Old Friends Renewed... A Sort of Re-Awakening!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:     Old Friends Renewed...    A Sort of Re-Awakening! 

Long before entering the depths of Geezerhood (or should it be heights?), in my student days, I read Jean-Paul Sartre's The Wall, in which his protagonist is condemned to death by firing squad against the "eponymous," much-feared wall. The story is set during the Spanish Civil War.  The man is ultimately reprieved for "consideration," temporarily, but not before "surrendering the illusion of immortality."

At least that's one interpretation, admittedly an over-simplification of a classic existentialist narrative.  Nonetheless, it leads nicely into the theme, setting up the topic of this month's attempt at constructing a story!  I think that as we age, we engage in more and more self-reflection, looking behind to consider where we've been, ahead through tunnels of presumptive destinations as they grow ever nearer.  Notions of Mortality, even the "illusion" (we all make future plans, don't we??!!) we all seem to hold on to, creep increasingly into consciousness. I haven't actually "surrendered," but I think about it more often these days...  

I don't know if that's the sole motivation, but in recent years it's the thought of mortality that perhaps moved me to seek out old friends, even after 40 or 50 years' absence.  I'm happy and gratified that I did, and wonder often why I waited so damn long to do so.  Noteworthy among them...  

Freddy and I had been childhood friends.  We had paper routes, played ball in the gravel lot adjacent to his family's garage,

cut lawns, rode our bikes recklessly... had great fun and many adventures.  I'm sitting one day staring a my computer, and the word, "rice-a-floffa" (not sure of the spelling!?) wanders into my head.  I look up Freddy's phone number and ring.  To my delight, he responds happily, enthusiastically, and with a hearty laugh as I begin, "I'd like a large order of rice-a-floffa to travel!" Now we get together for lunch at least once a month.  I was in his wedding many years ago, and attended his and Pat's recent 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. A renewed friendship...  pure joy!

This famous Milwaukee
custard stand served
equally famous skinless
wieners made by Johnny's
family business...

Johnny B. was one of the first friends I made during freshman year of high school.  Beginning recently, we E-Corresponded, we talked, and now we get together for lunch or dinner, once a month when time and schedules permit.  In our younger days, we prowled around the old neighborhood, "borrowed" his father's car, went to Louie's cottage for boat rides and water skiing.  Now that we're older and far more brilliant, we talk about politics and former bad habits, the Peace Corps, travel and many other topics of significance that great minds crave.

Richard M. and I were in school together, and enjoyed a friendship in the 60's and 70's.  A couple of weeks ago, following some re-introductory E-Messaging, we set a lunch meeting, and caught up, each of us in turn summarizing perhaps 45 or so years since we last saw one another. It was a Great Time! We plan to get together again, sometime after the start of 2017, perhaps even including other mutual old chums...  

Above is a badly-fabricated image of
the fabled saloon, Morry's on Prospect,
where many great friendships were
forged from a crucible of booze,
juke box tunes and good times!!  

Such as...  Mike B.  We met for coffee, sharing recollections of highly amusing if possibly self-destructive adventures.  Mike reminded me of one of them.  After working a day shift in my profession as "beverage host," he and I stuffed 7 "long necks" each into our winter coat pockets and motored off to a basketball game during which we consumed our booty.  We drove back to the saloon using nothing but alley ways, for reasons I can't readily recall.  Brilliant lads! Brilliant times (uh...  weren't they??!). (I've been counseled not to mention our "famous" automotive backing race the wrong way on Prospect Avenue...  ?!)  I should mention, Richard, Mike and I often encountered one another at the fabled and now famous, but former, Morry's On Prospect. And speaking of Morry...  

He and I had lunch together after a similar span of years had elapsed since we last had any purposeful and protracted conversation.  Here again, so good to see and interact with Morry, both socially and culturally!  A great friend and a friendship renewed! We, too, plan to make it a somewhat regular occasion.  In our most recent telephone chat, we even settled on our next choice of lunchtime cuisine!  Now that's a true sense of commitment, yes?!  Wonderful!!  Lest I forget, great, also, to see Dave K. over lunch!

Greg G. is yet another gem, an old friend with whom coffee and great conversation is a

somewhat newly initiated routine upon which I place great value!  Greg has a way of discovering the best in people and their ideas.  My time with him is always edifying and revealing. He has a generosity of spirit that is both admirable and enviable. Oh, and he admires Jungian Philosophy! (When's our next coffee date, eh, Greg??)   

Though I place equal value on (fairly) newly formed friendships with people of a "shared generational map," we've discussed such as those within the context of "film club" postings.  (Please see archival writings...   http://geezerjoel.blogspot.com/)...  I won't lengthen this piece with a repeated litany of names or the themes of our gatherings.

By contrast, and to her great credit and that of her fellows, SweetHeart enjoys uninterrupted friendships -- celebrated each month over dinner! -- with nearly lifelong good friends. Women, I suppose, being perhaps smarter (some apparently assert!) and more socially conscious than men, at least many of us, have the skill and emotional gifts to maintain relationships, even those that began some 50 and 60 years ago! Men can sometimes acquire such gifts in later life, and as in my case, emotional growth finally blossoms.  (It's a right brain thing, I think! Aina??!! One wonders why it can take so long for right brain functions to function?!)

This is SweetHeart, not with an
old friend, but a relatively new one!
(Possibly an Eagle Scout?...)

Do renewed friendships that originally commenced long ago tend to last?  Or are they ephemeral, like novelties that tend to capture our imaginations briefly and then fade as interest wanes over time?  I sincerely hope not. And to be honest I don't think so...  I think friendships with those with whom we became pals long ago can actually be stronger, more fulfilling! Why, you may ask!  Because in later life we're far less likely to try or want to impress one another.  We're able to be ourselves, without pretension, without the youthful proclivities of competition on too many levels...  financial success, who owns more stuff, number of marriages, who's funnier or more clever, who has a bigger house or garage... Maybe I'm being naive, but I sincerely hope these re-connections, renewed friendships, last a great long time, in fact, as long as those good friends and I do.   (Questions listed, below!)  

Humbly Submitted 12-30-16 -- Joel K.

Questions You May Wish to Consider, Even Answer:   

1.)  Have you re-connected with a friend or friends after the passage of many years?

2.)  How you did you arrange the re-connection, and by what means...  Email, letter, social media, chance encounter, school, the county jail...?

3.)  How do you meet...  lunching, drinks, dinner, at a skating rink, your home, her / his home?

4.)  How often do you get together, or plan to meet...  monthly, bi-monthly, weekly?

5.)  What's the history of your friendship with an old friendship renewed, and how did you first get together?    

     

     

                       

Getting Away...

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      Getting Away...

Time being the precious commodity that most would agree it is, there are times in the course of human events when one simply needs to get away.  No matter the distance or the length, it is or can be a cathartic necessity.  For those of us in the sagging arms of geezerhood, we need a bit of respite, particularly if we're still productively (but maybe not lavishly!), gainfully employed.

As such, SweetHeart and I -- following a delightful birthday celebration with family and friends on the 11th of November (Please notate your 2017 calendars!) -- embarked upon a weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the the University of Wisconsin's original and historic campus (1848!). We stopped only once en route, and then only to nourish ourselves on a modest portion of granola and yogurt.  One shouldn't eat and drive, we're told.  (I recall an acquaintance wisely stating, "If you drink and drive, don't smoke!"...  Sage advice indeed, what?!  We, however, neither drink spirited beverages nor use tobacco products in these perilous times!)

Having arrived in Madison, and having acquired ducats to the Badger Football contest vs. the University of Illinois and its "Fighting Illini," we parked near one of Madison's relatively new Colectivo Coffee locations, this one on Monroe Street, and walked -- my favorite backsack upon

my back -- the approximately 1.5 miles to Camp Randall Stadium.  At Gate 10, we were rebuffed by a ticket-taking / quasi-security official who stated, "We don't allow backpacks in the stadium!"  I, of course, exclaimed something rudely and with vigorous incredulity!!

We're at the game!  You know!  The
Badgers!  Camp Randall...  Footballs...

Never ones to be downhearted or lacking in strategic initiative, we walked a block or two from whence we had come, entered a pizza and gyros parlor (apparently couldn't decide between one culinary offering over another!), approached a young man who was clerking and taking orders for pizza and gyros (an admirable and highly dexterous chap, his face reddened by pizza grease and fat splatters!), and persuaded him to safeguard the aforementioned, highly valued backsack behind the pizza / gyros counter.

Not the actual loud fan, but the best
one could do in the circumstances!

Though lopsided heavily in the Badgers' favor, the game ended at 48 to 3.  Great fun to watch. The young man seated next to us was perhaps gifted with the loudest cheering voice one had ever beheld.  Every play and every success achieved by "our team" was greeting with booming cheers and parroted pronouncements...  e.g.  "First & 10... Interception... Touchdown...  Reception...   Another First Down..."  And he joined in the singing too...  loudly, very loudly... "Build me up, build me up, Buttercup...  Don't break my heart..."!!  (And other traditional ballads!...  He even "Jumped Around" loud!)  

The guy seated behind us in the tightly packed rows of bleacher seats had two perpetual-motion children who repeatedly kneed us in the backs.  "Never mind," we said graciously, following his many apologies, "we have grandchildren who knee people in their backs...  we understand completely the need for children to knee and otherwise abuse their elders..." (Lotta people wearing red!!)

Interesting Food Choices at Freiburg,
and Tall, Too!  Tall and Yummy!

SweetHeart peering
through a natural
Arboretum art form!

Dinner after the "big game" was a feast at Freiburg Gastropub on Monroe. Wonderful food, dessert too!  The following day, we hiked at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, a beautiful acreage that features "distinct ecological communities, horticultural collections... more than 20 miles of trails..."  We dined at Everly.  My dinner was good; SweetHeart's was a mound of celery root described as having radishes, shrimp and other natural ingredients.  It was a mound of celery root with two thin slices of radish and a few diminutive shrimp that hid themselves cleverly under the aforementioned mound of celery root! And cold soft boiled egg!  

An artistic shot taken by Sweet
Heart!  We're looking into a barrel into
which drips of water are apparently
falling.  Our head tops, however, never
became moistened by falling droplets!
Very strange!

Determined to see a fine foreign film, we opted for a purported Bollywood treat from India that was described as a "romantic thriller."  SweetHeart aptly described it as "Bollywood meets Jackie Chan."  It was a mischievous blend of motorbike road romance followed by violence and mayhem that didn't sort itself out until an omniscient narrator explained everything...  And then it still didn't make sense!  But what fun it was!!  Oh yeah! We also visited the Madison Museum

Wonderful shot of SweetHeart taken from the Madison
Museum of Contemporary Art; background view of State
Street and a gorgeous late afternoon setting sun!

of Contemporary Art, one of our favorite attractions in the Capital City!  Always something novel, fun and interesting to see, and hear!  You should go! Go Now!     

At the other end of our weekend adventure, we met our PhD candidate-student, Alie, with whom we had a terrific brunchy thing repast at Daisy Cafe on Atwood.  Then, off to UW's Beacon Hill School of Education building where we met two of her delightful fellow students and one of her professors. Her doctoral advisor was not available.   

Wild Torkeys!  They got wild Torkeys
at that Arboretum place!  Wild, I say!!

Prairie Section Tree!

Heading homeward, we reflected on our pleasant and renewing weekend sojourn, and I moaned about the work that was waiting for me at my global headquarters office, but admitted how lucky I am to have a good business and some truly wonderful clients.  As I write these words, my thoughts wander back to State Street, Monroe, Randall, good restaurants and coffee shops and all the sights, sounds and delights that Madison holds for the occasional traveler. The following weekend, back to Madison for Badger women's volleyball with Amy and Megan and friends.  A happy return, even if only a week later! Another chance to get away.... Perhaps we'll let you know how it all turns out.   Thank you and Good Night... 

[Special Note of Gratitude and Attribution:  The perpetrator dedicates this posting to SweetHeart who has an excellent eye for photography!  Most of the photos placed above are hers, with the exception of the ones in which she's pictured, of course, but she directed them!  The photo, above and to the right, was taken in the prairie region of the Arboretum! She also plans and organizes our holidays superbly, both small and large!! As for me, "Have Bib, Will Travel..."  (Does anyone know why so many young people wear those skinny black legging trousers?)]    

Humbly Submitted, 11-21-16 -- Joel K.                  

A Feast of a Festival, and It's Gaining National Renown!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      More than a Film Festival, It's a Feast of Local and National Prominence!

Magnificent images, outstanding selections! A stunning array of spectacular variety.  We traveled to Istanbul, Iceland, India, China and Iran.  Desert sands and roiling seas, diverse personalities from the Middle East and Africa, cats and the remarkable people who care for them.  Movies!  Films!  An international feast!  They play on our emotions, offer glimpses into fascinating cultures and distinctive ways of living.

When it's over, we feel a sense of loss, as if a good friend has come for a welcome visit and then is too quickly gone.  A full year will pass before it returns to delight us once again.  For

"starters," a kind of appetizer, perhaps, the 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival gave us live action and animated short films for the younger set.  It's become an annual tradition.  We take our grandkids and their parents, gather somewhere for lunch, and then urge the kids to talk about what they liked best, what they learned from or thought about the short films we all just enjoyed.  Bounce was a particular favorite, by consensus!

Sweet Bean!  While it may seem like an English translation of a Japanese exclamation, it's a remarkable film featuring a quietly influential protagonist who molds the story and, in a sense, narrates more positive life choices for the other two principal characters.  And she does it with a beautiful, nearly palpable skill...  and dorayakis to tempt and please the palates of our imaginations.

Keepers of the Game takes viewers to Salmon River High School in upstate New York. This is inspirational filmmaking and storytelling at its very best.  The sport of lacrosse is at its center, as the first all-Native-American girls team makes history, crossing cultural and other formidable barriers to win a championship, recognition and even hard-won funding for their sport along the journey.  An outstanding documentary film!

For one who was based in Turkey
during one's military service, a return
visit to Istanbul -- courtesy of KEDI --
was an added gift of the Festival!  

We waited in a "rush" line, a first for us, but worth the time and effort to re-visit Istanbul and the beautifully photographed KEDI.  The people who care for them, the filming perspectives...  Even if you aren't particularly a lover of cats, this is a gorgeous look at an extraordinary city, its ancient treasures, including its finest assets -- the people who live there.     

Post film-watching conversations with like-minded devotees are a delicious by-product of the festival.  Peter (just to cite an example!) noted how the "aspect ratios" or screen configuration changed between time periods of the epic, Mountains May Depart, a great and at times troubling film that symbolically toys with our notions of freedom.

A beguiling gem from Chinese director Bi Gan, in Kaili Blues we follow Doctor Chen on a circuitous journey that involves trains, cars, boats and motorcycles.  The film includes an intriguing, unbroken 40-minute shot, complex poetry and a dizzying conflation of past, present and future.  Wonderful stuff, even for those of us lost -- or at the very least befuddled -- in the translation!

Nahid -- a strange but interesting film from Iran -- is described as Kafkaesque.   True to its definition, the eponymous character makes illogical and bizarre choices, ultimately designed to retain guardianship of her son.  

"Have you seen 'Rams,' " asks our friend, Alan.  Naturally we had to take the bait, and found a pair of feuding brothers, amid a starkly beautiful Icelandic backdrop, struggling to keep their precious animals from being slaughtered due to a variant of "mad cow disease."  The movie has, at times, a profound sense of isolation encouraged by forbidding mountains that ring their sparsely-populated valley.   Upon reading the brief synopsis, and the names of the brothers -- Gummi and Kiddi -- I puzzled, "What?  Is this a puppet show??!!"  But there's no such whimsey in this grim tale. The brothers reconcile in the end, but perhaps too late as the shivering climax leaves the viewer to wonder.  This was another film that demanded analytical conversation, lots of it! Strange and thought-provoking stuff!

This photo has nothing to do with the
film, Sand Storm (Ref: just above,
right!) But, it's a great picture of four
beautiful grandchildren taken after
a presentation of "Kids Shorts, Size
Medium."  Aren't they wonderful??!!

One more!  Sand Storm from Israel.  Bedouin mother and daughter try to rebel against their repressive, male-dominated society.  In the main, and in the end, it's a story of selfless sacrifice and acceptance of forces too entrenched, too powerful to overcome.  A quixotic fable, maybe? (Just trying to put things into a kind of perspective I might be able to fathom!!)  

For those of us who love travel, a pleasure often limited by the restrictions of economics or work or family obligations (Geezerhood, too, maybe?!), the Milwaukee Film Festival is an opportunity to travel in the comfort of padded theatre seats in conveniently located "spacecraft" (airships, maybe, flying machines, low-speed trains...) -- to wit, the Oriental, Downer, Avalon, Times and Fox Bay cinema houses!   


We love the Festival, and we support it enthusiastically. As members in good standing, we pay what we can on an annual basis in order to enjoy, not only the Festival itself and reduced-cost tickets afforded members, but the "Super Secret Screening," a highlight of each annual event.  And, members can take advantage of the free, monthly member screenings, usually, of outstanding motion pictures, some first-run, some rarely presented in the Milwaukee area, or on a limited basis only. 

A somewhat recent change, the monthly screenings are now shown both at 4:00 pm -- perfect for the Geezer Set, you know, people like me! -- and 7:30 pm, great and welcome options for most members. Members need only respond to Email invitations, and then arrive early to secure seating, picking up awaiting tickets in the lobby of the magnificent Oriental Theatre where the "monthlies" are always shown.  And there's popcorn too...  Wonderful stuff (some would argue nearly indispensable in the movie-viewing experience)! 

"Hey, we're waiting!  Isn't it time for us members to be let in to the theatre?  Come on, now. We've been standing here a long time! Hey, in there!  I could begin chanting at any moment! Let us in!!...  We need sustenance -- Movies!  Popcorn...  Dots, maybe too... Junior Mints...  !!" 

(Special Note of Gratitude:  The perpetrator of this blog posting, on behalf of fellow devotees, extends great thanks to Jonathan Jackson, Kristopher Pollard and the entire cast and crew of Milwaukee Film for bringing to our fine community yet another outstanding Festival.  May we all enjoy a great many more years of this superior and delicious Feast of Filmdom!  Thank YOU!)  

Humbly Submitted, 10-20-16 -- Joel K.      

         







     

  



    

         



      

A Love Affair: More and More Returns to County Door!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      Hearts Remain and More Amour in County Door!

Six of us trooped single file, squeezing in to savor the much-awaiting delights of a favorite frozen confection, some drooling in anticipation as we struggled through the already-gathered

throng that glutted the parlor.  Tad, with his quick-wit and well-honed sense of funny, immediately spotted the missing "h" identifying a featured flavor boldly printed on the black board behind the counter. From then on -- this having occurred about three years ago -- Wilson's of Ephraim in Door County has been known affectionately as "Cookie Doug's." Sweetheart craves "peppermint stick" throughout the year in eager anticipation.  Others of us scan the choices and select various different flavors, with oreo and those flavors that include caramel -- "cookie dough" too, of course, often topping the flavor choices "scoops parade."       

Often described as the "Thumb," sometimes equated to seaside portions of New England, it's an imperative annual destination for many summer and fall, even winter!, holiday travelers and vacationers. For those of us addicted to its many pleasures and gorgeous sights, it calls to us, draws us into its welcoming embrace year after year.  Door Country, Wisconsin -- or as I prefer,

"County Door" (homage to Ireland and the Irish, here and there!) -- never fails to excite and delight us, our family, Sweetheart and me.

This year was no different.  We met Julius Caesar and Company at Door Shakespeare's breezy and bucolic out-of-doors setting, biked in Peninsula State Park, picnicked and swam at Nicolet Bay Beach, gorged on ice cream at "Cookie Doug's," had Wild Tomato pizza on the shores of and overlooking beautiful Eagle Harbor, attended a family-oriented play at Northern Sky Theatre...  We even kayaked for the first time ever!  (I think we passed Lewis and Clark, or was it Marquette and Nicolet ??!!  Anyway, we waved pleasantly!) 

When we have an unobstructed choice, we prefer to stay in Ephraim.  Its central location is a plus, and Leroy's Coffee house is the best in the County.  Good coffee is a must, a daily obsession.  And, of course, Ephraim is the home of Cookie Doug!  This year, owing to VRBO

and other factors, we settled on a "Cabin in the Woods" just outside of the town of Egg Harbor. An excellent choice in many ways, but there were a dead moose, I think, and a deceased elk on the walls, their antlered heads poking through the plaster! (Musta' been traveling real fast to escape gunslingers!!)

Restaurants?  Did you ask about restaurants?  Naturally, we have some big favorites.  They include but are not limited to Julie's in Fish Creek (try the brown-rice stir fry and the pork dish that served with a cherry sauce!), Blue Horse, also Fish Creek (billed as a coffee house but with great food as well!), J.J.'s La Puerta in Sister Bay...  If you happen to be obsessed with the

View from the main dining room that
overlooks the Bay at The Shoreline
Restaurant, Gills Rock.  

traditional Fish Fry, you gotta dine at the Shoreline in Gills Rock!  Great View!  Excellent!  Yummy! (Various random reviews from the "Door Chronicle," or an organ of that nature!) 

Can you see the
Deer?  Mid-Photo?

And wildlife!  I mean, there's so much wildlife to be seen and heard.  Sweetheart and I had a delightful interaction with a deer on a country road just north of the heart of Ephraim.  (Hmmm...  heart and hart...  not a bad juxtaposition of homophones, eh?!)  We were ambling along on our daily walk or hike, as one may prefer, and spotted a friendly mama deer with three fawns trailing behind her.  When the fawns were safely ahead, the doe turned to look at us.  I think she gave us a cheerful wink!  Maybe?  We spotted lots of wild turkeys, an owl, hawks and several additional species of birds...  other creatures too, those confined to ground vs. air!  The Mink River Trail! Almost forgot...  it's a great hike, and one of our...  

Sweetheart, at t the End of the
Mink River Trail...  (aka)
Schoenbrunn Nature Conservancy!

...favorite places to see and visit?  Glad you asked!  Cave Point, for example.  Coen loved the sight of the huge swells that morphed into exploding waves in a wildly windy twilight.  Lucy, too, enjoyed the Point, but stood well back from the spray.  I enthralled the grandkids, telling them how my brother and I, as boys, leapt from one of the precipices into the breaking surf at Cave Point.  Don't know if they allow people to do that anymore!?  But I showed them the exact spot from which we dove or leapt.  Other great places for visiting, trekking and traveling:  The Dunes at Whitefish Bay, the Ferry to Washington Island, and the smaller one to Rock Island, Ellison Bay Country Park, where if you brave the steep climb to and from the water's edge, you can enjoy a terrific variety of cairns, even build your own.  And Lighthouses!...  Cana Island, Eagle Bluff, Sherwood Point...! 

The guy behind me had the effrontery
to try to steal my newspaper, at
J.J.'s La Puerta...  We love Mexican
Cuisine and this place particularly!

Sadly, my great friend "L.L." was unable to enjoy the County this season.  As he put it so poetically, "The Door was closed to me this year..."  His family members tend to prefer the Alpine Resort just outside of Egg Harbor.  Down the road a piece is Frank Murphy County Park, where, it is said, John Dillinger took refuge from his usual career choice and the law. (Or was it some other notorious gangland figure?  Where's my book of odd history??...) 

One last note of great importance:  See that picture of "Cookie Doug's," upper right corner?  It was taken by Alie!  I asked her as she was poised to shoot, "Do you need us to get out of the frame?"  A woman nearby, about to enter the parlor, said, "Well, if you want me to...  well, see here!  I'm not with any of you...  I...  (mumble, snerble, grubble, snorg...).  (We missed or can't seem to recall the remainder of her vocalized umbrage! The "mumble words" are a humble attempt!)  Once again, the Door experience, 2016 Edition, was a trove of delight and adventure.  We're already planning next year's return!  

Humbly Submitted, 09-27-16 -- Joel K.

Questions for our Beloved Friends and Readers  (Do we have any??!):

Your favorite restaurant(s) in Door County?

What are your favorite places in the County?

Do you go every year?

Where do you prefer to stay?

What is your favorite place for treats, ice cream, etc.?

What's your favorite place to picnic?

Your favorite place to swim?

Describe some of your favorite Door County Adventures!?

Looking forward to your answers and comments...  suggestions, too, if you like!!

                







  

The Noisiest, Longest Holiday!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:                      The Noisiest Holiday...  Longest, too! *

For the past 41 years straight, including 2016, this geezer and family have enjoyed the obstreperous celebration at Milwaukee's fabled Lake Front, namely the 3rd of July Fireworks

explosions, sponsored by some financial institution or other.  What a day-long event it is, and has been over time.  We play, we picnic, we sing and dance...  we even cavort! It's a dashedly, wizardly fine time!  Ask anyone!!

Among the joys of the 3rd is the extraordinary diversity of humanity (and possible extra-terrestrial beings) in attendance, endlessly parading back and forth along the various promenades...  sidewalks on the periphery of and within the confines of Juneau Park. Just this past July, I'm certain I saw Darth and Dorothy Vader, for example.  I accosted them,

Darth-y and Dorothy ("Dot") Vader enjoying the
3rd of July pyrotechnics "Noise-a-Rama" at
Milwaukee's famous and fabled Lake Front!

just to convey greetings.  Darthy (that's what I call him affectionately!) told me they'd just come from the annual Death Star Sock Hop, but hoped to retain their anonymity as they enjoyed the evening's pyrotechnics.  I promised not to point them out to the multitude!  (Their children were apparently being minded and babysat by Mynocks and Space Slugs!)  

And there are certain traditions in our family's annual participation that cannot be ignored. The grandchildren, particularly Lucy and Phia, enjoy pasting small stickers or decals to my sunglasses until my vision is completed obfuscated.  The boys, Coen and Sean, enjoy jumping upon my person to see if I can emerge from the event without

Lucy (at top), Hanna (left), Phia
(on Papa's lap), and Papa rendered
sightless by stickers!  Such Fun!

too many bruises and broken parts! Oh, I tell you, it's all a portion of the rich pageantry of this marvelous event.

Speaking of obfuscation, one year the fog was so dense we could but hear the explosions.  We imagined they were quite a spectacle, though they were not visible behind the fog!  One astute person announced, "These are best darn fireworks I've ever not actually seen!"  

The day invariably consists of games -- including "How's Yours?" -- a delightful romp in which a person is sent away while the others select a body part, the object of the ensuing guessing contest.  The "sent-away" party is summoned back and made to ask each participant, "How's yours," until the object body part is correctly ascertained.  (Sometimes the clues and the guesses become a bit ribald, but the fun never stops... happily, the vulgar references most often sail over the crania of the small children in attendance!  Uh, don't they...  What's all that whispering over there??!!)  

There are treats aplenty.  Homemade cookies, crisped rice bars in patriotic colors, various kinds of brownie-style treats, cupcakes.  And fresh fruit, too, of course.  It would be criminal not to enjoy the yummy delights of fresh summer fruit -- strawberries, blueberries, red grapes, kiwis and calabashes!  (Don't tell me you don't include a calabash or two among your July 3rd comestibles??!!)    

This could be an actual image of
discarded furniture, of the type
secured annually by
"Acquisitions Andrew" with
the blessings of "Captain Billy"!
(Photo entitled, "Frayed but
Functional"!)

One of the most anticipated joys of the 3rd Fireworks display is the attempt to find an outhouse with actual paper still available in its holder!  Oh yes, and then there's the outdoor, ersatz living room established by two giants of annual attendance, "Captain Billy" and "Acquisitions Andrew." The latter scours the city in search of discarded furniture that can be gathered up and transported to Juneau Park for the comfort and viewing pleasure of family, friends and visiting dignitaries (such as a certain geezer and his entourage)!

Throughout the years we've started the celebration by "staking our claim" to a portion of the Park, and setting up our enclosure with string and "Do Not Cross" tape coiled around stakes hammered into the earth.  People are remarkably respectful of "staked claims."  The day begins quite early (* hence, the "Longest"!) and ends well after darkness descends.  Immediately following the pyrotechnics, the mad and frenzied exodus begins as thousands gather belongings and trample one another as they rush to parked vehicles, bicycles, horses, mules, buses, space ships and other conveyances in crazed, snarling efforts to be first to reach their modes of transportation without being killed or maimed in the process! We usually wait a bit, and then amble along slowly and respectfully before being knocked down and trampled in the stampede. All part of the rich pageant of... well you get the idea, I'm sure...

Sweetheart, Perpetrator, Alie, Bethie,
Phia, Lucy, Coen (top to bottom, l to r)

Usually, we do not attend a second display of pyrotechnic patriotism on the actual 4th, but this

Susie (at top), Dennis and Carol

year was an exception. Dear friends Dennis and Carol were in town from Nevada staying with our beloved niece, Susie, her spouse, Tom, and children, Tucker and Jack. Both Dennis and Carol have a bit of difficulty with long and arduous walks, hence Susie provides wheeled chairs and human capital to move the pair from parking spaces to the viewing spaces.  Always a rich treat to see and spend time with the aforementioned.  We danced, we sang with Ms. Amy, we oohed and aahed, our senses dazzled once again by the booming and brilliant explosions in the skies above us.

Perpetrator and Susie play Cribbage!
Coen looks on in admiration, possibly!

Each year Sweetheart and I insist we're not going to attend the 3rd of July Explosions, but then our daughter, Alie, insists that we cannot break the tradition.  We relent.  But, there's been a possible concession to our elderly complaints about long hours seated upon the earth, packing up all the stuff that's needed, hauling our wagon full of blankets and coolers and signage (Our Staked Claim and Claim Number!), stakes, a hammer, parking challenges, bicycle riding...  sometimes. We may actually be permitted to arrive at the Park a bit later than our usual quite early "clocking-in" hour.  More time to rest, take a nap maybe, slurp our porridge or gum some soft stuff like mashed potatoes or mush! Well, all in all, it's been a great run at 41 years and counting. We look forward to many more, not to mention cupcakes and mixed nuts, calabashes, cookies...!       

Questions:    1.  What are your favorite memories of the July 3rd Fireworks at Milwaukee's                                    Lake Front, Dear and Noble Reader?
                      2.  Do you barbecue?
                      3.  Do you pack a lunch to bring sandwiches in a cooler?
                      4.  What are your favorite or best treats / desserts that you bring to the event?
                      5.  How many years have you been attending this fine event?

Post Comments Below, as Desired:
 

Humbly Submitted 08-18-16 -- Joel K.