Midwest Setting

[Irishmile]

Oh yes.... You can
This house is listed in my city for $209,900



here are some photos from around where I live..




Mabel Tainter theater (where my sister got married)



WINTER TIME

[Lena_P]

Originally Posted by Irishmile

Mabel Tainter theater (where my sister got married)

I would actually be willing to get married if it meant I got to play around in a place like that ... <3 (I'd almost be willing to move to somewhere that gets shudder snow, to volunteer at a theater like that. Almost.)

[Avistew]

I still like Paris better but the pics are really nice.

[Irishmile]

Im afraid my little city couldn't compete with Paris

[Avistew]

Paris is my hometown. It's part of me. Nothing can compete with it and at the same time it drives me crazy. Kinda like a family member.

Your little city looks really nice. I like theatres like this one. Actually it reminds me of amphitheatres in university in Paris... ah damn it I did it again.
I think I need to go back there sometime and get my fix

[Irishmile]

In the 1800s the area had some of the richest men in the world living here.... in fact the city is filled with old mansions...

All these old Mansions used to be owned by lumber tycoons that particular theater was built in memory of one of these tycoon's daughter Mabel who died at the age of 19...

In fact Chicago owes alot to the area because of the famous Chicago fire in the 1800s and much of the city needed to be rebuilt.. So they bought lumber from here and they floated it all down the Mississippi river.... They built us we built them... interesting huh?

On a related note laura ingalls wilder lived about an hour away... she wrote the book little house on the prairie decades before the lumber boom and some time after the fur trade....

OK I like history stuff.. I will stop talking im sure I lost most of you.

[Irishmile]

OK one last thing I could have mentioned... for Baseball fans at one time Eau Claire had some professional baseball teams including the Eau Claire braves a team Hank Aaron played for.... he broke Babe Ruth's homerun record. The diamond is located on that big island in the middle of the lake.... Carson Park in the middle of half moon lake (looks nothing like a moon)

[Lena_P]

Duh! That's because it's only half a moon, the rest was destroyed by a giant meteor controlled by the Feruvian people of Neptune. (Sorry, I just love to imagine places named "half moon" actually were supposed to look like a giant space rock split into pieces ) Why does your town have a French name, Irishmile? Was it originally founded by Acadiens or something?

[Irishmile]

It means Clear Water or something like that..... maybe someone who speaks French can verify... The French fur trade came through here and named many of the things here if its not French its going to be named after Native American things.. I do not think the close proximity to French speaking areas in Canada is a coincidence..

Incidentally most of the people here are actually German.... after much of the lands lumber and fur trade died down land owners sold their land to German immigrants as they arrived so they could farm the land... unfortunately many arrived in the middle of a winter they were not expecting and many died... But they gave us our cheese and our beer... many of which the whole world now enjoys.

[Avistew]

Yes, it does mean "Clear Water". "Clair" can also means "light/fair/pale", but I doubt that's the case here.

[Lena_P]

Although calling a Pilsner "Biere Claire" would make for a cute pun.

[Irishmile]

My personal favorite WI beer..... and you guessed it also made near my house... still using some of that clear water mentioned earlier.

[Lena_P]

So how come when you guys were listing off good things about the Midwest you didn't mention beer, hmm? Not that I drink, but I don't eat cheese either. Do order petit fours from the Swiss Colony though.

[Avistew]

Why did you have to mention petits fours? Mmh? Damn you, Lena, making me drool like that.

That beer looks nifty, but for some reason my first thought was "wow, that must be super sweet!". I guess I associate red with sweetness since it tends to be a fruit colour.

[Irishmile]

sweet beer? that would be either of these... the brewery is open to the public its kinda like willy wonka only with beer.... you get to sample everything and try upcoming stuff..... I naturally love the place..

[Lena_P]

Honey Weiss is A) a terrible pun and B) a misnomer 'cause I bet that beer ain't white.

Fun Midwestern Fact #37 They love bad puns.

[Irishmile]

no its yellowish...

fun fact they sold soda during the prohibition.... also a fun fact... I am a rare Northern Midwesterner who doesn't call soda .... POP.

[Lena_P]

*Gasp!* You're a fake, aren't you?! All this time I thought you really were from Wisconsin, but you're probably some East Coaster who moved in grade school or something, aren't you?

[Irishmile]

My mothers family was from the East Coast... Philadelphia to be exact. My Father grew up here.... as a result I have a hodgepodge way of talking... as demonstrated in the one thread where we all recorded our voices I do not have a thick WI accent either.

I do on occasion say "You Bet" involuntarily and that is a variation of "You Bet'cha"

[Lena_P]

Oh wait, I was right? Shoot, maybe I am psychic! (For the non-United States types, we can pinpoint where someone is from based on whether or not they say "Pop" or "Soda" when referring to carbonated soft drinks, and their pronunciation of "orange".)