Where Have All the Children Gone?

It doesn't seem possible, but the children do move on. Our friends, Steve and Petra, let us know recently that their son, Jason, has moved to California. He has been interested in writing screenplays and found some people to live with in the L.A. area and has taken the chance to follow his dream. I wouldn't be surprised to see our daughter, Veronica, do the same thing in a few years (once she graduates from college, please!).

When our oldest daughter, Mary, went off to college, it happened so soon after her high school graduation, that in some ways it didn't fully register. She came back with her degree and her fiance, David. They will be married two years in June. Yes, they do grow up much quicker than we imagine. Sometimes, they come home. Sometimes, they move on. I have now lived in Illinois for almost 28 years, though I still feel that Michigan in many ways that it it is still my home state. One of the recent reminders for me was when I went to see the movie, "Gran Torino". The movie was filmed primarily in the Detroit area with the closing scene taking place along Lake Shore Drive/Jefferson Avenue along Lake St. Clair. There were so many memories brought back from that one scene alone. Driving along the lake. Biking along the lake. Running along the lake. Going north toward the last town where I lived, St. Clair Shores, before moving to Chicago in 1981.

The landscape of Detroit has changed so much in the past two decades. Most of these changes began in the 1960's and 1970's after the riots of 1967. The great "White Flight" took homeowners and longtime residents out of the city and to the ever-developing suburbs that were taking shape. The migratory patterns have continued over the years with movement continuing farther north into Oakland and Macomb counties. The farm land of our youth is now the next mall or subdivision. The areas around Lincoln High School and the Van Dyke School District are now lower income housing areas in many cases and the once middle-class is now the lower middle-class or even lower income areas. The school district is now much more integrated than when I left the area in 1981.

We don't get back "home" much anymore. Travel is more difficult with a special-needs daughter and an active family. When I do go home, the old haunting grounds look so different, but the streets remain about the same. I go on auto-pilot and get around just fine, but the landscape is very different, especially the farther out I go. The tract of land where we used to ride our motorcycles has been developed and the woods are mostly gone. The "corner store" is long gone and the mega-stores are taking over the area. What has changed more recently is the vast number of homes for sale, foreclosed or being auctioned off. It was recently announced that approximately an additional 17,000 jobs will be lost in Warren, where I grew up, due to the closing of automotive plants and cost-cutting measures by GM and Chrysler. There will be more than that, though, as the ancillary companies that are related to the auto industry.

Rolling Stone Magazine recently profiled Detroit and the ghost town that it is becoming. Large tracts of land, where even coyotes are now seen roaming, loom desolately between abandoned or run-down houses. Large factories and warehouses sit idly by with broken windows and grafitti-filled walls.

So, where have all the children gone. Whether it is in Northwest Illinois where jobs are becoming more scarce or in my hometown, Detroit, area, the children are moving to where they can make a decent living. We have two younger children still at home. One day they will have to make a decision. Where will the children go?