Posted by Kenneth Sloan on June 03, 2001 at 11:45:46:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Seeking advice for my upcoming move posted by Tuba John on June 03, 2001 at 08:23:55:
Tuba John is curious about where I was in Wisconsin.
'tis complicated.
In September 1976 my girlfriend left her job at Princeton and entered grad school at
Madison. I was somewhat behind schedule finishing my Ph.D. at Penn. Helping her move
to Madison didn't speed up the process much (moving all of our possessions to Madison, and giving up my apartment in Philly also slowed things up a bit - when in Philadelphia, I camped out in the basement of a row house occupied by a friend and colleague at the Moore School). In January, we were married (on Long Island), but I was still commuting between Madison and Philadelphia. (it's an easy 2-day drive!)
I finally finished, and in July of 1977 we moved to Rochester, NY.
Back to the topic of renting a truck and driving...when we moved to Madison we arrived with *only* the truck as transportation. After moving into 929 South Brooks Street, I went looking for a pizza place we found in the Yellow Pages. The main route involved a railroad overpass...I stopped the truck about 6 feet away from a horrible disaster (and tied up traffic for 15 minutes trying to back away from the "low bridge". My usual ride was a 1972 Datsun 240Z and I wasn't used to worrying about the signs on overpasses...
I have fond memories of the year spent (off and on) in Madison. I particularly liked the winter and the fine outdoor ice skating on the littlest lake just a few blocks from our apartment. But then, everyone who has visited my WWW page knows that I like to skate...
No tuba playing, then, though. When I went to Penn for grad school, I briefly joined the Penn band, but classes interfered with rehearsals. That probably definitively dates my last tuba playing (before my return 2.5 years ago) - I make it Fall of 1973(?). (although...I do recall playing at the Orange Bowl when Brown made it to the NCAA finals in soccer. The soccer game was part of Orange Bowl weekend and I recall crashing a party thrown by fans of Penn State's (football) opponents while wearing a Penn teeshirt). Any soccer fans with long memories who can date that NCAA Soccer Finals?
Back to moving, and Madison...when we moved from Cambridge, MA to Seattle, WA in 1984 I drove the SAAB cross-country. I stopped by the Finger Lakes region of NY to pick up some wine, and dropped in at the old supermarket in Madison to pick up some local WI beer (extra credit if you can determine where the supermarket is, the name of the store, and the name of the beer). I then parked the car in a parking lot in Minneapolis for a week (serious extra credit if you know WHY). The beer survived, but one case of wine turned into salad dressing.
Ken "you don't get stories like that by shipping your tuba with AMTRAK" Sloan