The purpose of this page intends to help us "Old-School" Southfield Community Brothers and Sisters from 'back-in-the-day', to reminisce a little, of how Life once was, in our wonderful Neighborhoods of Southfield, Stanbaugh, Keysquare, and the Koebel Rd. areas! Each one of us, growing up in the 60's and 70's, have sooooo many Memories of Fun times, Crazy times, and even Sad times to share, and talk about... ...Here are some of the Memories I remembered, and sharing, and knowing that MANY of you can also remember, especially all the NICKNAMES we had for each other, along with places we visisted and things we used to do in the ole Summertime....SO, without further adu, enjoy going back down Memory Lane, the good ole times of Southfield, in the Early Years....!!

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Remember when.............. When we used ta go downtown on the Bus, for 15-Cents, on a Saturday afternoon to the "Southern Hotel Move Theater" and pay 25-Cents for Admission.... and PoPcorn was 15-Cents...! Watching all kinds of those 60's classics as, "King Kong vs. Godzilla", "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "The Creature From The Black Lagoon", "Hells Angels", "The Incredible Shrinking Man", etc. Or, don't forget going bowling at "Broad Olympics", "Piketon", "Rainbow", "Aero", or "Amos" lanes....!

When We recognized just about everybody by "Nicknames" such as: "Roach", "Rib-man", "Cheese", "Shade", "Boogie", "Box", "Tweety", "Moose", "Monkey", "Dobbs", "Fuse", "Longhead", "Fishbait", "Bud-Dud", "Googie", "Nookie", "Bam", "Eyes", "Tank", "Hip", "Peanut", "Squid", "Jigg", "Squirrel", "Buttercup", "Seadog", "Ben Grimm", "Boo", "Turtle", "Grasshopper", "Bubbles", "Potatoe", "Sporty", "Count-Kook", "Tippy", "Santa Claus", "Old-Man", "LuLu", "Rocky", "Droop", etc...etc...etc....!

When the Watkins "Center".... was...... just..., well, the CENTER... of all the "Activities" (get it ha ha ha!) that all of us 'young adults' wanted to be involved with at the time....! C'mon y'all, just about each one of us has a 'million' stories to tell about the "Center" back-in-the-day LoL LoL Lol!! Of Course, they gotta be 'clean' ha ha ha ha ha!....REMEMBER WHEN: all the doo-wop groups that used to practice their vocals and steps at the "Center" ...man they were smmooothe....:-) You couldn't tell those guys they weren't the next Delfonics!!! LOL LOL LOL....How 'bout all them "Nightly Parking Lot in-the-Summer" escapades ha ha ha ha!! Oh yea, gotta keep this clean....! The good o'l Ripple, Thunderbird, Boones Farm, Wild Irish-Rose, MD 20/20, Colt-45, Mickeys WideMouth, Shlitz Malt Liquor - the BULL Nights!!, and many, many, MANY, MANY More of those other High-Octane Beverages we used to down ha ha ha ha ha!! Man, I'm gettin' sick just thinkin' about some of those nights ha ha ha ha ha ha....!!!!

When We used ta shoot basketball at the "Center" with Mr. Emaunel and Tom Fullove(that cool light-skinned brother with the nice 'fro..!) And when local brothers with b-ball skill from other High-Schools, like [Nick Connors, Ed Ratleff - East, Brian Williams - South, Fred Saunders - Mohawk, etc..] would come over to the "Center" and the games would be ON!! Don't forget those beverages of choice after the games: "Mad Dog 20/20", Thunderbird, Boones Farm, Wild-Irish Rose, or 'Ripple', and for some, during the games LoL LoL Lol!

Or, Walking over Suicide Hill to and from school. Or, when Suicide Hill was just 'murder' on us Fools when attempting to be "Evel Knieval" on our Stingray Bycicles...!! Or, as one viewer mentioned: [When we were up there at Suicide Hill playin' Hide-gettem during those good old days! When we use ta go to Busy Bee ta get some a dat Cookie Dough to kill the munchies wit da fellas!!] And don't forget Wild Hills near where Weirton and Southfield Drives met..!!!!

WHEN Crawldad Creek was a 'cool' place for us (Marlin Perkins) wannabes to go nature huntin' among other things.....!!!!

When The Clairfield / Watkins Basketball Courts were our NBA Coliseums.......!!!!

When we boys joined the Cub Scouts and had to go to one of those 'Stale' Denmother's meeting to Study Scout manual Teachings and all we wanted to do while being there was eat up all the snacks in whosever cribb was hosting it that week ha ha ha ha!! Also, when we graduated up to Boy Scouts and WORKED DAILY (By cleaning the Picnic Areas) for our lodging and meals cause we couldn't afford to pay while at Camp Lazarus!! But, it was still cool, we had a lot of fun....!!!!

When We used to play Baseball 'Cricket' by using the Backyards of about 3 Neighbor's Houses.....! Or, when we used to play football against each other's neighborhood's teams! Or, League games, like when you had the The Alum Creek Panthers with the likes of Randy Moon, Brett Rayford, Carl Broomfeild, Mark Sinkler, Wilbur Whiting, and Paul Jackson patrolling the sidelines with their vicious hits as they defeated the The Southside Mustangs in the Greatest little league game ever played in the 'Field (which by the way, the Panthers won 8-6 in a Low-Scoring slugfest)....!!!!

When We played little league Baseball at both Clairfield and Watkins.....!! ....The Southfield Saints were a great Team.........!!!!

When There were Dances called the: 'Jerk', 'Swim', 'Duck', 'Funky Chicken', 'Boogaloo', 'Shing-a-ling', 'Fly', 'Pearl', 'Mashed Potatos', etc..... And speaking of Dances, don't forget about the Dances, at the Marion-Franklin Center.........!!!!

When We had the "Soul Superbs" playing their soulful sounds and winning all Talent Shows and competing against (Grayship Davis)........!!!!

When We used to go to the Watkins "Center" and Play Basketball, hang around outside at night and drink wine, among other things........!!!!

When The Marion-Franklin Recreation Center was first built..........!!!!

When There were "Rams" style bycicle handle bars, Banana Seats, "Butter Fly" handle bars, Schwinn and Huffy made bycicles........!!!!

When There were so many 'House Parties' on the weekend to go to and so many Campus Parties to check out........!!!!

When There was the '2001', 'B and A', 'PepperMint Tiger', 'Panache' 'Dixie-Electric', 'My Brother"s Place', and 'Kelly"s' among many other clubs to go to.......!!!!

When We used to have some "Serious" Dice, Craps, Pitching coins against Beery's walls, and 'other' types of Gambling games during ALL times of day at School...........!!!!

When You had that first "Kiss".....that first "Sip of wine"......You got Drunk for the first time.......And, that FIRST TIME.....Hey, any of those FIRST TIMES "anywhere", you'll NEVER forget em............!!!!

When We had those fabulous fast-food spots like, "Sandy's", "Griffs" "Burger Boy Foodarama (BBF)", etc....!!!!

When "Chiller Theatre" was on Friday Night, "Flippo the Clown", the "Lucy Show" were on TV....!!!!

When We used to read Marvel, DC, and an assortment of other comic books.......And, they only cost 12Cents each....!!!!

When We used to camp out in the backyard on the weekends....!!!!

When we used to stop by ol' Gus and Rosie's House just across the Street from Clairfield....! I'm sure some of y'all old 'fielders remember the little old gray-haired lady and her old gray-haired husband who used to sell us kids some of their Popcorn, Taffy, and other assortments of "Fine" Candies...... Yea Right........! How 'bout the times we were at Beery Jr. High and we used to 'pitch' Pennies, Dimes, Nickels, and Quarters and use the winnings to buy some lunch, especially those Friday Fish-Sandwiches and Ummmm-good P-Nut Butter cookies....!!!!

When we used to play some 'serious' NBA basketball games in the Powell's backyard and also hangin' out on Friday Nights there to play SPADES all night long and drink up all the Kool-Aid in the house and eat up all the cake and snacks....!!!!

When We use ta hang out at the USA skating ring.....And who can forget "Roller Land!!"... ....Also, riding those 'butterfly' handle-bar bikes to the pool and staying all day with just a dime in your pocket and hoping someone would hook you up with some fries during rest period!!!..How 'bout walking the opposite direction from where you lived just to check out a good fight!....How about when the Marion-Franklin Rec center started having sock hops and even let us fools skate in the rec room on those tile floors!!...Many ah brotha/sista smashing into the brick walls because the room was too small for skating Lol Lol....!!!!

When We use ta stand around and 'clown' at ANY time of the day at ANY location during school time at Clairfield, Beery, and Marion-Franklin and 'crack' on each other's Mommas ha ha ha ha!! The Good ol' DOZENS yeaaaahh booooooooyyyyyeeee....!!!!

How 'bout when you used ta hang out around the horse shoe pit at Watkins Elementary and wait for the older guys (You know who you Are ha ha ha!!) to finish drinking your 16 ounce bottles of pop because you would through them out and watch the knucklehead young bucks scurrying to fight for that 5 cent bottle ha ha ha ha!!! And then, go to Jack's and spend it on some bag of candy....!!!!

This ol' Rememberance was sent in from one of our Lady Viewers...! [For all the ladies of the "Field"--Remember when your first boyfriend bought you a ring and it was the ring you saw in the rotating case at Press Pharmacy! LOL,, When all the girls wore three pairs of socks to make "the ol' legs look bigger!" When all the girls used to greet each other with the "Hey hey hey"!! When the girls could stay out way past dark and play Hide and go get 'em! And "pretend" to get caught ....!!!!

Another Viewer Adds...! When the Funk-Band "concerts" were Jammin' away in the parking Lot of the Press Pharmacy/IGA (or Busy Bee....can't rememeber all those changed names LoL LoL!) with groups such as Southfield's own 'Soul Superbs' or a host of other local musicians......It was sort of our own "Rock Creek Park"!!!! WHEN the Marion-Franklin Swimming Pool just Opened up!!! And how bout those Friday "swimming after dark Pool Parties" at the Marion-Franklin Swimming Pool! Now.., those were ........... "for lover's only" events in Southfield....!!!!

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Any Memories y'all would like to add, lemme know and I'll add 'em! Just email them to me at: bizzeedoingj@yahoo.com

Welcome again, and have a cool time going down 'MEMORY LANE' in checking out the 'old' Southfield days.....!

Mark Powell