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8 Rites of Passage All Wisconsinites Go Through

Wisconsin
by Sarah Puckett Dec 3, 2018

We all experience life milestones but, if you grew up in Wisconsin, you know that we have our very own coming-of-age rituals. Here are eight rites of passage every Wisconsinite goes through.

1. Your first Miller Lite

Your first Miller Lite is basically your initiation into adulthood, whether you obtained it at legal drinking age or snuck it out of mom and dad’s fridge. If we’re being honest, though, you probably snuck a sip out of a can when you were a kid.

2. Your first trip to Lambeau Field

You spent years as a kid watching the Packers play on TV, but nothing can prepare you for the excitement of seeing your first game at Lambeau Field.

3. Visiting the Dells

Every Wisconsin kid has a family vacation to the Dells. You’ll never forget the first time you barfed after swallowing too much water in the wave pool, or that time your parents lost you at the kiddie slides.

4. Learning how to cook the perfect brat

Learning how to cook a brat — first boiled in beer, of course — is an important step in your life as a Wisconsinite. If you learn to cook nothing else, you can survive on good beer brats.

5. Going to the bar with your parents

Whether for a Friday night fish fry or a Saturday morning meat raffle, it’s very normal for kids to go to the local bar with their parents.

6. Skidding into your first ditch while driving in winter

Everyone in Wisconsin has slid off an icy road and into a ditch. You’ve officially made it as a local when you find yourself spinning your tires on ice on the side of the road. Thankfully, there are some kind Wisconsinites out there with a tow rope at the ready to pull you out.

7. Seeing your parents embarrass you on the dance floor at the first family wedding

You had never seen your parents dance before, but there they were, polka dancing with your aunts and uncles while you and your cousins looked on, mortified.

8. Your first tick.

You’ll never forget your first tick. Your mom found it while giving you a bath, and told you she’d have to pull it off and burn it. The ordeal was enough to make you stay inside for a few days.

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