Skip to main content

Great Lakes Road Trip Day 13; exploring the 1980s in Western Metro Detroit

I had a lot of time today before I needed to at Metro Airport for my flight home.  Since I was bored, I headed out early to check out some places I used to live in the western Metro Detroit area in the 1980s.  I took M-59 as a back way to reach Union Lake Road and Commerce Township.  I was surprised to see the Dairy Queen at Union Lake Road and Cooley Lake Road I used to go to in the early 1980s but the Kentucky Fried Chicken (before it served crappy food and was called KFC) my family used to frequent has been replaced by a shopping center.





I turned off Union Lake Road onto Willow Road which only had houses on Union Lake in the Mid-1980s, I recall some of the neighborhoods present now just being empty fields and marsh lands.  I used to live in a neighborhood called Willow Farm which was probably built in the late 1970s/early 1980s.  The park I used to frequent as a kid was present but was much less elaborate than the 1980s.





I used to attend Scotch Elementary School when it was located in what is now the West Bloomfield School District Administration Building on Commerce Road and Hiller Road.  I want to say the original school was replaced in 1989 or 1990?  I attended one year at the new school before my family moved to New England, I'm fairly certain the original Scotch School was built in the very early 20th century.





At the time my Dad worked in an office which was located on 8 Mile Road and Haggerty in Novi.  At the time there was no extension of M-5 north of I-96 to the Pontiac Trail so my Dad's commute would have been almost all on Haggerty.  In retrospect I want to say things were just as built up from Commerce Township south to Novi, that must have been an awful drive every morning.  It will probably surprise some people to know that a lot of high rise white collar offices are located on 8 Mile Road, it isn't all what Marshall Mathers presented it to be.









I couldn't leave Michigan without a picture of a Big Boy statue.


Earlier in the 1980s I lived off of Ford Road/M-153 in Canton.  Canton has a lot more commercial businesses today than back when I was a kid, but a lot of neighborhoods still look the same.  I found it interesting to see concrete slabs used for neighborhood roadways instead of asphalt.



Apparently, I put 2,975 miles on the rental car when I pulled into the return lot.  I was wrong about the terminal I arrived in at Metro, as I'm writing this I can see the old terminal across from the D Gates and the old control tower.  The rain seems to be tailing up from Hurricane Harvey according to the weather forecasts.  It should be a high of 107F in Fresno today in contrast, talk about one leaving one weather extreme for another.


Comments

Unknown said…
Great information!! Thanks for the detailed blog.It gives a better reading experience about Great Lakes Road Trip Day 13; exploring the 1980s in Western Metro Detroit.You may also visit to www.oceanroaddaytours.com.au to get our affordable and popular service.
Visit:Great Ocean Road Day Tours

Popular posts from this blog

The 1915-era Teilman Bridge (the only known Concrete Pony Truss Bridge in California)

The Teilman Bridge is a semi-abandoned structure over Fresno Slough west of Burrell siding near the intersection of Elkhorn Avenue and Elkhorn Grade.  This structure is the only known Concrete Pony Truss Bridge constructed in California and was designed by Ingvart Teilman.  Teilman's Bridge would open in late 1915 when the Elkhorn Grade was the primary road between Fresno and Coalinga.  The structure would be replaced in 1991 but was left standing as it carries pipelines over Fresno Slough.  Part 1; the history of the Teilman Bridge In the early Twentieth Century the most direct highway between Fresno and Coalinga followed the Elkhorn Grade.  The Elkhorn Grade began at Fresno Slough a short distance west of Burrell siding.  From Fresno Slough the Elkhorn Grade followed a generally southwestern course through San Joaquin Valley into the Kettleman Hills towards Coalinga.   The Elkhorn Grade can be seen on the  1914 C.F. Weber map of Fresno Coun...

The Dummy Lights of New York

  A relic of the early days of motoring, dummy lights were traffic lights  that  were  placed  in the middle of a street intersection. In those early days, traffic shuffled through busy intersections with the help of a police officer who stood on top of a pedestal. As technology improved and electric traffic signals became commonplace, they were also  originally  positioned on a platform at the center of the intersection. Those traffic signals became known as  " dummy lights "  and were common until  traffic lights were moved  onto wires and poles that crossed above the intersection.  In New York State, only a handful of these dummy lights exist. The dummy lights  are found  in the Hudson Valley towns of Beacon and Croton-on-Hudson, plus there is an ongoing tug of war in Canajoharie in the Mohawk Valley, where their dummy light has been knocked down and replaced a few times. The dummy light in Canajoharie is currently...

Prunedale Road (Monterey County)

Prunedale Road is a short 2.6-mile-long frontage corridor of US Route 101 in the namesake Monterey County community of Prunedale.  Prior to 1932 US Route 101 bypassed Prunedale in favor of the San Juan Grade to the east.  Prunedale Road along with nearby Moro Road served as an alternative connecting highway between Salinas and San Juan Bautista.  Following the realignment of US Route 101 onto the Prunedale Cutoff the former through route along Prunedale Road would be rendered as a western frontage.   Part 1; the history of Prunedale Road Prunedale Road is located in and is named after the Monterey County community of Prunedale.  Said community was founded near the junction of San Migeul Canyon, Langley Canyon and Echo Valley.  Watsonville settler Charles Langley (namesake of Langley Canyon) was one of the prominent early community settlers.  The Prunedale Post Office would open for the first time in 1894 but would close by 1908.  Early agricu...