Give us any chance we’ll take it…

Okay, I think I’m Laverne, which I first thought would have to make M. Shirley, which I know he would not appreciate, but maybe he can be Lenny?  (He might try to claim Fonzie, but, no.) Anyway, we re in Milwaukee. We have not fallen into the sink hole, but there’s still time.  We also don't see how Laverne and Shirley had a basement apartment because we've not see any, and it doesn't make sense with the climate.  (And did y'all know that Laverne was supposed to have come from NY?  M. says so, but I never got that.)

Anyway...


We started out in Appleton. I like Appleton, and not just because it has a great Greek restaurant. I’m sure it’s made some Yahoo list of top 10 great places to live or something. In fact, it’s the first place out here that I have forgotten to think, “yeah, but what about winter???” and then shudder. It’s at the top of Lake Winnebago, which is probably the size of Willimantic or some other smaller city. Really, it’s 30 x 10 miles.


Today, Appleton had a farmer’s market. The fresh veggies looked amazing. It was blocks long. We bought some cherries, which also looked amazing. M. thinks they are sour. They are a little, but they are juicy. Like watermelon is juicy. More juicy than grapes.

 In downtown Appleton there is a Masonic temple called the castle which houses the history museum. It’s very small, but gave me lots of ideas about great display and exhibit spaces in really small spaces. They had an Edna Ferber display (Show Boat author). A really interesting McCarthy display (apparently he came from Appleton, too. A post card display of Main Street - which showed the worst snow storm (1929) and made me realize I hadn’t thought about that.

They also have a sports display, which even I liked. It had smell-o-vision. Press a button and sniff and it gave you related aroma (popcorn, beer, something related to baseball, which I didn’t get) and we learned about a new game even Tui Lob (pronounced too-loo) an Asian game involving spinning tops that looks wicked hard. The museums big draw, though is a Houdini exhibit. (Houdini although born in Hungry, claimed Appleton as his home town.) In this, we got to learn the secrets (I’m not telling.) Try some stuff. I got to put M. in a straight jacket, that was fun. I refused to do this, myself. Yes, I was afraid not only would I not be able to get out, but people might get ideas. Anyway, it was cool.


From there, we went to an old paper mill, learned all about how paper was made and made some our selves. THAT was cool! M. has done this before, but I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and am trying to figure out what we could do with home made paper at home. (I will also never look at those fancy handmade papers the same again.)


Heading south along the lake, we made another pit stop at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum. This is a glass museum, and mostly houses the Bergstrom’s collection of paperweights. Yup, it’s as weird as it sounds. 100s of glass paperweights. I’m not a big glass paperweight fan, but some are cool, and in mass it was impressive. Like all things, put 100 or more together and it either gets really, really cool or frightening. This went to cool.


On the ride however… we drove over a hillside and there was a wind farm. I’ve heard of course, read…seen one or two in a location, but seeing them… as far as one could see… it was impressive, but also to me a little frightening. I guess I’ve read too many sci-fi books, because it just reminded me of some future world. (not easy to see in the pictures)But that was not the end of our excitement (or the weird factor) for the day. We got into our hotel tonight and it’s one of those hotel/conference center kind of places and there are ALL these people in red, white and blue, American motif outfits. We check in and there is this huge x-mas tree in the lobby - also all red, white and blue, flag like. Finally, we stop some one and ask - who are you all?


The nice women explained and then later gave us a brochure, they are the “golden glow of Christmas Past” organization. This is their annual conservation. According to the brochure they are an organization “for collection of antique Christmas memorabilia“… They first gathered in a barn outside of Dayton Ohio to discuss their passion for antique Christmas Lights. They only collect things prior to 1966. They now have more than 1000 members, 600 usually attend the conference.


I’m actually tempted to crash their event, but tonight is their last night and many were leaving.  I think they would notice and I think I would stand out.