Milwaukee is like no other place on earth... in good ways and bad ways. It is often descibed as the biggest small town on earth. It is a large city with the attitude of a small town. I think people tend to think small here. We often live in the shadow of Chicago.
But a bad day of traffic is being in the car for a half hour. There is a lot of great things to do here and it is with-in 1.5 hours of both Chicago and Madison. Wanna go camping? A half hour in any direction will pretty much get you outside of city limits and into the country. Those are some of the good things.
Some of the bad are: It is one of the most segregated cities in the country. For the most part people are very tolerant, but for some reason people just don't seem to mix well here.
Taxes taxes and more property taxes. Last count I think we were 3rd highest in the country.
I have yet to find a good Chicago style pizza (I'm originally from a far suburb of Chicago and am used to good restaraunts. I haven't found to many here).
If your ever in the area give me a holler... I'd be happy to show you around.
glad to know i got someone to show me around... same with wilson... you ever make it out this way, i'll make sure to give ya the tour... but i dont know what we would do with the rest of the 23 1/2 hours of the day.
Which suburb of Chicago, if you don't mind me asking? I just moved from Naperville.
West Dundee, just north of Elgin. I lived there for 20 some years minus a few semesters for college. A lot of my family is still there.
Naperville is a lovely place. I have a few friends that live in Wheaton and teach in Naperville. Did you like it there?
jp - good to see you - with your refreshed mood!
jp-you're an inspiration!
seed - the original of your tickler :wink:
lol thank you very much ehbeth
West Dundee, rings bells. I think I knew someone who lived there.
I had mixed feelings about Naperville. I am not a suburb kind of person. I lived right near downtown, and thereby avoided the subdivision hell (downtown has all kinds of cool old [100 yrs+] neighborhoods and houses), but it was still as we called it Whiteyville. I've lived in much more culturally diverse places my whole life, Naperville was just blindingly white. Lots of soccer moms, SUVs. Bleh.
All of that said, though, it was pretty fantastic for raising a young child in many, many ways. Centennial beach rocks. The riverwalk is gorgeous -- I genuinely miss it. We'd just walk everywhere, wander down to the riverwalk, play at the labyrinth, stop by the library. They had all these great free children's activities during the summer, every Tuesday and Thursday an outdoor event with like magic shows and music -- good stuff. Lots of free music in the evenings. We lived close to Naper Settlement and so got free tickets for all kinds of events there, Naper Days, Civil war re-enactment, halloween events, etc.
I don't know if I could have stood much more than four years there, but the four years of sozlet being -3 months to 4 yrs (-3 months) were the perfect years to be there.
Glad to see you back, jp, I understand what you were going through. Your rental sounds wonderful, at a very good price.
sozobe wrote:...but it was still as we called it Whiteyville... Naperville was just blindingly white. Lots of soccer moms, SUVs. Bleh.
Oh... that's naperville alright. There is so much around there that it is hard to not be diverse but Naperville and Wheaton do a pretty good job at it.
I really miss Illinois as well. There is just so much to do there and it seems like it is endlessly expanding with more opportuinities opening up every day. My family has lived there for a few generations and have really seen the expansion first hand. My great-grand parents and their brothers and sisters owned most of Schaumburg at one time... You know Busse Road right near IKEA and Woodfield mall? Well I come from Busse desent. I am always hearing stories about how they remember when there was nothing around and had to drive the carriage 50 miles to the nearest store... that sort of stuff. Of course they all sold the land to soon so we all have to still work for a living.
Thanks for the welcome back Osso, willow and ehbeth... it's good to be back.
Busse Road! Of course! Wow, that's so cool. I'd go to IKEA often.
Isn't that interesting - JP and I could be related!
Are you a Busse? ... a few years a go we had a GIGANTIC family reunion... I think it is in the Guiness Book.
yea i was there jp... it was really great food too... i think cav might have cartered the deal
Busse is one of the variants that immigration turned our original name into when they came to North America.
I know that some relatives of hamburger went to the Chicago area around 1880 - 1920. I should try to look at the info I collected again. In a trunk, in a basement, somewhere.
Here's a little paragraph from the sentinal times:
Quote:According to the report, more than 8 million people attend some 200,000 family reunions each year. Most family reunions include between 50 and 100 attendees, but some are much larger than that. GMA reported that in 1998, the largest single family reunion was that of the Busse family in Illinois. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, of the 5,000 living members of the Busse family, more than 2,300 attended the reunion.
whoooooooohooooooooooo - i'm going to mention that to hamburger.
