A few years ago I jogged to the corner of Maryland and Olive to mail a letter, and the mailbox was no longer there. You know that feeling: something was there, was always there, suddenly it’s not, yet you’re sure you’re in the right place! I called the post office and learned they’d removed several Milwaukee area mailboxes because of vandalism. Someone had poured beer or soda into them. This was one of the most popular mailboxes in Shorewood. Drivers would always pull up and run to the box, motor humming, to drop in their outgoing mail. I was willing to take a chance and continue using it. And then one day it reappeared, an old friend on a long trip had suddenly returned to his usual corner!
I mention this because I had a similar experience yesterday. After almost two weeks in New York and, thanks to weather delays, almost five hours waiting at Laguardia airport, I was back home. I went to Pick & Save to restock, and the bike rack had been removed. Like the corner mailbox, this was a very popular bike rack, in fact was way too small. Maybe, the campaign against mailboxes being unsuccessful, they were removing bike racks in the Milwaukee area. No, I could still see the rack in front of 31 Flavors, and I’d already used the one centered between Schwartz and Walgreens. Maybe they moved it somewhere not within my line of vision. I locked my bike to a nearby signpost.
When I came out with my cartload, four half gallons of Lactaid, a few pounds of organic bananas (79 cents a pound), two boxes of cereal, and some broccoli, green onions, snap peas, and mangos, I realized my eyes were bigger than my backpack and basket. I had to balance the bike against the post to load it. I glanced nostalgically at the spot where the rack had been, and tried to imagine all the Pick & Save bikers trying to squeeze their bikes around a single signpost built at most for two. I expect that rack to reappear any minute.
