Then & Now – A Postcard of Horicon, WI 53032

On my recent trip to Delafield I found a postcard from my hometown of Horicon. It showed the downtown area circa 1914 (at least that is when it was mailed. I couldn’t stop smiling as I paid for it. I like postcards and finding one from my relatively small town is pretty rare. I decided to take a picture from about the same spot to be able to compare.

Here is the picture from 1914: Continue reading →

Dear American Airlines & Young Stalin

I recently wrapped up two books that didn’t have much in common. One was Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles. The other was Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore. I thouroghly enjoyed both books.

Dear American Airlines is in the form of a letter requesting a refund while the passenger and author, Bennie, is stuck at O’Hare Airport in Chicago on the way to his estranged daughter’s wedding in LA.  Continue reading →

Scandinavian Fest 2013

Last weekend I tagged along with my Mom, Aunt and Grandma to visit Scandinavian fest in New Berlin, WI. It is hosted by the Nordic Council of Wisconsin. It was a good time with delicious food. I had Swedish pancakes and meatballs, Danish gris on a stick, Danish Æbleskiver and some desserts. I also bought some milk chocolate from Norway. It tasted much better than a Hershey bar. When I was studying abroad I often purchased Milka bars and this was very similar.

I got the chance to watch some folk dancing. The troupe consisted of 5 couples and they performed dances from across Scandinavia. The man introducing the songs did a good job of it. He explained that many of the dances are for 8 couples so they had to be modified for only 5. Four of the couples were older and one was younger. The man telling us about the dances made sure to give them a shout out and said they wouldn’t be able to do many of there dances if they became any smaller as modifying to 4 was just too hard. If they had 8 couples they probably would have ran out of room on the stage.

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Continue reading →

A Simple yet Memorable Decoration

When I was in Delafield I saw this house and I had to take a picture.

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The decoration above the doorway looks like a sun to me. It probably didn’t cost a ton of money to put it on there but it stands out and is memorable. It also sets the tone when you are walking up to the house.

The sun thing also reminded me of Szeged, Hungary aka the City of Sunshine. I visited Szeged on my semester abroad in 2011. A random connection but sometimes it is the little things that trigger memories.

Delafield

I had the chance to walk around Delafield for an hour last weekend. I learned a little bit about it and thought I would share.

100_3636Delafield was home to a state fish hatchery which is a pretty cool looking building. The building itself is actually a community center and the old grounds are a nature area and park.

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Another point of interest was Hawks Inn which is now a historical museum. It was closed but I walked around the grounds a bit. It isn’t in it’s original location but it used to be an inn, post office and a center of life for early Delafield.

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Delafield was founded in 1837, well before Wisconsin became a state in 1848. It was a stop on the Milwaukee to Madison stage coach line. The downtown buildings are built to look old and there are a lot of stop signs to keep people from speeding through town. It seemed like a pretty lively place when I was there. I thought it was a pretty interesting place and it is situated fairly close to the greater Milwaukee area. Not a place I would personally want to live but I can see that Delafield has it’s charms.

Ninety Four Cents

Today I went to the UPS store to ship a package. The total came to $xx.06 and with my cash payment I received 94¢ change.

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I think the clerk had been having a bad day. When I walked in it was a 4 to 1 customer to employee ratio. The clerks were bouncing back and forth helping each as they could. One lady even left and said she would be back tomorrow. When it was my turn I tried to be as polite as possible.

When receiving my change the clerk said “Ninety four cents, the most coins possible”. I wouldn’t doubt that he viewed this occurrence as the cherry on top of the bad day he was having. I am glad he mentioned it though. I would never have noticed it myself. This moment would have passed me by. I would like to be more aware of these little things in the future. I once had a receipt for take out pizza that was $12.34. That brought a smile to my face.

Have you ever had a moment of simple pleasure almost pass you by?