Tuesday 04 November 2003
This is the third time in my life I've moved to the Fox Cities... Appleton and the surrounding communities of Neenah, Menasha, Grand Chute, Little Chute, Kimberly, Combined Locks, and Kaukauna. The Fox Cities have grown into the third largest metropolitan area in the state of Wisconsin, surpassing Green Bay and trailing behind only Madison and Milwaukee.
The area is called the Fox Cities for two reasons: First, they skirt the Fox River between Lake Winnebago and Green Bay. Second, there is, for some reason, a lot of individual community pride here. If a Green Bay news report says, "The temperature in Appleton is 30 degrees," people in Neenah and the rest would whine, "What about us?" It's kind of childish, really... the population of Appleton is greater than the rest of the Fox Cities combined... but it got to the point where the Appleton Foxes single-A minor league team wouldn't draw from the other towns, so when building their new ballpark five years ago they called it Fox Cities Stadium and changed the team's name to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers... or T-Rats for short.
Each time I've moved to this area, it's been with hope. The first time was with my ex-wife and Catherine. We came to Appleton because we wanted to move back to Wisconsin (we were living in Joliet, Illinois, at the time), because of the growing opportunities in the area, and because it was a safe distance from our families... close enough to visit but far enough that they'd need to call before coming.
The second time I moved here was to Kimberly. I had reclaimed my teaching position at UW-Fox Valley (another example of generic naming) for the Spring Semester of 2000 after being frightened out of Alberta by Yvonne's non-break-up with her almost-ex-boyfriend.
Now, here I am again, to be close to a little girl who saved my life.
