Spay/Neuter, It's Cuter

In honor of Spay Day USA today, I am going to write one of my rambling, takes-a-while-to-get-to-the point posts. This one is best read with a cat, like Links, above, sitting on your lap.

I have been shirking my regular blog writing for the past week or so in favor of a side project, a little blogsite for some friends of mine, Tigerlily Cat Rescue. They're an all volunteer group, like so many pet rescues, and amazing people. While I'm out and about with my dogs on Saturdays, they're at Petsmart hosting adoption events. While I'm at home after work snuggled up with my MacBook, they're answering phone calls and emails from people who are often desperate and sometimes getting rid of their cats with the flimsiest of excuses. They drive their foster pets to the vet. They spend their free time taking pictures of the homeless cats for Petfinder. They visit caring shelters and soul-sucking animal control buildings alike, making heartbreaking decisions about which cats to save, because right now there are far too many without homes to save them all.

They dream of being out of business, of having to finding another hobby. The solution sounds so easy.. if more people spayed/neutered their pets, the generous, caring folks at Tigerlily would, well, probably not play golf, or take up knitting. I guess they'd have to move on to world peace, or something like that.

So in the interest of putting them out of business (I know it's unfortunately not likely to happen soon), I'd like to point out an upcoming event they are funding, from their new site:

Bacon says "No more kitties until me and all my friends have a home, please!"

   Do you have friends, relatives, or neighbors who are having a tough time financially? Who have cats that haven't been spayed or neutered? Please let them know about our upcoming clinic Sunday, March 20th, 9-12am, at the Oakland Pet Adoption Center! Maybe you could even offer their kitty a ride to the clinic!
   We are partnering with the Oakland Pet Adoption Center by sponsoring a low cost spay/neuter clinic for low income Oakland County and Sterling Heights residents. The $20 fee includes spay/neuter, distemper shot, and worming. Space is limited, and you need to call first to see if you qualify. Call the OPAC at 248-391-4100 weekdays between 10am-5pm to schedule an appointment.
   Several of our volunteers will be helping out that day... want to help out and hang out with fellow cat lovers? Shoot us an email at tigerlilyrescue@gmail.com.
   Click here for the facebook link for the event.

And if you are thinking of getting a cat or know anyone who is, or you have an extra $5 left over from funding the Robocop statue, I hope you'll keep them in mind.

If you don't qualify for this event, another great resource for low-cost vaccinations and spay neuter is:

All About Animals

Located in Warren, this rescue group runs a low-cost spay/neuter and vaccinations clinic year-round. 

Both photos courtesy of Ranee Rose Taylor, who is one of Tigerlily's many devoted volunteers.

Urbex For Tots

Come out to the island and play.

I have been working feverishly all weekend on the next installment of Gracie Krum's story, and just as I was nearing the end of editing, I accidently deleted the whole thing. And then in trying to retrieve it, I deleted the back-up draft. Phooey. So I give up for today and we will visit the great kids playground instead. Ok? Happy Valentine's Day

"Shiver"-ing

At "Shiver on the River" today, the Coast Guard gave a demonstration worthy of the Indy 500 with its ice boat, throwing blizzards of snow hundreds of feet in its wake. (more on the air boat at the end of this post)

There were several groups of skiers on the island.

The sudden snow squall might have kept a few people from heading to the island, but it was such a pretty whiteout....

...unless you are very short, like the fluffy one, and you are a bedraggled, snowy hot mess, tired of defying gravity, bounding blindly through ear-deep drifts, and you finally refuse to get out of the car, preferring to watch Smart, who is never tired, from the driver's seat.

I was quite enthralled with the Coast Guard demo and the air boat, so I dug up a little more info..... Here's a video of a sister boat in action:

Here's a link to some information about air boats and their use in ice rescue, and here's a link to the official Coast Guard Station Belle Isle page.

Silver And Gold

I like the city at its most deserted, so when everyone else was rushing out to beat the storm, the dogs and I headed to the Riverwalk.

You know those classic movies from the forties, where the leading ladies are filmed to look luminous and a little fuzzy? It was like that.

Just taking a little library break...we'll be back to the ladies of Brainard Street soon enough.

The Young Ladies Of Brainard Street-The Librarian's Sister

Last month, while writing about a turn-of-the century Detroit woman painter, I became intrigued by several other unknown women, a tightly woven circle of historians, friends, and librarians, connected by their common interests. For more than twenty-five years, one of these women, Gracie Brainerd Krum, had the title of "Chief" of Detroit's history.

When I wrote about the painter, I was lucky to find that she and all her relatives were prolific letter writers, from prominent families. Troves of letters had been saved, full of detail, with no thought of whether they would be reread by strangers.

Writing about these women who are librarians and historians seems different. In reviewing their papers, one senses they've already edited what's left behind in the dusty boxes. They have chosen what they want remembered, without thinking of themselves as an important part of the story. For them, I wade through sheaves of official correspondence, intricate genealogies, and painstaking copies they made of other people's lives, but their quirks, their sense of humor, their uniqueness... they hover in the shadows. This makes the personal papers Gracie B. Krum saved especially poignant.

One the greatest assets of the Detroit Public Library is its Burton Historical Collection. Gracie grew up in the shadow of the Burton Historical Collection. From 1897 till 1905, she lived at 25 Brainard Street, next door to Clarence M. Burton, businessman and famed collector of manuscripts and documents relating to early Detroit. He would go on to write a history of Detroit that is an indispensable starting point for any researcher. Long before the stately, monumental Detroit Public Library that we know today was built in the new cultural center, Burton had a fire-proof room built in his home on Brainard to protect his collection. His daughter, Mary Agnes, the less known historian in the family, worked night and day editing all of her father's works, and writing books and articles on her own. Mary Agnes was just about the same age as Gracie.

In the photo above, Gracie is 23 years old. Her family had just moved to Detroit from New York the previous year. Her father founded what would become the Detroit Rubber Company, wholesalers of new-fangled rubber footwear. He is standing at the foot of the porch, to our left. Her grandfather is on the right, and her mother is on the porch in front of the window.

The little girls are her sister Elsie, and and a girl named Juliet (next to the sled). It is February 22, 1898.

After this photo, Gracie taught in the Detroit Public Schools, became a librarian at the DPL, began to assist Mr. Burton and Mary Agnes with their collection, and then, from 1916 till 1941, was in charge of the Burton Historical Collection in its new home at the grand building on Woodward.

But Gracie's accomplished future awaits. Today, the Krum family has just recently enjoyed their first Christmas in Detroit. Elsie wrote a letter to Santa.

Read the book that she wanted,"Elsie At Home", here.

As I was opening the letter from Santa, a slip of paper slid out and landed to the side. After reading the letter, I turned over the slip of paper.

I do not know how she died. Gracie's papers say no more on the subject, but I still have Alburn and Ethalind's papers to read.

Next week, Gracie becomes a librarian, and the other Burton historian.

Photo and documents, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.

Other resources:

Parnassus on Main Street, a history of the Detroit Public Library, by Frank B. Woodford, Wayne State University Press, 1965

A Tale Of Two Car Parades

July 1909. Less than a year earlier, the first Model T rolled out of the Piquette Plant. Cars were becoming affordable for the average family, not just toys for the rich, and Detroit was hosting the Glidden Tour.

Men would drive 2,560 miles, taking the long way from Detroit to Kansas City, showcasing the safety and reliability of the increasingly popular automobile. Several women had participated in previous years. Mrs. Andrew Cuneo had been the first woman to complete the race in 1908. As a reward, the fairer sex were banned. No women would race this year.

But before the race started, on Monday, July 12th, Detroit hosted a big party for the tour. There were banquets, factory and showroom tours, a band concert in front of City Hall, and an afternoon on Belle Isle, with a parade of over a thousand cars, many of them decorated, followed by games and athletic competitions.

The parade began at Woodward and Grand Boulevard and proceeded down Woodward to Jefferson, then across the Belle Isle bridge and around the island.

The 1909 tour itself was actually a bit of a letdown for its planners. The number of entrants was disappointing to organizers. Thanks to the success of the nascent auto industry, many car makers were so busy making and selling cars that they no longer felt the need to promote themselves by participating.


Did you notice the title on the map, "PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION OF KEROSENE AS FUEL"? It seemed ironic, as I walked the dogs near Cobo Hall, where the Auto Show is taking place, in the year of the Volt. Sidewalks and streets can be quiet during the week near Cobo. On this night, I was drawn from Campus Martius to Cobo by voices, laughter, footsteps... going to see an electric car. It felt good.

There are hundreds more amazing 1909 Glidden Tour pictures at The Making Of Modern Michigan website, many of them showing familiar downtown landmarks and Belle Isle in the background.

Map image from the New York Public Library digital collections.
Panorama of cars in front of the Belle Isle Casino from the Library of Congress.
All other Belle Isle images from the Detroit Public Library, Lazarnick Collection, viewable on The Making of Modern Michigan site.

"Where The Honk Of The Motor Horn Is Heard"

The more things change.... look closely and you'll see that this car is plugged in to recharge. That's right, it's the Chevy Volt's great grandaddy, circa 1919. You'll rarely find me writing about cars, but I was curious about the beginnings of the Detroit Auto Show (now known as the North American International Auto Show), so I did a little digging, and ended up.... guess where? on Belle Isle.

It started with a bicycle guy, William Metzger. He and his partner Stanley Huber operated the biggest, most successful bicycle shop in Detroit in the early 1890's. Below, a later motorcycle and bicycle shop he owned...

In 1895, he went to an automobile show in London. He returned to Detroit convinced that automobiles were the future, sold his shares in the bicycle shop, and in 1897 opened Detroit's first independent car dealership. In 1899, Metzger included several steam and electric vehicles in a show with bicycles, firearms, and sporting goods. Below, Metzger's car, adorned with greenery, in a bicentenary parade, 1901... and see his home in Boston Edison here.

In 1907, the Detroit Auto Dealers Association formed, and the Detroit Auto show was officially born.

During the first decade of the twentieth century, the American Automobile Association was hard at work promoting cars in its own way. In 1904, the AAA started a "reliability" race for cars from the east coast to the St. Louis World's Fair. The following year, telephone exchange magnate Charles Glidden put up $2,000 prize money for the winner. In 1909, the DADA's influence brought the Glidden Reliability Tour to Detroit, and to Belle Isle for a parade.

 The official pathfinder car for the 1909 tour was a product of William Metzger's latest venture, the EMF.
Shown below, the 1912 EMF, from Wikimedia Commons.

By 1911, the Detroit Auto Show was held at the Wayne Hotel Gardens. From the Michigan Manufacturer, January 14th, 1911:

A year ago both floors of the Wayne Gardens were crowded to the last inch. This year the pinch for room will be worse than ever.

The 1911 exhibit will, however, be wonderful and interesting, even to the people who have to constantly dodge testing cars on the streets in this city, where the honk of the motor horn is heard above the pound of the anvil.

Each year the men who make and sell cars have to strive to make their particular car more attractive, more durable, more economical to maintain and more complete in detail to tempt the eye of a curious and educated-buying public.

The result is that the merits of a car rests on the finer points of construction. The car that was a rich man's plaything a few years ago is now doing dray duty for the shopman around the corner.

Careful study has brought the manufacturing end down to the fine point where a better and cheaper car can be turned out. The man of moderate means can now own and operate a car that will compare favorably with the more expensive car owned by his millionaire friend.

The use of the motor car for commercial purposes has long ago passed the experimental stage. It is only a question of time when the commercial vehicle will be adapted for every use in the country and in the city.

The universal popularity of the motor car in all countries and in all climes has opened up a great field and, despite all that has been said to the contrary, it will take years to reap the harvest.

....the more things remain the same.

I'll be following the 1909 Glidden Tour in Detroit and on Belle Isle later this week.

From the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library

All photos from the Library of Congress, unless captioned otherwise.