North central Wisconsin – still in the woods but close to the prairie, open fields and some old trees, will always have a magic for me which is only diminished by my visits. My memories are old, and the changes unsettling. I don't go back anymore.
We rented what could best be called a tar paper shack for a minuscule amount of money every month (we were far from rich) and we would go there as soon as school let out and come back just as school was beginning. I spent the summers there from the time I was a year old until I was seventeen. No electricity, an old and rusted hand pump outside, an outhouse; a kerosene lamp and lantern to light the way at night. It took a long time for us to get a radio.
The house sat on 40 acres which was largely wooded and fenced in except for a couple of small fields. It was dairy country and heifers were kept there; we pumped water for them. Deer would come up to the salt lick and drink from the water we had pumped. There was an old fallen down barn which had been a log cabin. The place seemed drenched in history since it had been built in the 20’s. On one of the trails there were pieces of an old model T.
The train would take us there; my parents somehow finding a ride for the last leg of the journey. Sometimes arriving late at night and only having the lit kerosene lantern to guide us; or the starry sky and moonlight. Other times we would get a ride all the way there.
I learned to read books because I got bored with comics. In that atmosphere the silence could at times be felt. I eventually became interested in ideas. I discovered the world of dreams. The kind you think about not the ones that come at night.
Between vacations we would live just off of First Street in Milwaukee; between Mitchell and Lapham. We left there when I was 10 but it still lives in my memory as the most depressing place I have ever lived. Originally, I didn’t mind it much, but then I went to school and that absolutely horrified me.
In Kindergarten I felt like I was an adult who should be 80 which I think is kind of odd for a child of four.
That dark and dreary place in the city and school represented an unyielding regulation. Some of the other children weren’t civilized; some of the adults weren’t great either. So there was a contrast between the freedom and friendliness of the summers and the inhospitable winters.
When I was 10 we moved to a more middle class area and I eventually went to a college prep high school; developed an interest in science and technology. I learned that the city had a nicer side to it, parks and a university. And a new kind of heaven opened up to me.
u3C
