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Reader asks: What led you to settle up north?

As one ages, that one’s body keeps an unending parade of medical surprises in store and reveals them at the content of the body and surely not the mind. That circumstance brought me to visit with my medical provider, a doctor in whom I have great satisfaction, but one who I do not often see in person. Now, some my age have a resistance to the teleconference type of appointment that I use with great frequency. Personally, I see no lack in this form of medical treatment, as a well-trained assistant — his nurse, in my case — is there for the hands-on, and headphones are not just for listening to books and music. I actually feel exactly as satisfied seeing him on the television screen as if we were in the same room. Face-to-face is an available option and I do use it from time to time but that requires him to travel from his home in La Crosse, Wis., to Iron Mountain.

And now we finally land on the point of today’s thought. What about you? Why are you here?

I am here through pure choice. I retired from a job in Winnebago, Wis., and a home in Green Bay, Wis. I was a commuter each day. My wife did a similar-length commute from Green Bay to Egg Harbor, Wis., to work in a large gallery, a job she totally enjoyed. When it came time to move, I looked online for what I desired in a home and happened upon that situation in Spread Eagle, Wis. I had not been in this area since 1982, when I made my last trip through Iron Mountain on a freight train. How many of you suffered my passing on one of the alphabetically named street crossing those many years ago? I moved from that job to a whole new location and railroad twice and then a new career and more moves. Finally, with the help of some wartime military injuries, I had to retire and ended up just where I am now, nearly 14 years ago.

My wife and I have fit ourselves into the mixture of communities with work, hobbies, charities and church in that 14 years and now when we venture back to our former home, we feel as mystified strangers there as we try to negotiate roundabouts and look to recognize landmarks rapidly changing.

And we have seen change here. Kmart, a store that loved my checkbook, has taken a powder and soon thereafter my wife’s employer, JC Penney, also packed their racks and stacks and disappeared. Though she is a professional person and does a small business mostly this time of year helping folks negotiate the IRS’s annual requirements, you will most often find her at a large local market because her preference is to see and talk with people on a regular basis. Our home in the woods is beautiful but the solitude is more than she desires.

That is us. What about you? Why are you here? Why is this your local paper? Do you ever think about that? Do let you mind ponder that? If you do, then why not share your thoughts in this forum.

It just may be interesting to see why this community is made of exactly us. Don’t you think that would be interesting?

Who are you? Why are you here? Did you start here and just stay or, like us, did you make the move to join in this wonderful northland home? Won’t you write a bit and tell us?

I find it disappointing to find this page empty of anyone’s thoughts. Please, do share yours.

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