JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

The sun is just a dot in the sky next to the Ambassador Bridge in today's selection. The dirt path on the Windsor side is now paved and part of the city's riverfront recreation path. This stretch of green space is also the present home of the Odette Sculpture Park . Driving over the Ambassador Bridge may cause some confusion for the next year-and-a-half, thanks to a massive construction project that will allow direct access to its neighbouring freeways. I was in the area on the last day the surrounding stretch of I-75 was open and local radio stations were treating the upcoming closure in the same breathless tone as a severe winter storm ("HOW WILL YOU GET TO WORK ON MONDAY?"). Despite some tricky manoeuvring, unless massive backups result the bridge will remain my usual route to Motown for the time being. I'm more than willing to wait a few more minutes for goodies from Mexicantown. The church steeples to the right belong to St. Anne Roman Catholic Church,...

Today's dig into the box of 1970s family photos centres on a couple of Detroit landmarks - one altered, one gone. A recreational site for Detroiters since the late 19th century, Belle Isle was also one of the starting points of the 1943 race riots . Many of my experiences on the island involved traffic jams spurred by passengers in other vehicles reaching out to pet the island's deer population (who appear to have been rounded up by the island zoo ). On the left is the Belle Isle Coast Guard station . The white tower no longer exists. On the right, located on the mainland, is the Conners Creek Edison Plant. Opened in 1915, its set of smokestacks earned the nickname "Seven Sisters". The plant was demolished in August 1996 . Photo taken sometime in the early 1970s - JB

Amherstburg Coast Guard station, looking towards Boblo Island, early 1970s As is usual for the holidays, I drove back to Toronto with a full trunk. Tucked among the gifts, Trader Joe's bags and ironed shirts was a box of photos that sat around the house for years. Spurred by regular visits to historical image sites such as International Metropolis along with several Flickr contacts who recently posted vintage photos from their families, I figured there might be interesting shots lurking within. While most of our family photos are housed in albums, there are a pile from the early 1970s that never earned this honour. Most of these photos were family candids, local landscapes or closeups of flowers. These photos were originally in a small box, then placed in a larger shoebox when pictures ranging from Granddad's 1950s fishing trips to Amy's university outtakes were added. But it's the core photos that grabbed my attention. Why they weren't placed in an album ...