Bradford

In the SLT universe Bradford is a small town in Michigan of about 3000. It is located in south central Michigan, just off of I-67 and close to the Indiana border. Bradford itself is fictitious. There is an I-69 that runs from Fort Wayne in the northwest corner of Indiana. I-67 should be east of that, but there isn't a lot of room left before Ohio.

Nearby communities include Amherst and Bolivar while it the nearest big town is Hawthorne, also the county seat. One of the nearer malls, Briarwood Mall, is in Hawthorne, as is an airport.

"The big thing Bradford has going for it is its location -- it's right in the fuzzy area where TV sets tuned to baseball games can about equally be watching the Detroit Tigers or Chicago Cubs. In only a few miles on I-67 the traveler comes to the Indiana Turnpike, with Chicago to the west and Cleveland not much farther to the east."^HS3

Bradford is significant to the stories for being the home of Bradford Exiles, members of the Bradford High School Class of 1988 that needed to leave their hometown, whether willingly or not. Members include Jennlynn Swift, the class valedictorian, and Dayna Berkshire. Emily Jones Holst is not an exile, but as a class member, major gossip, and fixture in their hometown, provides a unifying point.

Locations in Bradford

• The biggest employer in the area is "General" was what everyone called the General Hardware Retailers Distribution Center out at the edge of town.^GM1 It was built on the site of the original Bradford Speedway, chosen because of its convenient "location right off of the Interstate"^BR2-25

• A new Bradford Track was built behind the new plant.^BR3-9

• Near the I-67 exit is the Chicago Inn that the community often visits at breakfast time for socializing.

• Beyond the High School, the origin of the Class of 1988, there was also a Bradford Elementary School

• There was a Spee-D-Mart on Main Street at the far end of Main Street from the school.^GM16

• The town also has a florist and a newspaper, the Bradford Courier.

• There was a hospital in Bradford in 1954 where Mel Austin recuperated from after an accident.^BR1-39 While there was still a hospital decades later^BR3-8, there was a bigger one in Hawthorne that was used when Vicky MacRae had her baby.^HS36

Real Life Notes

There is a real city of Bradford right up against the northern border of Pennsylvania, almost 80 miles due south of Buffalo. The Bradford, Pennsylvania city Wikipedia page is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford,_Pennsylvania. It's complete with a University of Pittsburgh campus, commonly called Pitt-Bradford.

There is also a town of Bradford in New Hampshire, first settled in 1772. See http://www.bradfordnh.com.

There is another real city of Bradford in Northern England, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire. Their Wikipedia page is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford.