Found: Let's Have a Picnic, Manitowoc, WI

Found: Let's Have a Picnic, Greetings - Manitowoc, Wis.
Published by Wyman Studio, Wausau, Wisconsin,
Mirro-Krome Card by H.S. Crocker Co., Inc. San Francisco 1, Calif. Circa 1960s

Found: First tint of Autumn, Greetings - Appleton, Wis.
Kodachrome by Sid Lane. Published by Wyman Photo Center Wausau, Wis. Dextone.
Made Direct From Kodachrome and Ansco Color by Dexter Press,  Inc. West Nyack, NY. Circa 1960s.

These watery views could be anywhere in Wisconsin, though are given a location (Manitowoc or Appleton) via  a caption that reads like a poetic turn of phrase. There are few visual cues whether the bodies of water depicted are lakes or rivers in Central Wisconsin or Eastern Wisconsin. The captions suggest time. "Let's Have a Picnic" reads as a summery message to accompany an isolated maiden leaning against a birch tree, back to the scenic view, pondering an empty picnic table on a beautiful sunny day. The surface of the Mirro-Krome "photochrome" shows delicate crackles on its once perfect "high-gloss" varnished surface imparting an eerie quality. "First tint of Autmn" seems a melancholy text accompanying an unpeopled shore sprinkled with a few autumn leaves with a vast expanse of icy blue water ahead in the fading light of day. "Greetings."

Lake Michigan Froze, Manitowoc, WI

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, Wisconsin (2.15.2014)
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

The frigid cold seemed unrelenting in the early part of 2014. The reportage not long after this phtograph was made that Lake Michigan was more than 90% frozen (the average is 40%) according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration proved it was so.

Found: Holy Innocents Church, Manitowoc, WI

Found: Holy Innocents Catholic Church, Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
 From an Ektachrome Transparency.
Copyright 1959 The L.L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisc.

Holy Innocents Catholic Church (affectionately known as HI), dedicated in 1950 by Bishop Bona, features a giant light-up rosary (far right). Hovering over statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, praying children, and lambs made of concrete, the grouping commemorates the secret message of Fatima. The blue electric rosary remains one of our favorite after-dark Manitowoc sites and is easily viewed from the car while cruising down Waldo Boulevard. The church was named for the martyred Holy Innocents more specifically for the male infants that were "slaughtered within two years following the apparition of the star to the Wise Men." HI and five other churches were "consolidated" into one named St. Francis of Assisi Parish to serve all of the city of Manitowoc in 2005.  Names like Holy Innocents or  St. Boniface were jettisoned and the facilities are now referred to as the Waldo site or the Marshall site, etc. relating to their street address. We knew these churches best through their basement rummage and bake sales held in the fall and spring and orchestrated by community-members to raise funds for church operations. In the 1990s, these sales were ripe with mid-century consumer goods like dishware, rhinestones, wool suits, statuary, hankies, and LPs for sale for nickels and dimes. In contrast the St. Francis website features an apparel store along with the church bulletin, a media center, and updates on the school. The mission statement remains as mysterious as the Virgin Mary's message at Fatima: The Manitowoc Catholic Community exists as a sacramental body of Christ, to love as Christ loved, by boldly proclaiming our faith, teaching our youth, spreading the Good News of Jesus, and serving one another and others in an ever-changing community.

Asymmetric Residence, Manitowoc, WI

Asymmetric Residence near Lake Michigan, North Fifth Street, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, November 10, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

House with TV Antenna, Manitowoc, WI

House with TV Antenna, North 7th Street, Manitowoc Wisconsin, October 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Found: Washington Park, Manitowoc, WI

Found: Washington Park, Manitowoc, Wisconsin by Chas. & Pechtor Publishing circa 1910.
Written on the front in fountain pen: "We all have bad cold" and continued on the back:
"Dear Cousin: Mother promised Grandma that she was going to see how they were getting along.
She was there yesterday and said she wa to go down today and she has a headache and cold
so she can't go down, so will you please go down and see if they don't need something."

Apartments, East Chicago Street, Manitowoc, WI

Vinyl-Sided Apartments, East Chicago Street, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, October 3, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann

Residences with Trimmed Trees, Manitowoc, WI

Residences with Trimmed Trees, North 9th Street, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, October 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindemann 

House on Memorial Drive, Two Rivers, WI

House on Memorial Drive with a lake view, Two Rivers, Wisconsin, October 5, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Found: Holy Family Hospital, Manitowoc, WI

Found: New Wing at Holy Family Hospital, Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
 From an Ektachrome Transparency copyright the L.L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1960s.

Found: Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wisconsin. 
Photo and published by G. R. Brown Co., Eau Claire, Wisconsin, circa 1970s.

Found: The New Greyhound Bus Depot on 7th between W. Wisconsin & W. Michigan Avenues, Milwaukee, Wis. 
  Copyright the L.L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1960s.

Found: Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
 Symphony, opera, ballet, repertory theater, Broadway shows, recitals, pop music, banquets
in Uihlein Hall, Todd Wehr Theater, Charles P. Vogel Recital Hall, Harry Lynde Bradley.
From an Ektachrome Transparency, copyright The L.L. Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, circa 1970s

 Banal brutalist architecture with massive slabs of concrete and nothingness. Today there is another form of banal architecture for such institutions that involves the inverese: lots of glass and windows, textural imported stone, and cherry custom wood accents.

Vacant Building with Parked Caprice, Manitowoc, WI

Vacant Building with Parked Chevrolet Caprice, Corner 9th and Chicago Streets,
Manitowoc, Wisconsin, November 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Found: Rapids Road, Manitowoc, WI

Found: Rapids Road, MANITOWOC, WIS. circa 1906.
Handwritten in fountain pen on frontside:
"May 28, 1906. Dear Sister Dorcas, We are spending two days here.
Have just sun. Mr. Wood. Juliet." postmarked Manitowoc, May 28, 1906, 9 PM

Found: Black Oak Lake, Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin (No Camping).
A Genuine Kodachrome reproduction by the L.L., Cook Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin circa 1960s

Found: Terry Andrae State Park Entrance near Sheboygan, Wsconsin.
Curteichcolor® 3-D Natural Color Reproduction. Distributed by R. Nery, Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

Apartments, North 7th Street, Manitowoc, WI

Apartments, 305 N 7th Street, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, October 10, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Mother-in-Law House, Manitowoc, WI

Mother-in-Law House, North 9th Street, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Abandoned Farmstead, Manitowoc, WI

Abandoned Farmstead, Highway 141, near Manitowoc, Wisconsin, July 6, 2012
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

Dairy Queen, Manitowoc, WI

Dairy Queen, Memorial Drive, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, September 28, 2010
© J. Shimon & J. Lindeman 

PDQ Car Wash, Calumet Avenue, Manitowoc, WI

PDQ Car Wash, Calumet  Avenue, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, December 2010

Found: Texaco (Complete Lubrication), Lake Tomahawk (Oneida County), Wisconsin
all rights reserved by L. L. Cook Co. on Kodak EKC paper, circa 1940s

In Wisconsin, streets are named for their association with native tribes that once inhabited the land. Street names like Calumet (a north American peace pipe) are abundant while town names like Manitowoc (dwelling of the great spirit or evil spirit) or Lake Tomahawk (named for the shape of a nearby lake) in Oneida County) are unique to the history of specific locations. Written as they are on state and federal signs appearing along the highways and byways, these words becomes further abstracted and distanced from their meaning. Back in the 1960s, farmers found arrow heads as they plowed their fields and would display the. Earlier generation remember "Indians" coming into town, attending school, or existing on the periphery. Institutions like reservations and casinos have reshaped the 21st century landscape in Wisconsin while a young generation seeks to reclaim native identity and traditions as they raise consciousness about a history so important to America.

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, WI

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, September 5, 2010

It's not often that the Great Lakes and Midwest become haunting, poetic subject matter in a pop song. Though the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk in Lake Superior, we always sang the line "Old (Lake) Michigan steams like a young man's dreams" from Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" as we biked along the shore on foggy days. There was another pop song on 45 RPM about the fog and waves of Lake Michigan and the "lonesome moaning" of the light houses in Manitowoc, two Rivers, Kewaunee, and the Two Creeks Nuclear plant called "T.R. Special" by The Nite-Cappers (performed in a Johnny Cash style). It was a favorite on the local AM radio studio in the 1970s and can sometimes be found on YouTube.

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, WI

Lake Michigan, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, September 28, 2010, 3.75x5.75 palladium print

Found: C & O's Badger, Lake Michigan, WI

Found: Chessie's water-borne links between Ludington, Michigan and the Wisconsin ports of Milwaukee, Manitowoc and Kewaunee move 175,000 passengers, 50,000 autos and 100,000 cars of freight annually across Lake Michigan. Vactionists from many states choose C & O's cross lake short cut as pleasant and restful interludes in a busy schedule. C & O's fleet of seven ships (including the Badger) operate round the clock every day throughout the year by anonymous, circa 1953

     

The now historic LMC S. S. Badger runs part of the year across Lake Michigan from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan. The ferry carries passengers and their autos and offering Sea Breeze cocktails to calm the stomach when the waves get choppy. Embroiled in an EPA controversy over disposing of its coal ash in the lake, the ferry is investigating switching to natural gas for fuel. Says the website: "The amount of mercury, arsenic and lead in the coal ash is not only below standards that would make it harmful, but also hundreds of times lower than what others are allowed to discharge into Lake Michigan." Nothing is as simple as it used to be.