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Our Families - Our Lives. Write-Link Project
Laura C.
"Linda R., Ypsilantian"
June 20th, 2005 Linda R., 63, is one of the many citizens who represent Ypsilanti as
the historically and culturally rich town it is.
Born in Ypsilanti, Linda has lived here most of her life, aside from
a fifteen year stint in Adrian, MI. Her grandfather, Mark Jefferson,
built the family's yellow three-story house ... in 1901, from blueprints
her uncle, as a twelve year old boy, had drawn. Jefferson, the namesake
of the building at Eastern Michigan University, was a famed cartographer,
and would often have explorers from all over the world come over to
see maps. Linda remembers seeing them, but as little girls were to be
seen and not heard in those days, she never got the opportunity to speak
with them.
Her adolescent days were filled with friends, a gang of fourteen or
so neighborhood children who spent their days making their own fun for
free. They'd build forts, ride bikes, play jacks (which Linda still
admits to enjoying today), or simply sit on the porch and play board
games. The group would also put on self-written plays in the summer
or set up a Kool-aid stand, charging people but always donating the
money earned to a good cause.
In high school, Linda's life was much the same. A self-admitted "late
bloomer", she did not participate in many school-related extracurricular
activities, preferring to spend her free time without structure. Her
main interests at the time were the same as any high school student
- football games (which her school, Roosevelt High, never won), dating,
and graduating. Specifically, she was interested in two things: "Elvis
and math".
Pop culture in the '50s was just starting to boom for teenagers, and
Linda's experience was no exception. Rock n' roll and drive-through
movies were the most popular forms of entertainment. Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin, and Jerry Lewis kept the kids in good standing with their
parents, while new sensations like Elvis allowed them a form of rebellion.
Movies back then were not rampant with sex and violence like they are
today. Films like the "Gigdet" movies, the beach movies, and
"anything starring Frankie Avalon" were good clean fun for
teenagers.
Having graduated from high school in 1960, Linda moved on to marrying
and starting a family. She did not return to school until she was 36,
at which time she attend EMU. From 1985-1994, she taught math and computers
at her alma mater.
Having almost continuously lived in Ypsilanti, Linda has seen her childhood
hangouts transformed. "Supe's", a food market on Cross Street,
is now Old China, while an old abandoned building on Michigan Avenue
used to be occupied by Brosky's, the first pizzeria in town.
As she continues through life, she says that things change faster than
they did before. Buildings are torn down and new ones spring up, culture
shifts, old friends move away and disappear. Moreover, she sees how
hard it is for youth here to understand that history, the idea that
"there were things before me?" as their world, and Ypsilanti,
changes.
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