by Terry VanOrder on June 23rd, 2009
So, tonight was just awesome. I spent an hour & a half watering the gardens and just as I finished, my husband stuck his head outside to say the power went out. Then a neighbor across the back street hollered over to ask if we had power, and then another neighbor came out, and then a neighbor from down the street came by on his bike, and then some neighbors from a few blocks away came by walking the dogs, and then the son-in-law from down the block came over….and on it went. Now this neighbors-going-by thing is typical in our little area here on the southwest side of Wausau and we all know each other and look out for each other, but tonight was a little different because instead of the cursory “hi, how you doing?” or “sure hot out today, huh?” we had a subject to discuss….we were all in the dark and our televisions and computers were unavailable and our air conditioning didn’t keep us inside, and so, we gathered and talked and discussed and laughed and had a better time because we found ourselves in a common situation that banded us together. It was great.
The retired guy next door used to work for WPS, so we got all the insider info on what was going on with the lines and transformers and kilowatts. The guy across the street explained why he hasn’t been riding his bike lately and we found out he had broken his collarbone awhile back. We discussed gardening plans with the guy up the street, and the new furnace he’s having installed. We talked about brewing beer (my son-in-laws new hobby) and a mysterious house on another block that nobody seems to live in, yet the grass is always mowed and newspapers taken in. And a neighbor behind us who never really talks to anyone (nice man, just quiet and a loner) came walking through the yard to join in the conversation. We all talked until after dark and then began to head back into our homes to escape the vampire mosquitoes. Before we departed, we all made sure everybody had sufficient flashlights and whatever they needed to make it through the outage. We walked away from each other feeling connected and secure in our community and the ties that bind us. This is Wausau. What a great evening.
I can’t wait for the next power outage.
by Terry VanOrder on January 14th, 2009
So I’ve been commenting on CW since it was born well over a year ago, and yes, I’m a bit slow, but I’ve finally taken the plunge and created my own little corner. I have no idea what form this will take, always working under the assumption that I really don’t have anything very interesting to say. But this is like a tv channel…if it doesn’t grab you, you can always click to another.
I feel I should mention that my “persona” on here has been “oldwoodchair”, and you may certainly continue to call me that (if you call me at all) as it is a name that fits me well. I have a great affinity for old wooden chairs…I have many…there is always a place for visitors to sit a spell at my house…and I especially enjoy old chairs that have nicks & scrapes, warn finishes & chipped paint, and that creek & groan a bit with age and use. Come to think of it, I like people the same way.
The title of my little space here is “upperhollow”. That is a nod to where I grew up…right here on the southwest side of Wausau in what has always been referred to as “the hollow”…down at the bottom of the 3rd Avenue hill. Probably only people who have been around here at least as long as I have will recognize the hollow, but those that do usually have affectionate memories of the area, especially from the old days when we used to flood out most spring times when the snow melted and the river rose…..we always had a row boat tied to the back porch just in case we needed to row up to high ground in the middle of the night, which to a kid, just didn’t get any better than that!
The “upperhollow” is where I live now…that’s just above the hollow, at the top of the hill, but still considered the hollow even so. We all aspire to better things in life, and I figure the upperhollow is as far as I’m going….and that’s just fine with me…I feel right at home.
So whatever this meandering develops into as I come here from time to time, please feel free to comment, critique, criticize (please be gentle), question, suggest, agree or disagree, or just say “hiya”. I promise to try to not bore you with details (because I know I’m detail oriented) and to watch my speling so as not to be confuzing. I’ll also try to find something at least relatively interesting to write about, but that may mean I’ll need to make stuff up or outright lie. And I will always try to stop writing when the writing becomes stupid.
