Quote Originally Posted by LouHat View Post
This sentiment pushes all my buttons. Way back in 1965 or 1966, we were visiting grandma near Inverness and Florence, and I asked my dad if I caught a pigeon, could I take it home to Plymouth. They all laughed and said "OK, sure". And I wandered around the streets, sidewalks buckled over elm roots [[I was only nine or ten years old), and I eventually cornered one in someone's backyard [[no adult supervision, I just wandered, and it was safe, just like Plymouth, but better, way better, like what London was, I thought). I took the pigeon back and showed them, and they all backed away from their promise, and I had to leave the pigeon behind. But it was a sweet time, and a sweet city. So, how do we get back to those times? Seriously, that's what needs to be done. But how? It's frustrating.
I'm here in Michigan because of my wife - and no other reason. My job is based on the west coast, and I work remotely [[and put up with difficulties that brings). Family is here but is slowly eroding.

I want this place to be better. I want to restore our strong family roots. I'd like one day to be part of the local economic solution. For the life of me, I can't figure out any viable step forward. And I've been thinking about this deeply for years.

Where I'm at now is this: we're NEVER going back to those great times. We need to chart a new course. And I don't know what that course is.

My story is a little different than yours. Mine is from the late 70's, where I too went roaming around the streets of East Detroit, down by city airport. Kenmore street. I decided to go play at the corner park, seemingly vacant. I climbed a slide, one of those with a lookout room at the top. And I was suprised to find a neighborhood boy hiding up there. He was on his own as well. I said hi. And then he dropped his drawers and pissed on the slide.

I'll never forget that lesson of neighborhood decline. By the time 1980 came, my family was completely gone from the city.