My first visit to Wisconsin was actually in the 1990’s for my husband’s brother’s wedding. The exact year will remain a mystery because I can find none of the pictures or memorabilia, but my husband and daughter were both in the wedding party. Remembering the photos of my daughter, she looked adorable in an off white satin dress, as she walked down the aisle. I had that picture of her on my office desk for many years. Where did it go? I also visited WIsconsin, however briefly in 2019 when Megan and I took the Empire Builder Amtrak train from Seattle to Chicago (more on that trip later). The picture at the top of this page is me waving from the train as it stopped in The Dells, WIsconsin, where my daughter hopped off the train to take some pictures and walk around the quaint station. Since I did nothing uniquely “Wisconsin” on either of those visits to the state, I do not count them in my 50 state quest.
My “true” trip to Wisconsin came in 2008 when I spent 4 days at a conference in Milwaukee. I was surprised to find that Milwaukee is a very pleasant city and offers many interesting diversions. For one thing it has a world class art museum. Georgia O’Keefe was a Wisconsin native and the museum houses one of the largest collections of her works. However it is not just the art works which make this museum special. In 2001 the architect Santiago Calatravo designed a “winged” pavilion as part of the museum complex. The building has become as famous as the art it houses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0-98XdKw0M&t=107s You can learn about the 20th anniversary of its construction in the youtube video. I was fortunate enough to spend an evening at a private reception in the gallery and I remember being awestruck as I wandered from one Georgia O’Keefe to the next. While my visit also included a trip to the Harley Davidson Museum, that did not excite me nearly as much as the art museum. It seems that around the turn of the 20th century Milwaukee residents William Harley and Arthur Davidson decided that it would be a good idea to motorize a bicycle and that Milwaukee would be a good place to manufacture the resulting machines. The museum bears witness to the power of their creative genius. https://www.harley-davidson.com/us/en/museum.html?hbx_camp_id=hd_museum_redirect&urlvar=h-dmuseum.com
Two of my fondest memories of Milwaukee have nothing to do with museums. They involve a visit to a beer bottling plant and a walk along the “riverwalk.” Those memories are centered around two television shows I watched in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, “Laverne and Shirley” and “Happy TImes.” Laverne and Shirley were two young women who worked in a beer bottling plant and their theme song began with the line “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Schlemiel, schlimazel, hasenpfeffer incorporated!” You can see the entire opening theme song here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAnecJl_Z1A&t=30s It was funny that the entire tour group, consisting mostly of those in their 50’s and 60’s, broke into the song as the beer bottles came rolling by on the conveyor line — all of us wished we had a glove to put on top of one of the bottles. Alas, Schlitz, the “beer that made Milwaukee famous” is no longer produced in the city although you can apparently still buy it some places, especially in the midwest. It is now owned by Pabst Brewing company according to Wikipedia.
The river walk is another Milwaukee treat, especially known for its life size statue of The Fonz erected in 2008. https://www.visitmilwaukee.org/articles/about-mke/bronze-fonz/ The Fonz was one of the characters on Happy Times and his statue caused quite a stir in Milwaukee when it was unveiled in 2008. The river walk itself came into existence according to urban legend because the mayor paid a visit to San Antonio and determined that Milwaukee would benefit from a river walk like the one in the Texas city and he returned home with a vision. That vision became a reality in the 1990’s and early 21st century and is a great part of the ambience of the City of Milwaukee. https://milwaukeeriverwalkdistrict.com/about-milwaukee-riverwalk-district/
Well I have almost reached the end of this visit to WIsconsin and I have not mentioned cheeseheads once so why are they in the title of the page? WIsconsin is known as Dairyland in honor of one of its major industries, dairy production. Cheesehead is the nickname for citizens of WIsconsin generally and more particularly it is a derogatory term applied by Chicago sports fans to Wisconsin sports fans. The fans in turn have embraced the name and are often seen at sporting events with cardboard hats designed to resemble a wedge of cheese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheesehead Hence the reason for the reference. If you ever visit Wisconsin, please be on the lookout for the cheeseheads.
Memories - A Second Chance at Happiness 