My dad was acquaintances with a big teddy bear of a guy named Bud. He came across a little gruff, but from what I recall, he was as nice as could be. Bud was a smart businessman who invested in real estate throughout the city of Flint. He sold us a home through land contract or as some put it, owner financing. We would now be living on Ivanhoe Avenue on the far east side of the city.
We went to look at the house and it was what a newspaper ad would call “a handyman’s dream.” At times, it was my dad’s nightmare. I’m sure my parents saw the house for what it could be someday and not for what it was at the time. It was sided with cedar shake that was painted black and trimmed out in yellow. Many of the windows were propped open with empty wine bottles.
Inside, the house looked as though the interior decorator was high on LSD. Every popular color of the sixties and seventies was used. The item that sticks out the most was the red, orange and black shag carpet that ran throughout the whole house. When I was older, one chore given to me was vacuuming that carpet. My mom wanted that shag to stand up and so we vacuumed in a way that made it stand up. I vaguely remember a phase where she raked it with a wooden leaf rake bought for just that purpose.
It was quite a sight, but it was ours for the monthly payment to Bud of only $180.00. My dad went right to work on the place. Before we moved in, I remember going to the house with him to do some yard clean up. He must have been growing on me, because it was he and I alone that went. Our yard was the highlight of the location as far as I was concerned. Flint, Michigan is the birthplace of General Motors. During the early part of the twentieth century, workers from all around flooded to our city to work in the auto factories. Developers came in and started building houses for this huge influx of families. The tract housing is still quite prevalent today. Houses with identical footprints and identical floor plans were lined up one after the other. Much of the city is even gridlike with north/south and east/west street layouts. But our house was different. It sat on two and a half city lots and at one point was two apartments. The front yard was lined with four mature boxelder trees. The back yard was closed in by three different neighbor’s garages and fences. The west side had a thick six foot high row of hedges that my dad would eventually shape and trim on a regular basis. Two fully grown apple trees were also on this side. I would loathe them until they were cut down. It was my job to rake and dispose of the fallen apples every time I had to cut the yard. The east side was a nice rectangular lawn that we called the side yard. A lot of football and baseball was played in the side yard. The driveway was two car widths, but with only a one car stand alone garage at the end of it. Our yard was the envy of the neighborhood.
Our first trip to work at the house had my dad and I cutting down some brush at the back of the side yard. I was only six at the time, so I’m not sure how much I helped. I can see him working to clear the brush and bushes out. I can see myself getting in the way. I must have benefitted him somehow because after we were done, we stopped by the drive thru Sunshine party store for a pop and I was rarely given pop. For those who may not know, these stores were small stores that had a ridiculously high peaked roof with yellow plastic shingling. There was a set of sliding glass doors on each side of the building. One would simply drive right up to this sliding glass door and roll down your window. The clerk would holler at you and ask what you wanted. You would tell them and they would yell out the price. You would then tell them what denomination of bill you were paying with and they would ring it up to get you your change. They would bring the items and change to you in your car and take your bill, transaction complete. Let me give you an example:
(Car pulls up to store)
Clerk: “What can I get you?”
Customer? “Yeah, I’ll take a Budweiser Jumbo, a pack of Marlboro Reds, an eight pack of Tab and a $100,000 bar.”
Clerk: “That’ll be $6.25.”
Customer: “Out of ten.”
(Clerk walks out to car with all of the merchandise in a Hamady sack)
Clerk: “Here you go. $3.75 is your change.”
Customer: “Thanks.” and drives away.
For the record, a jumbo is a 40 ounce bottle of beer. Soda is called pop and used to be sold in cartons of eight, sixteen ounce glass bottles. Tab was pop for grandmothers. 100 Grand bars used to be called $100,000 bars. And a Hamady sack was a thick brown paper sack that you would get twenty of whenever you went grocery shopping at Hamady Bros. grocery store. Everyone I knew used one to carry whatever they needed wherever they needed to go. My dad used to pop popcorn from his air popper into them. I used to even carry my brother around in one when he was little enough.
So anyways, on this hot day of cutting down brush, my dad swung through the Sunshine store to get us both a cold drink. I chose a Tahitian Treat which was a carbonated fruit punch. I still have one now and again.
This was the first of many trips to the house and to that little Sunshine store.
Joel Stiff's Adventure 
