Athens, WI: The Place Where Time Stood Still

The real power of memory lies in the richness of experience a town such as Athens offered. I donʼt fully understand the strength of that bond, yet I feel the power of attachment. Some may despise those provincial places; we gloried in ours. Daily we played, fished, swam and hung out together. We were inseparable from our friends.

How often in any personʼs life does someone buried deep in your memory, someone you have not spoken to in five decades call to say, “Eddie! Remember me!”

The town and the times Buck and I talked about had little to do with numbers or buildings. We spoke of magic places that no longer exist: Second Dam, Erbachʼs Woods, the clean river, Helendale Farm. We spoke in reverent voices about our friends now sadly mostly gone. George, Harold, Andy, Ralph, Lloyd, Bob. We spoke of that better time before World War II, television, jet planes.