“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely,
you can always go downtown
When you’ve got worries,
all the noise and the hurry seem to help, I know, downtown…”
Words and music, Tony Hatch, 1964
The words and music drop into my head and I can hear Petula Clark singing the melody of “Downtown” as I sit down to write, today. And I’m remembering the adventure of going downtown, along with a friend, during my high school years. That must be when I fell in love with cities.
Linda Andersen and I took the number 23 bus from the North Side of Milwaukee to 6th and Wisconsin Avenue on a Saturday afternoon, when we were juniors in high school. I’d known Linda since Junior High Days. Like me, she was a product of Milwaukee’s North Side, and like me, she was a student at Washington High School. Unlike me, Linda was an only child, and her mother worked – unusual for the kids in my working class neighborhood. Linda was a nice girl, quiet, smart. I liked her, although I have never counted her among my really good friends from that time. Even so, Linda was the friend who was with me when we had our adventure in downtown Milwaukee.
After we exited the bus at 6th and Wisconsin, we walked East along the street, whose sidewalks were still filled with busy, fast-moving folks in the 1960’s. We stayed along the South Side of Wisconsin Avenue and walked over the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge to the more upscale part of Wisconsin Avenue between the Milwaukee River and the shore of Lake Michigan. On the East side of the Avenue, the sidewalks were wider and the businesses more expensive; certainly I knew that my people would not shop in the stores there. On the North side of the street on Wisconsin Avenue stood the Pfister Hotel. To me, the Pfister was the place for rich people who came to Milwaukee to stay. Years later, on our wedding night in 1984, Jeff and I spent the night in the honeymoon suite at the top of the Pfister, looking out to the East from our room as snow fell over Lake Michigan; it was the first day of spring (Wisconsin-style).
We walked over the bridge and stopped to look at the Marine Bank – 111 East Wisconsin Avenue -,newly built along the River. Next to City Hall, the Marine Bank was the tallest building in downtown. We were excited. We looked at each other and walked into the building. No one questioned our being there. We made our way to the elevator and hit the button for the 22 second floor. We had heard that coffee cost $ 5.00 a cup to drink at the restaurant at the top of the tower. We never got to verify that, however.
As soon as we’d made it to the top of the Marine Bank, we took the elevator right back down to street level, walked back out onto Wisconsin Avenue, and continued our adventure, walking all the way to the shore of Lake Michigan, before we found the nearest bus-stop and waited for the 23 bus to take us back home to the North Side.
I didn’t know it then, but my world was beginning to grow – just a little bit. I’m a city person, through and through. Jeff calls me a “city girl.” I like to say that you can drop me in a city anywhere and I’m comfortable. As I write this, we’re back only a few weeks from a trip to Japan, where I spent a lovely morning walking through the busy streets blocks from our hotel, alone. That walk was a high point for me.
It’s safe to say that all adventures begin somewhere, and with a few steps. My adventures began then.
Walking in Tokyo, March, 2026. Photo by Mary Elyn Bahlert
