During the riots the summer of 1967, I was 13 and I was living at my grandparents home on West Warren in Detroit.
My grandparents lived in the next block from the Training site for the Detroit Fire Department. When things got crazy, I was helping my mom and friends cook for the fireman who were stationed at the Training site during the riots. I remember on several occasions the blackouts and having to “hit the floor” because of sniper's bullets that were fired in our direction. I can also remember watching from my grandparents porch as the military tanks cruised up and down West Warren, hearing gunshots during the night ring out scaring us as we tried to sleep, and the ever present smell of smoke that filled the air for the several days of the destruction and looting. It was not a very good time.
