Life on the Riviera!

I'm guessing that after you read the title of this post you think that I am going to talk about living in some exotic foreign land with all the beautiful people on the famous beach. Sorry Charlie.....that isn't going to be the case. Nope, this is going to be about the house that our family moved into in June 1956 when I was approaching my 8th birthday. The name of the street we moving onto was Riviera. I was to spend the next 16 years there except for a couple little side trips. Once was about 10 weeks in Silverwood, MI working on my uncle's dairy farm (that is worth several posts all by itself) during the summer of 1965 and the 19 months in the Army using up most of 1968 & 1969. Riviera was a great place to grow up. I suppose that most people think that where they grew up is the best place. I feel so sorry for all of them because Riviera WAS the best place to grow up. I had some of the greatest friends while growing up. Unfortunately I no longer am in contact with most of them. Of my closest friends during those years I am only in contact with one. I am keeping in touch with many other friends that were within 2 or 3 blocks of where I lived. There were lots and lots of kids that lived in that neighborhood. Just on my block of Riviera there were 7 boys and 6 girls who were near my age. There was ALWAYS someone to play with. What about things to do. Holy Activity Batman!! First of all there was the street itself. There was traffic but not a lot so there was little problem running to and fro across the street. All the houses had good back yards and most didn't have fences...all that just made the yards bigger. There were sidewalks that we could break all kinds of land speed records riding our bikes. My bike when I first moved there was a little bike. I have no idea what the brand was. I had had that bike since I was about 4 or 5. I did the "training wheel" riding on it and learned the art of two wheeling with that bike. Later I got a Western Flyer from Western Auto. Bicycle riding was a big part of our lives as it was with the lives of most kids our age. We had an elementary school only 4 blocks away that had a great playground and ball fields. In the other direction there was a little corner store that was the favorite spot for turning in pop bottle for the refunds, buying candy, buying baseball cards, and sodas. That was two blocks away. One block farther on the next corner was another corner store. It is amazing that these two stores very similar in nature both seem to thrive. Then one more block was the drug store. Each of those stores had its own appealing feature so depending on what we after we would decide which store to go to....sometimes all three. Also four blocks away was what we called "The Sand Pit". It was a huge area of nothing but dug out land. It had cliffs (cliffs might be a strong word but when you are 8, 9, 10, or 11 they were cliffs) and dunes and more nothing. So much time playing Army or cowboys or just hanging and talking was spent at the Sand Pits. All of the above would already make Riviera one of the greatest places ever to grow up BUT the biggest attraction was THE BEACH. The neighborhood which was about 5 blocks wide and maybe 6 or 7 blocks deep had a beach. It was in my opinion the nicest beach in that whole area and Waterford, MI had a lot of beaches. From my house The Beach was .8 of a mile. From Memorial Day until Labor Day the beach was open every single day. There was a club house, a little (very little) store, swings, a merry-go-round, teeter totters, monkey bars, a shallow dock, a deep dock, a slide on land, a slide in the water, lots and lots of sand, a life guard (usually one of the better swimmers of the older teens of the neighborhood), picnic areas, boating docks, and more. It was a massive delight. It opened at 9:00 AM so at about 8:55 we were mounting our bikes for that .8 of a mile ride. The fun never stopped. If you weren't having fun growing up there it was your own fault. I learned to have fun and enjoy life on Riviera and the experiences taught me to have fun and enjoy life ever since.