DETROIT – 1974. The year President Nixon resigned.
Hank Aaron beat Babe Ruth's home run record.
Mayor Coleman Young took office as mayor of Detroit.
And a woman named Myrdis Applewhite moved into her home on the west side.
Why is that so special?
Well, shortly after moving in she filed her first complaints with the city about the dilapidated house next door.
Many people fight blight next to their homes for a year or two, maybe five years. And there's Applewhite's fight. She's been working on getting a house torn down for 40 years.
"This is a very happy day," the long-time Detroit resident said Tuesday.
Happy indeed because she won't have to look at this eyesore every time she walks out her door. Forty years of neglect, including overgrowth so bad you almost couldn't tell there is a home here.
"Possums, groundhogs, a duck, stray cats, stray dogs ..." Applewhite said, listing off problems next door. "Prostitutes in this house. I've had the dope dealers in and out of this house."
Those problems ended Tuesday with the demolition.
Applewhite remembers the start of the problems 40 years ago when a woman and her daughter moved out. Quickly the home fell into disrepair, but it took the city four decades to step in.
"For a resident to have to live next to something like this, it's pretty refreshing to be able to get it down," said Sean Davis, from the City of Detroit.
"I was patient," added Applewhite, whose patience was finally rewarded.
With every dig of the backhoe this morning, her smile grew bigger and bigger until finally, the sun was shining on this spot on Oakfield for the first time since 1974.
"Oooooooh weeeee!," Applewhite said. "I was happy and I said, 'Thank you, Lord! And I just wanted to dance!"
Now Applewhite can buy this lot for $100 under a city program, but as she told me -- no thanks. I have all I can handle with my own house.