As much as I like Wisconsin cheese, if you use shredded cheddar cheese on your tacos, may I suggest that you stop that right now and go to Super Tienda Latina grocery store on 6005 Monona Drive and get some Mexican white cheese?

Family members from out of town were here recently and one of them informed me that Mexican white cheese is the proper cheese for tacos. She and my oldest daughter made a big batch of tacos for a family feast a week ago and she insisted we go to Super Tienda Latina to get the white cheese.

It also comes in a string cheese version which, apparently, is the best version to use for enchiladas.

I don’t much care to eat the white cheese all by itself. Farmer John’s cheese at the Monona farmer’s market is still the best cheese to eat by the slice.

If you’re not into cheese, Super Tienda Latina sells Coca Cola in glass bottles with sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. Those sure hit the spot on humid days like the ones we’ve been having.

I confess that until the recent city council discussion about it, the Monona sail site at the southern end of Monona Drive was something that never came to mind when I would think about Monona.

For one thing, I rarely enter or exit Monona from the Monona Drive ramp.

And when I do, I’m too busy focusing on merging or changing lanes and can’t see the sail and sign.

It’s always seemed to me that the sail site is meant to serve as branding for those that whiz past it on the Beltline. They are the only ones who can get a good (albeit fleeting) look at it.

For that reason, and also because there isn’t a public park near it, it doesn’t seem practical to add gardens and other bells and whistles that no one will see. I’m OK with everything else, such as the new sign, as long as it doesn’t cost $300K.

The only Monona sign that ever stands out to me is the one near the intersection of Broadway and Monona Drive that lists upcoming events and such. I don’t know what the plans are for it after the road construction is finished, but I find it useful and it’s better than the standard green population sign.

All my other entry points into Monona (South Towne exit, Pflaum/Nichols, Monona Drive from the Cottage Grove Road area) don’t have a noticeable transition from Madison to Monona. Monona doesn’t start to “feel” like Monona to me until I’m on Winnequah Road or Nichols.

I guess the bottom line is that no matter how much or how little money is spent on updating the sail site, Monona is the type of community where its branding ultimately comes more from the experience of Monona and its people, and not from architecture or sail sites.

July always finds us spending countless hours at the pool for lessons, free swim and special events. So I found myself in the middle of our 32nd lesson when military jets flew overhead.

Two small boys near me began yelling and counting the jets. It reminded me of the period of time when our teenagers were that age.

We would stand in the yard of the small house we rented watching the jets fly over us. Sometimes I would hope the jets would not fly over when I had our kids, we only had three then, all taking a nap at once. During those stolen moments I would have a very narrow window to sit in the yard watching a ball float in the kiddie pool for a moment of tranquility. The jets would fly over. Everyone was awake.

As I thought about this I realized two things all at once. The first thing: As those jets passed over the yard all those years ago when our teens were still small we were not at war. The second thing: Our youngest do not remember, have never really known, a period of time when we were not at war.

One of the many images that have remained with me these past five years, as I have worked on a novel about a group of young people forever changed by the events of September 11th, was how empty the sky was when no planes were allowed to fly overhead. It struck me as I stood on Lake Monona with a filled stroller that day. I am still moved by the memory of it.

Reminded of my quest for a bit of quiet time those few short years ago when our teens were still babies really, during a period of time when peace was all that we knew, I could not help feel a bit sad for all that we have lost. Then I smiled at the loud cries of the boys.  They looked like performers as they attempted to roar loud as the jets, jumping and dancing around the deck of the pool while their parents wearily looked for the thing we are all in search of–peace and tranquility.

Pac-Man got a lot of attention recently on its 30th birthday, when Google made Pac Man its logo for the day.

Ms. Pac-Man deserves the spotlight too and was my preferred arcade game back in the day. Fortunately Red Robin in Monona provides a way for us Ms. Pac-Man fans to indulge ourselves.

Those of you under the age of 35 probably prefer video games and would claim that they require more sophisticated skills. Fine.

But if I ever have a game room someday, I want it to have a Ms. Pac-Man machine (preferably a cocktail table version), along with a pinball machine, tangerine orange pool table and vintage foosball machine. No video games for me.

Red Robin in Monona has a Ms. Pac-Man machine so whenever I visit there I like to end the visit with a round of Ms. Pac-Man.

It takes me straight back to my college days at UW when I was fairly proficient at Ms. Pac-Man because the Brat und Brau on Regent Street had a  Ms. Pac-Man cocktail table game. It looked a lot like this one. Oh how I’d love to own that but, yikes, it’s $3000.

Because we were poor college students we’d get the free popcorn and order cottage fries and soda for dinner, served in those cool Brat und Brau glass mugs and play Ms. Pac-Man. Ah the good old days. I’m glad Red Robin lets me relive that a little.

As much as I like Monona, driving along Monona Drive is always kind of a drag. It’s a collection of random, uninspiring buildings and is more like a suburban Chicago street than a small town main street.

I grew up in Stoughton, which has a charming midwestern downtown area. So when I need a small town fix, I go take a drive to Stoughton.

I did this last Saturday when the festival was in full swing. I figured we’d let the out-of-town folks enjoy Monona while we fled for the quiet  of both Edgerton and Stoughton.

Edgerton has an A&W drive-in that is just like the old days. The only proper way to drink root beer is from a chilled A&W glass mug delivered to you by a carhop. I hadn’t been to a drive-in since I was in junior high so it was fun to experience that again.

Then we drove through Stoughton on the way home. I’m sure the new Princeton Club will be a fine addition to Monona Drive. But will it match the charm of the Stoughton Opera House? I think not.

I’m not complaining though. It’s always nice to have excuses to make visits to drive-ins and quintessential small towns.

On Sunday afternoon two of the three ATM machines at UW Credit Union were out of cash and I did my part to help empty them. So that’s one indication the Monona July 4th festival was a success.

We showed up right when the carnival opened on Friday afternoon, which is my favorite time to go, as it’s not crowded then.

It sounds like the IHM fish fry on Friday night was a success. I helped make the coleslaw for it so I got a glimpse of the extraordinary work involved in such an endeavor.

The high point for me was the art fair on Sunday afternoon.

I loved photographer Cassius Callender’s photos. Especially this one of Lake Monona taken on a foggy morning shortly after sunrise on August 14, 2008:

His prints are reasonably priced and I intend to order one of that photo. There’s free delivery to Madison area residents. Be sure to check out his Flickr photos too.

I also admired Steven Raiser’s photos. Unfortunately his website link doesn’t work so I can’t show you his photos. We purchased a magnet of his photo of the two sandhill cranes. I was especially taken with his photos of fall leaves. And of koala bears (he’s from Australia).

The biggest coup was stumbling across the aprons at the Apron Gallery booth. My oldest daughter love to cook so we purchased one of the full length aprons in a retro print. The Apron Gallery will soon have a booth at the Madison Craft & Gift Shop on Monona Drive.

Another high point was watching my youngest daughter (age 6) ride the Hurricane and Round Up (G Force) for the first time ever with one of her big sisters. She had a delightful time and wanted to ride the Round Up again and again and again. Next year we’ll have to take her on wrist band day so she can do that.

And, of course, there’s the requisite pile of huge inflatable toys from the carnival games. It always amazes me how these inflatable things last for months and months, whereas a $50 toy would break much more quickly than that.

Going to the fireworks always makes me glad that I live so close to the park. It looked like the threat of rain kept a lot of people away from the fireworks show. It was a good time and, as always, the fireworks kept going off in the neighborhood well into the night, but somehow I got to sleep, so I could rest up to work the next day and replenish some of the cash I drained from the UW Credit Union ATM machine over the weekend.

See you at the fireworks.

Photo from Tom’s One Room decorating blog.

Yesterday while walking my daughter home from swimming lessons at the pool, a 5 or 6-year-old girl biked past us on the sidewalk, politely saying, “Excuse me” as she confidently whizzed on by.

She was wearing a swimsuit and shorts and had clearly just come from the pool too.

I noticed that no other kids were with her and there wasn’t even a parent in sight!

My mind immediately flashed back to the early and mid-1970s, when I and the other kids in the neighborhood routinely rode our banana seat bikes all around the neighborhood…and beyond.

Ahhhh, banana seats. Remember those? My bike was early-1970s shades of green and yellow with a floral banana seat, white basket and streamers coming out of the handlebars.

Eventually I ditched the basket and streamers and swapped out the floral seat for an edgier black one, so I could fit in better with all the boys in my neighborhood.

Of course I coveted my cousin’s green Schwinn banana seat bike because it had five speeds and one of those cool stick shift things, like this:

I also liked those seats with the high chopper style bars in the back:

Anyway, back in my day, a young child riding a mile home on a bike from the pool would’ve been completely routine.

Now it’s not normal at all.

So I silently cheered this little girl. Kids from the Millenial generation are the most over-parented kids ever so I thought that maybe there’s hope after all. There’s at least one girl out there who gets to taste the same independence we middle aged folks (and older) did at that age.

She continued to bike down Healy Lane and, eventually, I noticed a car slowly pull up and drive alongside her.

The girl turned onto Winnequah and the car kept slowly following her.

Oh oh.

Was she being followed?

Yep… a parent eventually got out of the car. Alas.

Kudos to the parent for at least letting the child experience that much independence (I haven’t done that much). And, like any parent, I, too, haven’t ever let my kids bike alone at that age. Sigh.

The book Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) talks about this phenomenon (library link is here).

The author let her nine-year-old son take the subway home alone in 2008 (something that was routine in the 1970s and 60s) and caught so much flack about it she ended up on national TV shows defending herself.

She gives all kinds of statistics that show how crime rates are lower now than they were in the 1960s and 70s yet parents today marinate in anxiety.

She even shows how if you actually wanted your kid to be abducted and put him in your front yard in the hopes that someone would snatch him, it would be more than 700,000 years years before someone would come along and take him.

Here’s a map that shows how much kids’ freedom to roam has been reduced over the generations.  An eight year old boy in 1919 often walked alone to his favorite fishing spot six miles away. Fast forward to 2007 and his eight year old great grandson is only allowed to walk 300 yards away from home alone:

There are all sorts of things to blame for our anxiety – things that didn’t exist a generation ago: 24 hour cable news shows, the stories that circulate on the internet making us more aware of every crime out there, true crime shows and shows like Law & Order, etc.

Last week I spotted a banana seat bike in an antique store that was in terrific shape. I’m tempted to buy it for my six-year-old. If we can’t bring back free range kids, maybe we can at least bring back the banana seat?

When you have to go to a pharmacy several times per month to pick up prescriptions, it sure helps if the pharmacists are kind, quick to help and always remember your name. And offer free delivery too.

Such is the case with the Medicine Shoppe in Monona.

As much as I like our doctors – especially my daughters’ pediatric endocrinologist – the pharmacists at the Medicine Shoppe deserve a lot of credit too.  Having a disease that requires ongoing medication isn’t fun and can be lonely at times, so it’s ever so helpful to have pharmacists who care as part of your support team.

When one of my daughters was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes a few years ago, that was stressful enough. But then add to that the negative side effects she had to our insurance company’s preferred brand of insulin, and that company’s insistence that we pay close to full price for the insulin she didn’t react to, and I was on the verge of a meltdown.

One of the pharmacists at the Medicine Shoppe stepped into the gap for us and spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with the insurance company to help me figure out what to do. It eventually got resolved and I was very grateful that he ran this interference for me.

I don’t mean to overlook Walgreens in Monona. There have been times when, say, an insulin bottle has shattered and we needed a replacement immediately but Medicine Shoppe was closed. Walgreens came to the rescue.

Walgreens is also the place I go to at least once a week when I need to quick pick up an everyday item like a greeting card, Claritin, school supplies and, most importantly… coconut M&M’s.

And if you ever have the pleasure of having Donna H. as a checkout clerk, it will be an awesome transaction. She adds that extra human touch that makes you walk away with a smile. Because she’s so nice you may even find yourself taking her up on her offer to buy two Butterfinger candy bars for $1 even if you don’t like Butterfingers.

Walgreens and Medicine Shoppe cover lots of bases. I’m glad we don’t have to manage our health without them.