Monday, 10/27

 Wow.  Just what DOES happen in downtown Marquette after midnight?

I think I've talked about this before, about how downtown Marquette after midnight is a very different place than the downtown Marquette before midnight.  In the few hours after most people have gone to bed but before the bars close, downtown Marquette becomes something different than most of us know.

And that was pointed out when I walked down to the station early Sunday morning, as I do every Sunday morning to make sure things are running okay, and saw this between our building and the Elks Club next door--

I have no idea if this was done by drunk college students on their way home from the bar, by drunk homeless people looking for a place to hunker down for the night, or by a bear that may have been roaming through the city (although I'm highly doubting that one), but someone decided they didn't like the look of the fence and took out (what was most likely) their alcohol-fueled aggression on it.

So...there you go.

I know the fence was fine around 530 Saturday afternoon.  It was, after all, in one piece when I walked home from passing out candy at TV 19 during downtown trick or treating.  But when I walked past the same area 15 hours later...well, destruction had wrought its mighty sword.

Or, probably more accurately, alcohol had wrought its mighty sword. 

There aren't any security cameras (that I know of) facing right at the fence, so we may never know exactly what happened.  But what I do know is that when I tell people the story of the two lives of downtown Marquette, I often get a blank stare.

Maybe a picture like the one of the fence will change that.

(jim@wmqt.com)