 | A WRITER'S WIT |  L. Wilder |
MY JOURNEY OF STATES is a series in which I relate my sixty-year quest to visit all fifty states in the U.S. In each post I tell of my relationship to that state, whether brief or long, highlighting personal events. I include the year of each state's entry into the union and related celebrations. I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I have. This is the twenty-sixth post of fifty.
Wisconsin (1976)
Mary was a rookie teacher I worked with on my first assignment. When she attended the Christmas party, she brought a white elephant gift in the incarnation of an old candle in the shape of half a football. The colors—green and gold—were faded, but across the side were printed the words “Packer Backer.” It was one of those gifts that kept getting passed off, rather appropriately, like a lateral. We, after all, lived in Dallas Cowboy country. I liked Mary a lot. She often spoke of Wisconsin wistfully, and, although she had attended college in Denver, she wound up moving to Seattle with her Texas-born husband; I never spoke with her again.
In 1976, rather than follow the perimeter of Lake Michigan to head west, Ken and I put our car on a ferry and sailed from Frankfort across the lake to Wisconsin, a four-hour trip in those days. On the boat I met a young man about my age, who was in the process of divorcing his wife. From his flirtatious attentions, I got the feeling that we could have hooked up. When Ken and I met up for lunch in the bowels of the sad little ferry, I told him about the guy I’d met. Wisconsin turned out to be nothing more than a conduit to Minnesota, where we would pick up I-35 and take it south to Kansas to stay with my parents in Wichita. I would like to return one day.
Wisconsin became the thirtieth state in 1848 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1998.
Wisconsin became the thirtieth state in 1848 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1998.
Historical Postcards
If you missed earlier My Journey of States posts, please click on a link:
1-Kansas 13. New Jersey 25. Michigan
2-Oklahoma 14. Delaware
3-Texas 15. New York
4-Louisiana 16. Connecticut
5-Missouri 17. Colorado
6-Illinois 18. Arkansas
7-Indiana 19. California
8-Ohio 20. Florida
9-Pennsylvania 21-Mississippi
10-West VA 22. New Mexico
11-Maryland 23. Tennessee
12. Virginia 24. Arizona
NEXT TIME: TBD
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