Unfortunately, my father was hospitalized in Beaumont on Dec. 18th and then moved to a nursing home for Christmas. I have young children, one of whom was ill on Christmas day. So, we went home for New Year's instead.
This was a good trip home. I got to drive on three of the main roads of Detroit's Westside. As I mentioned in my first post, Telegraph is a ghost town. Orchard Lake is doing a bit better I guess, but I am happy to report that good ole' Woodward Avenue is actually hanging in there. This was refreshing to see, as it really is probably the most important road in the history of the Detroit Metro Area.
I got to stay at a very nice hotel in Farmington - at 12 and Orchard. The day before New Year's it was a bit barren. At breakfast, we were the only ones there. The waitress said that it is always slow now. She went on to tell me about how in her neighborhood in Northville, 20 houses were abandoned. That made my Dayton neighborhood, with only four empty houses, sound like paradise.
I am happy to say that things perked up at the hotel for New Year Eve. It seemed to have more people in it. It was relatively quite. We had a great stay. However, as we were packing our carto head back to Southwestern Ohio, my husband noticed a bullet hole in the glass window of the hotel stairway. That shook me up a bit. Who knows if it was really a bullet hole. My husband is convinced it was. Maybe revelers were just brining in the new year good ole' American style shooting bullets in the air.
We had a great visit with my family though. Somehow, we have all weathered this financial tsunami with relatively little scars. I contribute this to my mother's steadfast faith in god and daily prayers and of course, luck of the Irish.
Just found your blog through the recommendation of Janet ("Twig") a fellow UD grad!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I was born and raised in Detroit (Grosse Pointe Farms) and now live in Ohio (Columbus). I adore my hometown and my parents and a few siblings live there, so we go back to visit every 6 weeks-ish. It is tragic to see how times have changed. Breaks my heart every time!
Keep on blogging! :)
I love Detroit too. My entire family is up there. I have relatives from GP. I try to make it up there every six weeks or so too. Glad to have a fellow Detroiter in the Buckeye state. When did you graduate from UD? I graduated in '95 and again in '02. Now, I teach English there. Cannot get enough of the place!
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