We had a lovely day
yesterday, Bob Schuster and I. I picked him up promptly at 5:30 a.m. and we headed north. Had breakfast in Berlin (that's BURR-luhn), Wisconsin; stopped in Weyauwega to see the George Taggart statue of the Civil War cavalryman and his Morgan; found the Anna B. farmstead again and saw that the house is now completely crumbled into the cellarhole; after much driving and searching and getting lost, found Anna B.'s grave again.
As usual, getting lost was an instructive experience.
Anna B. is one of the "ghosts" I pursue. I have the transcript of her divorce trial in 1904. It was an ugly divorce trial. It had not been a pretty marriage. Anna's cry still rolls like thunder. I'll publish a piece about her some day, when I have established proper distance.
The trip, of course, was a live seminar for Bob on how to pursue your obsessions, I mean, on how to write about local history. And I was showing him some of the obsessions I was pursuing, I mean, some of the local history I am writing about.
Waupaca County has more snow than we have and the cemetery where Anna is buried was a slippery landscape. We didn't spend a lot of time walking about.
We had a second breakfast in Waupaca. So much happens in those small town cafes - you just have to pay attention. We were making opportunity for Bob to pay attention.
After breakfast we stopped at the Bookcellar around the corner and down the street from the cafe. Yep, they sell used books, and I buy 'em - a fit made in heaven.
We stopped at the big cemeteries on the south edge of Waupaca where Anna B.'s lawyer is buried, and an engineer who worked on the Panama Canal, and a Methodist minister whose journals I've read, 1894-1928. The engineer and the preacher are a couple more ghosts I pursue. It was slippery in these cemeteries, too, and we didn't walk much here either.
On the drive home we stopped for lunch in Berlin. I want to say: "Bob, if you're gonna ride with the Big Dog, you gotta learn to eat like a Big Dog." Bob had a bowl of bean soup and coffee. I had lunch.
When we got back to Fairwater, we kept driving straight on through south out of town, in order to resolve some question between us about where, exactly, the drainage starts for the Grand River, versus where, exactly, the drainage starts for the Rock River. This is an important question for a couple old grizzled bears out for winter walkabout, and when we got it resolved to our satisfaction, I took Bob home.
He has his writing assignment.
*
When Mary got home from work, she and I had light enough yet that we could take our walk south out of town as we like to do. Along our way we stopped to talk with a fellow who was outside in his yard. Fellow said the farmer who rents his land had just taken a crop off one of the fields the day before. Fellow said, "I bet that's the last time I see soy beans harvested in January."
*
We're off this morning to Columbus, Ohio, to see Mary's brother and our niece, to eat ice cream and Cuban cuisine and lord knows what else.
Funny how my best stories all seem to involve food.
Oh, please give my best to Cow-Town -- where I was a resident for four years prior to coming to South Dakota. By ice cream, do you mean Graeter's, perchance? Have a good trip!
Posted by: Artichoke Heart | January 20, 2006 at 01:26 PM
I'm really looking forward to that Anna piece.
The only ghost you don't seem to be chasing is the lawyer. I understand.
Posted by: Peter | January 21, 2006 at 02:48 AM
Artichoke Heart--Yes, indeed, it is Graeter's ice cream. Is there any other? If there is, why would you? Though I am told Johnson's, just down the street, is equally as good. I only had one shot at it this trip, so I couldn't take the chance: we went to Graeter's. As I like to say: "Life without ice cream is like no life at all...."
Posted by: Tom Montag | January 23, 2006 at 01:30 PM
Peter--the lawyer's family has quite an interesting plot of grave sites, and some of the family members seem to have had especially interesting lives for small and rural Wisconsin, so I can't say for sure yet that I am not pursuing that ghost. I'm just not *actively* pursuing it at the moment....
Posted by: Tom Montag | January 23, 2006 at 01:33 PM