I thought I would share my memory of a train trip to Detroit, and some impressions of a great American city.
My father drove me to the station, and carried my bags to the train where he knew the conductor from back in their "hay days". This was the last train with a dining car to Detroit; we ate good food and drank good whiskey all the way there.
It was late April, little yellow flowers sprinkled wide expanses of green grass in the parks of St. Louis, while the ground began to turn white the closer we got to Detroit, and snow white upon our arrival to "Motown"
The year was 65, and my fiancee picked me up in a new Electra 225, (Duece and a Quarter). She was accompanied by a couple who were friends of hers. The four of us went to the 20 Grand, which was the fanciest club I had ever been to. It had valet parking plus coat and hat check girls. A young 22 year old Aretha Franklin was the feature attraction, if you think she sang as she aged, you should have heard her live then; unforgettable.
My fiancee lived in Pontiac Michigan, where Pontiac Motors was. We visited some of her friends there who lived in lovely homes with "play rooms" complete with well stocked bar.
Detroit and surrounding area was a place where working people were the most affluent in the country. (Automobile manufacturers paid the highest wages) They were the best dressed, drove more new cars than anywhere else, including LA; although you would have thought they had a two for one sale on Mercedes in LA.
One of the top "Motown" acts was appearing in Flint, so we decided to pack a stack of 45’s for entertainment and drive to Flint. (There was a 45 RPM record player in the huge glove compartment, it let out a pleasant echo sounding "ping" when you hit a bump, but on a stretch of flat highway, sounded as good as any high end TT)
I enjoyed the music so much on the trip to Flint and back, that I honestly don’t remember what Motown act we saw; good company, riding in a "glide mobile", with boss music, played on a high end 45 TT, made traveling to wherever you were going such a pleasant experience, that as soon as we got out of the car, I wanted to get back in; that lets you know how good auto audio could be in 65.
That’s when America was great.