STetc ch 16 - a chapter of goodbyes (pp 115-122)

[Michael Bailey]

"goodbye maw, goodbye paw, goodbye mule with the old hee-haw"
https://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/rosemusic/id/80/
Well, no, that's a WWI song about a tall slim country boy going off to make the world safe for democracy, which my uncle Mac, a WWII veteran, used to sing on occasion...


Hicks isn't a Hick, by a long shot, although his name would suggest otherwise. He's more of a conscript than a volunteer, not part of any organized military. Still, it's a long way to New York, and the implication (imho) seems to be that he's never been that far from Milwaukee before, although ST does chronicle trips to nearby cities including Chicago for work & play - & also a notorious speedboat ride out of the Metro area.

Chapter 16 begins with, if not a record-breaker of a sentence, a good rich thick one:
"The day has darkened, the shop is quiet, the evening trimotor hop over to Grand Rapids will be taking off soon, everybody's knocked off work except for Hicks and Boynt, Boynt's shoes resless on the rug, last light of day severely raking over the prairie down across the town, bouncing off the Lake, rebouncing off the ceiling, desktop, Boynt's eyeglasses."

The evening trimotor hop over to Grand Rapids isn't something Hicks is going to take, but mentioning it is part of setting the scene at the Milwaukee office of Unamalgamated - a scene reminiscent of some Lew Basnight moments in Chicago in AtD, in that it seems meant to convey a strong aesthetic and emotional connection Lew & Hicks feel at times. (Lew: "Ever come out of work in this town when the light's still in the sky and the lamps are just being lit along the big avenues and down by the Lake, and the girls are all out of the offices and shops and heading home, and the steak houses are cranking up for the evening trade, and the plate-glass windows are shining, with the rigs all lined up by the hotels, and-"
"No," Nate staring impatiently, "not too often, I work too late for that."
Lew blew a smoke ring, and a few more concentrically. "Well now shit, there, Nate.")

https://www.wahf.org/articles/kohler-aviation-corporation/

"Frank and John B. Kohler of Grand Rapids, Michigan, envisioning an aerial “Bridge across Lake Michigan” founded Kohler Aviation Corporation (KAC) on August 30, 1929. Passenger and freight service between Milwaukee and Grand Rapids began the next day. Travel time between the cities (90 miles straight-line distance) was reduced from 14 hours by rail to 1 hour and 10 minutes by air. One-way fare was $18; a round-trip ticket cost $30.
"The airline owned five Loening C-2C Air Yacht amphibian aircraft. The Air Yacht carried six passengers in an enclosed cabin while the pilot flew from an open (two-seat) cockpit. Powered by the Wright Cyclone (525-hp) the aircraft had a gross weight of 6,250 pounds, a range of 500 miles, and cruised at 102 MPH. Loening built 23 examples of this model.
"Just three months later, during November 1929, KAC sold their routes to Northwest Airways. Kohler, under contract with Northwest, continued to provide the scheduled air service"

Handing him a one-way ticket to New York City,Boynt pitches the trip to an extremely annoyed Hicks as a rescue from whatever mob forces ("maybe Don Peppino and the crowd down in Little Cosenza bought me off, maybe somebody believes you're worth travel expenses, even if it's only 50 smackers.") might be wanting to go medieval on Hicks for talking with the FBI - like he had any choice in that matter.

Little Cosenza - the 'Ndrangheta mob doing bad things in Milwaukee & Chicago, is also responsible for many crimes in the big Cosenza in Italy & apparently worldwide to this very day (may that tendency to evil disappear & kindness prevail!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Ndrangheta