The Detroit Drunken Historical Society takes over the side room at Slows to talk about the city's mutable past. And I'm giving a reading at the Farmington Public Library on May 10.
Read more →I feel pretty lucky that my day job takes me back to Farmington Hills. Why? Because I love, love, love Heritage Park. I would go a little crazy without regular walks in the woods, and Heritage Park has some of the best woods I know. Over 200 acres of rolling hills, meadows, hardwood forest,...
Read more →A bicycle champion, dairy magnate, pillar of the community and Pingree-loving progressive.
Read more →A reader wrote to me a few days ago (a decision I highly encourage!) and asked if I’d ever seen the historical marker at 12 Mile and Halsted. Â I had to admit that although I knew where it was, I’d never stopped to read it, nor did I have any idea what it was...
Read more →(Enterprise, 12/24/1915) THE NIGHT TRAIN is taking a brief sabbatical from blogging for the holiday. As a send-off and a season’s greetings to you, lovely readers, I’ve spent some time today flipping through the virtual pages of the Farmington Community Library’s Enterprise/Observer-Eccentric/Observer newspaper archives for some cheery vintage Christmas banners, typesets, cartoons, illustrations and...
Read more →If you’ve been to a wedding, a prom or a senior picture photo shoot in Farmington, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve been to the Governor Warner Mansion, on Grand River. A grand white Italianate mansion surrounded by a sweeping wraparound porch and fabulous gardens, it’s the go-to picturesque location for every occasion of...
Read more →A link to this enchanting blog about wildlife in Detroit came through the wire in an email from Model D. If you have adorable Tourrett’s like I do and can’t help but point and shout at anything animate that crosses your path (for real: I have been caught talking in you-are-cute voice to flies...
Read more →Something funny happens on Drake road between 11 and 12 mile; the stiff, airy grid streets of Farmington Hills collapse into a dark, knotty road, a valley road flanked by bluffs of boulders and trees. Driving due north from 11 mile, the road dips past a pair of old wooden houses and a stone...
Read more →EDIT: I spent a lot of time yesterday worrying about Eli Blanchard and his regiment, mostly concerned that I’d been a little lazy with my research, so I went back today to comb through the Orson Blair Curtis book one more time. I still wish I knew what instrument he played in the 24th...
Read more →There is nothing unusual about a deer, I know. They are so populous we need to issue licenses to kill them every year — for their own good. The drive from the southeast corner of Michigan to the western coast of the lake in Wisconsin is measured in deer corpses on the highway shoulder....
Read more →Books lead you to strange places. After learning about the cauldron that boiled Mad Anthony Wayne’s exhumed bones a few weeks ago, I was drawn to learn more about the young Revolutionary War general and his role in the settling of the city of Detroit. After searching for out-of-print paperbacks on Amazon for a...
Read more →In the six weeks or so that I’ve been back in metro Detroit, I’ve been spending at least an hour a day in the woods, walking and thinking (or trying not to think too much). From my apartment, it’s a five minute walk to a steel-caged footbridge that carries me over I-696 to Woodland...
Read more →Making a Michigan left on Grand River yesterday, on the southerly side of Farmington Hills, I saw a Welcome to Farmington Hills sign that said: “Welcome to Farmington Hills: Home of Kirsten Haglund, Miss America 2008.” I had no idea Farmington Hills was home to any Miss Americas. I do not watch or care...
Read more →I drive by his house and I remember that he’s dead, although saying I’d forgotten isn’t quite right. I liked him a lot. He was tall and a little bear-ish, mild-mannered, dark-eyed, an easy laugh, a consummate musician and music lover. He dated a few girls I knew and they all talked about him...
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