My Detroit (Project #6)

Darryl Heron

Toastmasters- Word Weavers Wiesbaden, Germany

29 February, 2012

About the Presentation

Speech given about Detroit @ Word Weavers on February 29, 2012. Beamer did not work with my laptop, so my audience didn‘t see any of what follows…

We did a reverse meeting when I gave my speech so I also tied in Rüsselsheim to Detroit (not shown in this presentation)

Detroit

What do you think of when you hear or read Detroit?

• Cars and Trucks?

• Maybe some of the bad times the city has been in the past few decades?

• Detroit is so much more

• Today I‘d like to show you my Detroit

The Motor City

You might have heard Detroit called the Motor City before. Besides being home to GM, Ford, and Chrysler there is so much more automotiive history that has been lived & breathed there.

Henry Ford said that you could have the Model T in any color you want as long as its black. The assembly line started automotive production here.

The Motor City continued

Mustangs, Corvettes, and Cadillacs with fins oh my!

So much nostalgia and Americana

How many people really did see the USA in their Chevrolet?

How about Baseball, Hotdogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet?

GM and Chrysler went bankrupt! (I never would have thought

that this would happen growing up)

And Ford was on the ropes too!

City of Champions

In the 30s Detroit was called the „City of

Champions“ because of the success of the

Tigers, Lions, Red Wings, and a boxer name

Joe Lewis

City of Champions continued

• The Tigers won the 68 and 84 World Series playing in Tiger Statium (in my lifetime). Now they play in the lovely modern/olde time Comerica Park

• The Red Wings have been successful in the past few decades that Detroit is often call Hockey Town

Sounds of Detroit

Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & The Supremes, the Jackson 5, The Spinners, and Marvin Gaye were all a part of

the Motown sound

Motown Records, sometimes called „Hitsville USA“ started in Detroit

More Than Motown

MC5, The Stooges, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent,

Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, Rare Earth,

Alice Cooper, Eminem, Kid Rock, Uncle Kracker & even

Madonna comes from the suburbs!

Kiss sang about „Detroit Rock City“.

Many famous musical acts considered Detroit their

second home away from home

More Than Motown continued

Arthur Penhallow , a DJ at WRIf had a deep baratone

voice and used to say that WRIF was the „home of

Rock N Roll, Baby!“ every Friday he'd blow a loud ship

horn and shout, „Its the weekend!“

Who can forget Mustand Sally, that Little Red Corvette,

and countless other songs inspired by automotive

history and legend?

The the City Grew

Hudsons was once one of Amerca‘s biggest department stores and they had ahuge famous store DowntownThey had a Thanksgiving Day paradebefore Macys!

The Henry Ford Museum and Green FieldVillage have helped to preserve some of theglorious history of Detroit (and America)

Then the City Died…

• In my lifetime the population fell from 5th largest city in the US. to 18th in 2010 census

• The 60s saw some terrible race riots, but there was a mass exodus that really started in the 50s. As people moved out to the suburbs and stores and businesses downtown went out of business. The Hudson's down town store closed and was torn down. The name Hudsons now only exists in memories of those that lived in those days

• The financial crisis hit Detroit really bad and Detroit has been referred to as America's 2nd most deserted city

• Theres even a website called forgottendetroit.com

Only in Michigan

The lower peninsula is shaped like a mitten, lots of Michiganders can show you where the come from or lived by pointing to a spot on their hand.

Michigan is surrounded by 4 out of 5 great lakes

Detroit has long been Michigan‘s most populas cities

Detroit, an International City

The Ambassidor Bridge connects Detroit to Windsor, Canada. They're seperated by the Detroit River, much like Wiesbaden and Mainz are separated by the Rhein River where I now live. There is even a tunnel that goes under the Detroit River connecting both cities

My Detroit

Detroit has had quite a history, it brought us countless memorable cars and trucks, it has been a meca for music and brought us the Motown Sound.

Detroit has had many nicknames, been many things. I hope that it will one day be great again!

This is where I was born, and this is my Detroit!

Credits

GM‘s Global Headquarters on the Detroit Riverhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Headquarters_of_GM_in_Detroit.jpg

The Uniroyal Tire on I-94 (not too far from Metro Airport)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uniroyal_tire.jpg

Model Thttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1910Ford-T.jpg

Model Ahttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1928_Model_A_Ford.jpg

1959 Cadillachttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cadillac_-_side.jpg

Credits Continued

1956 Corvettehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chevrolet_Corvette_1956.jpg

1967 Mustanghttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_Mustang_Convertible_1967.jpg

Tiger Stadiumhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiger_Stadium,_Detroit.jpg

Comerica Parkhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comerica-Park-Detroit-MI-Panorama.jpg

Tiger logohttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tiled_tigers_logo.JPG

Credits Continued

Spirit of Detroit wearing a Red Wings jersey (after 2009 NHL Championship)http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_of_Detroit_with_jersey.jpgMotown Original Recording Artistshttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motown%27s_The_Originals.jpgHitsville, USAhttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motown_detroit.JPGHudsons Downtown Storehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JLHudsonsPostcard.jpgMichigan Maphttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michigan_Locator_Map.PNGAmbassador Bridgehttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ambassador_bridge_evening.jpg

Be Sure to Check Out

My Detroit @ Pinteresthttp://pinterest.com/darrylheron/my-detroit/

On SlideSharehttp://www.slideshare.net/darrylheron

Find out more About.mehttp://about.me/darrylheron

Toastmasters Internationalhttp://www.toastmasters.org/

Word Weavers- Wiesbaden, Germany (my home club)http://www.word-weavers.de/