Geeks and Wanderers

Yesterday I had two cultural encounters in Oshkosh that might be of interest. Both were pleasantly surprising.

In the early afternoon, I walked over to the Oshkosh Public Library, which is by the way a beautiful building, inside and out, that we have to post some pictures of. Aside from picking up the other half of the first season of Weeds, I had a nice conversation with the library technical director. Jeannie has started a weekly one-on-one computer tutoring program for the older folks in the area, to which she volunteers her time (after work hours) and I may also. But mostly we just discussed geek stuff. Jeannie, who I would vaguely guess is around 40, told me that she's a pretty heavy World of Warcraft player. We joked a bit about novices who wave the mouse in the air expecting it to do something. (Which maybe, post-Wii, it will.) Generally, she seems like a smart, friendly geek whose type it's nice to encounter here outside of the comic book store. So that's good.

On as side note, her last name is McBeth (an Elizabeth offshoot I hadn't heard before) and the library administrator who referred me to her is a Lisa. I know it's a common name-group and two people in the same small organization is just a very minor coincidence, but still, I wonder if we need to start a Wisconsin Elizabeth count.

Later on, with all the windows open, I began to hear a band playing the weekly Waterfest event at the amphitheater a few blocks away. They were not particularly good, but energetic, and covering lots of great 80s rock. I listened to a few songs from the balcony and then decided to walk over for a better view. Then, as I was bummed about missing the 1/2 price early-bird by 20 minutes and too cheap to pay $15 to get in, alone, to a concert I could hear just fine outside the gates, I decided to walk around the downtown area in a radius where I could still hear the music clearly. This led me down the waterfront first just outside the amphitheater itself, which is rather new and nicely developed. The concert, incidentally, was packed, and although I could see plenty of food and drink vendors inside, the only drunk person I encountered was on her way in.

Once I passed that vicinity, and literally just across the tracks (a freight rail route), I found the bad part of town. Not bad in any mega-urban sense that I'm used to, just the obviously low-property values neighborhood with a few rickety-looking houses and one or two Goodwill-type places. The sidewalks were mostly empty, other than a few people sitting on stoops or heading to the concert. On one street, a guy walking on the opposite sidewalk was wearing a wrinkled t-shirt and exercise shorts and looked a bit strung-out.

On the next corner I heard some loud voices and walked over to see a pair of police cars pulled up to a corner house where an obviously domestic dispute was going on. (Interestingly, just one cop per car.) A middle-aged woman was talking to the cops and occasionally shouting at a someone who was probably her daughter, sitting on the stoop. They had an audience of a few curious people across the street. But the mother was not yelling at the cops themselves, she was really more agitated than out of control, and the cops were simply standing there and listening to her. In short, this would have made a very boring episode of Cops, as it was obviously going to be resolved when the woman had her say, and without any violence or car chases.

Then, walking back towards home, I saw Strung-Out Guy walking towards me on the same side of the street. As we passed, I was giving him the usual polite head-nod when he surprised me with a friendly and completely sober "Hello". The New Yorker in me was expecting something else, either bizarre/drunk/angry or a solicitation, but he kept on going. Keep in mind that although this kind of friendliness is typical for the Midwest, I hadn't gotten it from any of the concert-goers I'd passed a few minutes earlier. And sure he was walking aimlessly in a loop around the neighborhood for no apparent reason, but then so was I. So, score one for the vagrant community as well!