In Which My Mother Goes Erin Brockovich on Ferndale

You most likely know who Erin Brockovich is. Her story was made famous by Julia Roberts in the film called, "Erin Brockovich."


Erin was a legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite  any legal education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1993 for pollution of the groundwater and subsequent poisoning of people who lived there.


While chatting with my father this weekend, I learned my mother pulled an Erin Brockovich in about 1950 in Ferndale, Michigan. 








The red asterisk in the Google map screen shot shows where we lived at the time in Ferndale, on Woodland Ave. North of Nine Mile, east of Woodward Ave. What's important to note is the railroad running diagonally northwest-southeast just a block east of our house.

And if you check this photo screen grab, you can see there was (and still is) a big factory in between our house and the railroad. It is THIS factory that started all the fuss in our household.

If you study this photo of my mother and father taken shortly after the end of WWII,  you can see that Maxine was barely 90 pounds at the time and was not even five feet tall!


Even so, she was a feisty, independent woman who had waited her entire life to have a family (she was orphaned early and grew up with her older siblings all over the country). Now the war was over, and all she wanted for the rest of her life was a husband, a home, and children.


And so, about three years after this photo was taken, that's what she had. Dad was graduated from architectural school and working as an architect. They had purchased a home on Woodland Avenue.


I came along and then my sister came along. It was a pretty nice life for her--a dream come true. A cozy little house. A handsome husband who went off to the "office" during the day. A pretty mother who took care of her two cute little girls.


BUT, then, it happened.  One morning my mother discovered during the night the factory's chimneys has thrown something into the air and covered the lawns all around with a fine white powder! To say my mother was alarmed is an under-statement! I can imagine how angry she was! How worried for her children and all the other children in the area. Was it safe for her girls to play outside in the yard anymore? What could she do to protect her daughters from this unknown peril?


Well, here is what she did.


My mother organized all the women in her neighborhood. They marched down to the next city council meeting to confront the mayor and the city council, who I'm quite sure were all men. My dad stayed home to babysit the girls. There was my Momma, all 100 pounds and 4 feet 11 inches of her, bawling out the Mayor of Ferndale, Michigan!

And Dad remembers the Mayor agreed with my mother!


Dad doesn't remember what happened after that. It was over 60 years ago. Not much must have happened. Certainly no permanent resolution to the problem. No scientific tests of the white powder. No Erin Brockovich-type court case or monetary settlement for the injured.


He just remembers my Mom's battle with City Hall and the Mayor of Ferndale. And he remembers that not too long after that Mom found us a new house a few miles away from the factory. It all ended with an anti-climatic whisper and a move across town.

Here is a photo of my mother, father, sister and I taken a couple of years after this story took place. 
Also pictured: my grandparents, Eva and Clifford Knapp.

Until, 60 years later, my Dad told me this story for the very first time!


I now have a different image of my little Momma in my mind's eye. My pretty little Momma, who had her own personal Erin Brockovich moment--confronting the Ferndale City Council and Mayor and subsequently moving her precious family away from the Ferndale factory. 


I'm proud to have this new image in my mind! I didn't know she went to bat for her girls when we were only 3 and 1 years old. Good for you, Momma! I will think of you now as the Erin Brockovich of Ferndale, Michigan! You were quite the Woman!