Solidarity Miffland?
The Mifflin Street Block Party is this weekend. I remember my first one in 1993. I will now confess, 18 years later, to doing whippets there (for the first and only time I swear!). You could buy a balloon-full for $1 in one of the back yards in the middle of the even numbered side of the 500 block of East Mifflin Street.
I remember sitting on the roof of the porch of the house behind the old Mifflin Street Co-op. My friend, Katherine Case (KAC, to her friends), held court there with a dozen or so fellow student-types and Dale (a homeless guy we took in). KAC and I graduated from Marinette High School together in 1990. When I arrived at UW-Madison to go to college, I naturally sought out my fellow towns-folk to hang with. (Well, KAC was technically from the neighboring Town of Porterfield, but I can't hold that against her so many years later).
Already, things were pretty politically apathetic at the 1993 party. No longer about resistance to the Man, the party was mostly about underage drinking. As pointless drunken brawls became an expected feature of the party in the years to come, that porch was a great place to watch the mayhem unfold (except the year it collapsed).
So, this weekend is again the Mifflin Street Block Party. As sure as I am a cabbie, the city can look forward to a little drunken mayhem. But the party is fresh on the heels of the Wisconsin Revolt. It shares the weekend with a pro-labor biker rally on Saturday which promises to be 10,000 strong. On Sunday, a huge May Day rally is planned at Brittingham Park, and will be followed by a march to the capitol square. Maybe this year the kids will show us they care about more than just beer (and whippets).
Solidarity Miffland!
I remember sitting on the roof of the porch of the house behind the old Mifflin Street Co-op. My friend, Katherine Case (KAC, to her friends), held court there with a dozen or so fellow student-types and Dale (a homeless guy we took in). KAC and I graduated from Marinette High School together in 1990. When I arrived at UW-Madison to go to college, I naturally sought out my fellow towns-folk to hang with. (Well, KAC was technically from the neighboring Town of Porterfield, but I can't hold that against her so many years later).
Already, things were pretty politically apathetic at the 1993 party. No longer about resistance to the Man, the party was mostly about underage drinking. As pointless drunken brawls became an expected feature of the party in the years to come, that porch was a great place to watch the mayhem unfold (except the year it collapsed).
So, this weekend is again the Mifflin Street Block Party. As sure as I am a cabbie, the city can look forward to a little drunken mayhem. But the party is fresh on the heels of the Wisconsin Revolt. It shares the weekend with a pro-labor biker rally on Saturday which promises to be 10,000 strong. On Sunday, a huge May Day rally is planned at Brittingham Park, and will be followed by a march to the capitol square. Maybe this year the kids will show us they care about more than just beer (and whippets).
Solidarity Miffland!