CROSS-BORDER CONNECTION
Photos show Windsor-Detroit bond
The close cross-border relationship between Windsor and Detroit over the generations is the focus of a photographic exhibit this week. A River Runs Between Us is the brainchild of Elaine Weeks and Chris Edwards — owners of Walkerville Publishing and authors of seven local history books — and runs through Saturday at Artspeak Gallery at 1942 Wyandotte St. East. “We just thought it would be really cool to show some of the photos from our books, just ways that Windsor and Detroit are connected,” Weeks said Monday during the opening of the exhibit.
“And so one wall has Windsor pictures and the other is Detroit with the floor as like the symbolic Detroit River between us.” The exhibit is open daily through Friday from 1 to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The photos take viewers back all the way to the 1920s. “We’ve got pictures of Prohibition days because that’s a huge time when both sides were interacting because we were providing the booze from this side and they were lapping it up on the Detroit side and a lot of people made money,” Weeks said.
“The river, when it froze, was the passageway back and forth for the booze.”
There are also pictures from the Second World War years, through the 1950s and into the Motown era. “It’s sports, it’s the food, it’s the shopping, Hudson’s, of course, the raceway, Windsor Raceway, the bridge, the tunnel, the TV, Bozo the Clown and the zoo is here. Boblo, the car factories,” Weeks said. “It’s industry, it’s culture, it’s entertainment, it’s the war years, it’s all here.”
There is also a blown-up photo of the border in the tunnel with flags for people to take selfies and a popup bookshop.