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Liver Paste (patte') and Friday Perch Frys at little hole in the wall bars! I was born and raised in Wisconsin, left in 81 for the military. We lived each summer in Door County, Horse Shoe Bay area during the time they had hand pickers in the orchards. Best place for a kid to spend the summer, meet other kids from other backgrounds and make a few dollars for school clothes.
I was born and raised in Door County. I plan my annual visits around Friday Night Fish Frys. Best place in the world for children to grow up and work hard to enjoy life both as a child and an adult. We owned one of those cherry orchards to which you refer. Long, hot days and hard work. And, do I miss it! However, I do not miss having to drive through 26" of snow to get to work. And, I'm leaving FL to escape the humidity wanting to return to an area that reminds me of WI and Door County.
Fishing out on Loon Lake around 1991 with my cousins and uncle. He's my uncle through marriage. From the St. Paul area. When we were done catching the fish, the rest of my family met us, and we made a fire right there by the lake. My uncle, being the dimwitted city boy, tried to start it with a little gasoline. It shot straight up five in the air and was very pretty. When we got it calmed down, we started scaling and gutting the fish while my aunt mixed together some crumbled up saltines and egg. We breaded the fish, cooked it, and ate it right there by the lake. It was so good. Probably the best fish I ever had. Just being there, cozy in nature, with family. And the kick-ass tasting fish. I also caught a pretty good-size one (I forget what kind, I think a "Sunnie," they're called? I wasn't TOO outdoorsy growing up.) And my uncle wanted to mount it. I'm not sure he ever did but he kept it in a freezer for the longest time.
Sleepovers with a few friends in elementary school. A couple of them lived out of town in smaller rural towns like Campia and Brill... it was interesting to spend the night out there in the country, and conversely for them I'm sure, to spend some time playing at parks in the city when they stayed with me. Slumber parties in middle school.
Brownies. Selling those Girl Scout cookies, the Brownie meetings, singing "Kumbaya" (LMAO), doing fun stuff out of my Brownie handbook. Playing Jem dolls with my two neighbor friends, and just riding around on bikes and running around until it was dark.
Mom's cooking. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen in those days.
In middle school, my two friends and I once got on the city bus and ride around, like we liked to do sometimes. We didn't even get off. We just stayed the route and this time, we started singing Christmas songs. At first we were kind of goofing around, but then we just kept singing. And the passengers enjoyed it. That was cozy, on a brisk winter evening to be on a warm bus w/my 'fwends' having fun.
Playing at City Park and Indian Mounds Park in Rice Lake.
Staying after school in the cold and snow and chatting with my best friend, across the street from the school after the school day was over. We'd stay there and talk for a half an hour or so before I went one way home, and she went the other way to her mom's work. There was a line of little apartment houses right across the way, that we'd stand in front of, and a car that was always parked in a driveway. We'd save ketchup packets from lunch and put them under his tires. Because we thought it a humorous and brilliant idea to get this person to run over our ketchup packets with his car, ya know. Another fond memory is the crossing guard I met everyday on that route. He was old. Nice.
Last edited by MSPLove; 01-29-2010 at 08:23 AM..
Reason: more detail
I was born and raised in Door County. I plan my annual visits around Friday Night Fish Frys. Best place in the world for children to grow up and work hard to enjoy life both as a child and an adult. We owned one of those cherry orchards to which you refer. Long, hot days and hard work. And, do I miss it! However, I do not miss having to drive through 26" of snow to get to work. And, I'm leaving FL to escape the humidity wanting to return to an area that reminds me of WI and Door County.
Some common themes to be had here. The old "trips up North" are as good as it gets. I remember when a friend moved up to live with his dad in around 1970, and I had just bought my first car (a 69 Pontiac Tempest convertible) a great car for a 17 year old back then, cruising up to Fontana on Lake Geneva for the weekends to stay with him and check the area out. We went to Millie's Pancake House on Sunday mornings. Then there's the year I got into great shape and ran a bunch of cross country races sponsored throughout Wisconsin (Green Bay and Prairie DuChien). How could I forget the wonderful care the folks in Patch Grove gave me as they rushed me to a local hospital in Prairie DuChien after a near fatal car accident there, then the 6 weeks I spent in LaCrosse at the Lutheran Hospital there recovering.
I moved out West but took a sales job for a jewelry manufacturer covering Ohio to the West Coast by car. A monumental task indeed, but loved covering Wisconsin more than any other State. The customers of mine there were great. I so enjoyed the travels during most of the year, especially April through October, when the air was good enough to bottle and sell. I even flew my wife into Milwaukee to pick her up and we did long weekends up in Door County. Driving across the State stopping at the cheese factories to sample and buy the favorites. When we were first married in 1981 we lived in the West side of West Allis. We remember getting the slabs of chocolate from the local chocolate factory at the store when we'd shop. We got the best pizza we'd ever had delivered from a bar that was down the road a ways. The Sunday morning brunches were unreal as were the baked goods in Wisconsin in general.
I miss my stops at Culver's for a hot fudge sundae fix. Driving across the open fields going North smelling the hay and the farms as I'd pass. Yes indeed some priceless memories that remain with me today that I'll even repeat to some who will listen. I feel sorry for those that have no idea this all awaits them when visiting Wisconsin, let alone living there.
The whole growing up in the country experience for me was great until I was 17 and joined the Air Force. I loved being outdoors all year around and was never bored. I was always out in the field/woods, at the river, at home building something, playing in the barn, visiting neighbors/relatives down the gravel road, etc. The only thing I didn't like was school! They tried to ruin my free time with homework. Can't wait to return and pick up where I left off.
Milking cows, baling hay and all the other work while growing up on farms near Monroe. The smell of a barn, fields and even diesel always make me think of these things.
It was an era when small farmers were more numerous and could raise a family on a farm income
Looking back on my young adult years, they were full of hard work but at the end of the day, you felt like you had done something. They are great memories and we had a lot of fun back then.
Many of my days now are spent sitting on my a-- in meetings or in front of a computer creating a presentation for some boob half way around the world to criticize. Never thought I could make this much $, but I can testify that $ does not necessarily lead one to happiness.
A sunny Autumn Sunday in Green Bay, smelling the tantalizing aroma of brats grilling, while tailgating at Lambeau Field.
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JoshB
When we got it calmed down, we started scaling and gutting the fish while my aunt mixed together some crumbled up saltines and egg. We breaded the fish, cooked it, and ate it right there by the lake. It was so good. Probably the best fish I ever had. Just being there, cozy in nature, with family. And the kick-ass tasting fish. I also caught a pretty good-size one (I forget what kind, I think a "Sunnie," they're called? I wasn't TOO outdoorsy growing up.) And my uncle wanted to mount it. I'm not sure he ever did but he kept it in a freezer for the longest time.
! They tried to ruin my free time with homework
. Can't wait to return and pick up where I left off.
