A father, a Son, and a Grand Prix

Randy Gearhart with his Pontiac Grand Prix on the day he graduated from Northern in 1968. He used to cruise through the Clio Road Arby's and the A & W. "I guess that a good many of the miles on this car were 'Clio Road Crusin’ Miles,'" he says.

Randy Gearhart may live in Georgia now, but he is definitely a “Flint guy.” He lived at 2314 Ohio Street, a few blocks from the A.C., before moving to 2913 Mallery Street, just off Ballenger. He went to Washington Elementary and Longfellow before graduating from Northern in 1968. He was home from college in the summer of 1969 working at A.M. Davison’s when he met his future wife, Debbi Reburn, across the street in the Carriage Room at Smith B’s. She worked the counter where he often went for lunch or a Tall Texan, more commonly known as a chocolate soda.
 
Even his name sounds like Flint.
 
Randy has a story to tell about his father and growing up in The Vehicle City. It was originally posted on Flint Expatriates on August 14, 2008.

My dad, Robert Gearhart, was superintendent of labor relations at Fisher Body Plant #2. In late November, 1964, he told me that I could pick out our family’s next car. It would be replacing our 1962 Chevrolet Impala.

Wow! Really? I had just turned 14 a couple months earlier. What a responsibility. What an honor.

I started looking through our most recent issues of Look and Life to see the new season’s offerings. Turning the magazine pages, I suddenly stopped. There she was. I had to look no further. The Pontiac Grand Prix.

The original magazine advertisement that caught Randy's eye.

I told dad that this was the car I wanted us to get. We got in our Applegate Chevy and rode over to Superior Pontiac/Cadillac on Dort Highway. Dad put in the order. A few weeks later, we got “the call” that our new car was ready for pick up.
One week after we took delivery of our new Grand Prix, on a gray December day, my dad suffered a heart attack. He died in the hall outside his office at Fisher Body.

He was only 40.

He had purchased an insurance policy that would pay off the car in case of his death. That was a good thing. But, that shiny, new, paid-off Pontiac became so much more than just a car to me. It was a connection to a man who loved his family and a dad who trusted a pimply-faced kid to make one of the most important purchase decisions a family can make.

The older I get, the more that act of trust means to me.

Thanks, Dad.

Flint Photos: Mary Jane Belfie and Bill Boles

Flint Expatriate Bill Boles describes his romance with Mary Jane Belfie, which began in Flint before being "briefly" interrupted:

The attached photo shows me and my high school sweetheart, Mary Jane Belfie, in June, 1948 in front of the old Vogue store. Part of the brass sign can be seen on the right. This was graduation week. Mary Jane graduated from Northern and I from Central. We enjoyed two proms together and after a few years apart I was able to locate her in 2005. We married in 2006. She is still the same sweet girl she was in 1947 when we met.

High School Enrollment in the Flint Area

Does anyone have any insight into the strange enrollment shifts at Flint high schools?

- Northern had 997 students in 2009. Now it's up to 1,507.
- Southwestern had 1500 students in 2008. Now it's dipped to just 658.
- Northwestern had 540 students in 2006. Now it's at 1,219.

We know that the overall trend is for fewer high school students in Flint as the population drops. And we know that when Central closed last year it had around 900 students, and those that didn't graduate had to go somewhere. But it appears that very few of them went to Southwestern. Was that intentional?

Then there's Powers, with just 598 students, and Beecher with only 400.

If the trends continue, Flint clearly has one public high school in its future. It would work now if the school district had the right facility.

Here's some background info on enrollment from a March 29, 2009 post:

It's difficult for many Flint Expatriates who haven't been back in a while to realize just how much the city has changed over the years. Some basic numbers from the Flint Community Schools Facilities Advisory Committee Report reveal that the school-age population has disappeared along with the G.M. jobs.

When G.M. employment peaked at approximately 80,000 jobs in 1968, Flint schools (K-12) had 46,557 students.

By the fall of 2008, there were just 14,056 students.

Enrollment is projected to dip to 10,432 students by the fall of 2013. That's a 78% decline since 1968. It means that there will only be about 2,500 high-school students in the entire district.

So why is the city agonizing over whether to close Central or Southwestern? With numbers this low and the budget problems that come with plummeting enrollment, shouldn't the city opt for a single high school for Flint?

The enrollment would still be small compared to the biggest high schools in the country, which tend to be more efficient and offer more classes and programs. Here's a list of the largest high schools by enrollment:

1. Belmont -- Los Angeles 5,299

1. Elizabeth -- Elizabeth, N.J. 5,299

3. Fremont -- Los Angeles 5,083

4. South Gate -- South Gate, Calif. 5,020

5. Roosevelt -- Los Angeles 4,940

6. Monroe -- North Hills, Calif. 4,881

7. Los Angeles -- Los Angeles 4,876

8. Bell -- Bell, Calif. 4,855

9. Garfield -- Los Angeles 4,844

10. Lynwood -- Lynwood, Calif. 4,818

11. Long Beach Polytechnic -- Long Beach, Calif. 4,779

12. Judson -- Converse, Tex. 4,778

13. Sachem -- Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y. 4,718

14. Fort Hamilton -- Brooklyn, N.Y. 4,679

15. Felix Varela -- Miami 4,655

16. San Fernando -- San Fernando, Calif. 4,602

17. G. Holmes Braddock -- Miami 4,598

18. Huntington Park -- Huntington Park, Calif. 4,577

19. Marshall -- Los Angeles 4,550

20. Lane Technical -- Chicago 4,527

21. North Hollywood -- North Hollywood, Calif. 4,509

22. John F. Kennedy -- Bronx, N.Y. 4,422

23. Barbara Goleman -- Miami 4,417

24. Wilson -- Long Beach 4,383

25. Robinson Secondary -- Fairfax County 4,378

Happy Thanksgiving from Flint Expatriates

A Hockey Player/Artist and a Girl Named Angel

Requests like this in the comment section simply demand their own post...

Richard Carr has left a new comment on your post "Vikings on Ice":

"There was a guy who used to play for Northern. He had snake-skin Camelton brand skates and a ice rink in his garage over on Lester Ct. I think he was also an artist, and had a girlfriend named Angel. What was his name?"

Vikings on Ice

Let's set aside Flint's future and talk about Flint's past for a minute. 1976, to be exact. We know Dan Kildee as the country treasurer and head of the Land Bank, but it's time Dan Kildee the Northern High School hockey player got a little recognition.

(Photo courtesy of Dan Kildee via Facebook)

Flint Portraits: Bill Stolpin

Artist Bill Stolpin discusses his career and the story behind his evocative prints of Flint landmarks...

I was born and raised in Flint. My dad took the family to Milwaukee in '48 to help set up the AC Spark Plug operation there. We moved back in '53 when I went to Garfield elementary, Emerson Junior High and old Northern High School, where I am currently a Distinguished Alumni with my picture on the wall at the new High School. We lived on Detroit street between Rankin and Taylor streets (across from the Salem Lutheran Church). I graduated from Northern in 1960, and went directly to GMI. Graduated with my BME in 1965. By the way, I earned my Eagle Scout rank while at GMI.

While I was in Junior High, I was making linoleum block Christmas cards. One card in particular had 7 blocks and about 15 colors. I realized, at that time, that I had a knack for printmaking, and have been making images ever since.

I used to draw pencil portraits of my classmates, and took some classes at the old Flint Institute of Arts when it was located behind the Bell Telephone building. My mother was a Cub Scout Denmother, and I was her Den Chief. As a result, I learned many arts and craft skills that my mother taught at her Scout meetings. I was an active member of the IPA (International Platform Association) and helped to arrange and hang their art show in Washington DC for years. One year international lithographer Emil Weddige (then a professor of art at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor) took me under his wing, convincing me to focus on my printmaking skills. It was under his guidance that my first lithograph "...and the Santa Maria" was completed. A print from that edition was subsequently acquired by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for their permanent collection of space art along with my screenprint entitled "One Giant Leap." I went back to school and earned an Associate of Fine arts degree from Mott Community college, and was working toward a BFA at Eastern Michigan University when I retired from GM in 1993.

The Flint images started as a project proposed by the late James Anthony. Jim was the fourth member of DAS Print Co. Jim (who died in 1999), Carole Brender, Stefan Davidek and I have been printing in my studio (in Holly) religiously once a week since 1980. Back in '83 he and Stefan suggested that we print a portfolio of four silkscreen prints of Flint. This was similar to a project that they had done back in the ‘60s with John Davies and Bob Knapman. Jim did the old library; Stefan did the Milner arcade; Carole did the Halo Burger on Saginaw St, and I did the Original Flint Coney Island on Saginaw St. The portfolio was an instant success. Individual prints from that portfolio have increased significantly in price and are exceedingly rare, while complete 4-print suites are nearly impossible to find today. As a group, DAS Print Co. produced several additional 4-print suites, while Carole and I continued to make individual Flint building prints. We all have positive memories of Flint in our younger days, and I personally wanted to share those memories with others.

I currently live in Holly, about 20 minutes South of Flint. I recently completed a long stretch on the Board of Trustees for the Greater Flint Arts Council. I am a member of Flint Artists Market (An association of professional artists in Flint) and was a member of the (cooperative) Left Bank Gallery until it finally died after fifty years. I currently teach printmaking at the Flint Institute of Arts.

My work shows up everywhere! Hurley and McLaren hospitals both have our work prominently displayed. A number of professionals (doctors, dentists, attorneys, banks etc) have been acquiring our work for years. The late Frank DeLorenzo (Don Francos Hair Styling) had/has an immense collection of our city prints. They show up in waiting rooms, and other popular public locations like the Sarvis Food Center.

People tell me that the prints act as an immediate icebreaker. Everyone has memories to recount after seeing them. Stefan, Carole and I regularly have our set-ups at the Flint Art Fair in June.

The Thanksgiving Mud Bowl

Tom Foote, the official Flint Northern Viking, at halftime of the 1967 Thanksgiving Day game.

To help us celebrate Thanksgiving, Randy Gearhart passed along some great shots of the 1967 Thanksgiving Day game at Atwood Stadium between the Northern Vikings and the Central Indians. For obvious reasons, it came to be known as The Mud Bowl.

The endzone at Atwood.

Two minutes after a completing a fourth-quarter, 43-yard pass play that put the Vikings in scoring position, All-State co-captain William Wallace heads toward the end-zone to seal the 6-2 victory.

Before he was “The Church Guy,” Randy was Drum Major for the 1967-68 Flint Northern Viking Marching band. "You should have seen my white uniform after the Thanksgiving Day game!" he says. "Not a pretty sight."

For more memories of Flint Northern in 1968, head to www.68vikings.com.

Turkey Day Gridiron Memories

Northern's Art Johnson hauls in a 50-yard game-winning touchdown pass on fourth-and-19 in the 1953 Turkey Day showdown with Central

Now that we're into November, you may find yourself missing the old Northern Vs. Central Thanksgiving Day football games. Thanks to former Flint Journal reporter and editor Larry Gustin you can relive some of the action from Atwood on DVD and help restore the old stadium at the same time.

Larry explained the genesis of the project in a post on mlive last year:

"When I learned there was a group trying to restore Atwood Stadium, I thought it would be cool to offer up a few of the great Northern-Central high school Thanksgiving games on DVD as part of the momentum, maybe for fund raising. After all, those classic football games made Atwood the city's center of attention along with IMA Auditorium.

"I remembered some of the old Northern-Central films were gathering dust atop a file cabinet in The Journal sports department when I worked there 1960-63 (I was then in the news room until 1984). When I asked about the films in conversation with Len Hoyes and Dean Howe, they hadn't seen them in years. Turns out, they were in the bottom of a file drawer. So when I mentioned those old films to Journal sports writer Dan Nilsen at the Buick Open last summer, he said he knew where they were and brought them out to me at Warwick Hills."

Ken, a regular reader, has made an order and, although the footage isn't state-of-the-art, he thought it was well worth the cost. Besides, it will probably be more fun than watching the Lions.

Here's all the ordering information:

Games available: 1938, 1942, 1951, 1952, 1953 (the color 1953 film has edited highlights and added sound), 1955, 1956, 1957 (first half only), 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964 (second half only), 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972 (second half only), 1973 (first half only), 1974, 1975, 1976.* No others available at this time (summer 2008).

Each film is available on DVD for $25 plus shipping and handling.
Half of price goes to Atwood Stadium Authority for stadium restoration fund.

Order by phone or mail:

VIDCAM Productions
7550 S. Saginaw St., Suite 1
Grand Blanc, Mich. 48439
Phone (810) 694-0996
Contact: Craig Smith (craig@vidcamproductions.com)

Please note films were transferred to DVD as found. Some are in black & white, some in color, quality varies, perhaps not every play is recorded. In some cases, as noted, only half of the game is available. VIDCAM was chosen by the Authority to handle orders.

We want more game films! Did anyone you know shoot amateur film of Thanksgiving games not listed above? Do you have or know of an official game film? We have a few segments of other games, and want any you may have of Northern-Central games played on Thanksgiving (1928-1976). We particularly want 1947, 1949, 1950, even if it’s only a few feet.

Flint Artifacts: 1931 Northern High School Patch