Origin Story
My very first winter in Wisconsin taught me a number of things.
ONE. It is possible to have a daily high of less than zero degrees Fahrenheit. I refused to believe it for a number of weeks. I went around, thinking myself quite witty, calling it a “less low”. It is not a thing that should be allowed, to call it the high temperature.
TWO. Your beard can indeed freeze. Even if you wear the last balaclava in town - your beard can freeze. Perhaps it freezes because of the balaclava. The tight fitting woven mask traps your humid breath close to your face. Despite your body heat, the frigid air overpowers the moisture, and it will freeze. If you're still trying to figure out what a balaclava is - like I was my first winter - perhaps you know it as a ski mask. They were not called ski masks by the folks who told me to find one.
And THREE, and most importantly. This ocean-loving southern boy needs warmth and humidity to survive the long frozen winters of the Upper Midwest. Like all transplanted theater artists with terminal degrees, I had no money when I moved to Milwaukee. If it were not for the Mitchell Park Domes (and their under-$10 admissions), I would not have survived that first winter.
Unless you're a born and raised Wisconsinite, you've probably not heard of the Domes. They were not featured on ‘Lavern and Shirley”. They make no appearance in “Happy Days”. They have nothing to do with the trademarked roar of Harley-Davidson. They simply do not fit into the beer guzzling, cheese curd squeaking, brat grilling image of Milwaukee.
Photo by Sulfur.
The Mitchell Park Domes are three geodesic domes, each sheltering a park of a different ecology. One dome is for temperate flowers. One is filled with a desert. And one glorious dome is a jungle. It is a place where you can feel the weight of the air on your skin. Following the suggestion of a dear friend, I found my way to the Domes. When I entered, I found my shoulders disengaging from my ears, and I relaxed into my first deep breath since the first day of that bitter Wisconsin winter.
And before you ask, no, I did not grow up in a jungle, though anyone who has spent a summer in Lowcountry South Carolina may beg to differ. Try it some time. You'll understand the comparison.
I learned that winter that I needed to explore to make it through those long Upper Midwest winters. I needed to discover the special places away from the typical if I was to make Milwaukee my home. The domes were just down the street, which is all I could afford at the time. It was a treasure - and continues to be (if a little worse for wear). Now, I try to travel as much as I can - to explore and be curious about what I find. I didn't know it that first winter, but the day the Mitchell Park Domes saved a displaced southern boy was the first spark of North by SouthEast Trading Company.
