Be aware, the "Message Forum" is NOT password protected.  Unlike profiles that are password protected, anybody who gets to this webpage can see what is written here.  Nobody can contact you directly based on this forum unless you reveal your personal contact information.  Use the "Message Center" for sharing personal contact information with another classmate.

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.
 

Jim Cejka

Garry, I don't think anyone expects Aaron Rogers to be a classic Alex guest host, but should be a fun, light-hearted, and entertaining spot. He's certainly in no place to try out for permanent host though, he's got this year's Super Bowl to win first, and then 4 or 5 more before his time runs out in Green Bay. 

Speaking of Aarons - R.I.P Hank Aaron. I happeded to be at the game when he hit his last home run in Milwaukee. Many good memories from Hank.

I got my Covid first shot Tuesday. Other than excruciating pain and inability to use my arm since, it wasn't too bad (just kidding). 

Too bad those Army guys gave shots that hurt. I spent 2 years at Navy boot camp being that guy who gave the incoming recruits all those shots, and none of them ever complained. 

William Nelson

Jim,

I had a complaint about the military shots and also one of the best experiences with shots in another setting. The first was in Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, as you mentioned. As with all things military, we were herded into a snaking line and the medics came through with the guns, rather than the needles. The first couple were fine, but the next medic had one of those pneumatic injectors in each hand and attempted to give me two shots at once. Both misfired and tore my arm between the sites. I'm a pretty free bleeder and it didn't take but a few seconds to make a mess of my blood on the floor. Two or three guys in the next lines fainted. I didn't. The medic got a loud reprimand and I don't know what else.

The second episode was in Fort Bragg. It was a much smaller deal with maybe 10 guys getting shots. The medic there was an entertainer with a big handlebar mustache. He was cracking jokes and singing nearly continuously. We were called into a small room and he read the highlights of our paperwork to make sure it was up to date. He sent me on my way without giving me the shot! I asked him what was going on and he claimed he'd given me the shot. He told me to stand aside and watch the next guy. As the guy approached the door, the medic got him laughing, put his arm around him and gave him the shot all at once. The guy didn't believe it either, except I told him what happened once we were outside. (He didn't want us to give his secret away to the last guys in line.) He'd have been a great pick-pocket. Best shot I ever received.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

I see we have a LOT of Jeopardy fans here on the Forum. I agree that Ken Jennings is doing a surprisingly good job. He doesn't have the "broadcaster voice", but his inflection and pacing are improving every day. He's learning to slow down for emphasis. He went way too fast at first, but he was probably nervous. The most important thing is that he comes across as a nice guy with some witty comebacks, following in dear Alex's footsteps. Still working on getting a vaccination. The first day LA posted a website and phone number for appointments, they were swamped and the website didn't respond. Trying again today. Hoping to get mine at Dodger Stadium. That would be kind of cool!

Garry Sellers

Has anybody noticed that the Mega Millions winner of $1 billion is from Michigan and we haven't heard a word from Karsten Boerger, Bryan Gutnecht or Ken Pallaske?  Yes, Nancy sneaked in a harmless input about Jeopardy but that may be a clever way of trying to throw us off track. I have suspicions that they pooled their last $10 in desperate hope of winning ... and they did!  Now they're trying to avoid their old Custer friends.  Hey, how about helping with the cost of this website?  It's only $125,000 per year for a total of $1 million since it started 8 years ago!  That's chump change for you guys now.

What would you do with $1 billion? 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Oh rats! Didn't think we'd get caught. But when we sailed off in our new Island Packet  ( which I fell in love with at the Annapolis Boat Show), you might have suspected. Trying to keep our good news from the IRS.

As a cover, we're sitting here in the cold and dark ( see about 7 minutes of sun every three days) watching Valdez-Scandling cross into the end zone  to make Brady know he has to up his game.

Go Pack!

Jim Cejka

Oh well, I guess Aaron Rogers will turn up on Jeopardy sooner than we wanted. 

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

😢

Wayne Reineck

Here's an interesting link about, "The New Custer High School," that many of you might enjoy reading.

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/new-custer-high-school-photos
 

Enjoy, Wayne Reineck

Jim Cejka

Oh boy, those pics sure brought memories of all those great meals in the cafeteria - yum, yum, spaghetti ala Custer. 

Melody Jones (Parker)

http://1funny.com/fond-memories-of-the-1950s/

Lauren Dieterich

After my first year at Custer, I rarely ate in the cafeteria. I have a brother who is one year younger than me. Our Mother died when I was in 8th grade. When my brother started at Custer, our choices for lunch were: brown bag it, eat in the cafeteria or go home. We decided to go home. We lived just shy of a mile from Custer. But, when we got home,we had to make our lunch, too. I don't know how long the lunch period is now: but, our's was 55 minutes. In that 55 minutes, we had to walk home, make our lunch, eat it and walk back to Custer. We were never late getting back to Custer; and, we never ran. But, boy did we walk fast. The last 2 years at Custer, the only time I ate in the cafeteria, was to watch the movie in the auditorium.

Bonnie Buck (Walter)

Afterr spending literally hours on the internet, I obtained a March 3rd vaccination date, in Mountain View.  That's ok, I used to drive my son to St. Francis High School, onlys take 45 minutes.  I'm still driving Ken's ultra fast cars so it'll go quickly.  A knowledgeable car friend told me my Tesla is faster than the 2013 Lime Rock Orange BMW Ken bought!

Garry, you made my day - Jullia Roberts is one of my favorite actresses.  I watched George Clooney's new movie and had to look at the internet to figure out what happened.  I also wacthed "Game of Thrones" - twice through, to try and figure out who was who and what happened.  Going back and watching Kevin Costner movies.  Wow, he was the bad guy in several - never noticed before.

My TV excuse is that I'll exercise while watching TV -- sometimes I actually turn the treadmill on.

Being that the "Frozen" movies are some of my granddaughters' favorites, I enjoyed your own morphing.

I need to spend more time on your/our fabulous website Garry.  Thank you!!!

Jim Cejka

Aaaahhhh. Memories of Wisconsin.

Jim Cejka

Garry, I sure like those pics. Bingo on the memories. The custard stand across from Carlton was . . . . . (I don't remember either.) But, I worked at the Clark station on Silver Spring and Hopkins, a block away, and that place was my main food supply for a lot of Saturdays and Sundays. 

As for the WTMJ tower - was the new tower when they switched from channel 3 to channel 4? I remember watching that "big" moment on tv, and fighting with my sister to see who got to switch the dial on our super, new, hi-tech tv.

Garry Sellers

Jim - I can't give you a good picture of the Clark station at Hopkins and Silver Spring but if you look real close on this one (the RR bridge across Silver Spring by McGovern Park) you can just make out its sign, with Carleton further in the background.  Tetslaff's Frozen Custard is off to the right, across the street from Gordy's house but it's impossible to pick it out.

Karsten Boerger

Jim I used to work nights at the Clark Gas station on Villard and Teutonia. After Nancy got done with her cheerleading at the football game she would bring me some pizza. She felt sorry for me, and that is the reason I married her. She still takes good care of me.Karsten

Jim Cejka

Oh yeah, that was fun. The owner of my station was a guy named Chuck Oleson, from Waukesha. He was the size of a Packer lineman, as was his friend and co-worker Al. Gas wars. Double stamps on Tuesday. Chuck, Al, and I would work the Tuesdays to give that extra Clark SUPER 100 Service. Any car that came in, the three of us swarmed, pumped the gas, cleaned all the windows, checked the oil, cleaned the head and tail lights, checked the tires, even if it was just for a bucks worth of gas. Chuck was all about service. I wonder what the customers thought when those two huge guys, and one beanpole, attacked their car. Must have done some good though. Clark had a contest once and we won second place for stations in the Milwaukee area - we were first in service but some station on Appleton Ave. beat us in gas sales. I still even have my "Clark Finalist" pin. I was so happy when Chuck "promoted" me and raised my pay to $1.10 an hour. All I had to do was come in at 6 am on Saturday and Sunday and do the books and money. That's what worked up the appetite for those burgers (4 at a time) from that unnamed place on Silver Spring. 

Karsten Boerger

Jim

You must have worked at a high production gas station with several co-workers. I was alone at my Clark station. After school went to work there until closing which must have been aroud 10 or 11PM. At closing I read all the meters on all pumps to determine gallons pumped. Then put all the data and money in a safe which was installed in the concrete floor. Then closed the door a went home. This station is now a BP station.

This job was way better then the one I had before, which was cleaning a backery, somewhere around Silver Spring. The backers were done at 3AM and I and another Custer pal cleaned the place until it was time to go to school. Lots of rats in that place and the pay was 0.75 cents/hour.

Those were the days Karsten

Jim Cejka

Right Karsten, we were open all nights. On the weekends, I'd come in the morning and read all the pumps and count everything (oil, cigarettes, and whatever) the station sold, tally it all up, and then get the money out of that floor safe and tally that up, AND, if all went well, the money we took in matched the stuff we sold, to the penny. Thinking now how there were mornings where I had a pile of papers and money on the desk and just left it, in plain sight, when I went out to wait on customers. EEEEgad. Can't imagine that now. Chuck told us a secret - if, whenever you filled a tank, always make the money come out to end in a 5 or a 0, it was much easier to balance the pumps and money. To this day, I still round off like that and drain the hose before I take it from the tank (another Chuck rule - don't spill on the customer's car). 

I remember another thing - I was talking with the Schwermin truck driver who deliverred our gas once, and he told me that basically, all the different brands didn't make a difference. He filled up down on Jones Island and went to all brand stations, Standard, Texaco, whatever, and just dumped what they needed. It wasn't really "Clark" regular, or "Standard" regular, everybody just got regular, or ethyl. Gas was gas. 

William Nelson

Just reading your recollections of jobs as gas station attendants. I didn't get into that business until I was a few years older. After I got out of the Army in '68, I went back to work at Globe-Union's Centralab Div. I wound up with a promotion from what I'd been doing before getting drafted, but only took a year or two to decide I wanted to use my GI Bill and get an Associate's Degree from MSOE. I had a couple of kids to feed and was dating Mary by that time, so money was very tight and I needed to finish school in 18-months.

Dan & Janet Farchione (Class of June, '61) decided to make a career change at about the same time. Dan & I worked together at CRL before I was drafted, but he moved to a competitor while I was in the service. They decided to move their operations, but Jan still had most of a year left to get her degree. He leased a Texaco Station on 27th and Edgerton. He hired me to be his first employee (not counting Jan). I told him I didn't consider myself a trained mechanic, but he said that would be OK. He'd just be happy not to worry about me stealing from him. It didn't pay a lot, but helped me cover expenses. Most of the time, I worked only on weekends, but he tailored my hours to work with my hours at school. We also tried to give good service and did windows,  oil level checks, etc. One regular customer came in with a school bus one day. We broke out the step ladder and washed every window on the bus!

We really had a good time during that period. When he took time off, he left me in charge and I remember well doing the books, sticking the tanks, and inventorying the merchandise. He wound up getting a job as a 3rd shift mechanic for the City and then moving up to the county level. For a couple of years, he was in charge of mechanics for all Milwaukee County, but he hated the job and wound up as an engineering mechanic for Harley Davidson. He loved that job and still rides Harleys regularly, has a hot rod, a dragster, and a few other assorted vehicles.  

Jim Cejka

Two - lane Silver Spring

Before it was widened, there was that string of stores next to our house - the bakery, George's barber shop, K&K, Serchen's drug store. Behind us, kitty-ish across the alley, was a big, 2-story storefront with apartments above, fronting on Silver Spring, and next to that, an empty lot with a big billboard sign. I used to climb on the back of that thing all the time, great view. The corner stores next to us were taken down when the road was widened. The big brick place however, was moved. That was some spectacle, jacking and bracing it up, and getting it on the mover thing. Then the big move. Silver Spring was closed between 35th and Hopkins/43rd, I think around midnight, and they inched that thing up to where it was put in, on the north side, between 42nd and 43rd, across from Carlton. There was quite a crowd out to watch the move, and the taverns across on the north side of Silver Spring I'm sure did a great business, providing a cheering section for the movers. And the thing made it without any damage. That was year's before Scotty could have just beamed it over. 

Garry Sellers

Jim - Here's an even earlier photo (1940) of 35th and Silver Spring looking west.  We managed to miss your house again.  Notice the Coke sign on Serchins drug store and further up the block is the building you saw moved.  Bill Gregorius's family's pub is or will be eventually locacted about mid-blcok on the right.  This is the only "civilized" portion of Silver Spring and it was considered the farthest northern reaches of Milwaukee.  Most of the other areas to the right (north) had NO sidewalks.  The foot path to Carleton Elementary starts on the right, traveled by Bill, Garry, Pat McCarthy (I think), Don Carstenson, Marlene Doege, and other future Custer classmates.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Mention of the footpath to Carlton on Silver Spring brings back memories to me as well. The first memory is of getting lost going home. My instruction was to go out the door, turn right.....and so on. Well, they let us out a different door, and I turned right. Don't remember much more than somehow being in the home of someone who called my mom. Must have been in kindergarten, as Carlton was my first school. Who would let their kindergartener walk that route these days?

Jim Cejka

Thanks Garry, that's a great pic. A little before my time, but I'm sure my grandparents were living there then. That was a great corner, it had everything you needed - three taverns (BTW Gregorius' Silver Spring Tap was the one on the corner of 36th.), a liquor store, two groceries, a drug store, barbershop, clothing store, bakery, hardware store, and a gas station, beuty parlor, and whatever - all within a one block radius. Why did we ever think we needed something like Capital Court, or even the other "big" shopping area, Villard Ave? 

Jim Cejka

For those of you who are having trouble figuring out how to get an appointment for a Covid vaccine shot, it works like this: