"On the Town" 1966 Entertainment Magazine

Ypsilanti Greek Theater

From the August-September issue of "On the Town," a little glossy 8-page mini-magazine that is "Your Guide to Entertainment in the Ann Arbor Area." Note the big stars in these 2 productions: Dame Judith Anderson, Bert Lahr, and Ruby Dee. Ms. Dee just passed on this past summer. Ticket prices range from $1.50 to $5.75. Just call the office at HU 3-8913.

Making Pesto the Olde-Timey Way

It is Dusty Diary's goal to induce blender envy in you, the reader. It's actually not just some plebian "blender." It's an OSTERIZER!

Add to that that this gleaming jewel is older than I am. It has four patent numbers on the bottom relating to various parts of the machine. The newest patent is from 1961. So, assuming they were hustling to make and sell it, I'm guessing this model is from 1961-2.

Ah yes, the model. Osterizer didn't just call this the "Blendo," or the "Mixwell," or the "Smoosh-A-Moosh," nosir. This paragon was justly dubbed with the moniker

The GALAXIE TEN... TEN... Ten... ten...
(echoey voice)
This baby is Solid State! Yeah! I like that. No foofy electronics, and it weighs a lot! The carafe is thick rugged glass. AND--best part--it has a nifty Atomic Symbol on the front! It's an ATOMIC BLENDER!

Dusty D had great fun making pesto at the 10 (!) different speeds, including Frappe! Whip! Mix! Blend! Puree! LIQUEFY! (yes, that is one of the settings).

The pesto was pretty much just incidental. It was numsies though.

Rare Polaroid Snapshot of "The Cow"

When "The Cow" opened, it didn't have a cow.

This rare picture was kindly lent to me with permission from the son of one of the original Carry Dairy owners.

Find out why the cow is on a trailer and how and when it ended up on the roof in my story in iSPY magazine, which comes out May 31.

Carry Dairy Opening Day Ad

In the summer of 1962, the beloved local store known as The Cow" opened.

When it opened, it didn't have a cow.

Dusty D talked with the current owner and the son of the former owner and folks who were kids when the cow came to The Cow. I wrote it up in a story for iSPY magazine, the new local arts & entertainment mag whose first issue hits stands May 31.

Be sure to pick up a copy to find out the real story behind one of Ypsi's most famous landmarks.

Images from a 1960s Ypsi Childhood

Images from the 1965 and 1967 Ypsilanti Press and family photos from Dave P., who shared his recollections about his childhood in 1960s Ypsi.

Huron Hotel: Huron Motor Inn Menu from the "Indian Room"

In 1962, Ypsilanti lawyer Bill Anhut bought the Huron Hotel in 1962, and, so far as Dusty can tell, was the person who renamed it the Huron Motor Inn. The restaurant in the hotel, in the old-time coffee shop space, was called the Indian Room. Here is its menu.

Things I find interesting: one of the sandwiches consists of "imported sardines," served open faced on toast with spanish onion, tomato, and olives. Dusty D would love this sandwich, but was surprised to see it on a menu, since I don't think it would be popular today...but why not? A mystery.

Note also that lemonade is offered only "in season." We can infer that the Country Time et al drink mixes that line shelves in the store simply did not exist in the early 60s. And it hearkens back to the time when we ate everything in season (or preserved or from storage) since that's the only thing that was available.

To give you some idea of the prices, 25 cents in 1962 is $1.76 today. 50 cents = $3.52, $1 = $7.04, $2 = $14.09, $3 = $21.13.

Huron Hotel: Humor with your Food

This is neato mosquito, a menu cover from the Hotel Huron in 1961 (click any image for larger version).

In that year, the hotel was facing financial difficulties.

The hotel started offering dinners for lunch prices and allowing weekly room rentals.

Though those efforts were ultimately not successful, one of the artifacts it generated was this menu cover cartoon featuring a caricature of downtown Ypsilanti.

Here you can see the downtown hotel at Washington and Pearl. You can see the buildings on the north side of Pearl between Washington and Huron. There's the Grand Army of the Republic Hall, which of course is still standing. One Yank and one Reb are having a shootout in front. Next door, at the Huron corner, is the onetime Ypsilanti Press building.

You can also see the north side of Michigan Avenue. There are a number of women swarming one store offering a sale where the modern-day Mix is housed. Note that by the 60s, the original 3rd floor of Hewitt Hall was already removed (some decades before).

In the cartoon's upper left corner, you can see the water tower and the onetime location of the business school.

There's a hunter up there too shooting a pheasant, and there's the old YHS (now Cross Street Village.

In the lower left corner, you can see a box extolling the features of the hotel. Dusty D likes "TV and Radios" especially. And a fire-resistant building is always a plus. I wonder if they meant they'd installed asbestos.

Note the little cartoon of a va-va-voom type girl inciting a car crash and another guy's wolf whistle. You can also see a bunch of kids playing stickball (?) and a woman sensibly hanging out her laundry.


Last, here's a shot of Depot Town. You can see the Streicher murder house at Cross and Huron with the old poultry barn behind it, which did exist there for many years.

A couple of guys are playing football on Frog Island--for years the YHS used Frog Island as their athletic field. Two silos seem to refer to the old Farm Bureau corn silo at Forest and the RR tracks (?). There's a simplified referenced to the old Peninsular Paper factory. Dusty D has no idea what the "Archery" building next to Michigan ladder might be. Last, you can see the present-day automotive museum ("Used Cars").

I leave y'all with a question: is that really a coal-powered steam train that's going through Depot Town? Were any of those still around in 1961? I thought things had largely switched over to diesel engines by around that time. Anything else that you notice or would like to comment on?

From the Obituary Files

Today in the Archives, Dusty D was working on obituaries. We have a large box filled with 5 by 8-inch manila envelopes. These envelopes come from the old Ann Arbor News clippings archives, which was kindly donated to us. Each envelope contains clipped and dated obituaries. In some envelopes it's just one tiny notice; others have whole pads of clippings. For each person, I wrote their name and death date in the top left side of an index card. If the obituary is small, it is glue-sticked directly onto the card. If it is large, it's shrunken down on the copier first and then added. When dry, the index cards are filed in our Obituary File Cabinet, which contains about 73,000 obituary cards.

Though the front Archives room was quiet, with the only sound the U-M/EMU football game on the radio and our intern clicking his mouse 20 feet away, I was reading accounts of car crashes, suicides, a heroin overdose, and other dark and violent stories.

This one from 1969, however, just struck me as sad. In the first clip an 11-year-old Shalto Jacobs is profiled in a "Young People Going Places" feature. "He would like to become a lawyer when he grows up and defend people. Basketball, his favorite sport in the winter months, fills a temporary gap for the youngster who enjoys building models as a hobby." Shalto's smile is innocent and confident.

The second story details his drowning "in the lake at Woodland Hills Dr. and Scenic Lake Dr."

"When [the boys swimming] got within 15 feet of the shore, Jacobs stopped, yelled, and sank beneath the surface. He did not reappear."

The third article details his funeral the next day. "Jacobs would have been a June 12 graduate of the Ypsilanti High School."

When working on obituaries, once in a while you have to take a break.

1965 Ypsilanti High School Lunch Menu

Mm. Today is Tuesday--pizza pie day! Plus a salad and delectable jello. Yummy. But the highlight of DD's week, were she a YHS student [and if school weren't already out], would be Thursday. Not only do you get four things, as opposed to three things all the other days, but there is delicious "oven-fried" chicken [how does one "fry" chicken in an oven? --ed.].

Students in 1965 didn't have a deli bar, a salad bar, a "trattoria," an alternative "Balanced Choices" menu, or any other modern food service options. If they didn't like Beef Goulash on Mondays, they were out of luck. On the other hand, the 1965 menu saved money by offering only one choice. Which is better, choice or savings? What about your school? Was there one meal you anticipated/dreaded?

DD used to love Rectangle Pizza Day, the only day I bought lunch instead of un-cool-ly schlepping it from home.