A picture book of spring in Detroit. Historical glimpses of weather patterns. A poem about Lake Erie. Plus, it's Opening Day.
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The Night Train
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Meditations
Spring break
by amy • April 5, 2012 • Meditations • 0 Comments
Meditations on a Boat Club
by amy • February 7, 2012 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 2 Comments
The Detroit Boat Club, founded in 1839, is the oldest in the country. Its home on Belle Isle is crumbling, compelling, and calls home centuries of water sport.
Read more →Christmas and Loneliness
by amy • December 21, 2011 • Holidays, Meditations • 0 Comments
A letter from sad William Woodbridge to his daughter Juliana, 1842.
Read more →An injection of the past into the present to inform the future
by amy • November 4, 2011 • History, Meditations • 3 Comments
Lost Landscapes of Detroit is this weekend at MOCAD, and its curator, Rick Prelinger, has some smart words about the relevance of Detroit history.
Read more →Walter Owen Briggs: The opera
by amy • October 24, 2011 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 2 Comments
Walter Owen Briggs: unshakable, lavishly wealthy, sentimental, racist, beloved, reviled. Someone should write an opera about him.
Read more →Detroit turns 310
by amy • July 22, 2011 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 2 Comments
Dear Detroit: Happy birthday. And chin up.
Read more →The Spirit of Detroit
by amy • April 13, 2011 • Art, Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, Meditations • 12 Comments
Five years ago today, on the first take-off-your-sweater-nice day in spring, in a college town on the stateline between Wisconsin and Illinois, I walked to a tattoo parlor, had this done, and then went out for a beer. Because it was sunny and warm. Because spring fever does funny things to people. What compelled...
Read more →Solomon Sibley’s pear, & a brave New Year
by amy • December 30, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, Meditations • 2 Comments
OR: What I learned about Detroit history in 2010.
Read more →Workmen’s Circle Cemetery
by amy • August 19, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 9 Comments
In the early 1920s, my grandfather Isadore came to Detroit from what is now Belarus. My great-grandfather Yehuda was already here, building houses on the east side for the rapidly expanding community of other European immigrants settling at the boundaries the city. Yehuda died in 1954. He was 86 years old. (If you want...
Read more →Ghost hunters
by amy • July 14, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, Meditations • 3 Comments
Before Sunday, I'm pretty sure I'd never taken a picture of Michigan Central Station. But let's backtrack.
Read more →Making do
by amy • June 16, 2010 • Meditations • 2 Comments
Fort Wayne could be closing. I'm trying to harden my heart. Starting with bike rides.
Read more →On writing, about history and otherwise
by amy • May 23, 2010 • History, Meditations • 5 Comments
Unequaled Detroit historian Silas Farmer has some advice for you.
Read more →More on cemeteries: Elmwood in the springtime
by amy • May 10, 2010 • History, Meditations • 5 Comments
A lecture series called Graveyards 101 kicks off this week at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The five-week series is open to the public and features five lecturers discussing graveyards, gravestones, death, dying and images of death around the world. Since I learned about the series last week, I’ve been giving some thought to exactly...
Read more →Opening Day, 1963
by amy • April 8, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 21 Comments
My dad claims that he has not missed a Tigers opening day for 40 years. I didn’t know a thing about my dad’s devotion to this Detroit rite of spring until our heathen Easter dinner last Friday, but I have no reason to doubt him. My dad is a pretty simple guy: he likes...
Read more →Valentine’s Day
by amy • February 12, 2010 • Best of THE NIGHT TRAIN, History, Meditations • 4 Comments
I tried to think about some of my favorite historical couples, but I ended up dwelling on love affairs closer to home.
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