I get asked this question about 5 times a day, and I don’t really know what to say. It sucks. I personally hate it. But some find a reason to like it. I don’t. The pictures I took are clearly from right after the snow, before it started melting.
THE BAD
It takes 11 minutes for an ambulance to get there. (Madison response times more around 4 minutes) Dispatchers seem completely confused when you call about where you want them to go.
There is no transportation during holidays, weekends and when the county closes. So far, since November 20th, so in less than 2 months, there has been several stretches of no tranportation.
– 4 days at Thanksgiving
– 6 days for blizzard and Christmas holiday
– 4 days for New Year’s Eve Holiday
Isolation, especially during the recent holidays, is difficult for people. And the feeling of being trapped and having no options to leave wears on people.
Transportation that exists makes it impossible to work. Van gets there 9 or 9:30 to take people downtown and then picks them up 3:45, so unless you find the magic job where you only work between 10 and 3:15 Monday – Friday you can’t get to work. (Labor ready requires you to be there as early as 5:30am, so you’d be 4 or 5 hours late)
It’s 10 miles from my house, a 20 mile round trip. So, my gas costs have gone up dramatically. And, I don’t go there as often because it takes a half hour to get there and come back. It also means that many other people who used to visit do so less often as well. Hell, some people can’t even find it.
It’s hard to hold a meeting and hold attention when it is cold and you are standing around a campfire in the dark.
No showers. Well, there are showers (and flush toilets), but they are locked. Apparently they can’t open them because the pipes will freeze. (I grew up on a farm out in the country with a private well and we found ways to get water to the animals in the cold, you would think we could figure this one out.)
No water for drinking or washing dishes, etc.
Here’s how you do dishes. See the tub of water there . . . you have to warm up the water constantly.
And the dishes pile up because washing them is not easy. The yellow jug is the water.
Shoveling and shoveling and shoveling.
Wood. Splitting wood. And constantly smelling like smoke. “Occupy smoke” we affectionately call it.
Everything is frozen. Including the dishsoap, canned goods, etc.
THE GOOD
So why stay there?
Um, THERE IS NO LEGAL PLACE TO GO!!!! And the thought of moving, even if there was a place to go, is daunting at best. Remember that they had two dump trucks, 2 large pick ups and a trailer to move the stuff, and then there is the matter of moving 20 people as well.
Electricity. Means heaters in tents and electric blankets. (I worry this is not safe. I’ve been reassured many times, but remain skeptical.)
Fire. (They need some new coffee pots, they are well worn)
Portapotties. 4 or 5 of them, didn’t get them in a picture this time.
Place to keep your things instead of carrying them with you everywhere.
Good people of Sun Prairie Church and others. (The invited them to their home for Christmas and the Rose Bowl game, and pick them up for dinner every Monday night. They will even open the a church during the coldest of weather. THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!!)
CLEARLY IT IS NOT UP TO ME
If I had my choice, if I was really the puppet master and really in charge of things, people would not be at Token Creek. They simply would not be. I hate it, with a passion. But people are making it work. And its their choice. And people are tired of moving constantly and living in fear of getting tickets and I get that. I just hate it.
