Norm, Everybody knows his
name at Cheers

Today two people, whose names I did not know, recognized me today and called me by name. One was at a prayer vigil for homicide victims when a local PBS radio person, who sometimes records our prayer, approached our small group before the prayer vigil and asked him if someone would comment on the bill the Governor just signed that would increased the number of sound boxes in the city that record gun shots and aide in locating where they were shot. I said I did not think much of the idea and with all the money we are spending on detecting crime and punishing people we could be doing something about the causes of crime, poor housing, high unemployment, racism, drug and alcohol prevention etc. After I spoke my piece he looked at me and said “You are Bob Graf”. I just said yes and we went on with the prayer service.

Tonight Pat and I took a friend from Chicago to a Brewers game. About the sixth inning as I was roaming the inner walkways looking for some popcorn to purchase when a group of young people passed me by. One of them said, “Bob give me five”, I did and said ‘hey’ not knowing who he was.

Milwaukee has always been one of these cities where everybody seems to know everybody or, at least, someone who knows both persons. I have always attributed this feeling as well as people talking to strangers in stores, ballgames or even, tonight, in the men’s restroom to the fact that Milwaukee had a high house ownership and people that grew up in Milwaukee, like myself, stay in Milwaukee or eventually come back to live. However, the fabric of home ownership is starting to break down especially in the North Central Milwaukee where there are hundreds of abandoned homes waiting to be torn down or sold, inexpensively, to a big landlords.

For whatever the reasons I enjoy this feeling of a small town in a major city and want to preserve it. It is nice to live in a place where, almost, everybody knows your name.

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