One Community with a State Line that Really Doesn't Matter

The Marinette-Menominee area may be the center of our world, but that's not the case for someone born, say, in Boston, Mass., or Fresno, Cal.

So when I was in college in Madison and I told someone from afar that I was from Marinette-Menominee, they asked me, "What's that?"

My reply was always the same: "It's two cities in two states, but really it's one big community."

I still believe that. In fact, I believe that more than ever. I know it to be a fact. So do a lot of other people.

That's what I was surprised a few weeks back when someone apologized to me for something happening on one side of the river and not the other. I didn't see a need for an apology, just because my house happens to be in Marinette.

What's good for one city is good for another. No one - well, no one who gets it - is keeping tabs on which city scores more new residents or more new jobs. For many years, people traveled across the state line to work, go to school, date, and marry. In fact, that's how I came to consider both cities my home town: My parents came from either side, went to Our Lady of Lourdes, and raised their four children in both states at one time or another.

I would be hard pressed to choose sides. In fact, I would not. I could not. But I have to live somewhere and my husband (a Menominee native like me) happened to own a home on the Wisconsin side.

The M&M Game is just two months away. Yes, this long-standing rivalry between Marinette and Menominee high schools is a lot of fun, and even for a Catholic Central alum like me, there's excitement in the air during M&M Week. It's one week out of the year.

Cheer for your team. Fight like crazy. But when something good happens on the other side of the river, cheer for that, too.

Because when one city wins, so does the other.

See you at Waterfront Festival!

As my grandmother used to say, "There's big doings downtown this weekend."

Yes, this is the big weekend the entire community looks forward to: Waterfront Festival.

One the festival grounds are marked off by fences and the tents start to appear, the excitement is palpable, even a few days before the festival begins.

Downtown Menominee, a lovely place all year long, is especially exciting in summer when it's awash with visitors who come by boat or care to enjoy our marina and the natural air conditioning the bay offers on sweltering days.

But it's especially fun come Waterfront Festival.

The festival is now a few years away from entering its third decade. The chamber has always been involved, beginning back in the mid-1980s when Nancy Douglas and the former Menominee Chamber of Commerce spearheaded the event, which began when the city of Menominee celebrated its centennial in 1983. We were delighted last year when Nancy again became festival chairperson and we tip our hats to her and the hard-working committee, which includes our own Joe Plautz who ran the festival in 2009.

Each year brings some changes and a few tweaks, but Waterfront Festival has become one of the longest-running community institutions in recent memory.

Some people go down for the food, others the entertainment, still others to see and be seen by old friends who are back in town just for the festival. Even if you don't spend the better part of every day at the festival, it's exciting to know it's down there if you want it.

Summer weekends are always busy in our community, but somehow Waterfront weekend marks a turning point. It's high summer, and after this weekend, we'll begin to see hints of the coming season. And that's a whole other story.

Enjoy the festival. We'll see you there!