Michigan is my first state of the 50, since I was born here and have lived here my entire life. But I have had many homes in Michigan, in several cities and towns, and have traveled extensively through the state as well. I've had sixteen addresses in six cities and towns in Michigan, starting with in Harper Woods, a Detroit suburb, where I lived the first seven years of my life. I was actually born in the city of Detroit (the hospital was located there).
At the age of seven, I moved to Frankfort, a small town in northern Lower Michigan located on the Lake Michigan shoreline. The photo at right shows the archway over highway M-115 as you enter the town. It always made me feel like I was coming home to see the gateway, even years after I no longer lived there.
I think I learned to love the water while I lived in Frankfort. Whenever I was having a bout of teenage angst, I would go out and walk the lake shore. It was incredibly soothing - quiet and beautiful, even in the winter, and allowed the silence and solitude I needed to think things through.
The cry of the lighthouse on foggy mornings and the low bellowing of the car ferries as they prepared to voyage to Wisconsin were the background music of my life there. It was a great place to grow up.
Of course, things didn't last. My mother remarried when I was about fourteen, and for a short while - about nine months to a year - I was relocated to a suburb of Grand Rapids. I didn't think much of it either way - it was another city, not unlike Harper Woods, and I knew we were planning to return to Frankfort eventually so I didn't invest much in the city. These days, I enjoy. Grand Rapids and often visit there, but at the time it meant very little to me.
Next up - college and beyond
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