DETROIT (WXYZ) — For Detroiter JaVaughn Williams, Opening Day means much more to him than the start of the Detroit Tigers season.
It's his walk down memory lane because he worked as a parking attendant in the parking lot directly behind Comerica Park before it became what it is today.
“I seen it be built from the ground up and I was here Opening Day," Williams said.
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He said when Comerica Park was built, he worked the very first Opening Day and since then, he has not missed the event.
“It's a sentimental thing for me,” Williams said. “It's a part of Detroit and it always takes me back to 25 years ago."
The Detroit Tigers played their first game at Comerica Park on April 11, 2000. Williams said he started working as a parking attendant a few years prior and watched as the contractor’s first broke ground.
Today, he said things are much different than what it was before the stadium first opened its doors.
"Everything changed in the city,” he said. “Like the prices of parking went up.”
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Williams said when he first started hanging out for Opening Day, it was just him because he was working. But since then, his family has now made it a tradition to join him on the special day.
"My brother used to work down here,” Williams' brother Jarvis said. "He knew how live Opening Day was. So I’ve traveled from Chicago. I was coming from Houston years ago, but it's something we always do."
Their sister Denitra Williams echoed Jarvis' sentiments.
“I think we've been doing this about 10, no 15 years,” she said.
But no matter who JaVaughn Williams is with or how much fun he's having, he said he always finds time to stop by the very spot where he says he saw all the magic happen.
"It's like coming back home, you know what I mean. It's almost like seeing your house being built from the ground up," JaVaughn Williams said.
