One of my first childhood memories is that of a seven foot tall suit of steel plate armor standing at attention with hands sheathed in lobster gauntlets clasped atop the beard of a large battleaxe. The fact that the weapon's butt was resting on the ground didn't make it any less menacing.
It's not something I'd go looking for in Canton Township, but it's been a fixture at a restaurant called The Roman Forum since the '70s. Sadly, Roman Forum is closing down, which isn't surprising. It is flanked by corporate competition, and there is what I would call a "strip" of various theme restaurants, steak houses and fast food joints that spans for miles on the opposite side of Ford Road.
Between this sad development and some of the stories I've been working on, I've been thinking a lot about small independent businesses, downtowns and growth in general. I like to think that living in the Westland area has given me a unique perspective on how a city should not grow.
I like to think of Westland and parts of Plymouth, Garden City and Canton that adjoin our city's borders as individual pieces of a commercial Mecca that has grown in all of the wrong ways.
Once the proud township of Nankin, in the '60s we were the world's largest township after a population explosion that added 70,000 heads to our yearly census reports. Now, my memory doesn't go back that far, since I wasn't born yet, but I do have memories of things other than a menacing suit of armor in an Italian restaurant.
By the time I was five years old, the City of Westland had existed for almost 20 years, after Nankin Township decided to name itself after its mall, partially to stake their claim on the shopping megaplex, which had been a carrot-on-a-stick for a then annex-happy Livonia.
Westland was a nice, quaint place to live. The air was fresh, neighbors had relationships, children rode bikes in the streets and there were many forest areas for children to explore.
As the years passed old houses on Ford and Newberg Rd. disappeared, entire blocks of forestry were cleared for ugly condos and mindless strip malls that house useless commercial zone filler like tanning salons, cell phone stores and dollar stores. And as time went on people became too busy to talk to their neighbors.
We've become a city of retail, restaurants and convenience. Imagine Dexter Village smack dab in the middle of Ann Arbor or Ypsilanti. Imagine never having to drive more than 5 miles both ways to Best Buy, Walmart, Meijer's, Kroger's, Circuit City, Dick's Sporting Goods, Blockbuster, Target or any of four dozen or so corporate chain restaurants.
It sounds a lot better than it is in practice, because for every convenience you sacrifice something valuable. To me that big suit of armor is valuable. These days the big guy looks more comforting than menacing, after coming into Roman Forum for almost two decades. I remember my dad taking my mother and I there and taking pictures with the suit as if it were Santa Claus.
I was taken aback as the manager threw his hands up in the air and gave me the news a couple of weeks ago. The service had been off when I took someone there for a birthday dinner, and to get myself some breaded zucchini. I was hoping the manager would tell me what was going on. I wasn't expecting to hear that the place was locking up for good in two months.
I felt pretty bad. I wondered what I could have done. Maybe if I had ever found a job worth having in the area, I might have frequented Roman Forum more often on lunch breaks.
Now a business that was once the pillar of Canton Township and a hotspot in its heyday will be gone forever, and that tired steel soldier will be discharged for good.
Hopefully the TGI Friday's across the street can gift him one of the many mass-produced pieces of Americana from its walls.
A picture of Marilyn Monroe or Betty Davis could warm the cockles of any old solider's heart. Or are those the kind of frame fair that Red Robin puts out to homogenize the dining experience at their establishment?
Either I had a better memory when I was five or there just isn't as much worth remembering.
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3 comments:
Growing up in Plymouth from 1972 and on, Roman Forum was the "fancy" place we'd go to celebrate when I was a kid. I was trying to look up if they were going to have their annual pizza with Santa where he comes in on a helicopter. We did it last year and my almost 4 year old still sees helicopters and says, "Look it's Santa". Sad to see it go under. I miss Silverman's and Friendly's, too. Also when Denton woods was the spooky forest to park as a teenager.
For a while, I lived off Joy road next to Fiegel Elementary before 275 went in. Then I lived in Lake Pointe at 5 and Haggerty until I went to MSU. Lived in Oregon for 8 years and am now back and have been at Sheldon and Warren for 4 years. What a difference those 8 years away made! In some ways, with little kids at home, the convenience of the Ford/Westland Mall area is great, but it has come at a price. Too many condos and big foot houses and few real neighborhoods anymore. I literally played kickball on our street. All the kids and the families knew each other. We could leave our garage door open and all our stuff would be there in the morning. Now high school kids are tossing heads into Heines Park and you gotta wonder what the world is coming to.
Wasn't Silverman's in front of (the former) Farmer Jack?
I remember the place being Hollywood themed with menu items being named after movie stars. I didn't go in there very often, so I could be imagining things.
How about the Quo Vadis? There's a building with some character - just sitting there serving only to obstruct traffic's view of Toys R Us from Wayne Road.
I understand that it was a ritzy restaurant prior to being a movie theater. I have so many memories of seeing films with my mom and dad there. I saw the first Batman film there for crying out loud. Still have the Batman hat covered in Batman pins that I wore to see it. That movie was so big they were selling the pins on Mackinac Island for crying out loud.
These are the things I think about whenever I take that route to Best Buy.
Well said & if I may, Icould say same thing about Brighton. Change location and the article applys. I'm now concened about "overgrowth" in the Whitmore Lake & Dexter, Mich. Groth is good if it's slow and needed but the way Brighton grew too fast, I only pray that it don't happen in Whitmore Lake & Dexter. I too came back to the area hoping to slow down in atowns that are still small and thriving & aren't swallowed up by corporations & such that don't even care about anything except the big dollar.
My memories of childhood are sharper too, we still have "wildlife neighbors" that the grandchildren can see in back yard..It doesn't get any better!!!!
Kitty
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