Spring City Chronicle

Thanks for the memories, of flights to Germany
Across the Northern Sea, with blazing guns
We fought the Hun, for air supremacy.
How lucky we were!

Thanks for the memories, of Me-109’s
And Flak guns on the Rhine
They did their bit and we were hit
So ended our good times…we miss them so much!

We drifted far out of formation
We jumped-and what a sensation
And now we sweat out the duration
Our job is done, we had our fun.

So thanks for the memory
Of days we had to stay, at Stalag Luft 1A
The cabbage stew which had to do
Till Red Cross Parcels came
How thankful we were.

So thanks for the memory
When “D” Day came along
We changed our marching song
From “Forever and a Day” to “War ain’t Here to Stay”
We thank God for that!

- An Anonymous Poet from Stalag Luft I

The Up and Down Broadway column was as close to a blog as the Freeman has ever had. It had the content just not the ability to link. As I look at my own stuff, much of it is similar in style and content to what you would have found in those columns. In fact, if they would pay me enough, I could produce an Up and Down Broadway for them today.

The Freeman now has a feature called “From the Freeman Files” and the researcher for the column is Patrice Shanks. I want to commend Patrice for coming up with some good stuff, but today she found a couple of Up and Down Broadways from July 3rds past which were really, really good:

“When Waukesha was a Western Outpost” July 3, 1936

How long does it take to travel 32 miles? If the traffic isn’t too heavy you should make the distance in 45 minutes without flirting with a broken neck. If it’s just a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive and you’re not particular when you get there, it might take you an hour.

The distance between Waukesha and Watertown is 32 miles and because I’ve traveled it scores of times, it was interesting to read Timothy Johnson’s own account of the first trip a white man ever made between Waukesha and Watertown. The latter is celebrating its centennial over the Fourth and is centering the festivities around Johnson, who was its first white settler and a friend of Morris D. Cutler, the father of Waukesha.

“We were three weeks and three days in reaching Watertown, from the time we left Prairieville (Waukesha),” Johnson said afterward. The average mileage for the trip was a little over a mile a day.

July 3, 1962 – Up and Down Broadway: “A Studious Fourth”

Since the Fourth of July is a one day holiday this year (and how far can you drive and back in 24 hours?) many will stay home. With time on their hands perhaps some of them will review little-known details about Independence Day.

For example, John Hancock was one of the only two founding fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth. If we were real democratic about it, the Fourth of July would be rightly celebrated Aug. 2, when most of the signers affixed their signatures.

An equally acceptable date would be July 2, when the colonial congress adopted the resolution. However, we celebrate our independence July 4, the date of the declaration’s publication.

The signers were a daring lot, for “freedom” was an English synonym for treason in those days.

William Ellery, of Rhode Island, stood back of the table on which the Declaration rested and watched as the others signed.

“I was determined,” he said later, “to see how they all looked as they signed what might be their death warrant.”

Who were they? All but nine were American born. Over half of them were lawyers, 14 farmers, four physicians, a minister and nine merchants.

Charles Carroll of Carrollton – the signer after whom Carroll College is named – was, at his death, the last surviving member of a brilliant group of conspirators to whom we owe our independence.

• Dale will no longer be Martinizing. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many times I’ve taken any of my stuff to a dry cleaner in my life, but it was nice to know he was there. I know, I know … I don’t get dressed up much.
• Our daily Sound Off with of an explanation of some flag girls’ attire at Waukesha South.
• Meanwhile, in Flathead County, Montana:

12:16 a.m. Less than favorable actions in Bigfork led to a drunken man being ejected from a home.

1:52 a.m. Two males and two females said to be acting suspiciously at the Foys Lake swimming area turned out to be rather humdrum.

5:14 a.m. A morning jaunt through a local grocery store was short-lived for an ill-at-ease transient. He was asked to vacate the premises.

3:55 p.m. Morel pickers got territorial over prime picking spots in Marion.

So the 35 trains per day which pass through Waukesha each day will be blowing their horns at all hours of the night.

Two years ago I speculated about what it would take to get Greg Maddux from the Cubs. Now that the Brewers are again in a race for a play-off spot, let me bring up his name again as an alternative to C.C. Sabathia, who will cost the Brewers dearly  in minor and major leaguers. Peter Gammons speculated the other evening that J.J. Hardy might be in the mix, for instance. Let me give you six good reasons why this would be a good move:

1. The Padres are going nowhere this year.
2. Maddux is 43 years old and not what the Padres can build around.
3. Maddux is a free agent after the season.
4. The Padres need offense and the Brewers have minor leaguers who seem to have great offensive potential with Matt LaPorta at the top of the list.
5. The Brewers and the Padres have done business before. The Padres got three minor league pitchers for the unimpressive Scott Linebrink. Melvin usually goes back to wells he’s been to before.
6. Can Maddux still pitch? He leads the Padres staff in innings pitched and games started. He has the second lowest ERA amongst their regular starters and has been reasonably successful with a team that doesn’t score many runs.

Grab your checkbooks, citizens, you’re children are about to be held hostage. The Journal says that the Waukesha Public Schools are considering closing five schools, not just Blair and Saratoga as they had previously said. I smell scare tactics followed by a referendum.

Wigderson has some comments on possible school closings.

Update: James says the Journal and I are worng (sic). See his comment.

Update2: Now James has a post of his own which explains in more detail.

- In case you’re a newcomer to The Sha, in the picture above, you’d be standing in the middle of Grand Avenue in front of Taco John’s looking at Central Middle School.

Waukesha County was recently recognized as the eighth-best place in America to raise a family by Forbes.com. By default, this means that it is the 8th best place on Planet Earth to raise a family, as well.

If you have to live anywhere in Wisconsin, this is a pretty good place to be.

P.S. I’m looking for the link at Forbes.com but I haven’t found the right link yet.

I had a firefly in my bedroom last night. I thought I was having a stroke. I kept seeing flashes of light out of the corner of my eye while watching the Brewer game. I finally identified the problem when it landed on the ceiling and started flashing in Morse Code: N-E-D: T-A-K-E  S-U-P-P-A-N  O-U-T. Advice which Ned, being Ned, ignored.

It would be a hard thing for me to name the best things about summer. Being able to keep the windows open all day and all night is up there. Not wearing a coat all the time is up there. Lower utility bills are definitely a plus. But while other insects are a scourge of summer, like ants, wasps and mosquitoes, I have to say that fireflies are one of my favorite things about summer. It’s not hard to believe the wonder that these bugs used to engender in people.

I don’t remember fireflies in Waukesha in my youth. One of the treats of our annual trip to my dad’s home in southern Illinois in the summer was the fireflies. I remember doing all the usual kid things like chasing them and putting them in a glass jar. Maybe that’s why they’re still special to me. Central Indiana where I worked for a couple of years had a lot of fireflies, too. The proliferation of fireflies here must have happened in the past twenty years or so. They were south and they’ve moved north. OMG, it’s yet another good thing about global warming!

• My initial response to the news that the teachers union can display support for a union position was like Waukesha School Board member William Baumgart’s, “My first reaction to something like this is that it’s not good.” But, having been a union steward (perhaps the only Conservative Republican ever to hold that post) I can tell you that labor law does protect the right for union members to demonstrate, as the union lawyer says.  Now, if the teachers stray into overtly political signs indicating support for a particular candidate, that’s a violation. They will do so anyway with the attitude that, “We’ll display it until we’re told to take it down.”
• These laws have been around for 50 years or more and aren’t likely to change with the times since legislators depend on blue collar support in general and the Democrats even more so. Democrats like Congesswoman Laura Richardson. (Hat tip to Wisconsin Conservative)
• Sad dog stories today: Curt Otto’s dog got bit at Minooka Park. Little Miss Sunshine comments on the news that Rocco of “Bob and Rocco” won’t be with us much longer. We invest so much feeling in those furry things because they ask little and give so much. A pet is the best value in creation.
• All those TIFS add up. I don’t care how many times someone explains how beneficial they are, it’s still daunting to see the city going $14,800,000.00 into debt.
• Here are some tips for handling the impossible situation at the Waukesha Post Office.
• My new alderman’s proposal to regulate spray paint in the city passed. Graffitti is out of control. These gang members by and large either don’t know their father or belong to the same gang as Dad. To suggest that it’s a parental problem is only part of the answer.
• The Journal is laying off 10% of its workforce. Let’s hope Darryl E isn’t one of them.
• Mark Belling has this to say about our Mayor Larry:

If Waukesha County follows the call of Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson to join the regional transit authority, the whole county’s taxpayers will deserve to pay the millions they’ll be pouring into the boondoggle. The only counties presently in the RTA are Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha, but transit boosters desperately want Waukesha and have their long-term sights set on Washington and Ozaukee. Why? That’s where the money is.

Nelson and other Waukesha County Kool-Aid sippers may argue they’re only looking for a better way to fund their local buses. They don’t actually believe that because they can’t possibly be so naive as to believe that’s all RTA membership will do. The purpose of the RTA is to fund the proposed Milwaukee-Kenosha commuter train – something that will be a lot easier to accomplish with tax dollars flowing from Brookfield, New Berlin and Hartland. Once Waukesha County is in, a token extension of the rail line will be proposed as a way of justifying the funneling of suburban money into Milwaukee County.

At a meeting last week of these transit groupies, there was a lot of bashing of me for all of this “negativism” I’ve been spreading about suburban subsidization of Milwaukee’s money-sucking transit dreams. It’s my fault they can’t get every last tax they want? I’m happy to take the credit. In the meantime, if the city of Waukesha is so excited about joining the RTA, why doesn’t Nelson propose going in without taking the rest of the county along for the bath?

• The Weekend in Waukesha (Harleyfest West) entertainment schedule in print.
• No Independence Day celebration in “soggy, smelly” Big Bend this year.
• But there are plenty of other places for Big Benders to get their Uncle Sam on, including the Town of Brookfield’s Fourth of July parade which has to be one of the shortest parade routes in the nation. It goes from one side of Barker Road the other side. This raises the question of whether there are chickens involved.

Meanwhile, in Flathead County, Montana:

3:19 a.m. In Bigfork, when a man woke up from an alcohol-induced nap and found that he was still intoxicated and only 15 feet from the bar. The bar, however, was closed. The man walked home.

9:14 a.m. A inspired lawn ornament was stolen from a home on Eagle Bend Drive.

5:09 Someone called in to report a bunch of naked males on an island in the middle of Foys lake. When law enforcement arrived the men were only half naked.

8:28 p.m. An 18-year old male drove to the hospital after he shot his own hand. He thought the .45-caliber handgun was unloaded. He was wrong.

One hundred and forty-one years ago today, the British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Province of Canada (soon to become the provinces of Ontario and Quebec) joined in a federation which eventually became the Canada we don’t know that well, but certainly have nothing against. On behalf of the United States, I apologize for our invasion of Canada in 1812. What were we thinking?

These are the facts, as I know them: Canada has given us most of the actors in Hollywood, most of the music we listened to in the 70’s and the dreaded Alberta Clipper. We love watching “Ice Road Truckers” which is taped in Canada and almost all of the television shows from 1980 on were filmed in Canada. Some of us like hockey, some of us like glimpses of Canadian football, some of us like your national anthem better than our own, some of us dreamed of visiting Montreal when we still dreamed of traveling and some of us found inspiration in our own lives from Canadian Stan Rogers’ song “Northwest Passage”. Besides, the Brewers’ first draft choice this year is from Canada. What’s not to like?

It’s still hard for me to believe while driving in wilderness of northern Wisconsin that there’s a whole other country north of there. Mind boggling. Anyway, happy birthday Canada.

• Should local convenience stores sell beer? The natural concern is that “beer and cars don’t mix”. I think that concern is misplaced. I don’t think I ever bought beer at a gas station when I was drinking. Can you imagine what you’d pay for a six pack? Wal-Mart wants a liquor license and my Pick and Save has cases of wine in the aisles. Why discriminate against gas stations?
• 
• Who the heck is doing the construction in Oconomowoc, the Three Stooges? Waukesha just sent Cooney a bill for the last explosion.
• The You Tube Taser bonehead plead guilty.
• 
• It isn’t my imagination that birds are more aggressive this year. Some robins in my back yard made so much of a racket about Watson being out that the neighbors came out of their houses to see what was going on. Watson was innocent.
• The weekend Waukesha Police blotter had one curious item:

SUNDAY

6:54 p.m. – Burglary was reported in the 200 block of Maple Avenue after someone entered a residence and placed dishes that weren’t the owner’s into a sink.

• A letter to the editor from a Carroll College faculty member disputes the name change. Another voices opposition to the Northwoods team in Frame Park.
• Sound Off has a number of things.

No BoDeans yet, but -

Surprise National Country Headliner (Announced AUG 1st)

I was looking for the website yesterday and could not find it. My favorite new home owner, Aimee, came through!

“One of the important things about this place is the tradition of this place,” Carroll College President Doug Hastad said.

So, of course, one of the first big things he does is change the name. If he was in charge of The Boston Marathon, he’d change it to “The Suffolk County Mega-Race and All-Day Party” to more reflect what it’s evolved into. “We’re really calling ourselves what we have become,” Hastad might say.

Whatever, it’s not my money.

• Drive-by shooting on Waukesha’s southeast side.  We’ll soon be hearing that Waukesha is the 36th best city in the U.S. to start a gang according to “Folks Monthly”.
• Waukesha: City of Escorts.
• Waukesha: Art City. Nothing says “Art” like a bus station. It might be Jeff Seymour’s building, but it’s still my great grandfather’s house he’s painted purple and put a sunflower on. I don’t really mind.
• It may come as a shock to our Mayor Larry, but state pols don’t think residents are very interested in transportation issues. Are you? I’m not. Are you?
• Have you picked up your Katrina surplus mobile home yet?
• Just an opinion but New Berlin’s Fourth of July party is the best in Waukesha County.
• Think the La Crosse Tribune is getting short of ideas for this feature?
• I just told you not too long ago that we talked about cemeteries a lot. Here’s another article.
• Waukesha County’s best high school athletes.
• You have to admire the Twins. How do they keep rebuilding year after year and stay competitive? Could it be they’ve had better managers? The surprising thing to me is that the crowds weren’t very big. Why are they building an outdoor stadium in Minneapolis? The good news for the Brewers is that they don’t have to play any more American League teams. The bad news is that Eric Gagné is back.
• Only one Waukesha native has ever played in the major leagues. His name was Jack Kading and he played a total of eleven games in his “career,” which consisted of the 1910 and 1914 seasons. He played first base for the Pirates with the great Honus Wagner. His appearance in 1914 was with the Chicago Whales in the rebel Federal League. Maybe John Schoenknecht can tell us more about him.
• The only other Waukesha County native on the list is Andy Thompson from Oconomowoc who played two games for the Blue Jays late in the 2000 season.
• I realized that there was a fatal flaw in the movie “A League of Their Own” which I never knew about until I visited Miller Park recently. (nobody tells me anything) The movie was set during war time, yet the pitchers threw overhand. That didn’t occur until 1948, according to the rules posted at Miller Park. Still a good movie, though.