David Lyall:  

My Life Story Updated January, 2011 School years; I started school in New York City. (PS 138 if I remember correctly) Although I was born in East Detroit (at home at 16161 Evergreen Street, just E of Gratiot Avenue and 3 blocks south of 9 1/2 Mile Road, or Stevens Drive) we moved to New York City for my Fathers WWII War Production Board Assignment when I was 2 years old. So I attended Kindergarten and 1st grade in NYC. We returned to our home on Evergreen Street at war's end in 1946. As we lived east of Gratiot Avenue, I was assigned to Grant School which during this time period was an elementary school. I have a lot of happy memories from this school. Amoung them I soon noticed Phylis Drewry, a very pretty girl whose beautiful blue eyes illuminated not only the whole classroom, but my young heart. In the following eleven years, I would learn that during our youth, there are two kinds of loves; loves found and then lost, and loves found and unrequited. Bad luck and fate would prove Phyllis to be the latter. In 1947 my parents bought one of the many new homes being built on what only a few years earlier had been farmland and which was rapidly being subdivided and converted to residential property in East Detroit, at 15742 Semrau Street. (1 block west of Gratiot Avenue and 1 block south of 9 1/2 mile) Since Gratiot Avenue was the school district dividing line, and now living west of Gratiot I was reassigned to Erin School (located on the south side of 9 Mile Road, at Grove Street) to complete my Elementary School Education. I have vivid memories of this school and its principal, Mrs. Gaul, who as it turned out had a Black Belt in ass-whipping, even having a specially designed long wooden paddle with holes in it to cut down on wind resistance as to deliver the maximum speed energy and force against one's buttocks. She also had a finely developed technique of grabbing you by the belt and lifting you slightly off the floor, to both hold you in place and pulling your pants as taunt as possible over your butt cheeks as to provide the least padding against her paddle. As I was one of those kids who always seemed to stand out in class with a smart-assed remark for the teacher, I was frequently one of Mrs. Gaul's victims, and can to this day describe the experience in Mrs. Gaul's office in detail. Her office was located over the main school entrance foyer, at the top of a set of about 10 steps, and that walk up the stairs seemed to take forever, kind of like the "last mile". What Mrs. Gaul delivered to my butt-cheeks on a regular basis would be considered severe child abuse by any of today's standards. Mrs. Gaul was the first women to ever make me cry, (I would bite my lip and try to stifle back my whimpering as I walked back to my class, trying hard not to let anybody see the tears dripping down my checks) but as life unfolded, she would not be the last. I would never allow another boy to see my emotions, but females have always left me totally defenseless, although absolutely never in their presence. For Junior High I attended the newly constructed Oakwood Junior High in 1952 and 1953, before graduation to the 9th grade at East Detroit High School. The highlight of my Oakwood Junior High School years was becoming reacquainted with my Grant Elementary School heartthrob, Phyllis Drewry, who I had not seen throughout my Erin Elementary years. When I would see her walking to and from school with her friends, I would do outrageous stunts with my Bicycle to try and get her attention, and go out of my way to "just happen" to walk past her in the hallways. During this time the every six-month graduation class was discontinued and once a year graduations were adopted. Because of my test scores I was double-promoted to the next grade, skipping six months of school, and along with it six months of nature's natural maturity processes. From that time on I was six months behind my assigned class social group in academic, physical and social maturity development, which constantly placed me at some form of disadvantage as to my classmates. I had to constantly work to attempt to overcome this gap, sometimes academically and intellectually successfully and often socially less so, especially compared to girls, who are inheritably ahead of boys in maturity at any given age. To compensate, except for three girls who were in my class (Sharon, Phyllis and Barbara) and who put up with my antics to some degree, I usually dated girls one class year behind mine, which even in one case (Lorraine) proved to still not be enough to put me on the same maturity level. During my High School Years I was interested in history, art, science, and music, joining the EDHS Marching Band as a Clarinet Player. However, by the 11th grade I was now far too busy with cars and the girls in my life to have time for any serious music pursuit, and dropped out of the band. I did however take a music appreciation class during the 11th grade, and to this day I enjoy all forms of music, from opera and classics to country. (Rap & Grunge notwithstanding) I was also very interested in sports at this time, but although very active, healthy and strong, compared to some of my more famous classmates I lacked the robust physique for football, so I played baseball, which I had played in sandlots since a young boy. (An inherited family trait, as three of my grandsons have been awarded college scholarships for their baseball skill and accomplishments) Unfortunately, I was severally hit in the face with a fielded ball, which consequently made me cautious enough of a moving ball to prohibit any serious playing again. But by now my interest in cars and girls filled all my spare time and I worked at Campbell's Gulf Service Station on the N/W corner of Stephens and Gratiot, (one block north of my home on Semrau) from long before I was of legal age to work, until my very late teens. The Campbell's (two generations and their spouses) treated me like one of their family. The Campbell's encouragement of my natural mechanical curiosity and honing of rapidly developing mechanical skills, engineering basics and interest in Motorsports cannot be overstated, which had a profound and lasting impact on my career development. Ironically, what the Campbell's provided me in skill, confidence and social development during this formative time of my youth would be considered illegal today, violating both most child labor laws and any business liability or workman's compensation insurance. As I was much younger than the regular Campbell's crew, (mostly salty dog WWII vets) and being in my impressionable years I learned a lot of new words and metaphors a smart-ass kid like me could use, all of which I would not dare repeat at home. (Or as I soon learned, not at my girlfriend's house either) Campbell's Gulf, and nearby Forest Dry Cleaners (where one of our group worked) were the hangouts of choice, where the bunch of guys I ran with, spent time when we were not pursuing some outragous stunt, practical joke, or drag racing on the street. I now shudder to think of the risks we took, and the close calls and near misses, now believing God must have had plans for us. As a fitting closure to my youth, both Erin School and Grant School, (which since my attending had been converted to a Junior High School) no longer exist, each being torn down as their classrooms were no longer needed with the demographics of East Detroit AKA Eastpointe changing over the years. As a point of reference, when I attended Erin School, it was so overcrowded they had temporary structures erected in the playground, referred to as "Portables" which were to be my 4, 5th and 6th grade classrooms. Within 10 years of my attending that school, not only were the portables not needed, but Erin School itself. After High School; I went to work full-time, and for a number of years I went to school part-time. I worked at local businesses, including a book bindery, local gas stations, tool and die shops, manufacturing plants, to auto dealers. Originally, after graduation my career plan was to become a tool and die maker, and I actually started a tool and die apprenticeship in 1958. But the late 50's recession ended my tool and die career, along with any hope or realization of post-graduation prosperity. Along the way I married the last girl I had been dating, the former Mariellen Martin, (class of '58) a stunningly beautiful strawberry blond, and we went on to have three children, a family started during my too-brief prosperity as I realized my dream of becoming a tool & die apprentice. From the time I was laid-off from my tool & die job it was unemployment checks, surplus food allotments, day labor work and temporary jobs for the next two years, a real character-building experience. Finally, by the early 60's I again found steady work as an Engine Test & Repair Technician at Crusader Marine Engine Manufacturing Company in Warren, Mi, and then at the Bob Ford Inc. Auto Dealership in Dearborn, Mi. During this time I had also started a racing career including driving Bob Ford's factory-sponsored race cars, and my racing career, both as a professional and as a sportsman, spanned the next 50 years. This was a natural extension of and a cure for the illegal drag racing I loved to do on the streets as a teenager. After working a couple of years at the Ford Dealer, I moved on to Ford Motor Company, initially as a Dynamometer Test Technician in their Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, Michigan. This was similar work to my Crusader Marine Engine Company job assignment, and the beginnings of some level of prosperity, which included buying my first home and brand-new car. Not forgetting the two years of very lean times nor being content working as a salaried technician, I worked long and hard hours and in between went to night school and studied my way up until becoming a P...Expand for more