Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Day in Detroit 09

For the past few years my sister Becky has taken my boys for a "Day in Detroit." In the past it was to help out with child care during the summer but this year she still did it and I came along too.

We started out in Hamtramck where she lives, and went inside of the Community Services Building so that we could view a mural on the wall of the recreation room that depicts the History of Hamtramck. It is interesting to look at but the real reason we did this was to see the image of Colonel Hamtramck. Since there are no known pictures of the real Colonel the artist (who Becky knows) modeled it after the person who dressed as Colonel Hamtramck in the Hamtramck Days Parade. That person happens to be Becky's husband, Hal. It's a reasonable likeness:

Next we went to the New Center area to visit our cousin Derek who has a deli/store inside of the DPS building. We got to see the back rooms in the basement, and the underground parking, and Uncle Buddy handed the boys these enourmous peaches:

Then Derek captured a picture of Jeffrey slipping one into his pocket on the security camera. Ha Ha.

Next we had lunch at Tim's favorite restaurant, Hockeytown Cafe, and then walked across the street to look in at Tiger Stadium and Ford Field. It is fascinating to look at these places when they are not filled with people.




The boys think it is great fun to ride the people mover so we took that over to the Cobo area, and went to see the office building where Becky works.

There are so many things that fascinate them such as elevators and built-in mail drops. Even the water cooler.

The views from the 9th floor offices were really something but then Becky had the idea that we should go see it from the roof. We had to walk through the super-creepy boiler room to get there but the view was good.



After that I requested to go somewhere that I have never been which is the Motown Records Museum. Becky knew the way and we drove down Grand Boulevard. This happened to be during the time of the Michael Jackson memorial service, and all of the news crews were parked outside of it to get footage of the "local reaction." I thought it would be great fun to be on TV paying our tribute to the King of Pop. But since the news trucks were taking up all of the parking spaces Becky wisely just drove on by.


It was as it always is, a great experience for the boys to explore the big city we live near, and I liked it too. Fun and interesting aren't perhaps the first words to come to mind at the mention of the City of Detroit, but when approached with a spirit of curiosity and adventure, it can be a truly amazing place to explore for a day.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Detroit is mainly in my beloved memories now. I was born there in 1946, and moved out in 1974 with Fred, after our neighborhood was becoming crime infested, post-riot Detroit was ignoring its statistics, and I was living in terror for my parents, stubbornly living in a old dangerous neighborhood. And what would I include in my tour if I went? Former and new Cass Tech High sites, Wayne State U., people mover, Greektown, view from parking lot of the Opera House, view from the top floor of the former(?) Board of Ed. building, facing Woodward and the DIA, and view of Detroit from Windsor.
Aunt Chris

Nancy USA said...

Nice day!

It's especially fun that you cruised "Hitsville USA" during the Jackson memorial! They showed it on TV out here in California.

Good experience for the boys.

Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't all children have an Aunt Becky?

Mary Beth

Heather Leigh said...

I want an Aunt Becky!!

Rebecca Binno Savage said...

Glad you liked the day downtown! I always think of something else I wanted to show you after we were finished. Well, there's always next year!