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1980s but the Kentucky Fried Chicken (before it served crappy food and was called KFC) my family used to frequent has been replaced by a shopping center.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

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...