The scents of Milwaukee

Here are a few smells that will be well-known to anyone in love with Cream City:

--If you're at State Fair, that burnt odor must mean there's some succulent sweet corn on the grill, one of our best-loved summer treats. This can also be enjoyed at Summerfest and various church festivals, as can the similarly pleasing scent of brats cooking over the coals.

--Does the perfume of roses surround you? Then certainly you're at Boerner Botanical Gardens in spring, where thousands of roses delight the eyes and nose.

--Get a whiff of something overbearing and none-too-pleasant while crossing the viaducts on 6^th or 16^th Sts.? Sadly, that's the slaughterhouse below. This is, presumably, the odor that caused baseball's Don Mattingly to vow never to play for the Brewers and it is an enduring olfactory memory of my youthful summer visits to grandma and grandpa's on the near south side.

--Something of a disappearing nasal flavor in Milwaukee is the scent of malted hops and barley, used in brewing beer. It can still be enjoyed near the Sprecher and Miller breweries, but must have been pervasive in the past when Schlitz and Pabst were still located near the heart of downtown.

--Springtime in Milwaukee almost always means that special aquatic scent emitted by dead alewives bobbing along the shore. Luckily, we got a bit of a reprieve this year, after last year's especially strong showing.

--You can tell you're in the shadow of the Polish Moon (aka the Allen-Bradley clock tower) even with your eyes closed thanks to the abundant smell of carbon (I think that's what it is!) that wafts around the neighborhood from the numerous factories and/or foundries in the area of Greenfield Ave. and S. 1^st St.

--On the way to the ballpark on I-94 West? You'll know you're approaching 27^th St. when the strong smell of yeast invades the car. An earthy smell that I've found grows on you, the scent of yeast may disappear from Milwaukee if Universal Foods indeed divests itself of its Red Star yeast division, located in the Menomonee Valley.

--One of my first smell experiences of Milwaukee is now nothing more than a fading memory of a semester spent at MATC. Alas, when the Ambrosia chocolate factory departed downtown, the pleasant, if somewhat oppressive, smell of bubbling liquified cocoa went with it.

--In a fireworks-mad town such as ours, is there any better sensation than standing below a sky illuminated by a multi-hued pyrotechnics display, the bitter, metallic smell of gunpower filling your nostrils?

Now, if I can just figure out what it was last winter near the main post office that smelled like roasting chestnuts...