The big yellow machine provided some good entertainment for my son before his nap and its work will make travel for my neighbors and me a little easier, sort of. What's odd is that no other streets within view of my window appear to have been touched. Not even the streets leading to mine. And now the frontloader is gone and the neighborhood again eerily silent except for three neighbor kids out enjoying the wet, heavy snow.
This means we're a small island of plowed-ness amid a pretty much still completely snowed-in West Side. So, while we could get to our cars now -- if they happen to be parked on the street instead of in the alley garages (doh!) -- we couldn't really drive anywhere except up and down our own block!
Not that I'm complaining. I'm happy to have the city's attention on a day like this. It just makes me wonder if one of my neighbors has friends in high places.
I also send a shout out to my neighbor, who plowed the entire street this morning. Not just a small path, either. He did the whole sidewalk and another neighbor's entire driveway. That's the kind of neighborliness that ought to be contagious.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
