Arlene Crane-Curns: 93 Year Old Author Shares Her Story

0:20 Hello, this is Arthur Bush, and you're listening to Radio Free Flint. And today we have an outstanding show for you. It's a unique show. And our guest today is uh is Arlene. Arlene Crane Kearns, who is 93 years old and a published author. And Arlene wrote a book which is entitled Homemade Noodles and Cars about her life growing up in the Flint area. And she published that book just a year ago.

1:02 So any without any further ado, I want to introduce you to a lady who has seen a lot of changes in in her life. And uh her memoir uh her memoir outlines those changes uh and she gives a personal history through that about her her life and and some of the the great um things that she's seen going way back to uh to the depression era. And so uh without any further ado, Arlene, uh good morning.

1:44 Good morning, Arthur. Thank you for interviewing me. Well, I'm just delighted to have you, and I think first, Arlene, we should tell how we met. You want to tell the story about how we met? Well, you I visited your um Flint Free Radio Pod and I saw a post that said you could have your book, Flint-related book, on uh your list of books, and I wanted to know why mine couldn't be on there, so I contacted you and you added my book to your list and asked to interview me.

2:27 Well, we're gonna publish that list, by the way, uh, and broadcast that list. And so you not only got on the list, but you also we conducted a series of personal history interviews with various people throughout the Flint community. And we wanted to, once I heard your story, I knew that we had to we had to get you on here uh to talk about your memoir and your life. And actually, we started talking about ice cream carts, and there was a post. Oh, that post, yes. My husband, yeah, my husband. Well, let's give some context.

3:08 First of all, okay, Radio Free Flint posted a picture of an ice cream cart that used to be quite popular in the Flint area, uh, where the ice cream boy would go up and down the street and sell ice cream ringing the bells. And they would have hot ice inside the cart, and then all the kids would run out and get ice creams. So Arlene saw that and then started to react to this and engage me. And she told me about a story about her husband. So go ahead, which caught my attention by the way.

3:48 Go ahead and my husband, uh, my husband was 12 years old in 1937, and he had uh he didn't have an ice cream card, but he had a basket that was attached to his bicycle handle, and he sold ice cream bars out of that. And he went down uh to Chevy in the Hole. Everybody knows from Flint knows where Chevy in the Hole is, and he sold ice cream bars to the sit-downers. And um it was really cold in the winter time. If anybody remembers when that sit-down strike took place, he went there two times a week on um the weekend.

4:29 He went on Saturday and Sunday. That was in 1937. That's 1937. 1937, yes, 1937. He was 12 years old. Yes, and so he went down to the factory, and what happened? Well, he sold right through the windows to them, but he said sometimes the National Guard would let him let a person from uh sit downers come to the gate and get a big order of them to take back into the guys. I see. The National Guard were there ordered by the governor of Michigan to try and keep nautical. That's right. I wrote about that in my book, about the battle of O Run and very, very interesting time in Flint history.

5:16 So, Arlene, your uh book, how did you get the title, Homemade Noodles and Cars? You know, many people ask me that, but that is two common threads that ran through our family. For generations and generations, we handed down the uh art of making homemade noodles. I still make them, I my daughters make them, teaching the grandkids how to make them. And when we have a family get together, we always have homemade noodles on the table. Um, the cars, my husband was um in the cars, he looked cars and he was the car salesman. Where did he sell cars to? Common threads, yeah.

5:58 Who was the who was the company that he worked for? What was the company? He worked for Applegate Chevrolet for about 35 years. That's where his uh career mainly was. I see. And uh your husband was uh his name was Jack Kearns, right? Yes. And when did you get married to Jack? We got married in uh 1947, right? He came home from the war. I Jack was injured in the war. I don't know if if you knew that. He lost his lady in World War II.

6:39 And uh we were married in January of 1947, shortly after he came home from his rehab. And um we s we started out married life on eighty-nine dollars a month. That might surprise a lot of people, but that was our income when we got married. Eighty-nine dollars a month, well. Yeah, that was his that was his navy pension for losing his leg. I see. And and then uh you started to raise a family. I'm sorry. You ra you had children after that.

7:20 Oh, we had four children in four years. We sure did. They just yeah. So there What's what were we gonna say? I say we had two boys and two girls. Okay, good. And uh so let's go back in time a little bit. So you and Jack got married in nineteen seven, and you were twenty years twenty years old. I was twenty and Jack was twenty-two. I see. So when you were born, who was the president of the United States?

8:04 When I was born? Yeah, who was the president when you were born? I don't know. I don't have a clue. I can tell you who today's president is. Oh, okay. So I wasn't too much into politics back in 1927. Well, you were born just before the depression came, right? Depression I was. Um, but the depression, you know, that carried on for years. It wasn't just 1929 when the when the um banks crashed, the stock market. It went on for years. A lot of my memories, I know, are things that I heard people say, but but I remember a lot about about the Great Depression.

8:46 You know, I the things that took place in our family. My mom trying to stretch uh a little bit of food for seven people, and my dad would walk around the railroad tracks and pick up coal that fell off the boxcars to heat our house with. When our shoes wore out, dad would cut a piece of cardboard to fit in the sole so that we could wear them a little longer. And we we I mean we had handy-down clothes. There were four girls in our family. We get to clothes down, down, down. My older sisters, I can remember, they used to trade clothes with their girlfriends just so they'd have something different to wear to school.

9:33 And did your parents have a car? We did not have a car until I was 17 years old. That's a big part of my story. Um, the reason that we didn't have a car. Well, tell us that story. Well, when my mom was pregnant for me, I was uh the fifth child of five. And my dad had bought a 1926 uh Ford touring car. And they were going for a ride, they were going to go over to Bay City, and it was a November day, and it started to ice and the roads got all slick.

10:17 The car slid off the road and went in the ditch, and my mother was in under the car. She was, of course, she was daddy, seven months pregnant for me. And my dad was he was so remorseful that he could have injured all the four kids in the back seat and his beloved wife and and me, that he never bought another car. He said he would never drive again and he never bought another car until I was 17 years old.

11:01 How did he get? My mom had to spend the rest of her pregnancy in bed, and but I was born okay. How did she how did your dad get to work? He walked. And what what he walked from our home. What street did you? Well, we lived on um the first home you're gonna have to read my book. My parents bought their first home in 1937, so their fifth child was ten years old. That was me. I was ten when our family owned a home. We rented up until that time. I see. Well what the pressure just lingered on forever.

11:41 What part of town did you live in? Well, my childhood home where I have all my memories was on Crosby Street. It runs a little two-block long street that runs up Detroit Street, not not too far from Spall Bark. Okay. And uh so you were in an accident uh before you were born, actually. Right. And uh and so uh you and Jack were married for quite some number of years. Long time, almost 62 years. He passed away in 2008, and at that time we were married just a couple of months shy of um 62 years.

12:29 And how did you meet Jack? Well, it was really straight my sister. You did what? We were downtown shopping one Saturday and we stopped in at the Flint Athletic Club to have lunch. That was on Harrison Street, and um uh Jack was in a booth all by himself, and and my sister knew him, and she stopped and uh he had his crutches in the booth there. She didn't know that he had lost a leg. Yeah. But that's how I met him. She introduced me to him.

13:10 And and that would have been in what year, if you remember? That was the summer of 1946. We were married about six months later. Ah, I see. So I hear would you like to hear about our first date? Yeah, sure. Yes. And I didn't know how to swim, but I had a real cute bathing suit, but I I didn't think I was gonna get it wet. Well, when we got out in the water deep enough, Jack picked me up, threw me over his head, and I came up sputtering like a a wet duck and asking for air, and he said, Oh, I'm so sorry.

13:57 He said, I thought everybody knew how to swim. I wonder I ever went out with him again. Ah, I see. So what kinds of things did you do when you went out with on dates? Uh we danced. We we both loved to dance. We danced all of our lives. Where did you dance at? Where I mean when you first met him, where did you go dancing? Uh on Friday nights we danced at uh the Flint Athletic Club. The restaurant was on the street level and downstairs they had the club. Where where was the Knickerbockers? I think that was on uh North Saginaw Street. Knickerbockers, yeah. And wasn't that where yes.

14:40 Where was North Saginaw, I think. Okay, yep, it was way out there. Where was the uh athletic club at? That was on Harrison Street. Okay. And so you and Jack went out dancing, and what was your favorite dance? We did all of them. Jack was a good dancer, even with the lay-off, believe it or not. We took lessons and we learned how to do all the dances. So I I mean, I I don't know all the dances what their names are, so what why don't you tell? Oh Well, I don't know if I know the names of them if you turn.

15:20 Oh, I see. You l how did you learn these dances? Oh, I see. You learn dancing in school or uh or or how do you where did you did you practice at home or what with your sisters or oh no, I didn't dance till I was older. I don't remember dancing in uh the only dancing we ever did in school, and I hated it was in gym class when they would uh have the boys come in maybe once a week and they would line you up and pair you off with a partner. I see. And I I didn't want I hated that. And then what school did you go to?

16:01 Well, I went to several because depression years we moved a lot. When you're renting, you move a lot. I went to um Durant for kindergarten one and two, I went to Doyle for three and four, Dort for five and six, Longfellow for junior high, and I graduated from Northern in uh 1945. Now you might not know that back in when I graduated, they had two graduating classes. They had a class that graduated in February, which I did, and a second one in June. We all got our diplomas in June at Atwood Stadium.

16:48 Well, and why why did they have two classes? I don't know, but it was uh 12A and 12B. Okay. I I don't know how long that continued either. So, Arlene, uh what do you remember about grow growing up in Flint as a kid? I remember that I had a wonderful uh home life. It was like living in a cocoon of love. Um we were raised in church, we were in church every Sunday, and um Jesus is still the center of my life. And um I the neighborhood that my childhood home, there was a ton of kids there.

17:33 There were um twelve girls my age, and we got along famously, we did so many things, we played all the childhood games together and other I got my first job when I was uh 14 years old. I went to work at the Palace Theater and um I earned 35 cents an hour. Wow. And I fell in love with I fell in love with the movies when I was working there. Who what was your favorite movie when you were growing up? Oh, probably Farm with the Wind. I remember taking my mother to see that. I see. Fabulous.

18:14 And what was it that was so unique about the Palace Theater at that time? Well, um, it was just a fun place to work, but I I think it was the movies that I was so thrilled with, and I was don't forget I I was a depression era kid. I was so happy to be earning some money, even though it was 35 cents. I got uh my first paycheck was seven dollars, and I went and put on a black cashmere coat and layaway that was forty dollars. Where did you what store what store is that? What store?

18:54 Yeah. I think I bought that at Learner's Lerner's uh ladies shop. That was downtown. It was in the same block as uh Smith Regiment's and Cresge's and most stores. All right. But I paid I paid the I got that coat on a layaway on my 35 cents an hour job. From there I went to work my junior year in high school, I worked at um Cresge's Dollar Store, and I got 50 cents an hour there. My senior year in high school, I worked at Citizens Bank, the downtown location. Yes. And the one with the weather ball on top.

19:36 Uh-huh. I worked there in my 12th grade and senior high school at it, and I got a dollar an hour there. Wow. And did you go off to college or what what what did you do after you graduated? Right out of high school. Um, that was the Warriors, you know, World War II. And you could get a job. I went to I hired in at AC Spark. Plug department as uh secretary to the personnel director, Mark Bailthorpe. Wow. That's a pretty good job. All men were gone. That's a pretty good job. It was a very good job right out of high school.

20:16 And how long did you stay with AC? Well, I I might moved on. I I left there, I worked there maybe a year. But you'll have to read my book. I left under unusual circumstances that I won't say here. Okay, you're gonna you're gonna keep a mystery so we can get get our mitts on that book, right? There's a lot of mystery and lots of good stories in my book. Hundred years of them. I'm sure they are.

21:01 So so uh Arlene, you worked out what was downtown like when you were a teenager? Oh, downtown was fabulous. Downtown had everything. I don't care what you needed, they had a store there for to fit that need. I mean, they had men's shops, ladies' shops, hardware, theaters, things. What was your favorite places to go? I'm sorry? What were your favorite places to visit? Downtown? Yes. The bulb. The lady shop, the bulb. That was my favorite place to buy clothes.

21:41 Alright, any others? Oh, there were tons of good lady shops down there. They had Ma's Brothers, they had I got my wedding gown of Goodman. My just just uh getting my wedding gown is a story in itself because we got married soon after the war. You couldn't find a wedding gown anywhere. They just there weren't, well, with all the guys coming home, everybody was getting married. And um women were making their wedding gowns out of uh some parachutes. But I finally found one at Goodman's.

22:21 I left my name all over town. If you get a gown, please call me. Well they called me and they got two dresses in, and one of them was in my size. And I went down and tried it on, it fit me perfectly, and of course I bought it, and it cost eighty dollars. How how did you pay for it? I mean, where did you get the money for that? Uh I was working then, so that wasn't a problem. Oh, I see. I had money then to pay for it. And uh and so you you love downtown, it sounds like I work downtown?

23:02 I say you loved it, it sounds like. Oh, I love downtown, yes, of course. It was a bustling place. I mean it was an it was an event to go downtown. The women wore hats, dresses, and high heel shoes. You you dressed up to go downtown Flint. That was a swinging place. How did you everybody was downtown. How did you get there? Um bus. Okay. Did they still have the old streetcars on rails and all that down there? Oh sure they did.

23:42 Okay. The trolleys they used to hook up on the electrical wires. Right. And the kids used to pull those down. And did you go to the lunch counter there at Creske's? Well, I did, but um not a not a lot. Uh I used to like to eat at Mary Lee's uh candy shop. They had a lunch counter in there. And also there was a Cupies on Harrison Street, the old Cupies. And uh used to go in there a lot. Which is now Halo Burger's. Uh yeah, it's Halo Burger now.

24:24 And there was uh another place called the Home Dairy that was on the side street down there. I think that might have been I don't think it was Curley Street, it must have been First Street. Home Dairy that had and it was a cafeteria where you could just, you know, take a choose. Right, home dairy had a dairy counter. Uh and so so uh you raised your family, and over the p period of years that you raised your family, you were you became a snowbird. We did. Well tell us about it.

25:04 Well, we we kept a home down in Florida for many years, like 35 years, but I I could never give up Michigan. We thought we would give up and just go to one house one time, and I was so homesick for Michigan we only went about three months without having two homes. I had to have my place in Michigan. And you went to my home. You went to the Lakeland area, is that right? We lived in uh Lakeland and Port Richie. Okay. Both areas. That's in Tampa Bay area there. Uh just north of Tam north of uh St. Pete, Tampa. Now were you were you Tiger fans?

25:48 Were you baseball fans? We lived uh not far from the stadium down there in Florida where they did all their summer uh practice. Um or w well winter practice, I should say, because we were down there the winter too. Uh yeah, we were not far from the stadium at all. Do you have any baseball stories for us? No. All right. Watched it on TV. So so when you were living in Lakeland, you had some interesting neighbors during that period of time. Tell us about who they might have been. Well, the house across the street from us changed hands, and we were really surprised to find out that our new neighbors were George Jones, the country music icon, and his wife Nancy.

26:38 Nancy was his fourth wife. He was divorced from uh Annie then. Oh wow. And did he ever inter they were interesting neighbors? Very down to earth. You you couldn't have but love them. They were wonderful, sweet people. And did he ever play music for you? Uh no, but uh music. We used to talk out in the yard and they gave us a Christmas present every uh Christmas. Uh some unique gifts that uh no that were nice. He was on his fourth wave uh uh you said to me, what were your grandparents like?

27:19 My grandparents well m you're talking about maternal or paternal. Well, whatever I I I don't know one of them. I probably would tell you about my uh maternal grandparents because uh they got a divorce back in nineteen seventeen and and that that didn't occur very often back there. Uh seemed like the women would just stay in the marriage. But uh they had a unique situation and my grandmother filed for divorce. But I I thought you would get a kick out of this because uh my grandpa had to pay the costs, of course, and the attorney's fee was fifty dollars for the divorce, and the court costs were eleven dollars.

28:11 Wow. That probably was a lot of money in those days, eleven bucks. Um maybe it was. It just sounds so strange when you see it today, though. Yeah. What was the price of a gallon of gas if you remember when we were a kid? Uh I can remember when it was ten cents a gallon myself. Wow. So yeah. So you you also met some some interesting people besides George Jones. You met some famous people in your life. I do. Would you like to hear about? Yeah, for sure. Yes.

28:51 Would you like to hear about President Roosevelt? Eddie Grable? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I'm all ears. Any of them at all. Okay, um, well, they might the stories might be too long. Well, start with Bob Hope. Start with Bob Hope. When my husband was in the Navy, he was stationed aboard the USS Augusta. Yes. And that is the presidential flagship. When the president, then this would be President Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II. When the president was aboard a Navy vessel of any kind, it was the Augusta. And they had um uh state room all ready for him in preparation all the time for in case he made a visit.

29:41 He had a big brass bed that was bolted to the floor so it wouldn't shift when the boat did, or ship, I should say. And um so Jack was um Jack was a cook. He was a cook and he was also um uh in charge of the 40 millimeter guns. When they went in battle, they just dropped everything and went to the guns. But anyway, they were he was out with his buddies on leave. They were in Norfolk, and um when they came back two o'clock in the morning, they were hungry, and Jack went to the galley and fixed everybody steak, eggs, and hash brown.

30:27 Well, the president was on board and he smelled the aroma of that meal coming through the ventilation system, and he got hungry. So they were sitting at the table eating the guys, and they were sitting on milk crates, wooden milk crates, and they heard this uh rushing noise coming towards them. Suddenly the hatch popped open and a Marines shouted, Attention, and they helped the president through the door. They had to help him because uh I don't know if you well, he had polio and he couldn't couldn't walk by himself.

31:14 They had to have the whole ship altered so that he could get through the doorways and uh I guess they call them hatches and stuff. But it's all in my book. But anyway, so Jack got to cook the meal for the president. He sat and ate with the guys. Wow. What they talk about. He said not to tell Eleanor he was eating that late because she'd be mad. Well what about my what about Bob Hope?

31:57 Ark Hope, and I can't I I can't find the uh printed program to that, but I think it was around 1965. Ark Hope was flying into Flint to do a uh one-man show at the IMA auditorium. And um you I'm sure you know that he always catered to the uh military, just did all the shows and stuff for them. Well, because Jack was um uh disabled Navy, they asked if we would like to go to the airport and pick him up out of Bishop Airport. Well, we were thrilled to do it. Um he flew in in his own private jet, and uh he and his um well was his assistant, I guess.

32:45 I I don't know any other title, but anyway, another man that was traveling with him that took care of his needs. Uh we we drove them to the IMA auditorium and uh went oh his show was fabulous. He just entertained the people for two hours, just kept them laughing and stitches. And when the show was over, we took them back out to um to Bishop Airport, and while the plane was warming up on the tarmac, uh we chatted while his pilot was getting the plane ready, and he presented Jack with a pair of uh gold hufflinks.

33:34 So unique, they were in the um shape of his famous keynote profile. And you can't buy them at any store. You can only have them if you receive them directly from him. So so you still have them? Okay, Jack. You still you still gave them through when Jack passed away, I gave them to my oldest son. Oh, that's great. But they're still in our family possession, yes. So, Arlene, looking back over your life and translating back to what you see going on today, what what are the three biggest changes that that you you feel have have occurred?

34:21 Well, I can tell you that when I was a kid we used to have ice delivered to our house by horse and wagon, and now they've got cars on the driveway on the internet without any drivers in them. That big change. Yeah, for sure. And uh we used to keep in touch with penny postcards, send them through the mail, now you can hold the whole world of information in the palm of your hand. And I guess um remember when gas was ten cents a gallon. Well, we're starting to head that direction here a few months ago.

35:05 Yeah. What about people? You know, everybody always says people are different, you know, kids are different and all that sort of stuff. People, uh people are different. Uh, I find I have noticed the biggest change since people started using the internet. What change did you notice? They're not as polite as they used to be. They say things on the internet that they wouldn't say to your face. That's for sure. And people don't neighbor as much. When I was a kid, we all had front porches and the neighbors would all sit out at night and watch kids play. And we knew everything that went on in every neighborhood house, but people don't neighbor much anymore.

35:46 What's your uh as you look back at Flint, obviously it's endured quite a few changes, some some catastrophic. What's your take on all of that? What you know you've seen the city during its heyday, um and you've seen it at its lowest rate. The biggest change I see is that uh when all of the malls opened up, downtown Flint suffered. The malls. And I'm happy to say that it's making a comeback now. I'm glad to see a lot of good things taking place in Flint now, downtown Flint. Right. And uh I think So if you had if you had to give any advice to the generation to come, what would that be?

36:31 In regard to what? Well, just you know, you've lived a long life life in general? Yeah, you've lived a long life and you've experienced a lot of things in your life, and uh you've seen a lot of history, you've seen presidents come and go, you've seen trends change. I I have. Who would ever think that when I was born that you would see a man on the moon who it's it's pretty amazing the things I've seen in my lifetime? Um well let's let's put it in a different context. If you were talking to parents if you were talking to parents today of young kids, what kind of advice would you give them based on your many years of children? Take your kids to church.

37:13 Take your children to church. I can remember when my children, and this goes back a number of years, their kindergarten teacher told me then that she could tell the difference between the children that were raised in church. And that was many years ago. Yeah. Now it's still true today. Yeah. Arlene, uh, if you had to say uh looking at today's modern conveniences and all the wonderful things that have been been introduced to society, what what would you say is your favorite? My computer. I don't know how I got along without it.

37:56 I got it when I turned uh I was eighty when I got out of my computer, and my husband didn't want dad didn't want me to get one. He he said it was a tool of the devil. I said, well, honey, if not unless you push those keys, I'm not gonna be doing that. Yeah, I'm gonna call up the devil's website. I don't know how I ever got along without it. I left my computer. Well, you've had a hell of an amazing life. Uh Arlene, we're out of time. I could talk to you for quite some time, but you have an amazing, amazing life story. I would going back to this.

38:38 I was gonna get to that book here. First of all, there's a lot of ways to buy her book. And the the one way you can get her book, it's published, it was published by Christian Faith Publishing Company, which was the publishing date was 2019. And uh tell us a little bit about if somebody wants to find your book, how are we gonna find it? Is that the library? Can they get it at uh can can they get it on Amazon or how would we get your book? Well, there's a a lot of ways to get my book, but the best way to get it uh uh is if you order it directly through me, just private message me, and uh you will get an autograph copy.

39:25 And I actually sell it for less than they offer it online, and I offer free shipping, so it's a good deal all the way around. You get a personally autographed copy. All right, so they can find private message me. My first printing is already sold out, but I'm taking reserve orders on the post next printing. Okay, and they can find you on Facebook? Is that where they find you? Yes, Facebook. Okay, and it's Arlene A-R-L-E-N, and her uh last name is Crane C-R-A-N-E-N. E. Hyphen Kern. C-U-R-N-S. Correct?

40:06 Correct. Okay. Last name is C-U-R-N-S. So if those of you out there who've listened to this and are curious about those stories, those secret stories, then uh now you know how how you're gonna get into the real good stuff. Arlene, it's been a pleasure and an honor to be able to interview you. Um you know, you're some call you part of the greatest generation, and your generation certainly sacrificed a lot for this country and for the life that that we all live today, and we thank you for that. And uh, I would like to wish you many more good birthdays to come.

40:46 When is your birthday, by the way? New Year's Day. New Year's Day. I was born on 1927 on New Year's Day. Your New Year's baby. Well, thank thank you so much, and uh we appreciate all the time you've given. And I'll also include some information in the notes that go with this podcast as well as uh the uh video cast that we may make along with some pictures of Arlene. I'm gonna see if I can't get her to send me a few pictures. And we again thank you, Arlene. And this is Arthur Bush for Radio Free Flint, and uh we all hope you have a good day, and we're over and out. Thank you, and goodbye.