Monday, September 6, 2010

STMcC@McCarthyCountry.Pix [Part 2 Of 4]

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1:
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All the weather dudes were calling for rain all day long. Do I really risk a major downpour and drive to Milwaukee today? If I do’d it I get a whippin’ . . . I do’d it.
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Surprisingly, although it looked like cats and dogs were gonna fall all day, it rained very little and even then only when I was already under cover. The ghost of McCarthy had me covered!
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So, I drove down Route 41 to Milwaukee, passing the Miller Brewing Company, and I found Marquette University where Joe had gotten his law degree.
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I knocked around at Marquette for a little while, not long, but long enough to fall in love with this young, dark-haired, brown-eyed woman in the law building. If only I were 30 years younger, why I would . . . say something sappy and embarrass myself.
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Afterwards, I drove into downtown Milwaukee and visited The Pfister Hotel where as a young man, Joe McCarthy had worked as a dishwasher and a pie-baker. The hotel is simply gorgeous.
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[Don'tcha hate it when that dude walks right into your picture?]
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Here’s a photo of the lobby bar:
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And here’s a photo of my glass at the lobby bar with something in it that was made by The Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
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The Pfister Hotel has an artist-in-residence named Reginald Baylor and I loved Baylor’s work. What he does is duplicate but modernize some of the hotel’s classic Victorian era paintings, often adding into his pictures illustrations of the Pfister’s old vases and furnishings which can be found throughout the hotel and in some of its rooms. Here’s the example I saw near the elevators:
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[The Christian Science Reading Room in downtown Milwaukee.
For a certain friend of mine. You know who you are.]
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I even took a photo of the men’s room in the Pfister’s lobby. Note that the toilet seat is in the UP position, as is proper.
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I would have attended a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game but, unfortunately, the team was on the road, getting beaten up somewhere else. So I headed back up toward Appleton on Route 43 along the coast of Lake Michigan.
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Despite the wet weather, as I was approaching Sheboygan (a name I totally love and which I couldn’t stop saying to myself), I had an insane craving come over me for a milk shake. I decided I would get off the highway and drive into Sheboygan and stop at a Dairy Queen. Well, let me tell ya, that is the longest I ever drove without seeing a Dairy Queen. I drove for miles and miles, dyin’ for a milk shake, and not a Dairy Queen (or any other shake-makin’ place) in sight! I did pass the Sheboygan Sausage Company, but when you’ve got an urge for a shake, sausage - close though it is - just ain’t quite close enough.
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And then finally, just before I drove into Lake Michigan, there it was: DAIRY QUEEN!
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So I went in and looked at the menu and saw something I’d never seen before.
“Marshmallow? Do you really make marshmallow shakes?”
“Yes”, said the Dairy Queen dude.
“Ahh, well I’ll try that!” I replied enthusiastically.
And ya know what? It was good. It’s good to be the king in the Queen. I decided right then and there that a person really hasn’t lived until they’ve had “a marshmallow shake in Sheboygan”.
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And speaking of the place, here’s a photo of the mean streets of Sheboygan:
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Continued below in Part 3.
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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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13 comments:

  1. This seems like a dandy vacation. It's kind of nice being off by oneself and just doing what you want to. Love those old hotels--that looks like a fine one.

    You never had a marshmallow shake before. It's one of my favorites, but they are a bit hard to find. Last one I got was at a Dairy Queen in Lake Elsinore. I also like chocolate marshmallow, but seems like most places just don't carry the marshmallow.

    I'm enjoying the vacation. Easy on the brain and a fun tour.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  2. LEE ~
    Yeah, ya know, there are so many people who can't stand to be alone, and I can't relate to that at all; I NEED time alone. I like being off by myself at times and not having to field questions or engage in discussion. Gotta keep up with my own internal dialogue. Or monologue, I s'pose I should say. (It depends upon how many voices I'm hearing at the time.)

    No, Bro, I had never even heard of a marshmallow shake before. It was a new concept for me. And I have been a regular customer of Arizona Dairy Queens for many years but I've never seen it listed on a menu board.

    However, I'm pretty sure it's not just about marshmallow shakes in general. I'm inclined to think that marshmallow shakes in Sheboygan are shpecial.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Bro! You honor me! Thanks for the nod.

    By leaving the seat up, in particular.

    I, too, love the name Sheboygan. I wonder if you were somehow sending me mental vibes about your trip? Remember, in a very recent email I mentioned that where your writing style is akin to Vladimir Nabukov, my own was like much lesser writers, though at least not like Hyman Lippschitz, Sports writer for the Sheboygan Register.

    "Mention My Name in Sheboygan" is the theme song for Bob and Ray!

    Paulboy

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  4. And on the subject of milkshakes: I am sure that your marshmallow shake was better than the last "theme" shake I had.

    The island of Grenada is the nutmeg capitol of the world, and they make NUTMEG shakes.

    Extremely nasty, but you can't prosecute them for that.

    Paulboy

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  5. SheboyganBoy ~
    >> I mentioned that where your writing style is akin to Vladimir Nabukov, my own was like much lesser writers, though at least not like Hyman Lippschitz, Sports writer for the Sheboygan Register.

    >> "Mention My Name in Sheboygan" is the theme song for Bob and Ray!


    You know, I do recall that bit about Lippschitz of the Sheboygan Register. But I think at the time I read it, my eyes saw "Sheboygan" but my mind said "Some small town somewhere."

    "Mention My Name In Sheboygan" is the theme song for Bob And Ray"???!!! Was that on the tapes you sent me, or do the tapes begin after the theme song has already played? (I'll have to listen to them again. I think I'll take a couple of them to work with me tomorrow.)

    And one more thing... Is "Mention My Name In Sheboygan" a REAL song? Or is it something that was composed specifically as a theme song for Bob And Ray? I don't recall having ever heard of it before. But I LOVE THE TITLE!
    That's G-g-g-r-r-reat!

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground... of Sheboygan'

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, its a real song. Isn't it a great title!?!?!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vLj1-ZPR3M

    On the Bob and Ray show it plays at the end as they are running thru the real (and fake) credits.

    I think there may have been two versions of the thing, also. That's what it appeared like when I just googled it.

    Mr. Paulboy(gan)

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  7. SheboyganBoy Six ~
    Ha! I dig it! It sounds like the sort of song I can easily imagine Jimmy Durante singing and dancing to!

    Now that opening instrumental bit before the singing starts, is that actually part of this song or did they nick it from another source? Because I know that music big time - done had heard it thousands of times! It's often used by circuses as background music for the clown act.

    Do you know if they just borrowed that and tacked it on as an opening because it worked well with the song? Or have the cicruses been using the music from "Mention My Name In Sheboygan" all this time?

    Anyway, I dig it, both the song and Kay's way of 'shouting' it.

    Shout it from the rooftops: Sheboygan! "It has the greatest little Dairy Queen in the world!"

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  8. As to that opening instrumental portion, I don't know what the origins are or if it was originally part of a larger musical piece, but it would be interesting to know. It has become a musical cliche as a standard intro and chaser music for vaudeville. Many times in old movies or cartoons where there is something to do with a vaudeville show this riff will be played after an act has been introduced and when they are leaving the stage or the curtain is closing. And it will sometimes be repeated more than once if the act doesn't show up immediately or remains on the stage for some reason. That's my take on it.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, LEE.
    Yeah, I know I've seen it used in conjunction with lots of stage acts, and I think particularly when clowns are involved.

    It's almost impossible for me to imagine a scenario where clowns are running around with exploding cigars and driving in ultra-tiny cars without hearing this music in my mind.

    The thing is, according to the title of the Kay album which this song appears on, the song "Mention My Name In Sheboygan" apparently goes back to the Gay '90s. Which certainly makes it old enough to have been the original piece of music borrowed by the circuses and vaudeville acts.

    Hmmm... Is "Mention My Name In Sheboygan" world famous circus music that hardly anyone knows the name of?

    You've opened up a Pandora's can of worms and created controversy, SheboyganBoy Six!

    ~ D-FensDogg

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  10. A little more research about the Sheboygan song indicates to me that it was probably written in the 1930s or 40s. I didn't find much about the writers but I did find some other mentions of them concerning song hits of the 40s.
    Also, the verse about Paducah refers to "a gal who was Miss Paducah of 1904" which would indicate that the song was written at least after that date and not during the 1890s.

    The singer of the song on the Gay 90s album, Beatrice Kay began her career at age six in 1913 and her real heyday would have been from the 30s thru the 50s.

    The melody of the song is similar to many songs of that genre and any of those songs would have fit that standard intro. I've even heard the intro used for slower vaudeville songs.

    I don't recall ever hearing the Sheboygan song used in any circuses. But Youtube has an entertaining rendition from a Lawrence Welk Show. Also the Everly Bros. recorded the song for an album in 1960.

    So there are my findings for this near forgotten ditty. That's partly how I spent my 9/11.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the trip down Research Lane, LEE!

    >> "a gal who was Miss Paducah of 1904"

    Yeah, I noticed that lyric right away but just assumed that if the song really did originate with the Gay '90s then the line had simply been rewritten sometime later.

    Well, based on your research, it seems likely that the circus/vaudeville intro was just tacked on to the beginning of a song that doesn't otherwise have anything to do with stage acts and clowns. But I still like it.

    One last question, LEE: It was a year ago today that I changed this blog's title from "Xtremely Un-P.C. And Unrepentant" to "Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends". Now I'm wondering if there is also a way to change the URL address to "ferret-facedfascistfriends.blogspot.com" so that the title and the URL coincide.

    I could start a new blog with that URL but I don't want these older posts separated from the title. Do you (or any of those tech geeks who follow your blog) know if it's possible to change a blogspot URL but retain all of the older material that's been previously posted under a different URL by assigning the new URL to it?

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal Sheboygan Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  12. I don't know about changing established addresses and retaining content. In one sense I am of the opinion that all things are possible, but then again it could be complicated. Couldn't tell you.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's cool, Brother LEE. No problem.

    It really ain't that important anyhow as I won't be doing much of this for much longer. It'z a little late for me to be thinking "improvements" anyway.

    Yak Later, Bro-LEE-b.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete

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