Rod Schnaar

Rod Schnaar

Rod Schnaar was 14 years old and living in Rosedale Park in July 1967. He had attended the Tigers baseball game but couldn't get home because the buses stopped running. Two Detroit police offers drove him home in their cruiser.

Detroit Historical Society

07/25/2015

Detroit Historical Society, Detroit, MI

en-US

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Southeastern Michigan, Detroit, Tiger Stadium, Rosedale Park, McNichols Street

I was a white, 14 year old kid living with my parents and older sister on Glastonbury in a rented home in the McNichols and Southfield area (Rosedale Park). My mother was a social worker in downtown Detroit and my father an attorney for the State of Michigan, also working in Detroit. I used to ride the bus to downtown Detroit and to Tiger Stadium on my own all of the time. I had been doing it for several years That Sunday, which was the day after the first incident occurred (July 24?), I walked a mile to Grand River and took the bus to sit in the upper deck centerfield bleachers and watch the Tigers play. It was $1.00 back then. After the game, I was waiting at a bus terminal to go home when a car drove up and a man got out and said there would be no more buses running that day. I don't remember exactly how, but I found myself walking into police headquarters on Beaubian to find a way home. I had no idea what was going on. I remember the man behind the desk looking at me in amazement and like I may have been crazy. Eventually, two detectives who live out my way and were going home for a break drove me home. I remember sitting in the back seat of their car while traveling the Lodge Freeway seeing the "Peace on Earth" sign written on a white sheet hanging from a building that became the iconic symbol of the riots. I also remember the men with their guns on the front seat beside them the entire time and a smoky haze in the air. My parents were thrilled and thankful when I was dropped off at home. A few days later, I was on a bus to visit my mother at work that was diverted on Warren Ave., because a sniper was nearby. I guess I hadn't learned my lesson yet. The following year, my parents moved us out to Southfield, and the rest is history. Detroit and my relationship to it were never the same again.

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Rod Schnaar

07/25/2015

Tigers stadium, police, Rosedale Park, McNichols Street