for the photo of his father.