The people living in Detroit and its surrounding areas have a particularly different view of the city than those who lived here decades ago, when Detroit was a growing city with a booming auto industry.  I interviewed Larry, a 75 year old retired Ford autoworker who now lives with his wife in a nice suburb just outside the city.  Though now he is settled down in the suburbs, and spends much time vacationing, Larry spent about 20 years living in the heart of Detroit from roughly 1950-1970.  During this time Larry finished his schooling and began to work in a Ford plant.  Larry owned his own house at an early age working full time plus overtime.  During these years Detroit was a flourishing city known for their blue collar workers and auto industry. That picture describes Larry.  He was a blue collar worker who worked long hours to support himself and his family.  Larry was a huge Red Wings fan, who had season tickets every year. Often times, for no real reason, he would walk from his house, 2 miles through Detroit to go to games.  He says he loved the downtown feeling, and walking through the streets brought joy to him.  But the city to him is no longer the same.  All the worn down buildings and boarded up houses were full busy back in his day.  He says it pains him to see some parts of Detroit in shambles, because he knows how great it can be.  One major point I got out of the interview was the change in number of factory/assembly line workers and blue collar jobs since the times of the 60’s.  Back then, as he described it, the city was built on blue collar families, which made it strong.  But now those workers and their jobs have been replaced by machines, or moved out of country.  The population which had formed the core of Detroit has been dissolving slowly as time goes on.  Another thing I learned from my interview with Larry was how important public transportation was to the people in that time, especially those living in the city.  Larry said almost everyone would take the bus to work because of the lack of parking and convenience of the cheap bus fair.  Also popular for longer trips was Michigan Central Station (MCS: the Detroit train station). This was a major hub for transportation during this time, but its last departure took place in 1988.  This long conversation really made me start to wonder about the statistical differences of Detroit from the 60’s to the 2000’s.  I wondered what the population difference may be between the two eras, also things such as number of businesses, house foreclosures, and crime rates.  These are questions I plan to further investigate and find answers to.  It would be interesting to see if the statistical numbers and findings would support and reflect the information I learned from the interview.