Brandon, I agree with you about the desirability of Detroit living/visiting; there's a level of good living still alive and well. Downtown core\has become once again a civilized destination.
My first experiences in Detroit was a a young lad when Dad would take us from London Ontario for the annual summertime trek to Greenfield Village and the Ford Museum (on the way to the cottage) to gape in awe at planes and locomotives and household goods tracing their advancement over decades. It sparked my interest in all things well made and styled. Not to mention the astounding Automotive Museums that have sprung up over the years, sponsored by all the Corporations involved in their manufacture.
I remember well back in the late 1970s through the 1980s you could get yourself a fine large home for back taxes, say in the Indian Village, while mere blocks away residences were crumbling and decayed beyond salvation. Detroit being the North American Center of the Automotive Universe created multi-class wealth and prosperity. Detroit households always had the best of everything in modern household goods so as the recession deepened and the natural aging effect was felt excellent quality goods made their way to the various Second Hand shops. The treasures I found over the years continue to comfort me, in this age of plastics and throw-a-way cheapness.
My interests being mechanically inclined my hobbies have encompassed, besides Vacuums and Appliances, Phonographs, Architecture, Design, vintage cars, Movie Palaces, Films, Organs and especially Automatic Music Instruments for the masses at skating rinks,speakeasys and hotels - orchestrions, player pianos, reproducing grands and organs no upper class home could be complete without and the like. I began snapping up masses of 1930-50s recordings and decided at last I must have Phonographs to play them on. Since most of my floorspace is taken up with self-playing pianos I decided to have an Victor Orthophonic and a Edison Diamond Disk to play them on...and found good examples of each in the Detroit area.
All of this pleasure in music led me to build a perforated roll scanner that then produces midi files (including expression coding) I can cue up for hours of a background household entertainment soundtrack on the digital piano on the second floor. Sure trumps today's radio, tv and constant advertising for domestic contentment.
Every year, weather permitting I spend a few days in & around Detroit at the North American International Auto Show and revisiting favorite haunts such as Dodge's Meadowbrook Hall, The Edsel Ford house and Fairlane, Henry's estate. For a surprisingly minor fee one can have free rein to explore these houses and estates. Although I will never live such a life it's enough to simply walk around inside such homes imagining how glorious it must have been. My idea of a wintertime vacation is to hit the road searching out 'America's Castles' from coast to coast, picking up a few choice momentoes along the way.
Back to my point, it's good to see someone embracing the best of the past at your young age.
My hope that someday we will meet up.
62 year old Davy
