- Local every day in
About this column:
Cyndy has been a resident in and around the Pointes for nearly 30 years. She will explore life and community issues in the Pointes from her perspective as a resident, wife, mother, writer and dog-owner.I was driving downtown the other day, taking Mack Avenue, then cutting down Gratiot to lead me to my destination. As I drove on Mack near McClellan, I saw a man walking down the street. He had on old boots, a coat that was too thin to keep the winter chill at bay, and a long, unkempt beard. He walked with his head down, but with purpose. I looked at his face. Though ruddy and chapped by the wind, I could tell that at one time in his life he was handsome. I wondered where he could be going at 8 in the morning. This man, obviously, had very little in terms of material possessions. But he had …
Time. It’s something we all have, but convince ourselves we don’t. We rush from this appointment to the next. We tell our child that we can’t watch a funny TV program with them because we don’t have the time. We slam food into a pan to hurry up and get dinner made. We switch lanes on the freeway or on Mack Avenue to get around someone who – God-forbid – is doing less than the speed limit. And if someone asks how we are, our response, of course, is “Busy!” Rushing is the nasty byproduct of our minds tricking us into believing we haven’t time for anything but breathing, working and mowing …
Shopping can be hard work, but it doesn't have to be without its perks. So, you've decided to stay local to do your holiday shopping. You’ve walked Mack Avenue between the area north of Vernier up to Moross and have found an enormous amount of great gifts. You even stopped in on some of the businesses in the Village and on Fisher Road near Grosse Pointe South to add a few specialty gifts and pick up some hard-to-find ingredients at Fresh Farms Market. Now you’re hungry. And you still haven’t bought a gift for Aunt Ann or for Fluffy, your good friend’s American Bulldog. It’s time to head to …
The calendar has flipped to December. That means Christmas shopping has begun in full force. Before you head out to Somerset or Partridge Creek, do what I did. Shop local. And by local, I don’t mean just the Village. Of course there are many fine stores that offer wonderful holiday gift options in the Village, but there is plenty to offer elsewhere within the Pointes too. And by shopping local, you will not be sacrificing your options, either. In fact, life can be a lot simpler and more fun by staying in the Pointes to do your shopping. Consider this: The Pointes, from the north end to south …
As many of you may have read about two months ago in Grosse Pointe Patch, my sweet golden retriever, Flash, passed away at the end of September as a result of lymphoma. But today I am here to tell you that puppy love lives again and his name is Woody! After going through the loss of Flash, I knew that I would never be able to replace her. She had a mischievous personality laced with unending love that won’t ever be replicated. But I also realized that my life had an incredibly noticeable void. I needed a dog. I went to an event hosted by the Grosse Pointe Animal Adoption Society (GPAAS), a …
Believe me, I love the convenience of the Internet. I adore Google. I certainly wish I had it when I was in school; it sure would have helped when I was doing all of those research papers. Instead, I would spend countless hours at the library, feeding numerous dimes into the copy machine so that I could take fact-filled pages home with me to complete my writing project. Today’s kids certainly don’t go to the library to do research as much as we did. But our three Grosse Pointe libraries are more than facilities for conducting research. They are a statement of what we, as residents, value. The…
Let’s just cut to the chase and add film industry incentives to religion and politics as a subject that should never be discussed if you want the conversation to remain pleasant. People feel passionately about this subject--regardless of which side of the fence. This much is evident in the comments posted beneath the Michigan Senator Fights to Reinvigorate Film Industry story. Let me make it clear from the start that I am in favor of incentives for the film industry. Still, I understand the other side. Why should this “glamour” industry get all the breaks and not health care or our schools? …
I just read a report that states that children need more time for free play. We saw this coming, didn’t we? But this study, unlike others I’ve read, gave the reasons why many children today are not allowed to engage in free play. Free play means no rules, no instruction and no parental involvement. It’s when children on the same block meet on the sidewalk and create a new game, or play “Ghost in the Graveyard” or some other childhood game that allows them to run freely, yell and bond with each other--without parental involvement. “In the 1950s, children were free to play a good part of their …
Trust. Some people trust everyone; some trust no one. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. Trusting feels good to me. I like to believe the best in people. I also believe that the more we mistrust, the more people will prove us right. I know that may make no sense to many of you, but it works for me. I was recently shaken to hear a friend’s story, where her trust was violated. She lives alone in a very nice area in St. Clair Shores, and recently called a company she has used many times before to clean her carpets. This time, the owner brought with him a new employee. My friend, Barbara, is…
I love the T-shirts that proclaim that Life is Good. And it should be our goal each day to see the good in life and in all that is around us. Our world provides us with ample reasons to be happy. This time of year, it’s the colorful mums and pumpkins, the changing leaves the welcomed sweatshirt weather. But I’m struggling a bit with happiness these days. You see, my golden retriever, Flash, developed a raging case of lymphoma about a month ago. On Sunday I had to take her to the vet and have her put to sleep. She was five. Though we have other pets–a 17-year-old cat, a 16-year-old cockatiel, …
I hope everyone in Grosse Pointe and beyond is paying attention to what State Representative Tim Bledsoe is doing. If you have, you are witnessing our democratic process working as it should. If you aren't familiar with what he is doing, now is the time to start paying attention. In short, he is going on the offense to protect our community from legislation that could forever alter our top local school system -- mandated Schools of Choice. This affects all of us, even if we don't have children. If control of our school system is taken away, then we have lost that attraction to our …
Ask any psychologist and they will tell you that positive reinforcement works much better than criticism. It is for this reason that I avoid negative advertising, which completely explains my intolerance for politics and all of the personal and professional attacks that come with any election season. Just look at the wonderful effects of positive reinforcement with dogs. Just a treat or a kind word can convince even the most stubborn of dogs to at least try and do what you ask of them. But it struck me the other day how we might be reaching a sad point with incentives – yes, a sad point. In …
Just the other day I was telling my husband how much I respected Grosse Pointe Woods City Councilwoman Lisa Pinkos Howle. Not only do I agree with most of her votes and admire how she seeks creative ways to keep the Woods moving in a positive direction, but she is responsive. You have a question about why she voted a certain way? Just email her and she’ll write you back, quickly. I like that about her. I like that she’s available and responsive to what residents have to say. A good example is the issue of the Neighborhood Club's attempt to locate in a vacant Mack Avenue building. She is …
I got on my bicycle the other night around 6:30 and headed out on a ride. I soon noticed that my front tire needed air, so instead of taking side streets to my destination, I headed down Mack Avenue to the BP station at Moross to “filler up.” I was one block from my house when it happened for the first time. As I rode on the sidewalk and began to cross Norwood, a man driving an SUV sped down Norwood to the intersection. I had already started to cross the street, so I had to quickly apply my brakes, leaving me a full bike length into Norwood. The motorist saw me--he looked right at me--then …
Asking to be an exception to the rule is not uncommon. Granting an exception can be dicey, because where do you draw the line without offending others who want the same sort of exception for their business or project? Recently, the Grosse Pointe Woods City Council denied a variance to accommodate the historic Neighborhood Club Thrift Shop from setting up on Mack Avenue, south of Moross in the former Shelby Paint store front. At first blush I was upset. As a Grosse Pointe Woods resident I would welcome the Thrift Shop for a number of reasons. First, it’s part of Grosse Pointe history. My …
Recently, there have been a couple of purses and items “snatched” from cars at Grosse Pointe gas stations--right off Mack and Moross, and at Mack and Neff. Stealing is not new in this world, and Grosse Pointe is not immune. The difference is that we have enjoyed, for many, many years, the type of community where this didn’t happen very often, albeit more often than we would like to know or admit. Grosse Pointe has been a community where doors didn’t always have to be locked when you ran to the store, and bikes could be left on the front lawn without fear of them disappearing. A couple of …
If I had the guts and the resources, I would open a children’s-only book store in Grosse Pointe. Even though it’s been months since Borders in the Village closed its doors, I still feel the absence of that conveniently located place to take my son so he can look at the newest Michigan Chillers or Goosebumps offerings. Better yet, he would peruse the shelves and find new authors that were sure to expand his vocabulary and his imagination. But alas, Borders is only a memory, and Barnes and Noble, a fine book store in its own right with a great Kids’ Club free membership program, is not located …
I am not a professional educator. My teaching is limited to writing down math problems for my 9-year-old son to work on over the summer so he doesn’t forget what he learned in fourth grade, or encouraging him to read new books. But what I do know about educating is that a teacher’s effectiveness is based largely on the overall comprehension of those in the class. If you have a fourth-grade classroom dominated by children who cannot do long multiplication, then moving on to long division will be futile. If most of the children in a kindergarten class don’t know the alphabet, then advancing to …
I am a firm believer that there are certain situations, where you can only guess how you will react--you can’t say for certain. Parenting is one of these areas. Before my husband and I had our son, I had my thoughts of what type of parent I would be. But reality--with its lack of sleep, a tighter time schedule and an unbelievable amount of love toward my son--changed a lot of it. I found myself leaving fun events early so that he could get home to his crib or bed and get a good sleep. I gave up a lot of things I loved doing so that I could be with him, and now that he is older (9) I am …
I have a friend, a naturopathic doctor, who once told me that life is about struggles, but we decide how much we suffer. I didn’t want to agree with her assessment at first, but the more I thought about it, the more right it felt to me. Everyone has struggles, some bigger than others, to be sure. Perhaps we have physical limitations or our kids are challenging us way too much to our liking. Maybe we don’t look the way we’d like, or we don’t have the job we think we deserve. Too often, our human tendency is to complain and to try and find someone who will agree with us; someone who can …