06 February, 2024

The Corona Diaries Vol. 105: Sawdust City

(Watch the prelude.)

(late-August 2023)

Earlier this month my Frau and I made a trek up north to Eau Claire to visit my youngest stepson who lives up there in sin with his girlfriend. The visit was made possible by the fact that the Frau has been feeling much better lately with her weird allergic reactions having subsided greatly. She reached the point where she felt comfortable being hours away from the safety of a Madison-area emergency room, the likes of which she has visited a couple times this summer after having an adverse reaction and putting her epi pen to good use.

The drive north was rather uneventful and we checked into our hotel which was in the Oakwood Mall complex. The mall itself was dead. It appeared that there was a smattering of cars parked in front of JC Penney but that was about it. Vast acres of parking lot sat empty and some buildings had small trees growing in the cracks of their sidewalks. I expected to see some tumbleweeds blow through the lot.

It was rather creepy, to be honest, and made me think of Dawn of the Dead, George Romero's second zombie movie where uninfected survivors of a plague seek refuge in a mall from the insalubrious and quite undead hordes. Instead of being turned into mindless flesh eaters with pallid complexions, they become symbols of mindless consumers who obey our capitalist overlords.

When I moved to the area in 1987, Oakwood Mall was still shiny and new and I am told that it eventually put the nearby London Square Mall out of business. It had this "Mall of the Future" reputation. Or was big and expensive, anyway. I have a memory of going to Oakwood shortly after my family moved up there and watching the white locals just stare at a lone black family walking around the mall as if they were aliens from outer space. We felt bad for the family and very uncomfortable watching the scene unfold. Welcome to northern Wisconsin.

My Frau had gotten us a suite with a kitchenette and a couch and it was all fancy. So we picked up the kids and went out in search of dinner. We settled on a Hmong/Thai place called Noodle Wrap which was located in the area that was formerly London Square Mall. The mall that I had known had been demolished and replaced with a supermarket and a few mini-malls. We got takeout and retreated to our hotel suite where the air conditioning was in perfect running order.

I got a dish called Hot & Spicy or some such thing.

Not super hot, but it did have a pleasant zing to it. I’d have been happier if there had been a little less meat and more onion. The sauce had a slight tang to it which was just perfect. Everyone seemed to enjoy their food and we spent the night chatting away and enjoying the fine company.

The next morning I was up and at them. My Frau wanted to relax and so I went out to wander around downtown on my own. We were down there maybe 10 years ago for a wedding but didn’t get to see much of it.

I parked my car in front of the Masonic Temple.

I'd been there maybe a dozen years before to attend a memorial function/celebration of life for a friend's mother who had passed. His father was a Mason and the celebration was held at the temple. I have no idea how well membership in the Eau Claire area is doing, but I'd bet it's on the decline. As sad as it is to admit, whenever I see buildings that are (or were) home to a fraternal organization, I almost immediately think about our fraying social fabric a la Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. OK, I've never read it but have read about it.

Last time I spoke to a friend who is a Mason about the organization, he said that they're struggling to attract new members. The temple here in Madison seems to be rented out for events more often than it's used by the Masons themselves to hold meetings where they plot getting the Eye of Providence placed on more corporate logos, run the numbers on purchasing more black helicopters, plan control of the government, and so on. A VFW here was recently torn down to make way for luxury apartments.

On the plus side, the American Legion post in our neighborhood is still up and running. They have brat fries on Saturdays during the summer and I have been known to stop there for lunch after a bike ride.

Is Putnam right? Is social capital on the decline? I'm not sure but I do think fraternal organizations are struggling, in general.

Next I wandered down Graham Avenue and came upon the old Scandinavian American Fraternity Building which was erected in 1930.

It’s a neat building outfitted with lots of figures and faces.

 
I have no idea when the Scandinavian American Fraternity actually used the building. This reminds me that Madison's Sons of Norway Idun Lodge 74 sold its space on Winnebago Street a few years back and the building is now a club with a restaurant. Another example of a fraternal organization on the decline.
 
I also encountered some nice ghost signs on my stroll.

I forgot that there was a federal courthouse in Eau Claire. It was built in a neoclassical style and has a lovely eagle frieze. At least I think that’s a frieze.

I ran into a beautiful old building that didn’t seem to have a name but a plaque noted it was on the National Register of Historic Places. Lovely stained glass. This place was surely around back in the 19th century when Eau Claire had just earned its nickname of "Sawdust City" because of all the lumber mills that called it home.

Something new to me was all of the statues that littered the downtown streets. Here is “Rachel Weeping”.


From my height, the whole weeping thing wasn’t apparent. However, when I looked at the face, I could see the despair in her eyes.

Was this a representation of the Biblical Rachel, wife of Jacob?

I walked by this cinema and recalled going to see Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket there shortly after it came out in June 1987.

I saw this picture on the side of Mabels which appeared to be an antique store. 

It looks like Elliot Gould as a maniacal merchant marine who's been at sea just a bit too long and has been touched by Neptune himself.

Eau Claire seems to be doing well. It's probably not too much of an exaggeration to say it's the Madison of the northern part of the state. Unlike most cities here in Wisconsin, it is experiencing population growth. A small, but thriving, tech sector and lots of medical jobs means there's some good money around. Fields are becoming housing developments and the usual signs of gentrification, such as coffeeshops and public art, abound.

It's home to a state university, an indie pop band of some renown - Bon Iver, and I would guess that its relatively close proximity to the Twin Cities means an influx of Minnesotans looking for a smaller urban environment. It was nice to see Hmong culture out in the open. As an immigrant group in the late 80s, they mainly kept to themselves and were viewed with suspicion. Large families crowded into small apartments and locals cracked jokes about having their family pets become a meal for some Hmong family. Now they seem part of the city's fabric along with the Yankee and Scandinavian types.

I cannot claim that Eau Claire came across as being very cosmopolitan, though it certainly felt more so than when I lived in the area. To my mind, it had shed some of that big small town vibe. For example, there were taverns and restaurants that seemed to appeal more to city dwellers of some means instead of good ol' boys seeking excitement in the "big" city. These places were apt to serve trendy craft brews from the local IPA mill, The Brewing Projekt, or Minneapolis' Surly Brewing for a premium instead of Bud Light.

Overall, Eau Claire feels less like a last bastion of nondescript civilization before you are truly "up north" and more of a destination in its own right with its own character.

********

Bonus photo. Here’s our Kentucky coffee tree which the city planted a year or 2 ago. It’s got some dead limbs but also some live ones and I am confident it will survive to adulthood. It is nice to see a tree poking up above our hedgerow once again.

No comments:

Post a Comment