Daniel Gabrielsen sits on a bench at the southwest end of Mitchell Park watching the children swing and play.
The 65-year-old Gabrielsen, a veteran of the Vietnam War, grew up near 28th and National and says, when he was a child, you could almost always find him and his friends at the park near Layton and Pierce Streets. “We spent most of our time, here.”
If you ask Eric Berry where he grew up, he’ll tell you “everywhere.” Berry has lived in neighborhoods all over Milwaukee from 95th and Beckett to 3rd and Burleigh and 3rd and North.
As a result of moving around – and some other factors – Berry attended a number of different schools, as well, including Northwest Secondary School and Bay View and Custer high schools. “I just didn’t like the schools I was going to because I was always getting into trouble…not, like, big trouble but I always stayed in trouble.”
But cooking has always been a constant for Berry. And after graduating in 2013, he enrolled in culinary school. “I’ve been in the kitchen since I was 9 years old,” he said. “I just like playing with food.”
Monica, who grew up in Wauwatosa, comes from a large, Catholic family – she’s one of eight children.
So, when it came time for college, money was thin. “My parents encouraged, of course, going to school but they had no money – I had to work hard to pay for my college and then take the year off and then work more and then go back to school.”
James Harris came to Milwaukee around 2002 because his mother was struggling with cancer. “She’d gotten sick so I came to help her out and I wound up staying,” he said.
Harris grew up on the south side of Chicago but, when his mother’s health declined, it was more important to him to be here with her. “She liked it, found a job, brought my little sister up here, everything was good,” he explains. Then, in 2004, Harris’ mother died.
What does Harris think of Milwaukee, these days? “It’s violent, man – there’s a little too much drama for me.”
Steven Feih grew up in Brewer’s Hill and Bay View in a small family – it was just his mom, his dad and himself. “Being an only kid, you know, your dog’s your best friend, your imagination’s your second-best friend.”
Though Feih isn’t what you would call a loner he has a complicated relationship with people, stemming from 20 years working as a bartender. “You see it all – you know what people are going to say before they say it,” he said.
Yolanda Mora lives in Milwaukee with her two daughters but that wasn’t always the case – she grew up in Michoacán, Mexico.
What’s her favorite thing about her home country? “Oh, it’s beautiful…I like the people, there’s a lot of water, a lot of trees.”
Mora says that the people in both Michoacán and Milwaukee are the same but there are more jobs here. “It’s hard, right…in Mexico, the people have no money and, here, there’s a little more money,” she said.
If you run into David Barnett, don’t be surprised if he stops to give you some change or listen to your latest struggle. Barnett believes, sometimes, for the universe to lend you a hand, you have to extend your hand first. “Oh, yes, I believe in karma,” he said. “I have to because that’s the only reason I’m here.”
Barnett, who grew up in the inner city around 35th and Capitol, 20th and Burleigh and a couple other spots, says he’s fortunate not to have fallen prey to the pressures that often affect young people in that kind of environment. “For [those places], it’s all about a show of strength and belonging to something,” he said. “For my neighborhood, felonies, prison time – that’s normal.”
Pang Lor’s parents, who are of Hmong descent, came to Milwaukee from Philadelphia after her second-oldest brother was born; she arrived shortly after. “[My parents] came [to America] during the Vietnam War so when they came here they were still relatively young,” said Lor.
Lor said she barely remembers living on the south side of Milwaukee but she does remember the Lapham Park Projects (near 6th & Brown), where they moved when she was about four years old. “It was kind of a rough neighborhood.”
Leon was on his way to visit his mother, who lives in the King Park/Park View neighborhood, when he stopped to ask what I was doing in the area. When I told him he said, “Man, there are a lot of stories over here.” Continue reading “What are you doing around here?”
Eric Adamany knows that life doesn’t always turn out the way you expect. Adamany, who was born in Milwaukee, spent much of his childhood in Prairie du Chien after his parents decided to move.
He has fond memories of the small city in southwestern Wisconsin where he lifeguarded, trained horses and wrestled in high school, among other jobs and riding bikes with his three younger brothers. “We lived active lives, at least. We made our own fun.”
But, eventually, the small-town feel got to Adamany and he moved back to the city. At the time, he felt like he needed to be around more people but wasn’t sure exactly what he was after.
