10 Steps to a Rewarding Friday
by Dominic Inouye
1. Workout with November Project Milwaukee. Learn fun "safe words." Make new friends.
2. Check up on exhibit at the library.
3. Let a man with a rolling cart cross the street at the crosswalk. He thanks you and asks if I'm enjoying the beautiful day. I saw yes, then yell out my window, "Can I take your picture?" He says sure. I pull over. His name is James. He has all the fixings for chicken soup in his cart, plus a little shelf that he found that he's going to fix up. He has a really great face, full of stories. I get his portrait.
James
He comments on the diversity of Milwaukee, then tells me that I should go to "Mother Scotch" on Teutonia if I want to get some good photos. They serve free meals every day, put out tables full of free clothes, put out lots of free furniture. He confirms that it's "Mother Scotch" several times. I can't imagine what this place is. We shake and wave goodbye.
4. Go to "Mother ScoTT's," which is the Scott Christian Youth Fellowship Center on between Center and Hadley. I've driven by the bright pink building many times. Park and see some murals in the alley and a man drinking a beer on a makeshift log bench.
He says he's called "The Lone Ranger" and says he's the father of a local artist who has his own art studio and recently opened another for youth on MLK. I was just at this place the other day and plan to return. He talked of how he had distanced himself from his family through his life choices but he also talked about how proud he was of his children and the successes they've become. He talks about the COA on North, his favorite get-away-from-it-all tree, about how we should never tell people "See you tomorrow" because we never know what's going to happen to us. We talk for about 20 minutes. I get his portrait next to a mural he likes.
"The Lone Ranger"
I give him back the beer he had put down for his picture. He tells me Mother Scott passed away late last year. She was 90. (http://fox6now.com/…/mother-scott-milwaukee-icon-who-dedic…/)
5. Leave the alley and talk to the daughter of Mother Scott, who's taken over her mother's service to the community.
Mother Scott's daughter
She says it's going to be hard this Mother's Day. I take a photo of a young man sitting in one of the free sofas.
Wasn't expecting to get his photo taken today.
I take some mediocre Karl Herschede-style photos of the building.
Wave goodbye to James.
6. Take a circuitous route home. Stop in Sherman Park area to ask a couple on their porch for a photo. I explain ZIP MKE and they tell me, somberly, that they're getting kicked out of their house in three days because their landlord had to go into foreclosure. Lights have been turned off three days early. Three days and they're expecting to be homeless--with her 4-year-old daughter. I take their photo so that they can have a moment of peace and self-worth, then promise I'll return with information that might help them.
Wishing them strength in their upcoming trials . . .
7. Go home and contact my good friend in HUD and she hooks me up with resources for them.
8. Return to couple's house with information. Take another circuitous route home.
9. Notice the Sherman Park Community Association on Fond du Lac where I'd interviewed the director years ago. Decide to stop in with some ZIP flyers and stickers. Director has seen our website and loves what we're doing. I learn about all the positive things that are going to be happening in Sherman Park this summer. I ask to be involved. We have our "in" in Sherman Park, the whole reason why I started ZIP MKE.
10. Drive home in a more direct way, where I prepare to serve on a panel at the MOWA about creative placemaking in Milwaukee.