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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.
 

Lauren Dieterich

Thanks for the support, Garry. As for dealing with everything, it's deal with it or sit on the tracks. I'm not ready to sit on the tracks. A co-worker of my Dad's, after his wife died, sat on the tracks by 37th and Eggert. when the Hiwatha came through. To everyone, have a Good New Year. The way that things are now, Happy just doesn't fit.

Garry Sellers

Did you make any New Years resolutions?  You have a chance to share them here or risk them being exposed on the homepage ... with editorial license!   Mine is to before summer take down all the damn Christmas decorations I optimistically put up at Thanksgiving. What was I thinking?  It's not like we had any visitors!  When my sons and their families did come over it was in the backyard.  Think June is soon enough?  We're doing a family reunion in August in Eagle River. Maybe I'll wait until after that!!!

Jim Cejka

To all the Garrys - 

Sandy Wachs (Oldham)

My New Years resolution will be to become a ostrich.  Then I will stick my head in the sand until all of this goes away.  Wait a minute.  Do ostriches die of asphyxiation??  I asked Suri, and she said that ostriches do not stick their heads in the sand.  There goes my New Years Resolution.  

Jim Cejka

Not trying to be blasphemous, but raise you hand if you think Ken Jennings is doing pretty OK on Jeopardy so far.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Spot on, Jim! I'm wondering exactly what experience prepared him so well.   Clear enunciation, and good pacing - even with a sense of humor thrown in. He must have good parents - it's not always easy at school for a wimpy male nerd with a lisp.

Lauren Dieterich

The difference between Jennings hosting now; and, when he did the guest hosting , several months ago, is night and day. But, we have to take a wait and see; as, there are 5 or 6 other potential hosts waiting in the wings. I'm especially interested in seeing how Lavar Burton does.                                                                               I'm over the COVID, feeling pretty good, now. Interesting side effect of the infection, my COPD did not brother me. Now that I'm over the COVID, the COPD is back.

Garry Sellers

I like Ken Jennings a lot too.  He's confident, congenial, clearly intelligent and appears comfortable. He might even feel a bit less snobish than Alex sometimes did. Except ... Jennings' voice isn't as soothing as Alex's was.  Brad Rutter, now on "The Chase" (which I think is stupid) is another Jeopardy legend and has many of the characteristics of Jennings and perhaps a better voice.  I think James Holzhauer may be the neatest character among the Jeopardy legends but I'm not sure how his bizarre sense of humor (which I envy) would wear on you over time.  Guest host Aaron Rodgers???  I don't think that will play out well even in Wisconsin!

I get my Covid shot in a couple of weeks!  I wish they'd stop showing so many people getting shots on TV.  I usually have no problems with needles (5 or 6 at one time in the Army before shipping out overseas) but it's giving me the Willies!!!  Can't they show anything else when talking about Covid?

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.