"I'm just telling you. She says today's problems can't be solved by today's people, we just keep shoring up our bankruptcy with the only tools we know. Making up more and more complicated stories about how we haven't failed."
— Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered
The area of Gray and Maxson was my old neighborhood. We were known as "river rats" by the city kids.
My friends' houses down there are gone now. One of my old friends was caught off guard when it flooded in the '70s, and I don't think he even had time to move his car.I probably was gone by the time of the yellow cloud, but does anybody remember when the river became florescent green in the late '60s? It looked just like the fake water in a View-Master slide. We followed it back to "Chevy in the Hole" and it was still being discharged when we got there.
We used to walk down the middle of the river all the way to downtown at the Saginaw Street bridge when the buildings were still built on the bridge. The river was most shallow in the middle with the deep spots near the bank.
One time when we were bored we came up with a game where we all put "dares" in a hat and drew them out. One kid had to swim across the river in high flood with ice flows and he almost drowned. My way of saving him was a bit odd but it worked. I dove in and got him to the opposite shore and, not wanting to walk two miles back, we dove back in with him holding my neck. We made it but were carried by the strong current almost to the I-75 overpass. I knew better because my father always helped drag the river for bodies and even got on the front page of The Flint Journal once.
Another time some of us got stuck during flood time on one of the I-75 bridge foundations and we had to be rescued. I remember it was shown on channel 5 news.
Being a river rat I have many stories.
I was wondering if you might give a shout out to the “Riverbank Park Revival” project entry for the “Let’s Save Michigan” placemaking contest. “Let’s Save Michigan” is an organization dedicated to economic development in the state based on the creation and reservation of vibrant communities, transit, and public spaces. This contest was created so communities could take an underused or overlooked public space and help it become an important public place. Riverbank Park was submitted and accepted as a prime candidate, but now it is up to a public vote to decide who moves on to the final round of judging. If you’d be so kind, I think your readers could add to our momentum. All they have to do is follow this link http://letssavemichigan.com/placemaking-contest/entry/ riverbank-park-revival- project-flint/ and enter their email address to vote. They can also vote once per day!
Chevy in the Hole photographed from the Atwood Stadium parking lot during my recent visit to Flint.
Chevy in the Hole photographed from Bluff Street in 1995 by Jar with Most, who has a great collection of Flint photos.
"The city of Flint says it dumped 750,000 gallons of raw sewage into the Flint River on Friday after a 6-inch bypass line broke, the second large sewer spill from the city since last month."Untreated sewage was diverted to the river from the city's Water Pollution Control facility for more than 10 hours, according to a report filed with the state Department of Environmental Quality."
The Toys Are Good Food website has a loving yet realistic ode to the ill-fated Autoworld:"The interior of the dome was all built up to look like Flint ('Vehicle City'). But homeless people, abandoned buildings and cars on blocks were nowhere to be found. You see, inside the dome was a Disney-fication of Flint from the early 1900s complete with the (highly filtered) Flint River running through the dome."
