Veteran reunited with father at Michigan Central Station

My father, a proud US Navy veteran of World War II, was born in 1925 and grew up in Corktown, right next to Michigan Central Station.

When my siblings and I were young, he often told us a story about his own father, who had had four of his children in the military and enjoyed sitting at Michigan Central Station and watching servicemen and women being reunited with their loved ones.

During one of his vacations, my father did not tell anyone that he was coming home so as to surprise his father, who would hopefully be sitting at the train station.

My father would always cry when he told this story, and he said he would never forget the look on his father’s face when he got off the train at the depot that day.

Julie Hanus

The author is the daughter of John Gaines, US Navy RM2

St. Clair Shores

More: 97-year-old World War II veteran enjoys nostalgic tour of Michigan Central Station

Stickball on the street, shaking hands with baseball players

My father, John Gaines, lived on Vermont Street in the shadow of the Michigan Central Train Station. He told me that one of his fondest childhood memories was playing stickball in the street with his neighborhood friends.

All the visiting baseball teams came to Michigan Central by train, and the visiting players all sat in taxis and had to drive down my father’s street to get to their hotel.

The taxis would occasionally stop and the players would shake the kids’ hands and even sign a few autographs. My dad was a baseball fanatic and loved his Cleveland Indians, so it was a dream come true for a 10-year-old to be able to shake hands with some of his favorite players.

David Gaines

The author is the son of John Gaines, a World War II Marine veteran.

South Gate

From Malta to Michigan Central Station

I was born in Malta in December 1950. Due to its strategic location in the Mediterranean, the Second World War hit the island state particularly hard.

The country was constantly bombed by the German Nazis and the Italian Air Force. The bombings actually exceeded and were more intense than what England and London had to endure during the same period.

My father, George Grech, had an excellent job with the Maltese government after the war, but in the spring of 1951 he made the courageous decision to emigrate to Detroit and bring his wife, Carrie, and six children with him.

In the early 1950s, Detroit was the hottest metropolitan market in the country because the auto industry was growing and jobs were plentiful. One of my father’s sisters and brother were already living in Detroit with their families. My father arrived at Ellis Island in New York on March 22, 1951, with my sisters Vickie and Mary Ann. They had departed Malta on March 8, 1951, traveling across the Atlantic on the Greek ship Nea Hallas.

The journey from New York to Detroit was made by train. The family departed and arrived in Detroit at Michigan Central Station, where they settled in the community of Corktown. My father immediately began working at Detroit Edison, while my older sister Vickie worked at Henry Ford Hospital and Mary Ann attended Holy Trinity School.

I was 18 months old when my father saved enough money to finance the trip from Malta to Detroit with my mother, my three remaining sisters and me. We arrived in New York on June 4, 1952 on the same Greek ship, the Nea Hallas.

My father was waiting for us and once again the family wanted to travel from New York to Michigan Central Station in Detroit.

The story goes that I lay in my father’s arms all night as we drove to Detroit. At the time, our family had an apartment on Labrosse Street in Corktown. Down the street from our house was the Casa Maria Community Center, where my mother met other Maltese mothers who lived in the area. Corktown was a very close-knit community centered around Holy Trinity Parish and School.

As I got a little older, some of my earliest memories are of our visits with my parents to Michigan Central, where we would meet relatives from New York. It was the biggest building I had ever been in, and walking out and seeing the locomotive trains coming was always a thrill and an experience.

We lived about half a block from Trumbull and about a 10 minute walk from the old Briggs Stadium on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. During the summer months, the neighborhood boys and I would park our bikes on the street and “sell” parking spots to Tigers baseball fans looking for a place to park. We would “sell” our seats for five cents if it was a single game and ten cents if it was a doubleheader.

Eventually my family moved from Labrosse to McKinstry Street in southwest Detroit, where my sisters, younger brother and I attended and graduated from Holy Redeemer Elementary and High School.

My last memory of visiting Michigan Central Station was in the summer of 1968, after I graduated from Holy Redeemer. My friend Frank Borg and I went to the station to apply for jobs for the summer. I still remember how big the lobby was and how beautiful the building was. It was bustling with train passengers and workers. I’m really looking forward to visiting again.

Joe Grech

Dexter

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This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press: Children of World War II veterans share memories of Michigan Central