The Street Where You Live

All my life I have used Monroe Street as the street I have lived on. Basically it is and was the only street I have set up as my home. I was born and raised and still live on Monroe Street, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Now the interesting thing about streets in Two Rivers is that the streets that go north and south are numeric and the streets that go east and West are usually named for Presidents. There are a few exceptions such as Lowell, Viceroy and Buchholz. Granted they are not famous Presidents but apparently famous enough to name a street after. Plus I do not think that Buchholz was named after the 7th member of the Magnificent Seven, Horst Buchholz.

Another funny thing about the streets in Two Rivers, besides the fact that they break off and continue in different ways, is that the Presidential streets do not go in order at all. Washington Street is consider the city’s “Main Street” due to the fact that it led to the old high  public school, Two Rivers Washington High School. So that makes sense to put it there. Right next to Washington, or sandwiched on both sides are the streets Adams Street which is named after the 2nd and 6th Presidents and the one north of it named after Thomas Jefferson, the third President…..hmmmmm. Now it will get confusing…

Adams Street is north of my street, Monroe, named after James Monroe the fifth President and not named after the character Jim J. Bullock played on Too Close for Comfort. So you go off of the Madison Street Bridge (named for the 4th President and the Father of the U.S. Constitution) and you can turn onto Monroe Street or go to Adams Street or Washington or a little farther and go to Jefferson Street. You see the numbered streets are in order but not the Presidents.

Once you go farther to the North the Presidents are really jazzed up.There is Polk, Taft, Pierce, Garfield, Jackson and Johnson Drive. Not to mention Zlatnik Drive who was not named after any President at least American. Somehow it seemed that if someone on the street that was unnamed picked a President regardless of the order of which they came. On the Southside there is a Roosevelt Avenue which could have been named for the 26th or the 32nd President. So needles to say most visitors do get lost or confused by our city and our streets even if they knew the order of the Presidents or not.

I remember as a kid sitting on the bus going home and talking about the streets where the kids lived. One boy said he lived on Jackson Street named after Reggie Jackson or Michael Jackson. Another boy lived on Garfield who was named after the popular cartoon cat. I lived on Monroe and I could only think of that character from the Ted Knight show mentioned above. We had a clue of who the streets were really named for, but it was fun to think that there are other people with the same names as our Presidents.

In fact after discussing these names, one kid mentioned he lived on Jefferson Street and that he was “movin’ on up” to Jackson Street to live with the Drummond brothers.

“Whacha Talkin’ ‘bout, Jimmy?” was the quick answer and it made us all laugh. In fact the bus driver had to stop the bus and scold us for causing a ruckus. Which was an everyday occurrence. But that is another story for another time.