Vignettes

There were several things that we saw and did that do not warrant a full report, but add an element to the trip.  Here are a few:

The NRA and the Red Nosed RV

Some time ago, as a part of my dedication to Fools Mission I attached a red nose to the front of the Roadtrek.  When we drove to Wisconsin, Peter and I discussed whether we should leave it there or not.  It did cover up a large Mercedes symbol, we thought that was good, and that it would prove that we did not take ourselves too seriously. Sometimes I caught a glance at a child staring at it, but adults have avoided that to date, except for one.  

We pulled up at the gun show at the Antigo Fairgrounds, with some  trepidation as the Las Vegas shooting was still a top news item.  A man in the parking lot walked in front of the Roadtrek and stared.  So we got out and I asked him if he liked the red nose.  He said that he wondered what it was and thought that it was funny.  We said that it was just there to prove that we did not take ourselves too seriously and he laughed.  We asked him what his function was at the show and he said that he was the local representative of the NRA and that it was his job to be sure that the exhibits were set up properly.  He greeted us heartily and told us to “enjoy the show.”

The Oshkosh Farmer’s Market

Busy practicing in OshKosh

Busy Selling in OshKosh

On Saturday, October 7, 2017 we drove to Racine.  In Antigo, and en-route, we saw white people, almost exclusively.  As we missed the Racine Farmer’s Market and knew that Oshkosh had one and decided to take a look at it.  The first thing that struck it was almost all of the food vendors were Asian and they were the first Asians we had seen in Wisconsin.  Nearly all of the customers (and the folks hosting the youth hockey booth) where white.  No conclusions here, we simply found it interesting.

Welcome to Racine

We arrived to go to Breakfast with Tony Larson, the UU Minister on Tuesday morning, October 10, 2017.  As we pulled up we figured out how to park in a single metered space, no small trick with our vehicle.  Peter fed the meter when we saw the man coming down the street to empty the meters.  Peter greeted him by mentioning that we had just contributed a bit to his collection.  He said “You are from out of state, how about I give you a couple of hours of free parking?”  Of course we said “yes.”  So the man opened the meter, handed Peter his money back and set it for two hours.  We asked him if he had lived in Racine all of his life (one of our standard introductory questions) and he told us that he and his family had just moved from Chicago, as Racine was much more hospitable and crime rate was lower.  He wished us a good morning and crossed the street to the next line of meters.

The Amazon Distribution Center in Kenosha

Front of Amazon Fulfillment Center

We had heard about this, so when in Kenosha, we looked it up and stopped by.  It is huge; several city blocks, with what looked like thousands of parking places in front and a dock in the back where over a hundred trucks could back up to a dock at the same time.  We didn’t count then-per-se, but this is how it felt.

We decided to go in to take a look.  It was the time of a shift change, a diverse group of workers were flowing out, many older (well over 50), some young, varied ethnic backgrounds.  They looked tired -- understandable at the end of an 8 hour shift.  In the lot we noticed  many Illinois license plates. The border is 10 miles south, Chicago is an hour south. 

Trucks as far as you can see - Back of Fulfillment Center

We walked up to what we thought was the front door.  No.  It was the hiring office.  We walked in, well actually we had to be buzzed in by security.  We told the woman in charge that we were just doing research about employment and rates of pay and she said that it was all on the web.  Well, it IS Amazon so that made sense.  But we pressed on a bit.  We learned that for seasonal/ part time work the rate of pay is $11.75 per hour, about $2.00 over the local minimum wage and, from the flyer that she retrieved for us that there is free accidental death and dismemberment insurance, but no health insurance. There is a substantial benefit for payment of tuition, after 1 year, and a 401k plan. Full time included health benefits from “day one.”  She  explained that the hiring firm she worked for was a contractor, that no one there worked for Amazon, so she couldn’t answer anything else.  Her supervisor walked in and that ended the conversation.

We walked over to the main entrance with its long row of security and glass doors.  Over the entrance through windows we could see a mezzanine level which appeared at about the level of a fourth floor in an office building.  Conveyors were transporting yellow boxes at a regular clip. Everything was on an large, impressive scale.

-- David