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"Tashmoo at the dock, Star Island House, St. Clair Flats," c. 1900-1901. The Detroit River excursion steamer SS Tashmoo, a sidewheeler, stopped at Tashmoo Park on the St. Clair Flats on trips between Detroit and Port Huron. A high point in the boat's eventful 36-year life was the night in 1927 that she broke free of her moorings in a winter storm and headed downriver on her own. Her end came in 1936, when she hit a submerged rock and sank. View full size.
The ladies seem to outnumber then men and on the lower deck in a white hat is Ron Howard and just to the right of him with a glorious handlebar is Ted Levine who plays Captain Stottlemeyer in Monk. I think I also spotted either President Taft or Jackie Gleason seated on the top deck with his arms on the rail.
What a wonderful frozen slice of life this pic be!
It's kinda funny. I grew up in Michigan and look at this photo and would love to be able to ride it in this era. However, look at the woman on the second level in the white hat looking at the camera. She's leaning on her arm with a completely bored look on her face which looks like "Oh, boy, I have to do THIS again." It's interesting how many of the things we romanticize wree just commonplace for a given time.
Living in Detroit our family took boat trips. The how is the mystery as my father died in 1929 when I was 8 and left my mother with ten children age 20 down to a 1 year old. Of the ten, three of us are still living.
Great Depression? I remember saying "all I can have please" when giving my plate to my mother.
We took the Tashmoo to Tashmoo Park one year and the Put In Bay to Put In Bay Island another year. At the shooting range at Put In Bay I shot into the stuffed alligator on the floor and was told it was not a target.
In time I moved out of Detroit to Grosse Ile, Michigan, then in 1980 I retired and moved with my youngest daughter, who is now visiting me here in Indiana, to Seattle.
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