My dad, now in his 70’s, worked at the Mud Farm. He was born and raised in Pontiac (both my grandfathers worked for Pontiac and Fisher Body)’ graduated from Pontiac Northern, and remembers when The Mall went in. He describes a city I couldn’t even imagine. Maybe that’s why I grew up in Lake Orion and later, Clarkston.
Money isn’t the problem. It never is. But it’s easier to blame poverty than the real reasons for the decline.
Lake Orion, Clarkston, Oxford, Drayton Plains, and Waterford might as well have been on a different planet as far as I’m concerned. I was born and raised in a GM town. If you lived in Pontiac, you either drove a Pontiac, a Chevy, or a broken down Huffy. Pontiac is-was a GM boom town, along with all of the rest. I left Michigan this year after 40 years, and I’m not looking back. I’ve been a shop rat long enough.