Flushing Updates

[VeeFan]

I never really carried this over from the Urban Planet forum, but the developments haven't stopped in Flushing. ;)

Some updates since about November:

*City Hall is finally finished and the administration has finally moved in. A study is being done to see what should happen to the old building.

*New Middle School was finished at the end of December/early January, and classes began there last Monday (it's monumentous!).

*DEQ finished its soil testing at the corner of Main St and Maple, the ornamental clock should be going in this spring, as soon as the ground softens.

*A new vendors' strip opened up near the new Bueche's, one of the tenants being H&R Block.

*Commercial development continues in the Elms Road/Pierson Road intersection as well as further down Pierson Road towards Linden Road; more residential plots are being bought and rezoned for commercial use.  Many businesses are also undergoing facelifts, or changing owners (Sorrentos is undergoing an expansion to add larger waiting area as well as 15-20 more seats).

*Somehow more subdivisions are being built off of Coldwater Road, and an expansion of the Needles off of Seymour Road will nearly triple the current size.

[VeeFan]

Flushing should just build a new high school already, they've been adding onto it or making renovations just about every year now.  They're remodelling the cafeteria and kitchen now, because like the rest of the district there is starting to be a crowding problem in the high school as well.

[dnast]

Flushing seems to be on the move now. I'm glad some of those projects have finally wrapped up. I don't get out of the house as much in the winter, but I'll have to make a quick trip over there and take a look.

[OnceARaider]

A Flushing 'Backdate' to 1959

Flushing should just build a new high school already,
they've been adding onto it or making renovations just about every year now.  
They're remodelling the cafeteria and kitchen now, because like the rest of the district
there is starting to be a crowding problem in the high school as well.

Before the FSHS building on Deland Rd. was built there were two daily sessions to
accommodate grades 7 - 12 at the until lately FJHS building on Chamberlain.  


The Deland Rd. location was occupied in Spring '61

Some of FHS Class of '65, including my brother, attended in the basement of


what was then the Community Center in this building.
  
Which was less of shock than the transition to Chamberlain from


Warner School on Flushing Rd. 1970


Warner E.S. 2000, now a condo, on Flushing Rd..

[VeeFan]

The pictures came out fine.

I never knew that house/condo on Flushing Road used to be a school, which is kind of strange because isn't that Mount Morris Township?

[OnceARaider]

The pictures came out fine.

I never knew that house/condo on Flushing Road used to be a school, which is kind of strange because isn't that Mount Morris Township?

Yes, it was / is Mt. Morris township.  On further study Warner School is just inside Flint township.  Luce Rd. is in Mt. Morris township.

We lived at the crest of the first 'hill' on Luce Rd. going N from Flushing Rd. and if our driveway had been on the N side of the lot we'd have ridden school bus rather than walked to Warner ES.  The rule was walk to school if under 1 mile.  K-6th later K-3rd kids from as far E as Linden Rd. attended to Warner ES.  I caught school bus at Luce & Flushing Rds. into town after 6th grade.

For sometime there were no houses, only Dalton Airport N of us on the W side.  There was but one house N of us, Horton's, two story farmhouse on the E side probably now just N of the Crouse school district building grounds.  Horton kids rode bus into town on Pierson Rd..

[VeeFan]

While I'm thinking of this, when you went to Flushing was the mascot the original 'Raider' that was named after an army division in the Korean War?

And I hate that entire rule about which side of the road it has to be.  I had a friend in elementary school that if his parents had bought the original house they intended over on Mount Morris Road he would have had to go Clio but then the other side of Mount Morris (south side) would have been able to go to Flushing.

[OnceARaider]

First & Only Raider 'EyeCon'

While I'm thinking of this, when you went to Flushing was the mascot the original 'Raider' that was named after an army division in the Korean War?

Would be interesting to hear more regarding what you know about the Korean War connection.

Below from a classmate quite well positioned, IMHO, to know!:

The current “Raider” [above] was the result of a contest that was held just prior to the opening of the new (present) high school during what would have been our sophomore year [i.e. 1960-1].  Prior to the current one, I don’t think that there was any mascot associated with the name “Raider.”  

I always figured that the raider was so horrible that to put it into a visible form might cause panic all up and down the Flint River.  I was sort of disappointed to find it an overweight, helmet-wearing bird.

[VeeFan]

My Freshman year, my American History teacher had told us that the Raider originally was named after the army division of a former teacher who had fought in the Korean War.  The mascot for that had been a soldier carrying some sort of weaponry (I want to say bayonette but I know that's not right).

But for the current mascot, the rumor always was that it was a joke submitted by some art students and that the raider bird was a pregnant penguin.  

[OnceARaider]

Junior No More
Old school packed with memories for generations

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/flushing/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1140555042297040.xml&coll=5

Henderson said she has enjoyed sharing her memories with current students, but it's hard for them to understand just how significant the old middle school building was to the community.

"They can't fathom how long ago it was that I went there," Henderson said. "They also can't understand that all the grade levels were here or that there was a time that the addition wasn't here."

They probably couldn't grasp one of John Rowe's recollections, either. Rowe recalled the field behind the school - primarily used by the district's early childhood program in recent years - being used as the varsity football field.

"The guys played afternoon games because there were no lights," said Rowe, a 1955 graduate. "Also, there were always a lot of stones in the field, and the coaches used to make the guys go out there and pick up the stones as a form of discipline."

While students today may occasionally walk downtown to the A&W for a treat after school, they probably never thought of walking over to Flushing Florists on Coutant Street for a candy bar at lunch. But that's a favorite memory of Eichorn, though it wasn't Flushing Florist at the time.

"That was one of the highlights of lunchtime - walking over to Bump's Flowershop to buy a candy bar," she said.

Former students are glad the district plans to use the building, and there's a chance for new memories to be made there. Work already is under way to convert the school into an early childhood and community education center.

"It would be very disappointing if it had been torn down or if it was just going to sit empty," Henderson said. "I was the youngest of five in my family to go through the school, and all five of my children went through the school, so it's a special place."

Do I [FHS'63] remember football games behind the school S of Coutant?  OR were they played on field behind Central ES before it was built [in '59 ?] ?

A classmate replies:

You may not remember games behind the old high school.  I do, but I was really young and going to games with my dad.  The football field was constructed behind Central Elementary about the time we were in third grade [~'53-4].  The "fieldhouse" constructed at the same time became an overflow for sixth graders who could not fit into Central.