Worldview / Detroit in Four Years

1/ I used to walk for hours with Cass in his stroller. That and the glass-strewn sidewalks helped me justify the ridiculously expensive stroller. It wasn't really a jogging stroller, but it had shocks, so I used it as one from time to time anyway. One day, I was jogging downtown, over by the Book Cadillac and someone yelled at me across the street: "Mam, are you OK?" He assumed I was running from someone.

2/ When Cass was two and a half, I took him to the Neighborhood Club park in Grosse Pointe. I thought the biggest surprise would be all the other children draped across the playground equipment, but instead, when we left, he asked "Where's all the trash?"

3/ When Ollie was an infant, the three of us would take morning drives through the city just to get out of the house. Ollie would nap, and Cass and I would explore neighborhoods, driving down once-regal residential blocks and into downtown, seeking out the Ren Cen and the Guardian. A favorite route was through Brush Park, past the stadium, the old mansions. He'd ask about the crumbling, burned-out buildings, and say things like "One day, my dad and I are going to fix those broken buildings. We're going to bring our hammers over here and fix them all!"

4/ A couple days ago, we were coming home from the rare all-morning suburban outing -- ice skate shopping, wild game butcher, lunch, meeting friends -- and as we pulled off the freeway ramp into our neighborhood, Cass let forth this angry little burst:

"Mom, our world is a mess."

"What do you mean?"

"People put their litter everywhere. The cars are messy. The houses are falling down. The buildings are broken. And one day, there won't even be baseball, because they keep tearing down our stadiums!"