Wisconsin Culture (Milwaukee, Sheboygan, Buffalo: home, living in, moving)

[ranger17]

My grandma had one on the couch and one on the chair. Always felt "nice", the itchy fabric in summer, and never keeping you warm in winter due to all the holes ( in the designs )... But it was grandma's so that meant something.

Also, growing up in Milwaukee in the 60's/ early 70's, I remember going to the old Sentry stores for some fresh cruellers in the bakery. I can close my eyes and still remember that taste.

Things we miss down here we had in WI? cheese curds ( duh ), and Culvers frozen custard. I could see one of those down here, on a hot summer day...

Originally Posted by JoshB

What about an afghan, it was like a blanket or something?

[JoshB]

Wow, I didn't realize so many people would have so much to contribute to the subject! I love afghans, so interesting.

Anyone else have anything they could share?

[Jazzman40]

I grew up on the south side of Milwaukee. A typical sentence may go something like this. Da porch is a better place for dat bubbler, not the frunchroom aina?
We had afghans.
Does anyone remember a guy that would push a cart and sharpen knives and repair things? The cart had a particular bell that I can remember to this day kinda " blink- blonk". He was still going around in the 70's when I was a kid.
How about Albert the alley cat, Howard and Rosemary Gurnette, dialing for dollars, Leon's frozen custard.

[NicePolishBoy]

Originally Posted by jjacobeclark

Cheese curds are definitely unique to Wisconsin and I've never seen pizza burgers anywhere besides here either

Seymour, Wisconsin claims to be the "Home of the Hamburger"

I remember using the phrase "a horse a piece" when I lived out in Colorado and nobody had any idea what the hell I was talking about

Wisconsin pizza is pretty unique, it's thinner than NY style and really crispy almost like a saltine cracker

Sorry, cheese curds are not unique to Wisconsin. They are popular in other dairy states.

Some of the house mentions are frequently used elsewhere as well, front room, afghan, vanity, especially Great Lakes states. Bubbler is different because it was a brand name from Wisconsin and has been treated like Kleenex is nationally.

[Empidonax]

From what I can tell, butter burgers seem to be a Wisconsin thing.

I've never had a "Packer Roll" at a sushi bar in Wisconsin, but perhaps that's another state original?

Wisconsin, of course, is bratwurst central in the United States (and Sheboygan is the epicenter). Isn't there some kind of unique cake that comes from Sheboygan?

However, many of the things often considered unique to Wisconsin are in fact found in some other places....

Buffalo, NY is a major place for fish fries all year 'round, though they don't have perch and walleye like we do in Wisconsin. Wisconsin and Western New York are the only places I know of that have made the year-round fish fry a local tradition, though it's possible Erie, PA also does the fish fry thing.

Buffalo also has frozen custard, though Wisconsin seems to have more of a "flavors of the day" tradition. Wisconsin (via Culvers) has done more to popularize custard across the midwest, though.

I've read that the thin, cracker-crust pizza of Wisconsin is really a variant of a thin, cracker-crust style that came from Chicago, but even if that's the case, Wisconsin has done more to make that style of pizza its own.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by quijote

Buffalo, NY is a major place for fish fries all year 'round, though they don't have perch and walleye like we do in Wisconsin. Wisconsin and Western New York are the only places I know of that have made the year-round fish fry a local tradition, though it's possible Erie, PA also does the fish fry thing.

Quite a few fish fry tradition going strong in Michigan as well.

Actually I most remember it being connected to the Catholic Church. You can't eat meat for lent during the Easter holidays, so the Catholic Church offered fish fry Fridays, and then it seemed to extend outward from there - I recall it being in my public school system as well, a Friday event during the Lent holidays.

Being that much of that region was settled by a lot of Catholics - Irish, Polish, etc...perhaps an overall regional thing.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Quite a few fish fry tradition going strong in Michigan as well.

Actually I most remember it being connected to the Catholic Church. You can't eat meat for lent during the Easter holidays, so the Catholic Church offered fish fry Fridays, and then it seemed to extend outward from there - I recall it being in my public school system as well, a Friday event during the Lent holidays.

Being that much of that region was settled by a lot of Catholics - Irish, Polish, etc...perhaps an overall regional thing.

I'm Catholic too. I don't live in WI, but I got the idea from Wisconsin/Buffalo culture to fry fish on Fridays during lent. Love it alot.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by quijote

From what I can tell, butter burgers seem to be a Wisconsin thing.

I've never had a "Packer Roll" at a sushi bar in Wisconsin, but perhaps that's another state original?

Wisconsin, of course, is bratwurst central in the United States (and Sheboygan is the epicenter). Isn't there some kind of unique cake that comes from Sheboygan?

However, many of the things often considered unique to Wisconsin are in fact found in some other places....

Buffalo, NY is a major place for fish fries all year 'round, though they don't have perch and walleye like we do in Wisconsin. Wisconsin and Western New York are the only places I know of that have made the year-round fish fry a local tradition, though it's possible Erie, PA also does the fish fry thing.

Buffalo also has frozen custard, though Wisconsin seems to have more of a "flavors of the day" tradition. Wisconsin (via Culvers) has done more to popularize custard across the midwest, though.

I've read that the thin, cracker-crust pizza of Wisconsin is really a variant of a thin, cracker-crust style that came from Chicago, but even if that's the case, Wisconsin has done more to make that style of pizza its own.

What is a packer roll?

My father told me about a pizza place in Milwaukee called Giuseppe's.

[JoshB]

My co-worker and I were talking this morning and his brother is up in Alaska for the pipeline. They were asking him about cheese curds. These guys up there thought that they would be gross. I guess they don't know what they're missing.lol

[Geechie North]

Here's one I can tell on myself:

Being from the coastal SE- where I grew-up you had to ask for an "Irish potato" if you didn't want to get a sweet potato when you said "potato", and not being a cheese eater (to this day, I only know two types of the stuff- white and yellow) I had a moment of culture shock when my wife's family (solid Wisconsinites) starting eating "Cheese curds", something I had never encountered in trips to Africa, S. America or the Bahamas.

So, they're eating this stuff which I decline, but I scope-in on the way it looks and think, "This (the looks of it, coupled with what I thought it was called) has gotta be a joke."

About two weeks later I'm shopping with wife & her mom (in Marchants, Brussels, Wi.) when my wife tells me to go to the counter and order some more of it.

So, I promptly went up to the little rolly-poly matron behind the counter and said, "I'd like to get some "Cheese Turds."

'Cause that's what they looked like to me, and that's what I thought my inlaws were calling them.