Coincidentally also about the Detroit area: Novi, Michigan!

Yesterday, I happened to meet someone from Novi, Michigan, which sent me on a little bitty nostagia trip.

Novi is a suburb of Detroit, near another suburb named Farmington Hills. My maternal grandparents moved to Farmington Hills when it was still farmland, and stayed for decades as sprawl sprang up around them. When we visited my grandparents when I was a kid, we'd often go shopping at Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi.

Novi has one of my favorite place names of anywhere outside of St. Louis. Though it was actually concocted very early on by a resident of the township trying to come up with a short name, the popular myth (which I really like) is that the town was named after its historic 1871 rail depot, which they claim was the sixth stop out from Detroit: "NO. VI." Not true, but nonetheless very charming.