Column for Augut 4, 2005

Greetings friends and neighbors. Lets see how many things I can through on a page and call it a column. One, I hate cutting the grass. Not only do I not like doing it, everything about it is wrong. Clippings fill up the land fills. Crummy lawn mowers cost to much, waste oil, gas, create smog and also end up in some land fill. Somewhere someone said lets talk America into loving that well trimmed green grass, forget them amber waves of grain, because we will make a lot money selling stuff for the lawns.

Basket ball star Chris Webber was in town. He stopped into the community center and told about 75 kids how important it was to learn to read. If they learn to read and be a good person their dreams can come true. Everyone thought how great it was for a guy like Chris Webber to take the time to talk to the kids and give such a positive message. Of course most of them people would have no way to know that was a court ordered community service project Mr. Webber was fulfilling for lying to a Grand Jury. I also thought even thought it might do them young kids some good having a basket ball star talk to them, how many of them little kids actually know who he was? Might it have been time better spent if the court had Webber to talk to 75 old men? Maybe some people who graduated from U of M? By talking to them, maybe he could have put a mentoring message out and had those 75 men each go talk to 75 kids and touch a lot more lives.

Heard from Dennis Gibson. Dennis has been involved in the music business for close to 50 years. He partnered with recording artist Jamie Coe for most of those years. Jamie and Dennis have fond memories of the early Detroit Rock scene that go back to clubs like the West Side Six, the Military Inn, Roses, The Roostertail and Club Gay Haven. They remember area bands and entertainers like Rare Earth, Randy Sea and the Peppermints, Jack Scott, Jack Rainwater, Little Rubin, Johnny Ginger, Bobby Lewis, Jeff and the Atlantics, even my old friends The Sunday Funnies and Salem Witchcraft. Back in the day, Jamie Coe played Club Gay Haven with Bobby Darrin, they became friends and worked together on many projects. More recently Jamie and Dennis ran the Jamie's on 7 and The Jammer II night clubs in Livonia, Now both of them are at Jamie's on Ford, as in Ford Road in Garden City. Interestingly Jamie still has one of the best bands in the town.