Street Historian
I think it would be awesome if every street in Lakewood had a “Street Historian”. They would be like the elder chief of the village, with knowledge and fun facts about the street to share with their neighbors. For Wayne, I would nominate my friend and the pastor of my church (Lakewood Congregational Church) Joanna D’Agostino for that role.
Joanna and her husband Maic joined me on an early Sunday stroll down Wayne this morning. Wayne is a short north-south street that runs from Detroit to Crest Lane just west of the Beck Center. After snapping a selfie on their front porch, I started admiring a large home that was set back from the street. It had a huge yard and a gravel driveway, and appeared to be the original farmhouse on this land. Joanna quickly confirmed my suspicions, then pulled out her phone to reference a spreadsheet that had the dates when all of the homes on her street were built. This house is the oldest on the street (built in 1890), and interestingly the bungalow immediately to the north is the newest on the street (built in 1956). Hopefully now you can see why she deserves the role of street historian.
I’ve become much better friends with Joanna’s husband Maic playing together on an adult soccer team over the last year. We are known as the Chonky Boys, and I think our record since I joined the team a year ago is 1-31 (I think the Cleveland Browns had the same record over a 2 year span). I was eyeing the oversized soccer practice net in the farmhouse’s front yard. Perhaps the Chonky Boys need to organize a practice session on Wayne to improve our skills.
