"Everything that you post is negative. You must be a lonely bitter man." I'll make you a deal, dink. Send me my $900 and I'll be positive and happy. Sounds like a win-win situation. BTW, are you stalking me?
Somehow the place seemed much cooler when I thought it pronounced gray-t-ut. The proper pronunciation sounds kind of fruity.
I'm an east coaster an I never knew the correct pronunciation. Finally after all these years I know how to say it.
Years ago one of the Detroit T.V. stations got a new talking head for their newscasts. the guy wasn't a native Michigander and the first time he had to pronounce Gratiot he he pronounced it Grat-e-ot. People laughed about that for a long time. The speedshop was named after the road/street it was first located on, Gratiot Ave. Gratiot Ave was named after the Fort that was located in the city I live in, Port Huron, about 60 mile northeast of Detroit. The road ran between the two points and before the expressways was the main road from here to Detroit. The fort was active from about 1812-1879 when it was abandoned and the land was aquired by the city of Port Huron. My house stands on land that was once part of the Fort Gratiot military reseravtion. The township immediately on the north edge of the city is Fort Gratiot Twp. Gratiot Road/Ave still runs from here to Detroit. There is a Gratiot Cruise, much like the Woodward Cruise, but smaller because there was mucho cruising on Gratiot back in the day.
There were three major cruising roads / "public drag ways" all around Metro Detroit. Woodward, Gratiot & Telegraph,.... For really serious runs we would go to the "Ditch" (Michigan guys know what "The Ditch" is).... I did most of my Cruising & "Testing" on Telegraph,..... But I was known to frequent "The Ditch", Gratiot, and Woodward fairly often. Now back to Gratiot Auto Supply
So, after reading through all this, I think...No harm in printing out a couple decals, and stick em in your window. No Big Deal. Then, we can all see em and remember how cool it was, and smile. Anybody who owns any part of the name or logo shouldn't get bent about it. Just Don't Profit From It! All good, lawyers or not. Let it live on.
I still have the 10 x 3.5" jacket patch that was never used... Might be worth something one of these days...
Being an employee,... I had the Black nylon jacket with the red & white stripes on it with the big Gratiot Auto Supply patch on the back,.... A number of years ago I gave it to my ol' pal "Gator" who use to work for Hollywood Accessories because he was collecting anything he could on old Detroit Speed Shops.
I got that patch posted on this thread somewhere... Go back a few pages... Click on the thumbnail icon... It's the last one down...
Pauly g I think my dad bought your dad's 65?or so red Riviera chrome side pipes. Cragers and custom backseat. You would have to think way back and then some. Bill gave me a few horse stickers years ago recently they were found in a book I saved them in. my son made some cool t-shirts.
The Jalopy Journal
