A Tour of Beautiful Detroit. (2011-10-15 03:34)

 

My ex, whom you’ve heard so much about, was terrified of Detroit. As soon as we hit the exit
ramp, he would press the lock button on his car three times. Oh my goodness, it’s Detroit, I
might get shot! Hah. It’s fun to think Mr. Macho Über Dom was scared of Detroit.

My boyfriend and I went on a nice little tour of my hometown the other day. I got to
show him my old Elementary school, the vacant lot where my grandparent’s house once was,
the Rite Aid that was once a burned down dollar store, the senior citizen’s apartments a family
friend lived in, the supermercado that used to be a Farmer Jack and the elementary school I
worked at.

We even got to look around abandoned homes. There was a locked Masterlock dangling
from the latch on a burned down house. Like the ad said, Masterlock truly is tough under fire.
The lock was the only thing intact at that house.

Peeking at another house it was a bit depressing. Half of the house was fire damaged
and a mouse peeked out when I walked onto the steps. Peering into the house and seeing
the melted pipes sticking out of the kitchen ceiling, it hit me. This was once someone’s home.
This was once a place of comfort and security. At one time, a family gathered right here and
enjoyed breakfast. In that living room, maybe children were once watching Saturday morning
cartoons.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve found abandoned homes to be both fascinating and
depressing. As a child, walking with my mother to the park, I was fascinated by one abandoned
house a few blocks away. You could look into the house and see a bedroom with burned
and peeling “Snow White” wallpaper. I wondered about the little girl that had that room. Did
she make it out okay? Did she die in that room? Whatever happened to the occupants of the
abandoned houses?

I concocted so many ghost stories as a child about one abandoned house on our street.
All sorts of ghosts were lurking if you ever dared to step inside the house. I even asked an
elderly neighbor about that spooky empty house and she told me how the father worked for a
newspaper and his kids worked as paperboys, but that was all I learned.

I watched them tear the house down when I was 10 and I felt sad in a way. I couldn’t
make up anymore more ghost stories about the place. I would say if you ran across the vacant
lot, a skeletal hand would drag you down, but that was it.

Abandoned homes have a sort of mystery to them and I’ve always been drawn to that.
Endlessly wondering who lived there, what kind of people were there, what were they like?
My ex would have cringed at the the thought of walking around Detroit, even in broad
daylight. But, now, I have someone who will indulge my curiosity and he is just as excited
about urban ruins as I am.

We visited a park that has been renovated and it was beautiful. I was told as a child
never to go there alone, it’s a bad park. But, it was truly beautiful with lots of fun things and
barely touched by graffiti.

I think Detroit is like a beautiful flower growing from the cracks in the sidewalk. There
is so much beauty and creativity still to be found here. Scared little suburban boys will never
see it for what it is and what it can be.

The moral of my story is, don’t lock your car doors as soon as you hit the exit ramp.

Take a walk and explore. Detroit has a lot of life left yet if you are willing to look.