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I picked up this picture on Thanksgiving Eve at the Carriagetown Antique Center near downtown Flint, Mich.
I don't have any family in Flint, although I have come to appreciate the gritty city as an Orphan of Americana.

I have looked at this picture every night. I paid $10 and it already is worth $100 of deep thought.
Who are these guys?
I can tell they are from the Flint Athletic Club 1939-40. The small print on the Flint-Stone explains they were in the Buick "78" League. They're clearly not 78 years old although I presume they all worked at the Buick factory in Flint.

I've had fun imagining their personalities. The guy in the middle was the funmeister/prankster. The bowler on his left was the serious member of the team. I bet he was always first to show up at bowling night. The guy sitting on the far right was the chick magnet, and the gentleman with glasses always kept score. The bowler on the top left was the scary iconoclast. I know that because he is wearing a tie that is different than his mates.

These guys are so striking because their jobs could be mundane. I don't think they were executives. Those guys are on the golf course. The bowling league was a conduit for self expression these men couldn't attain in the workplace.

The automobile industry in Flint was co-founded at the turn of the 20th Century by J. Dallas Dort of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company near the Carriagetown Antique Center (get it?). Dort believed a city's development was tied into the health and welfare of its workers. In 1915 Charles Mott, a GM Vice President, picked up the ball by creating an industrial committeee with Walter Chrysler as its chairman.
The commitee called itself the Industrial Fellowship League (IFL). Recreational and educational activities were offered to Flint workers through the IFL.
Bowling abounded.

I've told my journalistic colleagues that one way to bring back newspapers is to run bowling scores in the sports section. Bowling is all about foresight and neighborhood.

I'm serious. These guys were.

Labels: bowling, Flint Michigan

Making Ukranian Village brighter.


Now that the sun has emerged in Chicago my Obama Chia Pet is finally sprouting some hair.
I first saw the Obama Chia several months ago at a downtown CVS. I figured I'd get it at some later date but then there was a big hullabaloo about the meaningless planters being politically incorrect. They were pulled off the shelves along with a George Washington Chia Pet, an innocent bystander.

I was hellbent on getting an Obama Chia Pet.
I perused the Internet but it was more fun to try and find one in person. The clerks at north side drug stores were pretty testy. One woman even suggested it was "illegal" to sell the Obama Chia Pet. This is when I began thinking it would be easier to buy a handgun in Chicago than an Obama Chia Pet. I didn't get this static when I bought my Hillary Clinton Nutcracker.

South side people were more accomodating.
The Hyde Park Walgreens where the President used to buy NicoDerm went out of their way to help me. A store manager even told me that Obama's daughters loved the Chia Pet that depicts their father. The President reportedly didn't mind either. He was the first Chia based on a living person. Now that the Beatles are licensing everything, I propose Beatles Chias. Strawberry Chias forever!

After checking extra stock in the basement a Walgreen's clerk apologized for not having any more Obamas. Or George Washingtons. I wanted one of those, too. Then a nice woman in line--she was African-American--told me about a CVS down the street that had a few Obama Chia Pets.
This was the fifth CVS store I visited in Chicago.

A friendly clerk there sold me two Obama Chia Pets, I presume before they were cloistered in Chia Pet Jail. I kept one and gave the other to my girl friend. She is a Chicago Public School teacher. The Obama Chia Pet is now a garden project for her elementary school class. They love it.

Things are bleak in Chicago these days. We're losing conventions, we flamed out on our Olympic bid and now Chicago Olympic booster Oprah is leaving town.
We need to lighten up.

Labels: Chia Pets