{"id":708,"date":"2011-10-14T17:39:31","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T21:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thequicksliver.wordpress.com\/?p=708"},"modified":"2011-10-14T17:39:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-14T21:39:31","slug":"10-14-11-lion-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/10-14-11-lion-in-october\/","title":{"rendered":"10.14.11 Lion in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/a>Talk about rising out of the rubble!\u00a0 I should know, I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it, I AM it.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>I remember when this town really meant something.\u00a0 Mr. Henry Ford was busy making his cars, and lots of folks were getting pretty rich.\u00a0 They all needed a nice place to shop, so Mr. Hudson built that huge store down on Woodward Avenue way back in 1911.\u00a0 It grew and grew until it was 2 million square feet.\u00a0 Store space, restaurants, offices, the whole thing.\u00a0 They had a Thanksgiving parade two years before Macy’s did. They flew the world’s largest American flag out front, that’s now in the Smithsonian.\u00a0 And on all four sides, porcelain-covered copper letters flashed “HUDSONS” in red neon.\u00a0 Beautiful.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>But they needed even more room.\u00a0 So they built a bunch of us warehouses over here on Brush Street, to hold all the goods.\u00a0 We stood here for a half-century, watching a proud city thrive.\u00a0 I remember Gordie Howe bringing us the Stanley Cup in 1952 (we got more of those than any other American team); the Lions winning 3 NFL Championships in the 50’s; and the Tigers winning the 1968 Series.\u00a0 People around the world drove our cars, and blared Diana Ross out of the speakers.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>Unfortunately, it didn’t last.\u00a0 Times got hard and people started moving out. \u00a0At night the streets grew dangerous. \u00a0People started getting angry about war, and about skin color.\u00a0 A scuffle broke out over on 12th Street that turned into the worst American riot in 100 years.\u00a0 7000 people arrested, almost 100 killed and 2000 injured.\u00a0 My buddies and I watched as 1700 of our fellow buildings were looted and 1400 were burned to the ground.\u00a0 After that, things just kept getting worse, and people kept leaving.\u00a0 They demolished Mr. Hudson’s beautiful store in 1998.\u00a0 Most of the warehouses followed soon after, until only two of us were left.\u00a0 In 2000, we heard wrecking crews coming up Brush Street to take us down…<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>But then something strange happened.\u00a0 Mr. William Clay Ford (Henry’s great-great-grandson) saved me.\u00a0 His crew opened me up, cleaned me out, and gave me new windows.\u00a0 And then they did something even more amazing: they put me right into a new football stadium.\u00a0 They laid a new field just north of me, and built the new place for the Lions to play. \u00a0They turned me into offices and restaurants, and on the side facing the field, they put in private rooms for wealthy folks to eat, drink, and watch the game.\u00a0 Today, as you enter Ford Field, you can see me.\u00a0 I’m the whole south side of the stadium, four glorious levels of club seating. \u00a0Imagine that, me – a lowly Hudson’s merchandise warehouse – hosting Detroit’s high-and-mighty every Sunday!<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a>And, would you believe it?\u00a0 Our Lions are undefeated.\u00a0 I do believe I’m the luckiest warehouse in America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Talk about rising out of the rubble!\u00a0 I should know, I’ve seen it, I’ve lived it, I AM it. I remember when this town really meant something.\u00a0 Mr. Henry Ford was busy making his cars, and lots of folks were getting pretty rich.\u00a0 They all needed a nice place to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[343,448,562,597,1314,1340],"class_list":["post-708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-6","tag-detroit-lions","tag-ford-field","tag-henry-ford","tag-hudsons","tag-warehouse","tag-william-clay-ford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}