Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-09-23
Jack Pickering
Here
and
Now.

~ OW
Both z. A. Wright and z. A.
Rommeck. director and assistant
director Of the Boys Club Of De-
troit. kept repeating: Don't
say that the club is responsible
for all that has happened around
here. More people have Jobs.
Passing Of time brings improve
ments. The police and the
schools help"
Just the same, hotbeds Of ju-
venile delinquency show marked
improvement wherever any we'll
run community club gets to
work. This goes for the Boys
Club of Detroit, In Livernols
avenue, a block south OF Michi-
gan. !,
This particular club originated
in 1926 In an old cigar factory a
quarter mile farther downtown
In Michigan avenue. Wright be-
came director about four years
later.
In those days the Greusel
street gang was ut Its worst,
and IL has been called the tough
est neighborhood gang In De-
troit.
"When I arrived" said Wright,
81 found a whole drawer full OF
clubs, knives and gun and a
shelf OF blackjacks- These had
been taken away from the
boys.
There were rubber hoses with
steel bolts In tho end. One
knife was made from an old file.
a foot and . half long, with n
corrugated edge. Some boy had
hammered Il into . knife. Tho
gang fought with these. In fact,
have attended the funerals Of
two or three boys.
"Well, tho Greusel street
gang liquidated itself--desth,
prison or reform. Don't say the
club did II. We don't want to
have people give us q horse
laugh. But we helped"
HowY Keeping the boys busy:
keeping them clean; taking care
of their teeth; no goody-goody
stuff. The boys still get in trou-
BILE occasionally. but when boy
returns from juvenile court or
the police station. he plays base
ball or goes swimming with no
questions asked. Only one boy
has been kicked out perma-
nently. a sex degenerate.
Over so per cent Of the par
ents In the neighborhood are for
eign born, Polish predominating
among the 81 nationalities.
Wright remembers blocks Of
houses without indoor plumbing.
and many still have no bathtubs-
There's a legend that two boys
brought a third into the club
and when they gave the new
conner a shower they learned
that Il was a girl. not a boy.
There are three dentists
chairs Nm the clubhouse, and
other health equipment. The
Waiting nurses have headquar-
ters there. And with greater
employment. the boys are for
getting the past decade Of bread
and coffee for breakfast-lunch-
supper, with an occasional taste
of kielbaaa--eausage
"The kids drank 20 much cof-
fee IL was pathetic" Wright
says
Absolute taboos are few--no
tobacco chewing In the club and
no swearing.
A year or so ago n nine-yesr-
old member admitted that he
won his dues ESQ cents q year,
shooting craps I'm the alley. But
YOU can't control the alleys.
Best results are by furnishing
something else TO do. The print
shop has won a national trophy.
The swimming pool, included in
the 50-cent-a-year dues, is bet
ter than the Detroit Athletic
Club pool at around $500 year.
Music and art, almost wholly
lacking In the homes, thrive In
the club-a band of IS pieces,
music lessons, a drum and bugle
corps.
The art students used to get
some kidding, like Mike Mann,
who took up oil painting while
hi pals cried sissy" He won
second prize in a national con-
test in New York, and now the
scoffers brag about Mikes
pitcher"
OF 1850 members and former
members, 755 are in military
service and nine are in the new
Wake Island contingent of ma
rines. Only 10 per cent are re-
jected for physical defects. The
national draft average is five
times as bad.
In 1926, one boy out OF IL
was being taken TO court as a
juvenile delinquent. This has
been reduced 40 per cent.
Don't say that the Boys Club
Of Detroit did II all. but II did
its share.
Elm lime Clock