A Walk in the Village

Everyday I'm home I try take a walk of about 2.7 miles in the village.  It is the same route everyday, and I usually do the walk about the same time every morning so I may see some of the same people out and about.  They are mainly dog walkers.  On odd days I walk left out of the house and on even days head right out of the house. Walking this route takes me near the elementary school, high school and middle school, and one of the major village parks, not to mention walking near the weedy Yahara River and more weedy and algae encrusted Upper Mud Lake.  I see people, and events that are common place and others that are somewhat, let me say, unusual.  This blog is about a walk in the village and two situations of which I recently came across, one being almost as rare as seeing a lepus americanus in Wisconsin.

Larson House, McFarland

The first event I will describe was the day following my encounter that will be the second event I will describe.   On this walk I came across an older couple with backpacks slowly hiking the bike path. As  I was about to over take them (while  moving into the street to social distance), I asked what hike they were training for.  They will be doing another segment of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in the fall.  They have been doing segments over the past several years, and usually spend about two to three  weeks out east, and walk two to three days and take a day off.  The most they accomplished in one trip was 118 miles. I found this interesting because I had just completed reading Bill Bryson's book A Walk in the Woods and the prior night watched the movie of the same name (and based on the book) staring Robert Redford and Nick Nolte.  We had about a ten or fifteen minute conversation regarding the AT and their adventures.  They prefer to walk in the spring, and this year were scheduled to do so, but Covid delayed their adventure.  Water is more abundant in the spring time.  In spring, you can carry less water, and hence less weight. They noted one fall where they were told there was no water for over 20 miles. After I got home, I was noting this to my wife.  I asked her when we will begin training for the AT, there was not a positive response.

Weed Cutting on the Yahara River

The rare event, in my mind was not my encounter with the backpackers, but what occurred the day before.  While on that daily morning walk, the day before encountering the backpackers, I came across a lone young boy, perhaps eight or so years of age, on a bike at about 8:30 am.  He was sitting on his bike at a street corner, and as I walked up the hill on the other side of the street, he said to me that he was lost.  I walked over to the side of the street he was on and asked where he lived, and he told me the name of the street.  I asked where he was going and he said my grandma's house and I asked where that was and he said the same street name on which he lived. The street on which he lived and where he headed is a cul-de-sac so it is not like it was long street. Well, I knew the general subdivision of the street he mentioned, but was not sure of what particular street in the subdivision it was.  The subdivision is almost all cul-de-sacs, and I really don't recall what cul-de-sac is where. Lacking a smartphone, I did the next best thing and called my wife, who from years of garage sale buying knows pretty much every street in the village. Good thing I had my phone because it is rare for me to have it with me on my walk.  As I hung up I was thinking of the best way for the boy to get home, and to me that was providing a route with the fewest turns.  He mentioned that if he got to the elementary school he would know where to go from there.  I gave him a route with the fewest turns, although perhaps longer than other routes.  The route would direct him to a street along the side of the school, and I provided direction to that ubiquitous cul-de-sac.  I trusted he knew right from left, but in case he did not, I also gave him landmarks.  The first turn was only a block away and could be seen from our vantage point and the second turn would take him on the opposite side of the street from the school.  Two more turns and he would be on his street.   As I continued my walk, and about 20 minutes later, I saw a lady with her young children who I know live in the same subdivision and asked if she had seen the boy, she had not. We figured being on a bike he made it home before she set out for her walk.

Red Dot Marks Location of Sighting of Rare Species in McFarland, WI
a lone in puer cursoriam
Source:  Google maps

What struck me as odd, beyond his answer to where he lived and where he was going,  was he was alone out fairly early in the morning (and without a bike helmet).  So I came across an oddity for the village: a  lone free-range young child in the village of McFarland on his bike and not in or near his subdivision. A particularly rare species in this suburban village.  To me it is so rare, that I have given this a name: in puer cursoriam. This geographic and demographic situation is not a common sight in the village, at least to my eyes, and is so rare that it strikes you as unusual.  This is a community that even buses some elementary school grade children who live a block or less from their school.  There is not a great deal of a lone child movement by biking or walking outside of their neighborhood without an adult. Nationally, and in particular, suburbs, have become overly protective of children that you wonder what type of independence they will build, and how this will affect future decision making.  I guess you could say it is helicopter parenting to the extreme. Is it any wonder why kids are said to be overweight? The lost boy was about 1.5 miles from the street that contained his destination.  Pre-Covid, the suburban residential streets would be quite empty during the day.  There have been times when I hardly saw any one out, but with Covid more people tend to be out walking there dogs, or getting exercise.  Many lone young children are in or near their neighborhood, not over a mile away.

Location of Sighting of in puer cursoriam

Although, as rare as this event is, this is not the only free range child that I saw in the village on that walk.  About 15 minutes after seeing him I saw two boys on bikes heading to the river to fish (this was evident due to the fact they were carrying fishing poles), the youngest perhaps a little older than the boy who was lost, and likely his older brother who was perhaps 11 or 12. I guessed it was an older brother by the directives he was issuing to the younger boy behind him, and the younger boys response (he did not appear to like the directives).  It was a rather startling to come across three, yes, three free-range children on my walk that day. yet, there was only the one case of a lone free range child. I did not see them the rest of the week, or this week, although I have seen the fisherboys before.

Two Free Range Boys, not as rare as a lone child,
 photo taken June 23, 2020, about a week after my
sighting of the rare species in puer cursoriam

Also on my walk this week some child exercise class is being held at a local park through which I walk.  They range from say kindergarten to perhaps grade five and are broken into two to four groups, depending upon what they are doing.  I think most must get dropped off, because I have not seen many bikes.  Maybe a couple bikes are parked.  The child gets dropped off to get exercise, is not unlike a person who takes an elevator to go down to the main floor and then goes to a gym to use a step machine for exercise.

Lewis Park looking at Lower Mud Lake

As a city planner I am well aware of the controversy of sidewalks as a safety enhancement for walking.  Every time we did a bike and pedestrian plan, sidewalks were the major issue.  I first approached the sidewalk issue in my first couple years of work in Fitchburg, and proposed a policy of placing sidewalks on collector and some other streets that connect parks. (The Capital Times had an article the day after I presented the sidewalk policy to the Plan Commission for discussion, with a head line that read "What's long grey and hard and coming to Fitchburg.")  It was one of the top five most contentious issues in that governmental unit, OK, perhaps the top two or three. It was amazing how people hated to have a sidewalk along their street.  Gradually, we went from no sidewalks to a sidewalk section in the drive for homes in new subdivisions, to at least make sidewalks easier to install, and then eventually in the early 1990's to requiring sidewalks in new subdivisions.  Many of the same people who did (or do) not want sidewalks along their street are among the many who complain about speeders on their street, but as past enforcement shows, the same persons who complain about speeders are ones who do their share of the speeding.  Layout and connectivity are important to an integrated transportation system and many suburban street layouts work against such a street pattern.

Bike Bridge connecting Pheasant Run with Creamery Rd in McFarland

Reasons for being outside vary.  The boys going fishing, the older couple training for the AT, and then there was the rarest of rare sightings in the village, a lone free-range child on his bike and well beyond his subdivision, and of course me taking in the sights of the village and walking as a means of exercise.   I suppose the boy on the bike being lost is why parents do not allow their children to free- range about, but then the children miss out on the key to geography:  A geographer is never lost, they are just exploring new territory.  The lost boy did not seem frightened, or scared, and I am sure I am not the only one who would have assisted the boy. Although, he perhaps is lucky we were in a time of Covid, because pre-Covid he may have been waiting a long time for someone to provide assistance, if I had not happened by. A walk in the village can produce the rarest of sights, and so it was last week.  Like my coming across an identifying a new endangered species: in puer cursoriam.

Unless otherwise noted, photos by author on 22 June 2020