A lot of my readers are big Stooges and Iggy fans I decided to shoot a few photos to show them was it looks like around here (Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Michigan)
At the suggestion of my friend
Heather Harris, I just finished reading
Open Up and Bleed the biography of James Newell Osterberg Jr. (Iggy Pop) by Paul Trynka. This book was fantastic and so well done for an author from the UK (any author for that matter). It was the best book! Just loved it and Heather does too. It brought up a lot of memories for me although I am a bit younger than Jim and the Stooges I did see them around Second Chance. It made me want to get my cameras out and go shoot landmarks as they appear now. I started with Coachville.
Scott Morgan and I plan to shoot more this summer around where the Rationals, Sonic's Rendezvous and all his other bands played and lived. The landmarks and the history of Ann Arbor rock n roll is best told by the Master himself and Scott remembers it all!
Mark Sisto (The Visitors Radio Birdman) was in town and we took a little tour around the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area. I drove Mark through the Coachville Park as I had never been through it myself! After spending my entire life living here I must have driven by this tiny park thousands of times and never noticed it. My friend Doug Davis is one of the owners of
Miles of Golf where Jim played golf with his dad.
In the old days of the 1960s the park had such small old time trailers like the
Long Long Trailer Lucy and Ricky took to Hollywood and some of the larger ones were actual trailers. From what I have read, the trailer Jim lived in was so small it would be more of an RV than a trailer. Not sure maybe it was a full trailer but I heard something about it being like 30 feet long. With three people that was an awfully tiny place to live.
This area of Carpenter Rd is and (was) considered Ann Arbor or more specifically Pittsfield township, not Ypsilanti. The real cross road from Ypsilanti into Ann Arbor is Golfside just west of the Washtenaw Country Club. I grew up in Country Club Park a subdivision built between Packard Rd and Hewitt Rd. This was definitely the West Side of Ypsilanti.
Washtenaw County is a strange place to grow up for all of us natives. Lately I have had several conversations with people, (some famous rockers) some normal fans, about whether or not Jim (Iggy) grew up with his parents in Ypsilanti. Michigan. He did not.
Jim went to Carpenter Elementary School, Tappan Junior High and Pioneer High School all ann Arbor Schools. My point being.. Jim was never from Ypsilanti he was was Pittsfield Township Ann Arbor . I can see why he rather claim Ypsilanti though! We were much more rebellious, blue collar, and down to earth people. Ypsi had it's own code of behavior and I am proud to be born and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
One thing that made no sense to me from Paul's book was why did Jim's parents the Osterbergs (both gainfully employed) choose to raise their one child in this tiny trailer park? The stigma from living in trailer parks continues to this day. Even though they call them a nicer term (Manufactured Home Communities). I live in one with one teen age daughter because I am a single mom and need the cheap rent to afford the money it takes to care of a teenage girl (!!!!$$$$)
But Jim's parents had a lot more money with the two incomes so WHY did they not move to a
better home so their son would not have to grow up in
snobby Ann Arbor with that trailer park Stigma?? Jim had to go to the richest kid Jr. High School, Tappan and that had to be really brutal on him.
This environment must have taught him his skills in performing along with his anger and rebellion. Just my opinion.
Nice cozy little park where Jim grew up across from the old Carpenter elementary school which was moved to Central Street in a newer subdivision.
I highly recommend you buy this book! Click on the link below and you can get a new or used copy. Just don't lend it to ANYONE! You'll never get it back!
