metro >> memory lane

Seems Like Old Times

Catching up with the 1956
Wayne State Sammys.

Wayne State's Old Main, the former Central High School

Harvey Gotliffe
Special to the
Jewish News

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16 April 16 • 2015

JN

n 1956, many
Jewish graduates
from Central High
School on Linwood
in Detroit, along with
a few from Mumford
High in Northwest
Detroit, became the
first in their families
Sammys enjoy lunch at the Mackenzie student union.
to attend college.
If they remained
in Detroit, they
might have joined
first auto. Others in the "old neighbor-
Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity at Wayne
hood" relied on the Dexter bus to get
University. In 1956, it was renamed
them to school on time, most of the
Wayne State University, and it was apro- time.
pos that the most prominent building
At lunchtime during the week, you
on campus was Old Main, which had
would find a group of Sammys hanging
opened in 1896 as the original Central
around "their table" in the Mackenzie
High School on Cass Avenue.
student union. On Wednesday nights,
Most of the Sammy fraternity mem-
they held their weekly meetings at
bers lived at home either in the Dexter
Hillel until November 1956 when they
and Linwood neighborhoods or in
moved into their own house at 664 W
Northwest Detroit where their families
Hancock.
had recently migrated. A half-dozen
After meetings, fraters filled tables
fraters had crossed Eight Mile Road
at Boesky's Delicatessen and Cocktail
and were living in either Oak Park
Lounge on Twelfth and Hazelwood.
or Huntington Woods. The far-north
Other eating hangouts included Lou's
Bloomfield area was still an isolated
Finer Delicatessen on McNichols, Katz's
Deli in Oak Park, Liberman's on Dexter
territory, with West Bloomfield High
opening in 1955.
or the Davison Coney Island. On week-
Whenever possible, those who lived
ends, Maria's Pizzeria and Restaurant
in the northwest and beyond traveled to on Puritan was a date-night destination.
Wayne in semi-organized carpools with
Each year, Sammys gathered at either
fraternity brothers who owned their
the Hillcrest Country Club or the Glen