Very Interesting

I may be repeating myself in this post but I felt that I had to say a few things about my paper so far. I finished interviewing my final person tonight and I really enjoyed it. It made really appreciate this area that I grew up in and have been to so many times. As this person described the difference in the buildings, I pictured every place how it is now and tried to picture what it had looked like then. I knew a lot of places had changed and most of the newer buildings I actually remember when they were built, but it was fun to hear about the older places. I have lived in the Plymouth/ Canton and now Northville area all of my life and I used to frequent Downtown Plymouth a lot. I'm glad that we were given this assignment so that I had the opportunity to learn more about one of my favorite places!

Analysis Paper- What I've Learned

I have learned a lot so far from this analysis paper. I have always enjoyed going to Downtown Plymouth and learning more about it has made me appreciate the area much more. I feel that everyone should know more about the area that they live in. This paper was a good idea, especially since most of us don't really know that much about where we live.

After interviewing my grandma, I felt that I learned more than I did with the research I did. I am not going to go into everything that I learned since it will all be in my paper anyway. I am almost done writing the paper & I can't wait to see how the whole thing turns out!

Jiving with Java

While reading Jiving with Java, I thought about the coffee houses I have had experience with. I am not a fan of coffee at all... although I recently found a delicious cappiccino from Tim Hortons that barely had the coffee flavor in it at all. When or if I go to coffee houses, I like to watch the people around and see what kind of people they are. There is a local coffee shop in downtown Plymouth that I used to go to with my mom when I was younger. This coffee shop reminded me of exactly what the article explained the coffee houses to be like; it had unmatching furniture and different colored walls. I would sit with my mom for hours while she read and I, I actually have no idea what I did for that long. It was relaxing and fun though, I enjoyed those times.

I do see the coffee houses becoming a very popular thing. It seems as though everyone visits coffee shops and it makes me wish I enjoyed coffee as much as they do!

Analysis Paper Progress

I wanted to start out this post explaining something that I saw this weekend. I went to the auto show with my friends and afterward we went to greek town for dinner. As we were walking around I saw something that caught my eye; a greek restaurant called "Niki's"! I thought it was interesting that I just happened upon it. We thought about eating there but decided on some place else. I just thought it was ironic.

The paper gave me some trouble this weekend. I had a hard time figuring out exactly what topic I wanted to write about. I finally decided that I would write about the transformation of downtown Plymouth throughout the years. I have seen a lot of these changes recently. My grandparents have lived in Plymouth for more than 30 years and I interviewed them. I have not actually started writing the paper but I feel like I have a good start so far.

Favorite Post

This picture was my favorite post. I thought that it showed Detroit in a good way and made it look better than it actually is.

Analysis Paper

I have figured out a bunch of different topics I could write about for my analysis paper. I grew up in Plymouth and have visited the downtown more times than I can remember. It is a cute little town, a couple streets surrounding "Kellogg Park" (a fountain & benches & grass to run around, its fun!). A lot of things have changed and become "better" in downtown Plymouth over the years. These were the ideas I came up with...

-transformation throughout the years
-chain stores becoming popular
-removal of the Penn Theater (one screened, played older movies)
-"mom & pop" stores being bought out
-old pharmacy
-fountain
-picture of old downtown in "Pennimen Deli"

Homeplace: A Site of Resistance

I thought it was really sad how the story started off. The woman was remembering when she was a child and she would go to her grandparents house. She talked about the walk there and how she was always scared because it was a walk through the white neighborhood. If I was in that situation, I would have felt very vulnerable and out of place. I probably would have described the situation in the same way that she did. I found it interesting that she talked about how she called it her "grandma's house". Whenever I am going to my grandparents house, I say I am going to my grandma's. I am not sure if it is for the same reason, "because the house belonged to women", or if it just because she is the one usually home.
I had a hard time understanding the rest of the story. I thought that the encounter in the neighborhood would be returned to later in the story but it was not. It was a good transition to the reading but I found it hard to understand what was going on after that. It basically described how the black woman lived when there was slavery and after. The black woman would leave her home to go take care of a white family's home. Her family would be worried about her the whole time she was gone. The black woman had different ways of looking at the world and her life.