May 26, 1981 Appleton Post-Crescent
Seeing this reminded me of a story my marketing professor at Oshkosh told in class on day. He talked about driving north on then-US 41 and seeing a mileage sign that said, "Menasha 9, Neenah 8." He said it was the only time he ever saw Menasha beat Neenah in anything. I remember that it got a huge laugh in class that day, but it revealed a stark truth we'd all grown up with. In a paired name, somebody had to be last, and convention dictates that the established pairing not be tampered with, be it Minneapolis-St. Paul, Hewlett-Packard, or in Neenah's case, Kimberly-Clark. Of course, the danger is that the secondary partner can be forgotten or dismissed, a la Sears, Roebuck & Company. I'm sure most people walking around today have no idea there was ever a Roebuck. (Of course, in a little while, Sears may be forgotten too, sadly.)
I never did find any resolution to this in the newspaper archives. When I was in the valley a few weeks ago, I recall driving south on 41 and don't believe I saw any Neenah-Menasha signs, but I could be mistaken, especially with the construction and all. Plus, I've got 60+ years of that mindset to undo. After all, my latest book was titled Neenah and Menasha: Twin Cities of the Fox Valley and I'm as guilty of this as anybody.
Now southbound 41 travelers at that interchange are given the choice of going east on US 10 / WI 441 to nowhere at all, or west on US 10 to Stevens Point! https://www.google.com/maps/@44.2232922,-88.4696168,3a,75y,195.41h,120.07t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sr6h_Am_WgbZv_znnmHCvGw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en&authuser=0
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that grinds my gears is that, when traveling east from Stevens Point on 10, we are reminded by the signs how many miles we are from Appleton! US 10 doesn't touch Outagamie County, and hasn't gone through Appleton for many years.