Lake Wobegon Beckons

“It’s been another quiet week in Lake Wobegon.” So goes the start of what was one of my all-time favorite radio shows–on public radio no less–by later to become so woke it broke Garrison Keillor. It told the story of an idyllic town “[W]here all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

Well, folks, that has been my summer here in Wisconsin.

Forgive that I’ve been gone on vacation. It’s August, after-all, and summer comes too quickly to a close. Just this week my grandchildren headed off to school in Northwest Arkansas, just in time for the average temperature to approach 100. This early school start has always flummoxed me. For the life of me I don’t know why we relegate children to a school room when summer continues. (Unless, of course, in my dreams, the school actually makes them go outside, put down the iPad/cellphones and such, and actually play. I say this just confirm what I have come to accept is the “old guys” syndrome for which I no longer apologize.)

Public schools in Wisconsin, where I summer, are barred from holding classes until after Labor Day. To be clear, this is not a paean to the joys of summer, it is a gift to the Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce. It allows high school and college kids to work in our tourism industry.  But a gift is a gift, so I’ll suspend my Chamber of Commerce skepticism for this one moment.

Tourism is Wisconsin’s lifeblood. For these three months the Cheeseheads welcome even folks from Illinois (reluctantly) to our dairy farms, supper clubs, lakes and the Green Bay Packers. Ooops, sorry about sneaking that in. In point of fact, the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team just won their 14th in a row yesterday and, I’m not making this up, everyone in Milwaukee is being given a free hamburger to celebrate. Milwaukee chain offers free burgers after Brewers win 12 straight.

Candidly, does anyone actually see an academic benefit for the longer class year? (Higher test scores? In your dreams….) But, as with my ancient beliefs on the joys of the out-of-doors, I accept that on this matter I remain the luddite of all luddites. Let the world march forward, while I will gleefully stay in the past.

This was the summer of our 50th wedding anniversary, celebrated with our children and grandchildren. It was an opportunity to take time fishing in Northern Wisconsin. Hayward area, to be exact, home of the giant musky.

And, it was the summer our daughter who lives in Arkansas to introduce here children (our grandchildren) to ‘real’ mosquitos, actual wilderness and days on end without internet. A trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area above Lake Superior. It may not be the end of the earth, but, as they say, you can see it from there. Most importantly, they let the old grandpa join them.

Of course, reality still intrudes on us, even in Wisconsin and even in the summer, but today I will let it come tomorrow. Because there are tomatoes to pick, string beans snap and sweet corn cooking on the stove. It’s burgers for lunch.

Judge Jim Troupis

Retired Wisconsin Circuit Court Judge. President Trump’s attorney in 2020. Speaker, columnist, talk radio guest, father, grandfather and fisherman. Lawfare Triage | Where Deception Dies