Ron Graduates from Trenton High School in 1987, following in the footsteps of his father.

The Trenton High School complex was constructed in 1953 on a plot bounded by West, Westfield and Charlton roads and Edsel Drive. The school was built to handle a surge in students following World War II and the expansion of western Trenton, which was quickly expanding. The building was known as West Road Elementary School and housed elementary school students until Hedke, Anderson, Foley and Owen elementary schools opened in the 1950s.

Loretta worked for Oakwood hospital until 1987 when she retired. She was a switchboard operator and worked the midnight shift, midnight till 8am, so she had lots of stories of the events that went on in the wee hours of a hospital. If you ever called Oakwood hospital between midnight and 8 am odds are that it was Loretta who you spoke to on the phone. When she retired they threw her a small retirement party at the hospital.

The family always thought that it was strange that someone who had such trouble with their hearing would be the one answering calls at a hospital. I think the headset made all the difference.

Continue reading “Loretta Kleiber’s Retirement Party at Oakwood Hospital 1987” →

Jimmy is the son of Howard and Judith, brother to Mary and Bill, and namesake and uncle to James. He passed away years before James was born.

For those who don’t know, both James’ namesakes were relatives who passed on before their time, Jimmy Landis and Raymond Kleiber both died at young ages and its hard to fathom such a loss and how the parents must have felt absorbing the brunt of that loss (the saying is there is nothing worse than a parent outliving their child).

We do not have many pictures of Jimmy or Raymond so if anyone can help that would certainly be appreciated.

Continue reading “Remembering Jimmy Landis 1955 – 1987” →

This was a very special Christmas as there was a surprise visitor who came to see Natalie. The visitors name was none other than Santa Clause and let me tell you, getting the one and only Santa to show up at a Christmas party on Christmas day is no easy feat. Santa had a very busy day yesterday (Christmas Eve) so that made this visit all the more special.

The Christmas day fun was only beginning as after Santa’s visit everyone opened up gifts and had a grand ol time. Natalie especially enjoyed the day and why not, its not every Christmas you get to see the one and only Santa Claus in person.

Continue reading “Christmas 1986” →

Marks 40th birthday party, nuff said (I do like the Markie birthday cake, nice touch). Mark would get his revenge for this insurrection a few years later during Christmas 1988.

Halloween costume parties have always been alot of fun and James Dad attended many of them in various outfits. In this one, he dressed up as a Keystone Cop with a mustache and dyed his hair black, the only time in his life he did not have blond hair.

The costume party was much fun, although James Dad did not win. The picture was taken by James Grandma when his dad came home after the party. Everyone liked the costume I think because they never saw me with anything other than light blond hair and got an idea what I would look like with dark hair, I think.

One year after getting out the army and watching the Tigers win in 1984, James Dad decided it was time to do a Halloween display and using odds and ends around the house put together a very interesting display at very little cost. This was actually the second big Halloween display James Dad did at home, the first was when he was in college in 1980. The guitar player actually played the guitar with a little motor that controlled his hand, unfortunately we did not have a video camera at the time so we never got any live footage of him playing.

The Halloween display was well received and several people mentioned that we should have called the newspaper which I think would have been an overkill. Most everything in the pictures moved at least a little bit and we were fortunate to have very good weather as some of these props were very light and would have blown over with a strong gust of wind.

Continue reading “Halloween 1985” →

Jim and Lisa (part of the “little friends”, a name for a group of friends that have known each other since first grade) decided to get married and James Dad was asked to stand up in the wedding along with the other “little friends”.

The night before the little friends spent time cleaning and decorating cars that would be used in the wedding procession. The wedding was on a hot summer day and many pictures were taken, the ones shown here were taken by James’ grandmother during the ceremony at St Albert the Great Church.

After the wedding a great reception party was had and everyone had a great time. After the reception the “little friends” headed up to the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn where the party continued into the wee hours of the next day.

Truly a memorable day in the “little friends” Lore.

This was the year of the fishing exposition, where James Grandma went out on a rubber raft and caught a couple huge catfish and a pike, which was very rare in this lake. The fishing expo began at twilight at about 8pm as the rubber raft left the dock with Grandma, James Dad, and Cousin Ron. It was a very relaxing trip and no one really expected to catch anything (we really just wanted to take the boat out at night), but all of a sudden all the lines were being pulled on and everyone was catching something. Fortunately we had a metal fish basket and placed the fish in the basket to get them home. Once we got out of the boat we noticed the pike had tried biting its way out of the metal fish basket which kind of scared us since we were in a rubber boat and that fish could have sunk us had we not had the basket outside the boat. The next day we had fish for lunch and a great time was had by all.

Continue reading “Waldenwoods 1985” →

The Boblo Island event was unlike anything probably anywhere else in the world. First off it was an amusement park that was on an island so you had to take a boat ride to get there and back. Second, it was in Canada so you were actually visiting a foreign country when you came (yes there were custom booths there but I don’t remember them ever questioning anyone either going or coming from Boblo). The Boblo boat ride was in itself an event and so popular that each year before the Michigan/Notre Dame game (when it was in Ann Arbor) there would be a boat race between the two teams using two of the Boblo boats. The amusement park operated from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993. Its amusement rides were sold in 1994. The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, Ontario.

When we arrived at Boblo the entire family would ride the water log ride, after that we were on our own till about 6pm when we would meet back and go on the Pirate ride (which was near the docks) before leaving.

Continue reading “Boblo Island 1985” →