I lived in Washington Twp at the time. I had just graduated high school. I was driving from my house to Romeo for some reason that escapes me right now. As I hit the intersection of 28 Mile and Van Dyke, there was a line of MSP cars headed south on Van Dyke. I had no idea why at the time, but after talking to my mother later, I found out they had left the Romeo MSP post to head to Detroit.

I worked at the Gateway Theatre in Sterling Heights at the time [[it's not a theatre anymore...turned it into some kind of office building) which was located just north of 14 Mile Road. 14 Mile was the cutoff border for buying alcoholic beverages and, I think, gasoline. My parents were very worried about me driving in that area at night because lots of people were heading to that area to buy stuff they couldn't buy elsewhere.

And in Romeo...just to be funny...some of the black people set an old abandoned house on fire that they had been trying to get torn down for years. As I recall, there were no racial problems within the area itself though. There was no rioting or anything there.

I remember feeling far removed from it all, but still being scared that it would accelerate.