I have had the opportunity to once again spend a good amount of time on the road for work. It has brought back a lot of memories from years past when I was a true road warrior.
What I remember from those days still hold true today. When you are 'home' and love where you live it really shows; no matter what the rest of the country believes is true about your home town.
No where has this rang truer for me than Milwaukee, WI where I was two weeks ago.
My perception of Milwaukee before the trip? beer swilling, foul mouthed, overweight people with funny accents. I had no expectation for 'city life' or any type of 'culture' - pop or otherwise. Basically, in my mind I saw Laverne, Shirley, Lenny and Squiggy. Sure Happy Days took place there, but no other show represented Milwaukee more than Laverne & Shirley (at least in my mind). Then of course are the generalizations of beer, cheese and bratwursts that the media fixates on. Lastly on my mind was the scene in Wayne's World where Alice Cooper gives the history of Milly-wau-kay (as the Indians pronounced it). but I digress.
Of course there are some general truths in these sweeping generalization, hence the name, but what I found were great people that were bursting with civic pride. From the tour of the Company's Office to my round about drive to downtown for dinner I could 'feel' why so many of its citizens were passionate about Milwaukee. What I did not see in the stereotypes were all the positives; the city resides on the same beautiful lake as Chicago. In fact, she is only 2 hours from Chicago. For an 'urban' city she still has small town appeal and a great and easy airport. The people were just as friendly as any city I have visited down South as well. Sure, it has winter, but so does 75% of the country.
I also love the 'tag lines' city's develop! Mailwaukee's is 'A great city on a great lake' - what a great play on words! Growing up in Philly I was always proud to be from the 'City of Brotherly love' and even during the Garbage Strike as a kid I got a kick out of "Filthy-delphia'. I remember moving to Ft. Lauderdale and hearing - 'Venice of the West' and man it's true, we had a TON of canals! Dallas in my mind will ALWAYS be 'Big D' and Atlanta will always be 'The city too busy to hate', no matter what the Convention Bureau tells us :-)
What I also realized is that you can take the name, the location and all the other great things I found and substitute any hometown...including YOURS!
When you embrace a place and find a way to contribute meaningfully it will always have a place in your heart and you in theirs. I learned that in Atlanta and will carry it forward in my heart to destinations yet to be reached.
ILU VM
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