Letters for George: An Ode to Menominee (Circa 1949)

Monday, June 11, 2018

An Ode to Menominee (Circa 1949)

Oh, Menominee, true world of wonders

Water and forest, sunshine and snow

Stretching three miles on the Green Bay shore

Her southern border, the handsome Menominee River

Wisconsin right over the bridge

1890 logging capitol of the world

The surroundings, lush woodlands

Birches, pine, oaks, maples

Deer, bear, beaver, porcupines, foxes

The very edge of the Great White North

Gateway to the U.P.

All U.P. towns are smallish

Menominee, the fourth largest

Nine thousand, plus or minus a few

German, Scandinavian, Polish, French

Catholics and Protestants, some non-believers too

Friendly, caring, honest, helpful

Menominee people are an outdoor sort

Camping, swimming, ice boating

Sailboat races to Mackinac Island

They say, the best bass fishing in the world

Muskies, whitefish, Northern pike

The first day of hunting season, time to skip school

Our county, the largest deer population in Michigan

At age 16 our dads brought us to Jean Worth’s camp

Summers are the stuff of dreams

Temperatures in the seventies, air so pure it sings

Hot dogs, firecrackers, softball at the circus grounds

The winters, quite opposite, hardy and majestic

Snowstorms with drifts three or four feet high

Icicles stretching from the eaves to the ground

Cross-country skiing, plodding on snowshoes

Days off from school when our county road closed

Boats from Milwaukee tied up in the harbor

Thursdays, bandshell concerts at Marina Park

Only ten cents a ticket, matinees at the Opera House

Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Laurel and Hardy

Playin at the Dome, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington

Every August, the Hagenbeck Circus

Elephants, slapstick clowns, high-wire beauties

We fed the deer, watched the buffaloes at Henes Park

Snuck into the stock car races at Spies Field

Cheered for the Menominee Maroons

Afterwards, root beers at the A&W drive-in

Our family moved to our house on the river

We built rafts from old logs, rowed our boat through the channel

Caught snakes and fireflies, crayfish, toads

Were frightened by the snapping turtles feeding at dusk

And deadly quicksand at Mr. Shaver’s lagoon

Steve and I played basketball on the snow and ice

The Ideal Dairy, just one mile away

Lemon Flake ice cream, two dips for a nickel

We pulled our wagon to the city dump

Such treasures we brought home, you’d never believe

Menominee was a safe and welcoming place

We children could go wherever we liked

The whole town, within ten minutes on our bikes

We never were scared to go anywhere

A pretty good place for young kids to grow up

[Footnote: For more Menominee poems, see www.funnypoemsmaybe.blogspot.com]

1 comment:

Terry OJune 12, 2018 at 2:30 PM
Halcyon days they were!
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