Lost and Foundry in Neenah, WI

Part of Veggie Mom's March contribution to the Random Complexity Writing Challenge. 247 words.

Hmmmmmmm...what might a manhole cover thingy be doing at the top of today's post?

Well, yesterday's SFO Snap got me to thinking about our family vay-cays, and the one constant in all of them.

The Neenah Foundry.

Opened in 1872, the Foundry manufactures something called "castings"...known to most of us as manhole covers, tree box grates and other fascinating bits and pieces of the urban~and not-so-urban~landscape.

The Foundry was founded (Ha! Get It?) 137 years ago in Neenah, WI...home to that fabulous lighthouse I showed you last summer, Kimberly-Clark (think Huggies, Kleenex and Kotex, for sure!) and, of course, POPrs.

Yup. Neenah is Uncle Lynn's hometown. Where most of the POPrs Family resides. And when we go on vay-cay, we haul Ye Ol' Canon out for the obligatory Palm Tree, Wildlife and Sunburned Children Snaps. But we take other, more unusual vacation photos, as well.

I think I have about three hundred and seventy one snaps of Neenah Foundry "castings"...predominantly portraits of manhole covers, from Maui to Dallas to Miami to the Cayman Islands. This particular portrait was snapped outside AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.

So, the next time you're shuffling off to Buffalo (or St. Louis, Butte, San Diego), make sure to take a closer look at your surroundings. By "surroundings," I mean the pavement beneath your feet. Anything that has a "municipal utility" look to it. And check out the manhole covers. If they say "Neenah Foundry," they originated in our backyard!