a remarkable
can-do knack recovering
from adversity
Growing up in a large family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there was an unexpected benefit in being in the ‘2nd half’ in the kid line up.
I was 8th of 11 kids.
Up at that top half, most of my older brothers and sisters went off to college at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
That meant that at least three times a year, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring Break, my Dad would take a day off to drive to Ann Arbor and pick up whoever was coming home for break.
What made it a benefit for us in the lower half of the family was that he would take a couple of out of school to make the trip with him and he would take us on into Detroit and see the sites.
Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum.
The Detroit Institute of Art.
The Detroit Historical Museum.
Lunch in Greek Town.
Maybe a drive over to Windsor, thru the Windsor the Tunnel on the way their and back over the Ambassador Bridge on the way back.
We often went to Chicago to visit family, but Detroit was our city, the family ball club (though I flirted with the White Sox for a few years (it was a Bill Veeck thing) and Dad was always a Cub fan), the family football team.
We knew what ‘being stuck in Lodge’ meant (before sound barriers made all freeways feel like driving down the Lodge even though no one was throwing bowling bowls off of sound barriers like might happen to you down in the Lodge).
We knew you could park on TOP of Cobo Arena.
We knew where to park to eat lunch in Greek town.
That was back in late 1960’s early 1970’s.
When I ended up in Ann Arbor, Detroit was now just a 40 minute trip away and my sister was living in downtown and I often found myself in the City.
Also when you are used to having to make a three hour trip to see a Detroit Tiger Baseball Game, that 40 minute trip from Ann Arbor was nothing and we went to a lot of ball games at stadium located at The Corner.
Detroit, La Ville de Troit, the Village on the Straits, has been through a lot since then.
Hard to believe now that it was once the 5th largest city in the United States with 2.5 million people living and working in the city.
Then white flight to the suburbs, the plug gets pulled on the Auto industry and a lot of other issues combined to leave Detroit standing … but empty.
Anthony Bourdain would say in his 2013 Parts Unknown Show that Detroit isn’t just a national treasure. It IS America. And wherever you may live, you wouldn’t be there—and wouldn’t be who you are in the same way—without Detroit.
Who will live in the Detroit of the future? There’s no question, is there, that Detroit will come back? In one form or another, a city this magnificent, this storied, this American cannot, will not ever disappear into the weeds. There are too few places this beautiful for it to be allowed to crumble like Ankor or Rome.
Someone will live in a smaller, tighter, no doubt hipper, much contracted new Detroit. But who will that be? Will it be the people who stuck it out here, who fought block-by-block to keep their city from burning, who struggled to defend their homes, keep up appearances as all around them their neighborhoods emptied.
What will Detroit look like in 20 years? Or 50? That’s not just a Detroit question. That’s an America question.
So imagine how I felt this morning when I logged into the New York Times on my tablet to their Travel Feature 36 Hours in … focused on Detroit (Click here).
The article states: But Detroit has a remarkable knack for recovering from adversity, each time rising phoenixlike with renewed creativity and an undaunted can-do spirit.
And points out: Last but not least, the city buzzes with excitement over the newfound success of the Lions, who have, much like the city, risen from down-and-out to greatness.
In a way I felt, Detroit was back.
The New York Times said so on the travel feature subtitled The one-stop resource for our travel guides, which tell you what to do when you’ve got 36 hours to get to know a city.
In 2025, it is recommended that to get to know the city of Detroit you should visit The Detroit Institute of Art, The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village and eat in Greek Town.
Oh and the new Gordie Howe Bridge would be opening soon and a quick visit to Windsor would be even easier.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose?
No Haiku For You 