I Remember Ecorse
Memories of Ecorse
Oddly for me, memories of Ecorse include an overriding sense of security.
Our little house at 18 W. Goodell, just off Jefferson Ave., was a safe place for a single mom with three children. Somehow my parents had paid off the mortgage by the time my father, a steelworker, died at the age of 32 in 1948. The City of Ecorse had a tax policy that widows paid no property tax. So our housing costs were low. But more than financial security was the security of a connected neighborhood and the School #1 community that all worked to raise their children together. Hillary said it right: “It takes a community to raise a child” and Ecorse was that kind of community.
Our teachers at School #1 were stellar and stable – staying in the same classrooms for years on end so all three of the Zawoysky kids had basically the same teachers. Miss Hether in the 4th grade was a gem, full of imaginative learning exercises that drew children at all levels into the adventure of education. Mr. Myer, the principal and 6th grade teacher was the disciplinarian.
Because my mother worked in downtown Detroit, the three of us kids would get ourselves up every morning, dress, have breakfast, get to school on time, go home for lunch, return to school on time and be home in time to make dinner for mom when she got home at 6 p.m. We could function as a family because we had neighbors like Mary Blakeman next door, our “emergency mom” who would step in if help was needed. Miss Goodell, three doors down, let the neighborhood kids play in her large, landscaped yard, since our yards were small, especially after the last vacant lot was built on next to our house. Milton, a single fireman across the street, let us use his garage as our clubhouse for the “Thunderbolts,” our first venture into community organizing as neighborhood kids. And the Amley family, a few doors down the other way, even took us kids up to their home in Oscoda, on Lake Huron, for a week every summer to enjoy beach life and to their parents’ farm nearby for a week in rural America.
I don’t know about today, but back then, Ecorse was a real community. Sure, it had its flaws and financial indiscretions. But people knew how to live as neighbors. Families could thrive – even single parent families.
Rob Zawoysky
(Lived in Ecorse from 1945 – 1963. Now a resident of the Seattle, Washington area)
Oddly for me, memories of Ecorse include an overriding sense of security.
Our little house at 18 W. Goodell, just off Jefferson Ave., was a safe place for a single mom with three children. Somehow my parents had paid off the mortgage by the time my father, a steelworker, died at the age of 32 in 1948. The City of Ecorse had a tax policy that widows paid no property tax. So our housing costs were low. But more than financial security was the security of a connected neighborhood and the School #1 community that all worked to raise their children together. Hillary said it right: “It takes a community to raise a child” and Ecorse was that kind of community.
Our teachers at School #1 were stellar and stable – staying in the same classrooms for years on end so all three of the Zawoysky kids had basically the same teachers. Miss Hether in the 4th grade was a gem, full of imaginative learning exercises that drew children at all levels into the adventure of education. Mr. Myer, the principal and 6th grade teacher was the disciplinarian.
Because my mother worked in downtown Detroit, the three of us kids would get ourselves up every morning, dress, have breakfast, get to school on time, go home for lunch, return to school on time and be home in time to make dinner for mom when she got home at 6 p.m. We could function as a family because we had neighbors like Mary Blakeman next door, our “emergency mom” who would step in if help was needed. Miss Goodell, three doors down, let the neighborhood kids play in her large, landscaped yard, since our yards were small, especially after the last vacant lot was built on next to our house. Milton, a single fireman across the street, let us use his garage as our clubhouse for the “Thunderbolts,” our first venture into community organizing as neighborhood kids. And the Amley family, a few doors down the other way, even took us kids up to their home in Oscoda, on Lake Huron, for a week every summer to enjoy beach life and to their parents’ farm nearby for a week in rural America.
I don’t know about today, but back then, Ecorse was a real community. Sure, it had its flaws and financial indiscretions. But people knew how to live as neighbors. Families could thrive – even single parent families.
Rob Zawoysky
(Lived in Ecorse from 1945 – 1963. Now a resident of the Seattle, Washington area)