Nostalgia

I love old maps. I could spend hours on this one alone.
It's a 1936 road map of Michigan, before there were freeways and before some of the roads were even paved.

On April 11th, 1986 the tours of the Kellogg's Cereal Factory sadly came to an end. How many of us toured that plant as a child?

Radio geeks like me loved watching 'WKRP In Cincinnati', but I never thought anyone would take the time to compile a list of every song ever played on the show during its run from 1978-1982, but here it is. And the first one has Michigan roots.

The tallest human ever known to roam the earth, Robert Wadlow, died in Michigan. Wadlow's short life began in Illinois near St. Louis and he died at age 22 in Manistee.

This 1977 promotional video about the old International Hockey League is gold to someone like me who lived the 'Slap Shot; days of the Muskegon Mohawks, Flint Generals, Saginaw Gears, Kalamazoo Wings and the Port Huron Flags.

This high resolution railroad map from 1897 is like no other Michigan map you've ever seen.

A mom asked her son to do a simple thing when he was confronted with an old school rotary phone (circa 1979): call her. He couldn't. Hilarity ensues. At least for Mom.

What are your memories of the blizzard of 1978? Grand Rapids was one of the harder hit towns, accumulating close to 20 inches of snow over the three day duration.

Muskegon, fueled by the lake effect had over 30 inches.

You won't find it on any roadmap today, but M-209 was once a Michigan State Highway that ran right onto a Lake Michigan beach.

Henry Zeman was a 35 year old writer for the Grand Rapids Press in 1954. He was assigned to cover the building of the Mackinac Bridge, connecting Michigan's two peninsulas. He took some amazing photos of the construction and opening, some recently discovered and seen in this photo essay for the…

Writer Paul Schrader of 'Taxi Driver' fame grew up in Grand Rapids, so for his second big Hollywood film, he laid some GR love down in the opening credits: a full two minutes of Christmastime in Grand Rapids circa 1978.

Everything old is new again, and with the continued restoration of old buildings downtown, Grand Rapids has been digging into its past to form its future.

Here is some old school vintage Grand Rapids stuff I found online that you can gift to the GR lover in your family.