MilWALKING Through Milwaukee
10/4/2020
6:18: I walk out the front door of my friend Carlos’s apartment to a brisk Milwaukee evening. At dusk, the sky is a cool, tranquil blue, broken up by a few stretched clouds. Toward the West however, the sky is a warm pink-orange color that looks like it would be the tastiest sherbet ice cream flavor ever. At the apartment across the street, the familiar bright flickering of the lights on the front of the building shamelessly call for my attention. As usual, there isn’t a parking spot in sight for two blocks in any direction.
6:21 I walk west down Webster street. All of the streetlamps on the street are a vibrant grapefruit color, which I appreciate. The street is calm and quiet. According to my phone app, Decibel Meter, Webster has a volume of 55 decibels as I walk. At Murray Street, I encounter one of those big, 4 foot by 4 foot metal electrical boxes sitting on the corner (I never have known what those things were for but they’re everywhere). On the side of the box, someone had spray painted a cartoon face that was so ridiculous it made me laugh out loud. The character looked like a cross between SpongeBob SquarePants and a squirrel out of a Walt Disney movie, and for some reason, the bulging eyes, cheeks and teeth on the face were simply hilarious to me.
6:27 I passed a house on the corner of Webster and Cramer Street that had Bernie Sanders 2020 signs in five different windows. It makes me sad to think of what could have been.
Only three cars pass me for my entire five-block walk down Webster. I turn South onto Oakland Avenue.
6:32 Oakland Ave is significantly busier than Webster was, and the reading on my Decibel Meter fluctuated between 78 and 97 decibels, depending on what kind of vehicles were passing by me (the 97 came from a motorcycle roaring past on the opposite side of the street). The air on Oakland smelled strangely of Dr. Pepper cola for about a block, and then it was back to the predictable stench of diesel and McDonald’s French fries that hangs around every busy street in Milwaukee.
6:36 Just in front of me, a kid who looks to be a college student gets out of his parked car on Oakland. He walks up the sidewalk 20 feet in front of me for half a block before getting into another car and driving off. He was wearing fat Adidas Superstar sneakers, but without any socks, which I found to be an interesting move. The car he jumped out of was a black 2015 Chevy Cruz, which was the same car my best friend Carlos drove in high school. Just seeing that car again brought back all sorts of great memories.
6:41 I cross Oakland Ave and turn right down Bartlett Avenue, which is a peaceful little dead end street that has an outlet leading back up Newhall Street North towards Riverside Park. The Decibel Meter reads 51 after I put a couple blocks’ distance between Oakland Ave and myself.
6:43 Spotted this window on the ground level of a house on the corner of an alley on Bartlett Ave. For some reason (I don’t know if the pink pumpkin was part of it), I felt such good vibes from this window, and if you were inside there at night and turned all of the lights off, I bet you could catch some awesome views from that window sill. It was at the perfect angle to view the action on Oakland, but also capture the calm ambience of the alley at the same time.
6:45 At the dead end corner of Bartlett Ave, a clearing through the trees created this awesome view of (as far as I’ve seen) Milwaukee’s largest abandoned building, what used to be a huge 20+ story meat packing warehouse. I actually made my way inside there a few years ago with a friend, and the memories that stand out most are the awesome views we were able to catch on the top stories (you can see the entire East Side, and North into Shorewood from the building’s roof), the horrible, rancid stench that filled the place, and the fear that Michael Meyers or somebody was waiting to grab me around every corner. The entrance we used has since been boarded up however. I thought the building looked almost stoic, or noble against the golden sunset backdrop.
6:46 I take the outlet street, Newhall, North, going back the same way I just came down Oakland, except this time on a lazy side street instead of a big, busy road. As I’m walking North, a chain link fence follows me along my left, keeping anybody from falling over the side down to the bike path 15 feet below and adjacent to the street I’m walking on. This bike/runner’s path has forever eluded me, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access it. I have seen it countless times at various places, but always from a point where I can’t get down to the path, only stand by helplessly and watch as others get to explore its wonders. This video is my view of the mysterious bike path from Newhall Street. Interestingly, it smelled faintly of chicken and dumplings in the area where I took this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IshyEu36FpI&feature=youtu.be
6:49 I can’t remember ever walking on a street with as many colored lights as there were on Newhall; houses with purple, orange, green, red and blue porchlights were peppered all over the street. As twilight was finally settling, the different colored lights and Halloween decorations made me reminiscent of my days Trick-or-Treating.
6:51 I took this photo at the end of Newhall, where the street meets with the tennis courts at the park. Over the courts in the distance, a church steeple’s silhouette stood magnificently against the dark orange sky. This photo is really cool to me, and I’m proud of it because I feel that I never take cool pictures. The church tower looks like some sort of castle or palace. There are lots of dead leaves on the ground near the courts, and my app shows 77 decibels as a result of the crunching noises.
6:53 I took a few more photos and videos at the drawbridge near the entrance to Riverside Park. I thought my first picture of the bridge was kind of creepy, since you can’t see anything on the other side but the darkness of the woods. I just watched the Friday the 13th movie a few nights ago, and this picture definitely gave me some eerie Jason Voorhees vibes. The video I took was a boomerang zooming in and out on downtown Milwaukee, which I could barely see through the trees. This was a rare view, and my boomerang unfortunately was unable to do it justice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIIO5b5RKJ0&feature=youtu.be
7:00 After scaring myself a bit in the dark thinking about Friday the 13th, I emerge from the trees and make my way across the football field in the middle of the park, back towards Oakland Ave. The sun has gone down completely, and I decide now is a good time to start walking back. In the middle of the field, I stop and look up at the single light shining brightly in the sky above me. Either the first star of the night or a nearby planet, I have no idea. I make a wish and continue walking.
7:02 I took a picture of this raccoon statue because I had never noticed it before, and didn’t want to forget about it.
7:07 Walking up Riverside Place to get back onto Oakland, I passed by some kid on a skateboard who looked about my age. He bore a striking resemblance to Max Finco, someone who went to my high school and was notorious for throwing big parties all the time. It easily could have been Max, in which case it would have been cool to say hi and catch up, but I turned my head away after a quick glance. at him and kept walking. He didn’t say anything to me either.
7:10 Back on Oakland, I pass a group of 8 or 9 people who look to be students at UW Milwaukee. I didn’t recognize any. About half of them have masks on. I hold my breath until they pass.
7:15 On Oakland I spotted a bright yellow Chevy SSR with racing stripes down the middle. This isn’t one of my favorite cars or anything, its just so funky I thought it would be worth mentioning. It’s half pickup truck, half sports convertible.
7:24 As I turn back onto Webster Avenue, I can feel my ears starting to freeze. I’m really dreading this winter, and truly hate Wisconsin’s cold weather.
7:29 On Webster and Frederick, I hear some kids with their window open. yelling “ohhhhh” and laughing, sounding like they’re having a great time. They sound just like my friends and I playing video games late at night or something.
7:35 I turn right and walk up Maryland Ave in an attempt to see a bit more before heading home. I walk 2 blocks down to the BP gas station and then loop around and come back up Farwell, the opposite street. I can see some people playing basketball at Maryland Avenue School in the dark, playing a real vocal and energetic game. I’d love to jump in.
7:42 I turn from Farwell back onto Webster and re-enter Carlos’s apartment, concluding my adventure.
Here is my map:
