There is something about Denny K's Bar & Grill in Whitewater, Wisconsin.  It is easy to overlook.  It blends in. It sits in the tavern demilitarized zone of a college town street between local and out-of-towner bars.  It transcends the two cultures.  It is the embodiment of the symbiotic social psychology of a university planted in the middle of a podunk town.  

    When I moved back to Wisconsin in 1992 and visited Whitewater from time to time I would often find myself in Denny K's. Years later when I returned to Whitewater to finish my Bachelor's degree and work on my Master's at the university, a night out dowm town always included a stop at Denny K's.

    Perhaps it is because I will always see somebody I know from the old days; or, I see someone who knows someone I used to know. And when I was in college again I would usually see someone from a class or two.  You will always find a blend of the two cultures.  Not every place in Whitewater can make that claim.  It is usually, "pick one camp or the other and the two shall never mingle" kind of mantra.  

    Poetically, the university student associations and clubs used to have a night where they would sell burgers and hot dogs at various locations on the sidewalks on one bar-night of the year to raise money.  Bar-night in Whitewater has been Thursdays since World War II.  None-the-less, the fools decided to have the event in January on a five below zero night.  My German Club just happen to set up outside of Denny K's.  Suffice it to say, this old dog spent all night in Denny K's whilst his young colleagues languished and died of cold exposure on the sidewalk.

    I happened by Whitewater the other day.  I found myself in Denny K's getting a burger and fries.  The bartender chick even validated my theory of the melding of the two cultures.  She was from out of town, but, was taking college classes at a slower pace so she just decided to live in town year-round until she finishes, when ever that might be.  

    My old social-psychology prof's ears should be burning at my observations, analogies, and realizations about the joint.  

    Aesthetically, the bar has the consummate antique wood shelving and mirror behind the bar.  The bar top is well worn.  The tavern itself is of course, in a 19th Century brick building in a connected row of same type buildings.  There is the usual wood floor.  There is an ancient pencil sharpener bolted to the top of the shelf behind the bar.  And as with many taverns of this genre, you can exit through the back to the alley.  There is a pool table for the college crowd.  A couple of card tables wait patiently by a glass trophy case. 

    In the mean time, the bartender chic doted over my burger because I like them done well.  She also kept my Pepsi class full.  The fries were good too.  I got out of there after burger, fries, Diet Pepsi, and tip for 10 Bucks.  

    Denny K's Bar & Grill is still cool with Cool Dadio.  Find them at 156 West Whitewater Street, in the belly of the college bar beast; and, they are of course...in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Call (262) 473  -  7898 for more information. 

                      Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
    (each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)

    Sergeant First Class Merideth Leigh Howard, 52, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, died in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Friday, September 8, 2006, when a suicide car bomber detonated a vehicle near the Humvee she was in. SFC Howard was assigned to the Army Reserve's 405th Civil Affairs Battalion, out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She was one of two soldiers killed in the incident. Fourteen Afghanis were also killed in the incident. At the time of her death she was listed as the oldest American Servicewoman killed in combat in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Like so many American service members in this modern era, Howard is claimed as a native of several states. And, being a bit older than her military colleagues and also a female from a transitional era, she traveled through life attaining many firsts. According to jarrarsupariver.blogspot.com (Iraq Bloggers Central) Howard was all of 5-foot and 4-inches tall and had to stand on a box to see over the turret to man the .50 caliber machine gun on the Humvee she rode shotgun on in Afghanistan. They were on the infamous Jalalabad Road, known as Kabul's suicide-bomb alley. Iraq Bloggers Central also noted Howard was a native of Corpus Christi, Texas. While at Texas A& M University, she was a member of the first women's tennis team there, and became the second woman to graduate from the University's Brayton Fire School. She went on to become the first woman to join the Bryan, Texas Fire Department in 1978; she then moved on and became a fire-risk-management specialist with insurance companies, eventually helping set up a consulting company in Alameda, California. 

    Merideth Howard joined the military in 1988 at the age of 34 as a medical equipment repairer for the Army Reserve. She was called for active duty in December 2005 and sent to Afghanistan in the spring of 2006. She married long time partner Hugh Hvolboll prior to deployment. They had met in 1991 in California. The couple owned a home in Alameda, California and also had an apartment in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In Afghanistan, Howard was part of a provincial-reconstruction team, assigned to a Civil Affairs unit at the the Mehtarlam base in eastern Laghman province. Their task was to help rebuild roads, schools, and other infrastructure needed in the war torn country. 

    The Website landstuhlhospitalcareproject.org via information gleaned from the Chicago Tribune also notes Howard was a resident of Waukesha, Wisconsin. They also mention Howard's vehicle was making a supply run to Bagram Air Base near the Afghan capital when she was killed. They also noted this was Howard's first deployment since joining the Reserves in 1988. In late April of 2006, nine members of SFC Howard's civil affairs team arrived at the Mehtarlam Base.

    The Texas A&M University Association of Former Students, notes Howard was assigned to the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade in support of the 10th Mountain Division at the time of her death. The Association goes on to mention Howard graduated from Corpus Christi’s King High School in 1973 and earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Texas A&M University. 

    The Seattle Times states Merideth's long time partner Hugh Hvolboll, made fireworks for a living. In 2004, the couple moved to Waukesha for his job. The Los Angeles Times notes that her husband would honor her request and celebrate her life by blasting her ashes skyward in two fireworks displays more than a thousand miles apart. Her husband was quoted as saying, "She loved fireworks and being near the water." She was known to have an infectious smile. Her husband went on to note he would set off the fireworks displays with his wife's ashes off Corpus Christi, Texas, and San Francisco. The L. A. Times goes on to note Merideth was born in Corpus Christi in 1954, was an only child, and spent some of her childhood crabbing and fishing at Laguna Madre, a channel along the Texas coast. She also liked water skiing and duck hunting. At the time of her death, Merideth Howard was survived by her cousin Lorraine Stevenson of Corpus Christi, Texas; and, her husband, Hugh Hvolboll, of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Her parents preceded her in death. Sergeant First Class Merideth Howard was the ninth Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October 2001. 

         As of this blog entry's posting date:

    97,172 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
    
    9,587 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    4,417 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    1216 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    767 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    31,902 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    7,285 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    19 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    142 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org. 

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion