…My new friends wanted to know all about me and for the first time I realized I hadn’t ever really talked about myself in detail. They wanted to know where I grew up, where was my family, what schools I went to, what music did I like, and why I decided to work here? I started where I grew up because that was easier. Pole Town. The neighborhoods that surrounded these churches because the architecture is so unique some of them still stand today: St. Albertus, Sweetest Heart of Mary, St. Hyacinth, St. Josaphat, and Immaculate Conception. Only the later being torn down for the General Motors, Pole Town Detroit- Hamtramck Assembly Plant. It is now called Factory Zero. That neighborhood was annexed by the city for the General Motors Plant under its’ power of “Eminent Domain.”
…I remember my great-grandmothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, great aunts, great uncles, aunts, uncles all my first and second cousins being together in most of those churches. We celebrated graduations, weddings, and sadly funerals. I informed them of my families most recent funeral of my Grand Father who fought in WWI for the American side and who also migrated to Detroit as a young man from Poland. We walked down Trombley street with his casket as the church bells of Immaculate Conception Church were tolling. His service was held there. His grandsons walked his casket into the church, after carrying it up at least a dozen steps, set it upon a wheeled aluminum bier, and wheeled it into the sanctuary where the Roman Catholic last rites service was performed. He was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Detroit.
…My new friends were most curious, and asked even more questions. They were familiar with the neighborhoods having grown up in the immediate area, some even attending the schools my cousins and second cousins attended. They wanted to know what schools did I attend? I explained my family lived on the east side of the city and I attended a Catholic School, Saint Basil the Great through the fifth grade. My parents then bought a lot to build a home in Sterling Township which was primarily farms and fields. My mother who grew up in Detroit and graduated from North Eastern Highschool had a friend whose farm she played on in her youth. It was not far from the property her and my father bought to build what would become our new home. I went to schools in the Warren Consolidated School District, two junior high schools and two high schools because of our new location in Sterling Township. …..My Life’s Journey To Be Continued…. Joshua 1:1-9
MJ-Way 