Sheboygan, Wisc.
By: Thomas R. Margenau
From: Fort Collins, CO
By: Thomas R. Margenau
From: Fort Collins, CO
Driving into my hometown on old Highway 42, the main road heading north out of Milwaukee, you passed under a huge sign above an overpass that read, "Welcome to Sheboygan: The Wurst City in America." That clever, if somewhat dubious slogan, let all visitors know that Sheboygan, Wisconsin considered itself the "Bratwurst Capitol of America." The smell of the sizzling sausage from hundreds of backyard fryers permeated the town's air all summer long like a nonstop Oktoberfest. (By the way, if you're from Sheboygan, they're called "brat fryers," not barbecue grills.) And like all local kids raised in a pre-nutrition conscious time, I remember having "brats" at least two or three times a week. But never on Fridays. That's when we had fried perch caught fresh out of Lake Michigan, served on oily paper plates with soggy coleslaw and fries – always wrapped in old newspapers. (For some reason, we never worried about the ink stains on our fish and fries!) But brats were – and still are – Sheboygan's raison d'etre. Today, you can find them in the meat section of almost every grocery store in the country. The ubiquitous brand, "Johnsonville Bratwurst," is a Sheboygan county enterprise. Boasting a gorgeous lake shore, a renowned art center, a world championship golf course, and other amenities, Sheboygan nowadays frequently shows up on "Best Places to Live or Retire" lists. Despite this, and even though the overpass sign is long gone, many of us will always fondly remember Sheboygan as the "wurst city in America!"
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