Hand in Hand

May 10th, 2024

Karin and I had an hour to kill. We had just dropped off Asher to visit his mama. We were planning to meet two friends at a brewery/restaurant on Center Street, but we didn’t want to hang out there to wait for them. It was a fine afternoon. It was sunny and breezy, just a bit on the cool side, and perfect for taking a long walk.

We were in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. As the name implies, the district is just west of the Milwaukee River. This urban waterway flows south through a deep wooded valley. The city is perched up high on each side of the river. The east side is the home of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and it is filled with stately homes that stretch further east to the shores of Lake Michigan. The Eastside is a place of wealth. It always has been. Riverwest is not.

Riverwest is a scruffy working-class section of town. The houses are old and large, sometimes three stories high, and they are squeezed close together on postage-stamp sized lots. Some of the houses are beautiful, and some need a lot of TLC. At one time they were all probably homes to multigenerational families, and now many of them are duplexes or even triplexes. The yards are miniscule but well-maintained. Trees line all of the residential streets and most of the thoroughfares. A close look at the buildings on a certain street gives the passerby a hint as to the religious and political views of the residents. There is a house flying a Palestinian flag. Another has a rainbow banner. Further away, a flag flaps in the wind above a front porch. It bears the image of a crown and Hebrew letters that spell “משיח”, that is “messiah” in English. A few blocks away stands the spire of St. Casimir Catholic Church, a reminder that at one time this neighborhood had a strong Polish flavor to it.

Karin wanted to stroll over to Gaenslen School. It is a public school where one of her many knitting groups goes to meet on Saturday mornings. It was a half mile walk. We took it slowly. We passed by the Woodland Pattern Bookstore, an independent bookshop that promotes local poets. We saw a number of small art studios and workshops. We noticed the Tai Chi Center on the corner of Fratney and Locust. On Center Street we walked across from the Daily Bird, a coffee shop painted an eye-piercing bright yellow that caters to people in recovery. The local economy limps along in Riverwest. There are empty storefronts next to businesses that seem to be thriving. Close to each other are two microbreweries: the Company Brewery and the Black Husky. Being that this is Milwaukee, they are never short of customers.

It took us about half an hour to get to Gaenslen. It’s very close to the river. As we headed back toward the restaurant, Karin got out of breath. That happens a lot with her. It might be from her bout with Covid years ago, or perhaps it’s just that fact that we’re getting old. She took my hand and we walked together. She wanted my support, and I was happy to hold her hand. I almost felt like a kid again, and maybe she did too. We passed a young couple, barely adults. They seemed to be happy and in love. The girl had a punk-goth look and her partner had long hair, very long for a guy. I wondered what they thought of these two old people walking along hand in hand. I wondered if we had been like them all those years ago.

We noticed little things as we retraced our steps. We found a tiny playground nestled in a small park. It was filled with things for kids to climb, along with eclectic artwork. The park had a concrete walkway with inlaid cermaic tiles. The tiles had Spanish words that I couldn’t understand. Maybe it was all poetry.

Many of the homeowners had abandoned the practice of cutting the grass in their microscopic front yards, and instead planted wildflowers and tulips Karin found numerous violets. She loves violets.

We got back to restaurant. Karin needed to rest. We sat down inside.

We will be taking Asher to see his mama tomorrow again. Maybe Karin and I will go exploring on another long walk.