Something Typical

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Lovely home you've got there, Linda!

The city is beautiful but the quality of the light in some of those photos is also just amazing. Gorgeous!

I'm afraid I can't take credit for that. Many of those photos were taken by professional photographers at our newspaper. I've just, ehum, "borrowed" them...

This is the view from my balcony. You can see the bay (of lake Vänern) about 100 metres away.



And zooming on the bay:

[Alelou]

Wow. I'm jealous of your water (and your pears, Linda! Wow!). On the other hand, I don't have to worry about floods. And I can just walk up the hill to a pretty nifty little lake, although I'm sorry to say there is no public access into it.

[Escriba]

Beautiful place, KTR, so zen. I'm envious And I've noticed from your picture from your balcony that you have a lot of places to park. That's even more amazing

And Linda, your house is lovely, I like all the wood in it, it feels very cozy. And other thing, maybe this sounds strange, but when I saw the picture of your street I thought "Ah, United States!" Because it looks exactly as this idealized version you see in the movies. But it's real!

[Linda]

Escriba, it is a nice area. We moved to this house two years ago, from an apartment in Milwaukee. It took us a long time to be able to afford a house! South Milwaukee is a town (small city) which is a suburb of Milwaukee. It takes me an hour on the bus to get to my employment (University of Wisconsin) in Milwaukee, where it took only fifteen minutes from the apartment. I feel safer in South Milwaukee than in a larger city like Milwaukee. Outside our apartment a couple of years ago some man tried to steal my purse. Fortunately I hung onto it so tight he didn't get it. But growing older (I am 60 now), I feel safer in a smaller community. My daughter lives close to us too. The boat lives close to us also, LOL, about a ten minute walk away. Of course it is stored on a cradle out of the water from October to May. We have long winters here.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

And I've noticed from your picture from your balcony that you have a lot of places to park. That's even more amazing

That's just the public parking. We residents have our own place in the back.



And I'm not going to show pictures of my apartment. The place is a mess, I'm afraid. One of my little vacation projects is to clean it up, put or throw away things and getting some new furniture, bookshelves in particular (as if the six ones I have aren't enough ).

[Asso]

And Linda, your house is lovely, I like all the wood in it, it feels very cozy. And other thing, maybe this sounds strange, but when I saw the picture of your street I thought "Ah, United States!" Because it looks exactly as this idealized version you see in the movies. But it's real!

Yeah!
Very "Typical", isn't it?
Like the lovely and quiet place of KTR.

[Linda]

Parking behind your building, KTR, wow. When we were in the apartment, the building was so old it did not have a parking lot! We used a city lot two blocks away, LOL. Parking on the east side of Milwaukee, especially on the streets is very difficult to find. But Milwaukee has a good bus system which I have always used more than the car. The car is for evenings and weekends.

[justTripn]

I am also marveling at the quality of the light in KTR's pictures and all the water. It's gorgeous.

Linda. I love the wood paneling on your ceilings!

[Linda]

JT, we are so lucky that the wood paneling did not get painted over! I think it was in the 1950s or 1060's that people painted over the beautiful wood in older homes to be 'modern'. But now people are into 'restoring' homes to their original style. Architecture, like clothing styles goes in and out of fashion!

By the way, Jim met a women who grew up in our house. He is on the historical society in South Milwaukee with her. Her mother was three months short of giving birth to her when her parents built and moved into the house. We had her over to visit her old home (which she sold in the early 1980s) one evening last year. I was afraid she would be dissapointed with how we decorated the house and I cleaned a lot so it would be 'up to the standards of my parents generation', i.e., spotless, LOL. I remembered the old phrase "you can never go home again".

Well, she loved the house. She especially noticed the woodwork was the same. She told us all about the neighbors, who of course were long gone from the neighborhood. She is a very sweet and fiesty little old lady who Jim always talks to at historical society meetings now and refers to the house as "our house" meaning me, him, and her. And tells her how we love the house and want to keep it in its original bungalow style.

[Escriba]

Ahhhh... yes... Our little town's festivities are here. They begin in July 24th. And like every year, the program has been send to our house (today has been a tough day for the mailwoman ) Since it's something typical and talks about a lot of typical Basque things, I've decided to put it here.

First, the front page Supposedly there is a public competition or contest to decide what front page to publish, but I've never believed that urban legend This year's isn't so bad, I've seen worse. By the way, "Santio Jaiak" means "Festivities of Saint Jacob" (the patron saint of our town.)

Second page, the activities for July 24th First of all, the "txupinazo" (it's the launch of a firework to announce the begining of the festivities; the most famous "chupinazo" is from the Sanfermines); later, "erraldoi eta buruhandiak" (this literally means "Giants and Bigheads" and it's this. The pic of the lower right is a "cabezudo", a "big head"; sometime I have to tell you the frighting stories about them); a little football at 19:00 ("soccer" for the Americans ); a popular dinner in the square; the "damborrada" thing at 23:00 is a parade or perfomance of drummers (at that time, all drunk ); and at last, the dancing or ball with a group called "Laket" (no idea who they are.) We have to point out that, at 16:30 there is a frontenis competition (it's a game played with rackets and a ball against a wall), at 17:00 the pilota competition (also known as jai-alai, although it isn't the same. Here); and at 17:45 our town's brass band plays around all the town, yi-peee.

Second page, the great day, day of Jacob or Santio eguna. At 8:00 we have the reveille (around all the town) played by dultzaina. The "sokamuturra" at 9:00 it's a stupid custom that consists in a young cow being freed in a small ring (often built for the period of the festival and then dismantled) among local youths who tease her pulling her by a dangling rope. Cross country race, more pilota, a general mass and the annual visit of the municipal or local corporation to the Building of Santiago (it's a Hospital for elders.) The part in blue are a concert by the music band of Milagro (see picture and the bored children at front ), a dance, another dancing or ball with "Joselu Brothers" (typical group, I would die before dancing with their music), a concert by our town's chorus and the dancing with the "Joselu Brothers" keeps going. This day is the "day of the young people" ("gazte eguna"), so we'll have coffe and pastries (that's very young, I suppose), "Orkresta Nacional" music band will play around all the town, then there will be a pintxos' tasting or sampling. And at last, a concert by "Impecables" band (no idea, either.)

Third page, Santana's day. Notice the upper pic with the popular dinner (yes, another one), the air castle or park (or whatever is called) for the children, and the people reunited to taste cider in the cider and pintxos' tasting (no, the man serving the cider isn't making a funny thing, cider is served like that, you have to pour it from some distance.) There is a blues concert at 22:00 (during it "Marie Brizard", the liquor company, will offer a sample of its liquors) and a dancing at 19:30 and 00:00 with the classic group "Tapia and Leturia" (not even dead, my friends ) Oh, we will have zampantzarras too (how... traditional.)

Fourth page, July 27th This is the day of the "komparsa". The komparsa is a group of (young) people from the town who rehearse some months before the festivities to perform a dance around all the town (see the pics of people dancing. The upper pic is a pic of the aforementioned Giants.)

Fifth page. Please, don't be scared. My town is very... radical. This is a poster that announces the activities in favour of the imprisoned people and the runaways. Let's play a game: try to identify my clasmate, the one who is in jail The worst use of Photoshop I've ever seen, I must add.

Sixth page, July 28. Day of the retired people (notice the pic with them at the handicrafts exhibition.) The bike race is celebrated this day too (as the picture shows; look at all those "thrilled" children.) Oh, oh, and the "famous" DJ Burunda (Philistines...) Fortunately there is a rock concert too, with some bands that aren't so bad.

Page seven, July 29th A lot of dance performances. A sokamuturra (you know, the young cow thing) for children. But I want you to watch the picture at the right bottom. Notice how the boys are in the upper part and the girls in the lower part. Notice they aren't together. Except a small group (the boy with the orange t-shirt) that looks like a mixed friends gang.

Page eight, July 30th Day of the "cuadrilla". Cuadrilla is how we call a "friends gang", you know, the basis of our society The most important thing this day is the "lunch of the cuadrillas" (the lower picture.) Later, the (drunk) cuadrillas go through all the town with the brass band, dancing and asking people to throw water to them from the balconies (yes, a little barbarian.)

And, at last, July 31 A lot of children games this day. Just in case you're wondering... the lower pic represents the "ring shaped-pastry's burial". You see, the ring-shaped pastry represents our festivities, so the town performs a fake burial that represents its end. This is as pathetic as it sounds, really I like the pic of the brass band and the young kid trying to bear the euphonium.

See how many things about Basque people have you learnt today?

[justTripn]

Oh, we will have zampantzarras too (how... traditional.) . . .

See how many things about Basque people have you learnt today?

I've learned a whole lot! What are the furry people doing?

[Escriba]

Oh, we will have zampantzarras too (how... traditional.) . . .

See how many things about Basque people have you learnt today?

I've learned a whole lot! What are the furry people doing?

They basically walk, and because they carry those big cowbells on their backs, they make a lot of noise.

[Asso]

Escriba, your "Something Typical" is very... typical.
And... how small world is!
I watched your "zampantzarras".
Now you watch my Sardinian "Mammutones"!
Do you think they know each other?

[Escriba]

Well, Asso, Italians have fame of travelling, you know. I'm sure there is an interesting story of an Italian traveller, a Basque farmer and his wife

They look amazingly similar

[Alelou]

I love the picture of the two groups, female and male -- it totally fits how you described it before. It sounds like Basque culture formalizes the cliques normally formed at age 10-12 in the lunch room at school (which I think often shift over the years, though I don't really know -- I was never in the same place long enough to judge).

I've had Puerto Rican pinchos (yum). Yours look a lot healthier.

So are all those ladies in black faking their grief? (I hope so!)