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Welcome to the Custer High School Message Forum.

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This message forum is an ongoing discussion about anything and just about everything ... within reason.  One thing our class was good at was having opinions.  Almost 70 years of life experience certainly qualifies us as experts on most everything!   Ask a question ... give an opinion ... share some insights ... it's our web site, it's our forum.  That said, it's probably not a good idea to get into arguments about politics, religion, and the like.  While we're experts on everything, we also have a wide range of values and beliefs. This site belongs to all of us ... the whole range ... and we are not here to isolate, alienate, or subjugate anybody.  Of course insults, humiliation, sophomoric barraggadocio, and demented humor is expected behavior among some of us less mature people.
 


 
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09/18/18 01:55 PM #2539    

 

Jim Cejka

Glad to hear you're OK and what's around you was spared the worst. Janet in SC only ended up with some rian and not too bad winds - no flooding or trees down, etc. 

There are even swift water rescue teams from around here and Sacremento that went out to NC even before the storms hit. People helping people. 


09/19/18 01:34 PM #2540    

 

Jim Cejka


09/25/18 09:28 AM #2541    

 

Melody Jones (Parker)

Jim,  Glad your sister weathered the storm.  We are still in a flood watch in a few counties due to rising rivers, creeks, and one failed dam.  Humidity is 91% today...waiting for less.


10/01/18 07:12 PM #2542    

 

Jim Cejka

CONGRATS BREWERS!


10/01/18 07:38 PM #2543    

 

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)


10/14/18 09:38 AM #2544    

 

Melody Jones (Parker)

So, now we have been through 2 hurricanes...probably not going to have anymore because the temperature has decreased from a high of 91 last week to a low of 54 this morning on my way to church, wearing a jacket for the first time this season.  My son stays glued to the TV to watch the Brewers!  Way to go team!  And hoping the Packers kick the pants off the 49ers today!  Go Pack!!!


11/04/18 01:06 PM #2545    

 

Jim Cejka

Hello, I'm hoping that someone out there in Custer land can maybe explain what God was thinking when he invented pomegranates. My wife likes to make jam, and she'll try most anything. So, when someone offered her a bag of pomegranates - of course, we'll try it. We spent a whole afternoon, and two football games, getting the 8 million seedy things, glued in to as many little niches inside those things, pried out. And that was step one. I don't want to believe he had such a perverse sense of humor to pull tricks like that on his people, or maybe they were just for the birds and he never imagined anyone trying to make jam out of them. I will look forward to seeing if the product was worth the effort. Amen. 


11/10/18 01:13 PM #2546    

 

Garry Sellers

Here we are again, fires in California.  An area larger than Milwaukee.  The smoke is so thick down here in Silicon Valley, 200 miles away, that the sun is red, eyes water and you can feel it in your throat.  As I told one classmate, a whole town of 27,000 gone in a matter of hours.  I'm breathing in somebody's family photo album going back 5 generations, a teen's first car that he earned on his own, a favorite pair of jeans, a group of grannies-owned quilting shop, an award from the 6th grade spelling bee, the new nursery for the coming baby and a family of deer ... all gone forever.  .


11/10/18 03:54 PM #2547    

 

Karsten Boerger

Gary

It's time to move to Michigan, beautiful lakes, no earth quakes, no fires, no drought, just great four seasons.

Went to Chicago recently to investigate moving there, impossible, the traffic is killing, give me peace and quiet and great scenery

Karsten

 

 


11/11/18 11:51 AM #2548    

 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Garry, thanks for telling the story of our fires so well. L.A. is also full of smoky air from the Woolsey Fire near Thousand Oaks and Malibu. When I drove home into the sun from shopping yesterday, on what would have been a brilliant, blue-sky day with the sun glaring into my eyes, it was a big orange disk in a brown/gray sky. But having to stay inside or wear a mask to go out, not exercise, and run the house fan 24/7 are small inconveniences compared to the losses suffered by those in the fires. It is hard to comprehend: a "fire nightmare" from which these folks will not wake up.  

 

 

 


11/11/18 01:12 PM #2549    

 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

It is so sad to read of the fatalities and the many, many people who have lost their homes to these dreadful fires. Even those who have been evacuated suffer, as they try to carry on with their lives totally disrupted, and surely with great worry about the fate of the homes they left behind. For all of you out there in California, our Thanksgiving wish for you is to receive news soon that the worst of this is over. 


11/21/18 10:14 AM #2550    

 

Jim Cejka

And a Happy Thanksgiving to All.


11/22/18 11:04 AM #2551    

 

Lauren Dieterich

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. It's been quite a while since I've last posted. I will try to improve on that. Jim, my oldest daughter made Chief. She's with the Marine 1st Medical Battalion at Camp Pendleton for the third time.


11/22/18 12:18 PM #2552    

 

Lauren Dieterich

What's rain ? We've had 2.97 inches of rain for the year to date. The average is 5.0 inches.  I joined a Facebook group a couple of weeks ago, that I think  everyone will find interesting. It's ' Historic North Milwaukee ' I never knew what the exact city limits were until I joined the group. Silver Spring on the North, Congress on the South, Sherman on the West and Teutonia on the East. There is a picture of a streetcar at the layover on 35th and Silver Spring. I faintly remember the streetcars going by the house, when we lived across from Smith Park.


11/22/18 02:23 PM #2553    

 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

And when the streetcar rolled by, wasn't the "ding-ding" just charming? And I loved the woven wicker seats that flipped back and forth, depending upon direction. Didn't a ticket cost 7 cents - or was it 10? 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!


11/22/18 06:26 PM #2554    

 

Jim Cejka

Lauren, congrats to the Chief and the 1st Med Battallion, aka Alpha Med when I was in 'Nam. BTW, the house behind the streetcar in that picture is our house. Granny used to make coffee and goodies for the operators, and let people waiting for the streetcar into our place to wait if the weather was lousy. My job was shoveling the snow in front of Bergeman's to keep the corner clear. 

Nancy, when those cars laid over the highlight of the day was to watch the drivers try to switch that thing that went up to the wire from one end of the car to the other. Exciting and sparky if it was windy or wet. I'm not that electricity smart to figure out why they never got fried.

Do you remember taking the streetcar up Wells St and across that old rickety bridge to go to ball bames at County Stadium?

If we were lucky, some of the operators would let us on board to help flip those seats around, and, if REALLY lucky, we could switch the foot pedal that clanged that bell from end to end, and even ring it sometimes. 

Amen, Garry.


11/23/18 10:45 AM #2555    

 

Lauren Dieterich

Jim, the streetcars were grounded through the rails; so, grabbing the cable to pull the trolly shoe down was harmless. If anyone wants to reminisce about streetcars, take a ride out to the East Troy Trolley Museum. But, in the summer, they don't run in the winter. From the news, I thought that it was only the Army going to the border. My daughter said that the Army is covering Texas and the Marines are covering California. 1 st Med. is sending 33 corpsmen on a rotating basis. 9 of the 33 are x-ray techs. They are expecting a lot of TB cases plus other infectious diseases like measles mumps, chicken pox, etc. She was going to come here for this weekend; but, now she isn'r sure when she will be able to. Maybe January.


11/23/18 05:32 PM #2556    

 

William Nelson

I just wrote a response about the streetcars, but it disappeared before I completed it. Starting over!
We moved to my grandma's house on S 23rd Street, just south of Greenfield Ave. when I was about three. We moved to 36th and Rohr in 1953. I remember the street cars plying Greenfield when I was a kid, but I also remember when they were replaced by trolley buses. A good friend of ours was interviewed on TV as she rode the last street car back to West Allis. The trolley buses were already running on 35th Street when we moved to the North side. I remember they turned around on Silver Spring in the area y'all were discussing. 

I worked for the Milwaukee Players stage crew while attending Custer. Many of the shows were staged at West Division HS, so I used to ride the bus to and from quite often. One night, I was the only passenger on the bus and struck up a conversation with the driver. He told me how quick off the line those buses were. I had my doubts, so he proved it at the next stop. He stomped on the go pedal and did it ever! At that time, I'd never been in a vehicle that could accelerate that quickly up to about 30 MPH. If you remember the Bob Newhart routine about the "Chicago Bus Drivers' School," he had a student driver alternate starting and stopping quickly as an elderly lady tried to find her seat. He kept her airborne for four cycles. After my experience, I believe that might be possible.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. If you've been traveling, travel safely. The two of us dined alone yesterday, but our middle son's family will arrive this evening and we'll have more goodies tomorrow. They'll head back to Texas on Sunday. 

To all our friends in California, our hearts go out to you. It seems like your area is stuck in a vicious cycle and it sounds like that might continue for a while. Hard to imagine such losses.

 


11/23/18 10:03 PM #2557    

 

Jim Cejka

Another Thanksgiving blessing - the Camp fire is contained.

Lauren, in regards to the East Troy Trolley Museum - been there, rode that. In fact, I'm still a member of the East Troy American Legion Post (long story.) 

We went to Astoria, OR, last year, and they have a similar streetcar they run along the river through downtown. Same flipable seats, trolley cable, and all. Boy, did that bring back memories. 


11/24/18 01:56 PM #2558    

 

Lauren Dieterich

2 weeks before the Well st streetcar service ended, I took my youngest brother downtown to ride the streetcar. Jim, I'm a life member of the American Legion. I haven't changed my post from Lansing, MI to AZ, yet. The Post here is #87. The state Vietnam Memorial  and the USS Arizona Memorial are both behind the Post.


12/05/18 03:13 PM #2559    

 

Jim Cejka

So, does anyone still do St. Nicholas Day? Never could get it straight whether it was the night of the 5th or 6th. Didn't matter, the socks got stuffed on either day. And, is it socks, . .  or shoes? 


12/05/18 03:46 PM #2560    

 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

 

 

 

Hi Jim,

Yes, someone still does St. Nick - to wit: our "kids" (age 43 and 53). And, of course, now - our grand daughter.

I think we have this right: you put your stocking out the night of the 5th. If you live in the Netherlands, you put a shoe. I mailed St. Nick's packages to our girls on Monday. Cookies, cookies, cookies. Have baked fourteen batches (a few are double or triple - certain favorites) and have started the stollen. No, we don't eat them all - some get mailed ( we have nieces with demanding careers and fond memories of cookies from their childhoods, plus an old German friend who no longer bakes). Don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up, but so far, so good.

Merry Christmas to all!

 

 

 

 

 

 


12/05/18 05:43 PM #2561    

 

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Hey, Jim~~

Happy St. Nick’s Eve. When I was a kid, my parents, knowing my love of chocolate-covered cherries, always made sure that I got a box of them for St. Nick’s, along with tangerines and other things. After Robert and I were married, he made sure to carry on the chocolate-covered cherry tradition. Every year, I would get some, but he went a step further and purchased some higher quality ones. I always looked forward to them. Before we left on that fateful trip in 2015, I received a box of them, his final St. Nick’s gift. And when I returned home, alone, there were 2 left in the box, and I saved them for quite a while before I finally decided to eat them. When the next season came along, I remembered, tearfully, that the only way the tradition might continue would be if I purchased them myself. So, now a small box of dark chocolate-covered cherries from Quality Candy sits in my kitchen, and I will savor each one that I eat, remembering dear Robert. who always made sure that the tradition continued.


12/06/18 06:33 AM #2562    

 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Hi Jeanne,

Your story is a gem. I'll never again be able to eat a chocolate covered cherry without thinking of you. I'm so sorry that you lost your dear Robert. How amazingly certain foods can bring forth memories - the reason, I guess, that our family has to have certain Christmas cookies every year. Enjoy your memories with every last bite.

 

 


12/06/18 01:37 PM #2563    

 

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Our childhood St. Nick's celebration was that my siblings and I hung our stockings Dec. 5 (or was it the 6th?) eve. When we awakened, only if we were good, (and our parents apparently saw some good in all of us every year LOL), our stockings would have an orange or tangerine in the toe, and the rest filled with candies and nuts. It was how I learned to appreciate the various nuts: walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds and Brazil nuts. Of course we always lived under the threat of a lump of coal being there, and as the holiday approached we warned each other of the coal at every perceived transgression against us. We, unlike today's kids, knew what coal was, having had it delivered to the coal bin in the basement. I absolutely loved that at my 1 yr.-ago church, the children left their shoes at the church entry on the nearest Sunday to Dec. 6, and near the end of the service St. Nick would make an appearance, gather the kids around, tell them a little about his life, and upon leaving there would be treats inside the kids' shoes. Nancy, I love that you still do all that baking, and I'm sure the recipients do too! And Jeanne, with your chocolate cherries (love'em!) Good to see traditions continue. 


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