What's in a Name?

Are people from Flint known as Flintoids? Flintonians? Flintstones? Flintites?

Flint Photos: N. Dort Highway & Groveland Avenue, Then and Now

Once again, thanks to Shawn Chittle for another great photo of Flint.

Barnett Jones: Working for a Living?

John Wisely of The Detroit Free Press reports:

Flint’s administrator of public safety resigned this morning after the Free Press raised questions about how he could work there while also working as the head of security for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

Barnett Jones, a longtime lawman in southeast Michigan, was earning $273,750 at the two jobs, which are almost 70 miles apart. He had been working both since May.

Flint Photos: The Old YWCA and YMCA

The old YWCA on 1st Street. (Photo by Mary Fisher)

The old YMCA on Kearsley. Note the phone booth in front. (Photo by Mary Fisher)

Howie Makem: Alive and Well and Looking for Love in Reno

With "a head the size of a Datsun," Howie Makem prowls the line looking for quality in this illustration for a 1986 Mother Jones article on Ben Hamper. (Photo supplied by Shawn Chittle)

Howie Makem, the legendary G.M. Quality Cat who was lionized by Ben Hamper in Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line, is apparently alive and well and living in Reno.

Scott Atkinson, the Flint Journal reporter who seems to get all the good stories these days, reports:

He disappeared from the General Motors shop floor a long time ago, but the Quality Cat is back -- at least in digital form.

Howie Makem, the one-time mascot of General Motors who roamed the shops cheering on workers, recently started his own Facebook page.

(Okay, so it might not actually be Howie, but it's far more fun to pretend.) 

Here's Hamper's description of Howie:

Howie Makem stood five feet nine. He had light brown fur, long synthetic whiskers and a head the size of a Datsun. He wore a long red cape emblazoned with the letter Q for Quality. A very magical cat, Howie walked everywhere on his hind paws. Cruelly, Howie was not entrusted with a dick.

Howie would make the rounds poking his floppy whiskers in and out of each department. A "Howie sighting" was always cause for great fanfare. The workers would scream and holler and jump up and down on their workbenches whenever Howie drifted by. Howie Makem may have begun as just another Company ploy to prod the tired legions, but most of us ran with the joke and soon Howie evolved into a crazy phenomenon.

Joel Rash Brings Music to Downtown Flint

There's a great story on Joel Rash and Flint Local 432, the music venue that's breathing some life into downtown, in The Atlantic Cities.

Michael Seman reports:

"It was a ghost town down here when we started out," Rash recalls. He opened his first Flint music venue back in 1987, in the basement of the historic but waning 2,000-seat Capitol Theater. Chris Everson, general manager of the Flint Downtown Development Authority, recalls the time after a show when the singer of his former band rode naked on a moped for half an hour through the streets of downtown. "No police, nothing," Everson muses. "Nobody was here."

Rash's efforts show that Flint's revival will be spurred by a series of smaller, grass-roots efforts that build into real change for the city:

"Coinciding with Flint Local 432’s success, in the 2000s the city and nonprofits alike coalesced around a renewed interest in the potential of Flint’s downtown, resulting in streetscape improvements, building renovations, art walk events, and successful summer festivals. "It was organic, not top-down," Rash says. "It was laying the groundwork for a more sustainable, active, diverse, functional downtown."

Flint Photos: Dan Kildee Sworn Into Congress

I Am Flint

Flint Artifacts: Grand Funk 1974 Concert T-Shirt

Thanks to Shawn Chittle for this great Flint Artifact.

Flint Profiles: Sarah Carson

I was happy to discover the poetry of Flint Expatriate Sarah Carson over the holidays. She has two chapbooks — Before OnStar and Twenty-Two — both available on Amazon.  

One of my favorites is In Buick City:

GG inherited the Buick when Mrs. Sacco died, though she hasn't driven it in years. The last time was the morning that little boy followed her home from the grocery store, acted like he had a gun in the lining of his jacket, and told her to hand over her pocketbook. Since then she's kept the car in the garage between the tool bench and the riding mower, climbing in every so often to turn on the radio or admire the chrome around the speedometer. There's a sticker inside the driver's side door says it was made downtown on Leith Street before OnStar, before the hundred thousand mile power train warranty. When Uncle Robert has nothing else to drive, he’ll come pick it up and use it to run his errands. He says he’s surprised how smooth the ride still is.  He thinks it’s cause the car gets so little use, doesn’t drive downtown on the cobblestones or around the potholes on the freeway. I think it’s just cause some things aren’t ever really as bad as they seem.

Although it's not always explicit, her experiences in Flint heavily influence her work."I was born in Flint, but raised in Flushing," she said. "Both my father and grandfather worked at General Motors, and seeing my father's experience with the factory had a huge impact on me. Many of my most vivid childhood memories revolve around the factory — whether it was waiting in traffic on 475 to pick up dad from work or visiting the factory on Take Your Daughter to Work Day or watching my dad deal with the loss of his friends who died or were seriously injured in accidents on the factory floor. After college, I moved back to Flint and lived on the South Side in the Cody School Neighborhood. I left in 2007 and moved to Chicago where I still live. My mother and I, though, are now fixing up a house in Carriage Town — Mayor Ray Brownell's old house across the street from Atwood Stadium!"