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There Went The Neighborhood - Audio Interview: Donald Simons

When: June 21, 2022

Donald Simons grew up on Fuller Street and attended Jones School as an elementary student in the 1950s. He recalls being encouraged by his sixth grade teacher Harry Mial and coach Andy Anderson. Mr. Simons went on to teach physical education.

More interviews are available in the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive.

 

Transcript

  • [00:00:01] HEIDI MORSE: Today is June 21st, 2022. I'm Heidi Morse, an archivist at the Ann Arbor District Library, and I'm speaking with Donald Simons about Jones School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Could you please say and spell your name?
  • [00:00:16] DONALD SIMONS: My name is Donald Lester Simons, D-O-N-A-L-D, L-E-S-T-E-R, S-I-M-O-N-S.
  • [00:00:32] HEIDI MORSE: Thank you. When and where did you grow up? Could you describe that for us?
  • [00:00:39] DONALD SIMONS: I grew up on 900 Fuller Street, which is in the middle of the block, along the railroad tracks. I lived about a mile and a half, probably, from Jones School.
  • [00:01:01] HEIDI MORSE: Did your family or your parents also grow up in Ann Arbor or did they move from somewhere else?
  • [00:01:08] DONALD SIMONS: No, they both grew up in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:01:12] HEIDI MORSE: Do you recall if they attended Jones School?
  • [00:01:17] DONALD SIMONS: That's a good question. I think they may have, but I don't recall. I'm pretty sure they both did.
  • [00:01:32] HEIDI MORSE: What were their names?
  • [00:01:35] DONALD SIMONS: Donald Fredrick Simons was my dad. My mother's name is Jean Irene Boyke Simons.
  • [00:01:48] HEIDI MORSE: Okay. I remember now you said, she's 98 now?
  • [00:01:52] DONALD SIMONS: Yes.
  • [00:01:53] HEIDI MORSE: Wow. Okay. On the topic of Jones School, thinking about your own childhood now, what grades did you attend there, and around what years or decade was that?
  • [00:02:10] DONALD SIMONS: Well, roughly 70 plus years ago, I entered kindergarten, and I completed all my elementary education at Jones School up through sixth grade. From there, I went to Tappan Junior High, and from there, I went up to Ann Arbor High School. In my kindergarten years, my first day of school was very impressionable, because my mother took me to school, and even recently, we talk about the day that she forgot to pick me up from school, my very first day of kindergarten. As a five-year-old, I found my way back home. I came outside, waited and no one picked me up, so I walked down to Division Street, turned right, and went down Kingsley, past the St. Thomas Church. I got to State Street, and I recognized the brick street and the roads I was in that at one time had trolleys and railroad tracks in the middle of the road. So I walked down State Street till I got down to Fuller Street, which went along the railroad tracks, and I knew I was going to be home. We lived in the middle of the block, a little further closer to Glen Ave, when I get to my house, my mother was raking the yard out, cleaning the yard, and she looked at me, and she was awed. She said, "What are you doing?" Or "What did I forget to do?" So to make a long story short, it was very impressionable for both of us that she forgot to pick me up, but I was able to walk home as a five-year-old.
  • [00:04:17] HEIDI MORSE: I can certainly see why you remember that one.
  • [00:04:21] DONALD SIMONS: Yes, it's very clear. She said, "You'll never let me forget it." I said, "Well, how could I?" [LAUGHTER] We haven't discussed in the last two or three years, but every now and then it'll come up. In kindergarten, I remember the rugs that I actually laid on, and that we'd always take a little nap, and get graham crackers and milk. I can visually see my rug now. The oval-shaped rug that had a combination of colors of, gray, green, and a little bit of white in it. But that's where we were supposed to take our naps. That's where teachers would probably get time to get a little peace of mind from the kids too. Because I ended up being an educator over the years. But anyhow, I remember that first kindergarten very clearly. We move on to second grade, there was a teacher that was named Mrs. Donnelly, who was a no mess teacher. She would not put up with mess in her classroom. Then I recall going into fifth and sixth grade, Mr. Harry Mial, who I think was the first or second Black teacher ever hired by the Ann Arbor Schools, he was my sixth grade teacher. He was a very honorable man, he was quite an athlete coming out of Eastern Michigan, I think, and I learned a lot about character through him. We actually had a little personal bit that I used to run away from young ladies and girls because I was bashful. He told me that by the time I got out of the ninth grade, I'd be probably chasing young girls. To the contrary, I did not do that. I came back after ninth grade going into high school and told him, and he reached in his pocket, he probably paid me off about two dollars worth of change. I do remember that [LAUGHTER] and I hope Joetta Mial can hear this tape, but I did go back and hold him to his word. That was sixth grade. Now, I remember the principal, Mr. Powrie was the principal there, and I vaguely recall that his wife was a teacher at Tappan Junior High. I remember Jones School because I picked up the clarinet and I started playing the clarinet then, and I remember they used to have a lot of school programs, and in particular, they had the cake walk. That was well-known. Adults and youth would come, buy tickets, I guess there's fundraisers, and do a cake walk.
  • [00:07:28] DONALD SIMONS: I only entered a couple of fights, but I didn't start either one and so I won't put those on record. In physical education was Mr. Andy Anderson, and he was quite the avid basketball coach, and he taught basketball. I was told years after I got up to high school that Mr. Anderson--and I think Tim Ryan also who was a track coach at Pioneer High eventually--but Andy Anderson, I was told, he taught physical education but he lost his job as the head coach at the Ann Arbor High under pressure because I was told that he started five Black ball players back in the early '50s. Whether it was valid, true or not, I heard it from more than one source, so that's the best as I recall, and I'm just telling you like it is and what was told to me. One of the highlights I remember as a fifth or sixth grader, that I was very proud of, that I won the citywide elementary school hop, step, and jump. I used to walk home and practice hop, step and jump on the concrete sidewalks on a regular basis. I got good at my coordination, and we had a city championship meet over at Mack School, and that was the first real big-time prize I won. The hop, step, and jump, which today in collegiate and Olympic Games is called the triple jump. Just yesterday I met the Eastern Michigan grad named Donald Scott, he is a professional triple jumper now and he represents the United States. I talked to him yesterday and he took seventh in the recent Olympic games. I was also an avid EMU follower of track and field, and other sports. Now, let's see if I left anything out in regards of my recapping of the school.
  • [00:10:08] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember what year that championship for the hop, skip and jump was that you won it?
  • [00:10:15] DONALD SIMONS: I won it in probably somewhere around [NOISE] '55 or '56. It was actually the year after I won the Camp Birkett championship over at the YMCA. I was camp champ with the archery. Camp Birkett was a very popular camp through the YMCA that would go up to Silver Lake. For three years, I attended Camp Birkett, and I do remember, it was either the same year or a year after that I was camp archery champ, out of Camp Birkett. So I think it's probably somewhere around '55, or maybe '56.
  • [00:11:08] HEIDI MORSE: I'll have to take a look at our photograph archive and see if we have anything.
  • [00:11:16] DONALD SIMONS: I can still see myself doing it, and the key was that you got to have power speed, but you also have to be coordinated to do the hop, step, and then jump at the same time to get to get yourself your distance. But I practiced all the way home, it's a wonder I have any legs left underneath me practicing on that concrete. I don't think there's anything else I missed. I talked about Mr. Mial who eventually became principal at Northside School and his wife, Joetta, as you probably know, she became principal at Ann Arbor Huron High.
  • [00:12:01] HEIDI MORSE: I remember you wanted to tell me about your dog, Toughy, I think.
  • [00:12:05] DONALD SIMONS: Oh, I'm so glad you have the memory to remember that, yes. When I was about 3rd or 4th grade, my family got me a dog, a German Shepherd. Just about a year-and-a-half, two years before I got out of grade school, Toughy would either sometime walk me to school, but at least two or three days a week, he would be waiting for me outdoors. Somewhere between 2:30 and 3:30, I'd go outside and he's laying there waiting for me to come out. I don't know how long he waited there, if he went home and came back, but somehow he had a clock in his head as to what time I might be coming out because he was never out there when we went out for recess, so I'm wondering if he had a time he went for walks at the time because he was very prompt and he was there fairly regular. Thanks for reminding me about Toughy. He lived from about 12-13 years. His name Toughy was very appropriate, he was the king of the block, he ran that side of the town.
  • [00:13:31] HEIDI MORSE: In terms of the education that you received at Jones School, did you feel academically prepared for junior high and high school?
  • [00:13:44] DONALD SIMONS: I didn't have any problem for either one of them when I got there. Yes, so I think I was adequately prepared for that. Not just academics, but back then there was more discipline in schools, and youth were not allowed to get away with much, or as much, back then as they seem to have--in some schools, the youth run the hallways, and the teachers, administrators don't have a handle on some of the discipline. Not saying everywhere, but it has changed. [OVERLAPPING] Go ahead.
  • [00:14:37] HEIDI MORSE: Do you remember--Jones school was shut down in the mid '60s. Did you know anyone who had to change schools because of that or did you hear conversations around that decision?
  • [00:14:49] DONALD SIMONS: I've never heard any conversations or anyone who had to change school at that time. In the mid '60s, I was so much into my athletics and I was in college at that time, so I never heard about it, but there was a gentleman that was in my classes over at Eastern Michigan that actually, at one point in time, became the principal of Ann Arbor Community High sometime in the '70s. It was quite surprising to me and astounding that he got the position, but he also was about 8-10 years older than most of us that were taking classes at the time. His resume and his credentials certainly qualified for him to be in that position. You may want to look it up. I think his name was Dean Bodley. If not, for some reason that name pops out at me.
  • [00:15:46] HEIDI MORSE: I did take a look since you mentioned him and I found a 1972 article that says he was appointed principal at Community High School.
  • [00:15:58] DONALD SIMONS: My memory's not too bad back there. That was it, '72.
  • [00:16:01] HEIDI MORSE: Right on.
  • [00:16:03] DONALD SIMONS: Yeah.
  • [00:16:09] HEIDI MORSE: I understand that you also were a teacher. Did you want to share anything about that? Were you ever a teacher in the Ann Arbor school system? [OVERLAPPING]
  • [00:16:19] DONALD SIMONS: No, I tried. I graduated at Eastern Michigan with a double degree in physical education and science. I went on to get my special education certification. While I was in college, I worked at Maxey Boys School. Once I came out of college, I tried to get in Ann Arbor. But the paperwork was so slow I ended up taking up full-time teaching job at Maxey Boys School. I worked year-round as opposed to a 41-42 week teacher. They didn't bother me when I was in my youth, but the program never changed. It was constantly a year-round program as a teacher. So I taught out at Maxey for 32 years. I retired from there and then went up to Boysville, which is down on the way, south of Saline. I worked at Saline for eight plus years. I was the head of the physical education department down in Saline. And at Maxey I taught physical education and health for several years, taught health also.
  • [00:17:43] HEIDI MORSE: That's quite a career. I'm sure you influenced a lot of people. [OVERLAPPING]
  • [00:17:49] DONALD SIMONS: Thank you very much. I think I did, and I think they influenced me too, because year-round as an educator wore me out. At the end, you put in so many hours as an educator, because the youth that were committed at Maxey Boys School were wards of the state. They were the youth that they couldn't make it in society at their age. Their parents couldn't handle them, the schools couldn't handle them, the streets couldn't handle them, so they were wards of the state. They generally had a list of several problems in regards to behavior up to mostly criminal activity. Those were the youth I dealt with. Then in the '90s, unfortunately, the state's so-called leaders just wiped out the mental health facilities. It might have been earlier, it might have been mid-80s up to the '90s. Early '90s all the mental health facilities were just dissipated. Eastern State Hospital, Hawthorn, Lafayette, Pontiac State Hospital, all those facilities that would accommodate and help those who needed mental health assistance at some point in their life, our so-called know-it-all leaders just abolished those programs, which is clearly a reflection of what we're dealing with in the last 15, 20 years in our society. Never, there's not enough prevention intervention programs for those in need of mental health. I'll stand on a platform behind that. Unfortunately, I don't know if you remember that or know the history on that, but it was a bad thing. I think Engler was governor at the time and I won't go down that road, I'll leave that road alone. I was in labor management for a while too, that's how I can remember that. It was a bad move as far as people move.
  • [00:20:16] HEIDI MORSE: Now, while you were working at Maxey Boys School and then Boysville, were you living in Ann Arbor at that time?
  • [00:20:29] DONALD SIMONS: Yes. I lived in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:20:32] HEIDI MORSE: Okay.
  • [00:20:32] DONALD SIMONS: The whole time. I've always lived in Ann Arbor.
  • [00:20:36] HEIDI MORSE: Would you like to share anything about your views on how the neighborhood surrounding Jones School has changed over the years?
  • [00:20:46] DONALD SIMONS: Well, it's pretty clear. Well, one thing that changed I think it was Diroff's store has become Zingerman's. I used to go through Diroff's store and pick up little two cent, three cent, five cent pieces of candy or something like that. But it's early '80s Ari and a co-worker took over that and turned it into Zingerman's, which now is nationally well-known for their deli and their food services, including their Jackson Road facility. That happened in 1982, '83, or '84. Matter of fact it was exactly 40 years ago because they're celebrating the 40th anniversary this year. I speak to Ari couple of times a year and he's quite the gentleman. He really supports the community in many ways.
  • [00:21:58] HEIDI MORSE: That's a great connection from Diroff's to Zingerman's, a few people have mentioned that.
  • [00:22:11] DONALD SIMONS: It was quite a connection. My first time I met Ari, maybe 6-7 years ago. I told him I went to the school right behind where we met that day to talk at the deli.
  • [00:22:25] HEIDI MORSE: [PAUSE] Okay. That is most of my questions, unless there's anything else about your memories of Jones School or the neighborhoods surrounding it, when you were growing up, that you'd like to share.
  • [00:22:47] DONALD SIMONS: Well, the neighborhood has definitely changed. It's been modified by larger, more modern homes. Fuller Street, the whole street used to be minority. That was the Black neighborhood, as well as Glen Ave. State Street, across the street from St. Thomas, was predominantly white. Matter of fact, Judge Thomas O'Brien lived on that street. He was a very well-known judge. I know his son. I used to play golf with his son Tommy O'Brien, who was also a lawyer now. That's how that neighborhood was broken up then. I didn't realize it at the time, but as you got much older, I went into college and actually got my real estate license a few years ago, and I see how things were created in separate living arrangements or accessing people into certain neighborhoods. I think in one of my other interviews, I mentioned living on Fuller Street during the wintertime, the trains would come by. If you had a nice snowstorm, the trains burned coal back in the '50s, and you'd come outside, you'd see soot on the snow. That was no place to live back then, but it changed 20 years now that people of influence and wealth have taken over that whole block. Not the same. Matter of fact, most of Ann Arbor is not the same. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but the African American / Black neighborhoods are not connected with the density it once was. Actually, not connected hardly at all. Might as well say it like it is. Wall Street used to be predominantly Black also. Well, I learned a lot going to Ann Arbor schools. I think I learned a lot. The teachers did a great job in preparing me for college. Even though when I was a senior in high school, I dropped out of the college curriculum course for some reason, I don't remember why. So when I went to Eastern Michigan and took the test to get in, I got in, and I was so afraid of failing because several of my friends said, "You cannot make it in college, you dropped out of the college curriculum." But I ended up being, in my junior year, I was selected and inducted into the National Honor Society for educators, and I was proud of that. The society was called Kappa Delta Pi. I paid the memberships and belonged to it for over 25 years, [OVERLAPPING] so I was proud if it because when I first walked in the door, I was afraid I wasn't going to make it. I sound like I'm wagging my own tail; I guess I am.
  • [00:26:12] HEIDI MORSE: No. [LAUGHTER] I think that's a great accomplishment, especially not knowing, when you entered, how it would go, so congratulations.
  • [00:26:25] DONALD SIMONS: Thank you.
  • [00:26:30] HEIDI MORSE: Obviously, you went on to be an educator yourself. Like I said, that's just a great legacy to leave.
  • [00:26:41] DONALD SIMONS: Well I ended up at Maxey, because the state keeps track of your hours, I had roughly 67,000 hours on task at Maxey before retiring for two or three months, and then I got a job at Boysville in which I worked eight more years. But in the late '80s, I'd like to make this a matter of record, I'm proud that I founded and became the president of a prevention/intervention program, and it was called Inbounds. The mission and purpose of that was to reach out and do a program to enhance the character of youth and families. That had quite a bit of success for a few years.
  • [00:27:37] HEIDI MORSE: That's great.
  • [00:27:42] DONALD SIMONS: In this society, ma'am, there's not enough money put into prevention/intervention programs; it's put in corrections. When I was in college, the educators shared with me, but still years later, I thought it was important to put up a prevention/intervention program to help youth and families, but money is not there to really help them. For every dollar in prevention/intervention programs, at one point, there were 6-8 dollars spent on corrections. That's how much would have been saved if more money was put into prevention.
  • [00:28:27] HEIDI MORSE: Wow. It sounds like a no-brainer.
  • [00:28:32] DONALD SIMONS: Yes. It should've been a no-brainer, but it's not a no-brainer. Correction is a big, big enterprise.
  • [00:28:47] HEIDI MORSE: Well, thank you very much, Donald.