Motor CIty streetscape by Albert Winkler

Detroit, Michigan is hometown to my husband and partner Ron Meckler.  We visit at least once a year to celebrate Thanksgiving, July 4th, or Passover with his family. A hardcore lover of his town, with a designers eye, and a musician’s soul to the core, Ronnie has turned me on to a grand American city so abundant in cultural riches, I shake my head in disbelief at how down and out this town has been for decades. The architectural beauty of its abandoned mansions once home to fat cat auto maker execs, still line blocks of once coveted neighborhoods. Art Deco specimens like The Fox Theatre, and the Landmarked Fisher Building stay open to businesses, but their empty halls cry for consistent visitors. Besides being undoubtedly one of the most musically influential and innovative cities over the past 50 years, and best-known for developing Motown, soul, funk, early punk rock and techno music, detroit boasts being the publishing home of the irreverent music magazine Creem that gave massive exposure to musicians years before the mainstream press. All hailing from Detroit – the MC5, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Suzi Quatro, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, the Four Tops, and the White Stripes are some of my favorite artists, and indisputable icons of their genre. 

Ronnie, the only boy and youngest of four siblings, left Detroit early on but his three sisters have stayed in Michigan and long ago moved out of the city to the surrounding suburbs. Their kids and their kids’ kids make his current family count 54.  Everyone is really close and pretty tight. My teenage children love, and socialize with their cousins, and second cousins. Ronnie cherishes being with his nephews and nieces, and I truly enjoy spending time with my sisters-in- law. This year we’ll be in Detroit for Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Ronnie’s youngest sister Judy. She’s a fantastic cook, and remarkably into the sprit of the holiday for which she begins weeks in advance to prepare. Her famous Thanksgiving table settings feature thematic fine china decorated with landscape scenes of early America and wild turkeys, and colorful seasonal creative centerpieces. This Thanksgiving Judy will set her tables to seat thirty-seven people, word is she’s planning to shake things up a bit! I’ll definitely take lots of pictures  which i’ll post when I get back home.