Happy Milwaukee Day! Celebrating the Beauty of Our Big Small Town
Happy Milwaukee Day! Celebrating the Beauty of Our Big Small Town
MILWAUKEE DAY SPECIAL: 50% OFF a 1-year subscription to The Recombobulation Area.
The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
MILWAUKEE DAY SPECIAL: We’re offering 50% OFF a 1-year subscription to The Recombobulation Area. Your support will help local, independent, reader-backed media continue to grow. Subscribe here.
Happy Milwaukee Day, everybody!
What a truly phenomenal holiday. Born in 2010 as a half-joking idea between friends Andy Silverman, Brent Gohde, and Timm Gable, Milwaukee Day has grown over the past decade to become a signature celebration in a city that loves to celebrate.
And this homegrown holiday really does come at the perfect time. Spring is finally here, the ice and snow has melted, trees and flowers are in bloom, and the glory that is Milwaukee Summer is right around the corner.
This year, of course, still feels different. The coronavirus pandemic appears to be in its later stages, but it is not yet over. Instead of the festivities we’ve come to expect from this glorious area code-based holiday, the good people running things over at Milwaukee Day HQ are hosting an online shindig with The Cooperage that you should be sure to check out, and there are a bunch more events and happenings taking place around town, virtually and otherwise.
While the pandemic may be ending, we’re not going back to normal. There is no “back” and there is no semblance of “normal” that remains -- certainly not after the year this city and state has endured.
But Milwaukee is a resilient town. Crisis has a way of revealing character, and we’ve seen it so many times during this year how this city truly has character. When hospitals from all over the state were overflowing with covid patients, Milwaukee hospitals were there to step up and help. That’s the kind of city this is.
Soon, we’ll re-emerge, post-vaccination, and begin to enjoy all that this city has to offer. It sure is going to be nice to see everyone again.
Because Milwaukee is a big small town. You can go out pretty much anywhere and there will be a good chance that you’ll see someone you know. Whether it’s at a summer festival or a restaurant or a simple trip to the store, this city is connected in so many ways. It is one of the things that really sets Milwaukee apart and makes it such a special place. Other big cities aren’t like this. There is community in this big small town that doesn’t exist in cities full of transplants. Milwaukee is its own thing, and it’s beautiful.
In the months to come, I hope we all get to enjoy more uniquely Milwaukee experiences more often, and just have the opportunity to see each other again, unexpectedly, through the beauty of our big small town.
So, enjoy today. And be sure to get vaccinated, so we never have to celebrate this way ever again. We can’t wait to see you real soon.
#414Ever
MILWAUKEE DAY SPECIAL: We’re offering 50% OFF a 1-year subscription to The Recombobulation Area. Your support will help local, independent, reader-backed media continue to grow. Subscribe here.
Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.
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