Fred Bridges parents, Thomas Jones
and Clara Law, came north to Detroit from Alabama in
the search for work like so many of their contemporaries.
While many of the migrants set up
home near the river in Black Bottom, Fred's family settled
in a house on Chandler Street in the North End, before
moving to Josephine Street where Fred and his family
live to this day.
Fred became Thomas and Clara's only
sibling in 1938, and his earliest memory of his Father
is as a doorman at one of Downtown Detroit's premier
hotels, The Statler in Grand Circus.
"It was a grand job because
he was dressed to kill. You know, the long black coat
with gold buttons and a captain's hat."
Fred's Mother, Clara, was a housewife
who had became a Born-Again Christian in the mid-forties,
and much of her spare time was spent helping out at her
church, The Greater Bethlehem Temple at 2900 West Chicago
Boulevard.
The move to the city took it's toll
on Thomas and Clara's marriage however, and they divorced
in 1950.
By
then Thomas was self-employed, and had taken a foothold
in the local Jukebox market. Avoiding overheads by
operating from home, he first set up base on Oakland
Street, then Elmhurst in Highland Park. Before finally
settling at # 204 Tennyson.
Business was booming in the Motor
City and Jones Automatic Music had become one of it's
success stories. |
