Bill's Service Center

About Bill's Service Center

By six on a snowy Stratford morning there is already engine noise on the village streets — Bill's Service Center, out ahead of the school buses. The routine is worn smooth: driveways plowed in the dark, lots opened for the early shift, walks shoveled and salted before the first boots hit them. Marathon County winter is a long acquaintance here on the Big Eau Pleine, arriving in November with intentions of staying, and the answer to it is simply showing up every time it snows. Banks get pushed back far enough to last the week; entrances stay wide; ice never gets a full day's head start. The village wakes to cleared ground and thinks nothing of it, which is exactly how it should be.