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Off/beat

Evacuees taste cheesehead life

By MARY SPICUZZA
Published September 25, 2005

My hometown of Milwaukee isn't exactly a destination for tourists.

Maybe that's why the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina whom I met on a recent trip home said they didn't know what to expect when their airplanes touched down in America's Dairyland.

(Heck, maybe that's why pilots didn't even tell evacuees fleeing New Orleans they were headed for Milwaukee until the airplanes closed their doors, lifted their wheels and reached about 1,000 feet).

But most seemed to have an open mind about their sudden arrival in a city best known for culinary classics like bratwurst and cultural contributions such as Laverne and Shirley.

I was curious about their reactions to life among the cheeseheads, so I couldn't help but stop to talk with some of them while I was on the way to my Aunt Margie's house for lunch.

"Geez, I've never been there, but I like their cheese - and their beer, of course," Joseph Finnegan said he remembered thinking on the plane. "I thought Hilo, Hawaii, would be nice. But Milwaukee was the next best thing."

Finnegan, 58, reported that he was making the most of his new home.

He quickly found a corner pub and enjoyed a good Wisconsin beer.

"A Leinenkugel's," he said, practicing a Wisconsin accent. ""Yah, it was good."

Finnegan said he knew he would like Cream City as soon as his fellow pub-goers assured him we Milwaukeeans "don't have a town drunk - we just take turns."

I was pleased that my fellow Wisconsinites were living up to the state's reputation of just being, well, really nice people.

The first evacuees were greeted by a host of local officials.

They were shuttled to the Tommy G. Thompson Youth Center at State Fair Park, which was stocked with donated supplies.

A local American Red Cross worker even made sure the gun show scheduled for that weekend was canceled.

Countless cheeseheads did their best to make the evacuees feel right at home.

The aforementioned Red Cross worker said that Miller Brewing Co. even offered to donate some kegs and throw a party at the center.

He asked them to hold off on that idea.

A local Cajun restaurant quickly donated plenty of homemade, um, Milwaukee jambalaya.

"It was protestant jambalaya," Finnegan said with a laugh.

Volunteers handed out free tickets to Milwaukee Brewers games - or at least they tried to.

One evacuee, Rudolph Varnado, 68, declined a chance to go watch the Brew Crew, but marveled at Milwaukeeans' generosity.

""Golly, this is mighty good service," Varnado said.

My brother and I later joked that volunteers should have at least offered up Green Bay Packers tickets.

I mean, asking them to watch a Brewers game? Haven't these people been through enough already?

We all - evacuees, volunteers, a Hernando County bureau reporter (me), and a sports reporter (my big brother, Paul) - spent a couple of hours sitting outside the center, enjoying a hot and humid afternoon and just talking. About everything from Hurricane Katrina and its devastation to Wisconsin cheese and Mardi Gras.

Tears were shed. Bad jokes were made.

Apparently, a healthy sense of humor is something no disaster, not even Katrina, could destroy.

Mary Spicuzza can be reached at mspicuzza@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.

[Last modified September 25, 2005, 02:15:40]