Keeping up with Flint, Michigan

Recently I have been paying more attention to the online version of the newspaper from the city in which I once lived - Flint, Michigan. It is called the Flint Journal.

I always have to smile when people are offended when others call the Daily News "The Snooze" because some people in Flint called their paper "The Urinal."

It has struck me over the last week or so how many people are killed in traffic accidents in Flint, Michigan. I had forgotten that, having lived here for so long. (Plus, I always forget about the dead deer strapped to the tops of cars coming back from "Up North.")

Just this week, from my count, at least one death from a traffic-related accident occurred every day in the Flint area.

I knew a lot of people in Michigan who were killed in car crashes, especially when I was in high school. I'm hard pressed to think of more than one person I've known out here (in 24 years) who has even been involved in a serious car accident.

Well, there was my sister (the one who lives in Malden) and her family. Their car hit a deer in NY state while they were driving back to Michigan for a visit. No one was injured but the deer did not make it. I don't know if that counts since they weren't actually in this state and they were on their way to Michigan ...

I don't know what this all means. People in Mass. are known as bad drivers. I got the most comprehensive driver's ed known to man in Michigan. That state has better rules for merging onto highways (the person merging on has the right of way) and the roads were always kept in tip-top condition.

Must be something in the water.