The neighborhood where I lived while in Milwaukee was huge. It went all the way to a shopping center in West Allis. The newer buildings were surrounded by five-story older brick office buildings. The entrance to the shopping center coming from our house actually went through one of the older buildings.
I learned that those older buildings and that entire shopping center area used to be the Allis Chalmers Tractor factory. Hundreds of offices were for design people, management, administration, and sales. The middle area, which is now the parking lot, was the show lot where they parked all the newly manufactured tractors.
All of the homes north of the shopping center all the way to I-95 were housing for employees. I just looked at a satellite view, and it’s approximately 66 blocks with roughly a dozen homes on each block. That was a humongous factory. I wish I could have seen it when it was in operation.
It was a favorite spot for parents to bring their kids trick-or-treating. It wasn’t a wealthy neighborhood by any means, but it was a great place to live and very safe. My first Halloween, I was very excited. I bought a ton of candy — the good stuff. Sure, my ex told me to get healthy snacks, but that went in one ear and out the other.
I dressed up as Shrek and was ready to see all the kids. No one came. We were one of only a few houses across the street next to I-95, and I guess they figured it wasn’t worth the time to cross to our place. I was disappointed. I didn’t want to have to eat all that candy myself. Okay, I wanted to, but I would rather have given it to the kids.
I took drastic measures. I set up a folding table on the sidewalk and sat there in my Shrek attire. My ex was so embarrassed she refused to come out there with me. But it worked. When the kids and parents saw me, they crossed the street. I had to ration the candy because I got hundreds of trick-or-treaters.
The next year, I dressed up as Thing from The Fantastic Four and set up my table and chair on the sidewalk before it started. Like the previous year, I got hundreds of visitors. But I noticed something – there were three other houses with tables and chairs on the sidewalk. I lived there for ten years, and on my last Halloween there, over half the homes in the entire neighborhood were doing this.
I’d never been a trendsetter before. So, just be you, and the world will accept it.
Neal Wooten is a columnist in the Mountain Valley News and North Jackson Press newspapers. He can be reached at [email protected].
