Concords of the Upper Midwest - Day One

​Day 1 of travels with Bill.
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My brother Bill has invented a term.  He says that if visiting antique shops in "antiquing," well visiting Concords should be called "Concording." So the two of us went Concording around the Midwest, visiting Concords in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. 
 
Bill could take six days off to join me. I pared down the itinerary slightly by cutting out two Concords in southern Indiana and southern Illinois.  Those Concords would have to wait for a later trip. We were still left with approximately 2000 miles of driving.  The difference in cost for two one-way flights and the fees for dropping off a rental car four states over meant that we would need to travel in a circuit.  We started by flying into Milwaukee, and we would return to Concord, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, six days later.
 
Day one was our most ambitious.  It was also a day that did not include any stops in Concords.  My mother had grown up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and we frequently drove out to visit her mother - Bridget, and step-father - Bill,  during summer vacations. The cottage in Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin, on the dunes of Lake Michigan, became my second home.  I loved my time spent with my chain-smoking racist grandmother.   As I became a little older, she curbed her use of the n-word and hid her cigarettes, for I wouldn’t tolerate either, but she still dominated the room wherever she was.  Her favorite trick was to ask:
 
“Robbie, would you like a glass of water?” 
“Yes, Bridget!” I’d reply.  
“So would I.  You go fetch me one.”
 
I never met my biological grandfather.  Don Irmiger Sr. died in 1954 in a horrific car crash that shattered many of the bonds that held the family together. My mom and her sister moved to the East, while Don Jr. and his brother Chad stayed in the Midwest.  While Uncle Chad was a frequent visitor to Massachusetts, Uncle Don came only on rare occasions. We only visited his family once, and I think that was in the summer of 1968. Don Jr. and Mary had four children: Don III, Curt, Ted, and Gretchen. Curt was my age, and I remember hanging out with him during our one-day visit, but our luggage was stolen off the roof of our station wagon, so that left a bad memory of the stop in Indiana. Don and Mary divorced, and that was the last time I saw my cousins. Uncle Don came for Christmas three winters in a row.  Each year he had a different frosted-blonde girlfriend: Connie, Lonnie, and Ronnie (?).  I think Donnie only dated women he could rhyme with.  Eventually, my mother and her brother had a falling out,  and they haven’t spoken for 20 years. I hoped that our visit would help to repair those broken bonds.

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​The 6 AM flight got us to Milwaukee early.  We grabbed our rental car and headed up to Green Bay.  There we visited my mom’s childhood home.

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​and located and tended our grandparents’ graves.

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​We had time to stop off at Lambeau Field for lunch at the home of the Packers.  I have been a Packer-backer ever since Super Bowl I, so this was a pilgrimage. 

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​​Filled with too many fried cheese curds, we drove up the thumb of Wisconsin to Sturgeon Bay.  While this was my childhood summer home, my younger brother Bill had only vague memories of Bridget and Bill.  It was a bittersweet stopover.  

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​We had the beautiful dune-lined beach to ourselves.  The sounds of shorebirds and the wind on my face and the musky smell of the iron-stained stream brought me back to the 1970s and 80s when I would roam the beach looking for sea-glass and skipping countless stones over the low breaking waves.  I remember always being alone but never feeling lonely. Eventually, it was time to move on, but I did so reluctantly, with the resigned feeling that this was a final goodbye to the place where I have felt most at home in the world.

 I had misread the Manitowac ferry schedule for crossing Lake Michigan.  So what was to be a late afternoon crossing on the SS Badger and a comfy bed and breakfast in Michigan and a leisurely drive to Concord, Michigan  turned into an overnight voyage in a laughably crowded “stateroom.” 

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​We managed a few minutes of sleep, but as the sun rose over Michigan, we landed in Luddington, and zoomed off for our 10 AM appointment in Concord, Michigan.

Next Stop, Concord Michigan