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Happy New Year to all!

That picture of the Road Runner, brought back some memories. When I was transfered from Fort Monmouth, NJ to Fort Bragg, NC, I became part of the 337th R/R Company. The R/R stands for Radio Relay or, if you like to be creative and less military, Road Runner. We worked on line-of-sight microwave communications gear. A few of the guys in the company were talented artists and they combined with some others with imagination to add pictures of road runners on many of our trucks and jeeps. (Ford jeeps don't deserve an upper case J!) As it turned out, the CO liked the idea and road runners appeared fairly prominently on many of the vehicles even before we shipped them to VietNam. Wish many of my pictures hadn't been "lost" about a month before leaving DaNang.

01/06/22 04:08 PM

#3176

Lauren,

Beep beep is so much better to hear than rattle rattle.

01/13/22 06:30 PM

#3177

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Two years of quarantine, giving up many of the joys of life, Christmas and Easter with the family OUTSIDE (except this Christmas), masks everywhere, giving up our favorite restaurants and movies, taking home tests to make sure we don't spread it to the grandkids ... and then my wife tests positive for Covid last week! Damn this is tiring! It's not like we have a lot of time left to forego things anymore. The years aren't going to get any easier from here on, even without Covid. Fifty-five years of marriage ... and I made her pack up and move into a tent in the backyard. No, that's a joke but we're more isolated than ever. I'm sure there's many of you who have gone through the same thing, probably worse, because she has minor symptoms and I have NONE! Oh for "normal" times where we can just worry about hip and/or knee replacements, pacemakers, COPD, a-fib, diabetes, colonoscopies, cataracts, etc.!!! Of course that's Califonia. Back in Wisconsin people seem to do all the same things they ever did and act like they never heard of Covid! I don't recall seeing a mask anywhere outside of the Mitchell Field when we were there.

01/14/22 11:30 AM

#3178

Garry, we feel your pain down here in LA. My daughter-in-law is about to give birth to my granddaughter. I am "live-in granny", and ber mom is here from Massachusetts to help out - and both grandmas just tested positive. That's in spite of us only going to the grocery store in a KN95 mask and otherwise staying home - and taking extreme precautions for the last 2 years. It's a nightmare, with our unvaccinated 2 year old and Mom about to go the hospital any day. They are looking for some other place to stay for our 5 days of isolation. I'll let you know how it turns out!

01/14/22 02:09 PM

#3179

Lauren Dieterich

Judi and I both had the COVID virus a year ago. We felt hardly any effects from it. When we went for the shots, we were told that we have to wait for 6 months. We got the Moderna vaccine. The side effects of the vaccine were a LOT worse than the virus itself, especially the booster. My oldest daughter is a Corpsman at Great Lakes. The Corpsmen were anmong the last to get the shots. I would have thought that they would have been the first to get the shots. She got the shots about 8 months ago. Last week, she got the virus. A friend of mine's daughter is a nurse at Froedtert Hispital. She had the virus 8 months ago, got the shots and now, has the virus again. I've read that the COVID virus any be the same as the flu; a shot once a year, maybe even every 6 months.

01/14/22 05:05 PM

#3180

OK Garry, who will you be rooting for next Saturday?

01/17/22 02:29 PM

#3181

No problem ... 49'ers! Our quarterback is prettier than Rodgers. Only problem is Pretty Jimmy G forgets which team he's supposed to throw to from time to time. And he gets rattled when his receiver is in the open by 10 yards. Seriouisly, if you haven't lived in Wisconsin for 50 years, and you've seen teams the like the 9ers with Joe Montana and Steve Young ... who are the Packers??? But I don't expect to win. Too many injured players.

01/18/22 03:14 AM

#3182

https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/edison-custer-school-spelunking?fbclid=IwAR2HxXr-MxqQlnPy5-US7rttpM51wHFuuD1C3K59bNsfT2Xp53HC4I6P1Qc

As I was shutting down for the night, I noticed a message from our daughter, "You might find this of interest."

I surely do! This is an article about the former Custer High School / Edison Junior High and a little about the old 36th Street School that I attended from 4th through 8th grade. They were across the street from our house, so we didn't have to worry too much about blizzards until the "new" Custer was built and we had to walk about a mile (Uphill BOTH ways!) It's a very interesting article and the building's for sale, if you want to start your own school.

01/18/22 03:23 AM

#3183

Forgot to mention that I never knew about the tunnel between the buildings before. If any of you attended either school, did you know?
The shop at the Old Custer was my dad's first assignment as a shop teacher in MPS. He had no idea at the time we'd wind up living across the street. Many years later, Roger Pederson's dad was my metal shop teacher there and Dad's Oshkosh State Teacher's College roommate, Mr. Norman Eberhardt, was my first shop teacher (at school) there. He also was my drafting teacher at the new CHS. My cousin, Tom Williams, taught shop in the old 36th Street school several years later.

01/18/22 07:06 PM

#3184

Bill, boy, did those pictures bring back memories. At least when we were there there wern't shell casings on the floor.

Do you remember that little candy store that was on a corner across the street from 36th St. school? I remember it as a white house that had a little candy shop on the porch or front room. I dropped a lot of pennies on those little dot candies that came on a strip of paper.

And yes, I remember the tunnel. I started in the band in 4th or 5th grade, and by the time I was in 6th, Mr. Thom let me come over to the "high school" and play with the Custer band. I got to use the tunnel when the weather was bad. Nobody ever stopped me or questioned me.

01/19/22 04:28 PM

#3185

We've got a couple of relics of the old 36th Street School. My dad was still alive when they razed the building and he scavenged some of the better maple desk tops. He gave me a couple and, after he died, my brother and I split what was left. We have some swing out lamps adjacent to our bed and I power them from a recessed clock outlet behind a maple cover made from those desk tops. They've also been part of some other projects, but I've slept too often since then to remember all those. They all require "gum removal" and lots of sanding, but they're really solid.

Dad's favorite pastime was trying to make something out of nothing; now known as recycling. When the candy shop became a used TV store, there were a lot of wooden TV cabinets discarded. Mr. Shultz would call Dad when he had a nice one and Dad would figure out a project to reuse them. We have an "Elephant" by our utility room door he made from TV cabinets when the kids were little. There's a box with lid at the bottom and an elephant head at the top to hold keys, gloves, etc. The tusks broke off several years ago, but we still use it to hold stuff that needs to go to the out buildings. It's location helps us remember to do it and also to remember Dad's thrift. Some bigger panels wound up as a toy box for the kids and is still by our kitchen window, full of toys for their kids. As I remember, he brought it down on his last trip to Louisiana.

01/19/22 04:30 PM

#3186

Jim,

I remember the candy store well. It was next door to our house. The elderly lady, Mrs. Lorentz, who owned it, lived upstairs. She was a very active gardener in her small back yard and a friendly lady. The candy store was run by her tenants, the Rzpeckis (I've murdered that spelling -- looks like it needs another vowel.) They had a son, Gary, who we used to play with, daily, on the 36th Street Schoolgrounds. Neither of us was very athleticly inclined, so didn't often get picked for any of the recess games. I became a school cadet, so I didn't have to deal with that. My job was retrieving balls from the street that went over the fence. Gary and I were pretty evenly matched so we developed our own games after school. His dad died and the school store became a burden for his mom. She went to work for either Kroger or Kohls (food store) near Capitol Court and she and Gary moved away, but stopped in to visit several times. Another family, the Schultzes, moved in. He was a TV repairman who, like me, repaired old TVs and resold them. I did that same thing in my late teens and early 20's. They built a small new house on the lot between the store and Rohr Ave. I've tried to find Gary a couple of times, but doubt if I've ever spelled his name correctly. They (and the Schultzes) were nice families. The Schultzes son used to check on my mom and helped her with some of the chores after she was widowed and my brother and I had moved away.

01/19/22 04:33 PM

#3187

We're having a thunderstorm and the fixed wireless internet service went down for a few minutes. It reversed the order of my previous two posts. Must have had them buffered, rather than sent.

01/20/22 06:23 AM

#3188

Wow, I thought I was doing good remembering that it was a little white house. I thought 36th St. school was neat - the wood floors that were worn down on the stairs, coat rooms, the little "bookstore", the bathrooms in the basememt, the gym/auditorium, and the fact that my mother had also gone there. I suffered the same athletic ineptitude, my escape was being a crossing guard. Got to wear that little white Z-strap thing and get out a few minutes early. My brain can't seem to recognize how many years ago that was. At least it is still capable of memories.

01/21/22 07:11 PM

#3189

Oh my gosh . . . it's snowing!

South Carolina is now closed. Will reopen Monday at 8 a.m.

01/25/22 04:20 PM

#3190

Fortunately, our cold here in South Carolina wasn't as cold as the Packers, they were ice cold no matter what the temperature was. Also, our cold "winter" lasted 2 days, the Packers will be defrosting that game for months.

At least it wasn't so bad that Garry would gloat over it. . . .

01/26/22 01:12 PM

#3191

MINUS 37 degrees windchill in Eagle River this morning, according to my sister who lives there, well Conover actually!!! The Ice Castle is back at the old train station and not in much danger of melting anytime soon. Why oh why would anybody live like that voluntarily? I just don't get it. So she sends photos of my nephew and kids dog sledding and ice fishing? That's just not right!!!

01/27/22 12:02 PM

#3192

Lauren Dieterich

Spending a January in Wisconsin bestows bragging rights regarding cold and snow. After spending 11 winters in Bullhead City, AZ; anything below 55 degrees is the same as below zero in Wisconsin.. But, a big but, we make up for it in the summer. For most of the summer we are the hottest city in Arizona, By the end of April, we will be in the 80's. From mid-June til the end of August, our average temperature will be a 120 degrees +

01/27/22 01:17 PM

#3193

I'm not a big fan of Country music, although there are lots of the songs I enjoy. A friend sent me the below music video that was produced for the 50th CMA Awards several years ago. It's called "Forever Country" and if you haven't seen it, it's amazing. It has everybody who was ever anybody in country music and is done so well ... it's just unbelievable! Even if you hate country, friends, this is worth a look! If you're interested, there's even a video of how they made the video.

02/02/22 11:06 PM

#3194

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

Thanks for this Garry!

02/05/22 12:12 PM

#3195

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Hi Garry,

So disappointing that we couldn't get the audio on the country music. It's normally not my thing at all, but here we were, driving through West Virginia, singing " take me home, country road...." in the rain and fog, trying to stay ahead of that nasty storm that made us leave Michigan a day early. After three days of rain we hit the South Carolina coast (thanks, Jim, for opening up again). We look forward to a short respite of walking the beach, reading on the veranda, watching the waves, and NOT SHOVELING. Really hasn't been a rough winter at all, so we shouldn't complain. A bit of a shock, however, after hunkering down against Covid for so long, not going anywhere, and then venturing out from the trees and the lake to the big cities. So many stores! So much traffic! A bit overwhelming, after our quiet life.

BTW, it's 5 below zero today in Presque Isle. And here we sat on the veranda in

t shirts.

02/05/22 06:32 PM

#3196

Oh sure Nancy, and you didn't even tell me you were coming.

02/06/22 02:03 PM

#3197

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1490084195875667969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1490084195875667969%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbssports.com%2Fgolf%2Fnews%2Fwatch-bill-murray-hits-no-look-putt-tosses-club-to-side-in-hilarious-moment-at-pebble-beach-pro-am%2F

Hey Garry,

Can you make putts like Bill Murray?

02/07/22 12:02 AM

#3198

No. But I can make a hole-in-one ... last Tuesday! My first ever. Now I can cross another item off the bucket list ... which is feeling more urgent than not too long ago! (BTW, how did you manage to extend the dialog box on the Forum? And did you happen to notice the temperature at Pebble? Some rainy season!!!)

02/07/22 06:55 AM

#3199