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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.
 

Barbara Blair (Brenzel)

Going to Brown Deer was a treat - every day skating was done at Smith Park.  Had so much fun playing crack the whip & there was another game I "think" was called Red Rover.  We 50's kids sure knew how to have fun!

I remember the rag man & petting his horse.  And those coal bins!  My parents made sure that we never played in the coal bin - under penalty of a very early death!

Such memories!

Julianne (Julie) Eron (Felts)

I also remember the milkman...we had a milk box built into the side of the house, adjacent to the back door - he'd put in our order early in the morning.  During the Winter, the cream would sometimes lift the cardboard lid up and off!  That same milk box was my special way of getting into a locked house, if I forgot my key.  It was fun trying to squeeze in that little door -but fun at the same time.  Does anyone else remember ice skating on the Milwaukee River?  There was also a tobaggan slide that was really fun - except you had to climb up the steep ladder, dragging the tobaggan, get onto the slide lift and then WHAM - down the hill you went - onto the Milwaukee River! 

This all took place when we lived on the East  Side of Milwaukee on Bartlett Avenue.   I  

Also, remember going to "The Pig" and Mama Mia's while in High School...we sure had fun at both places.  There's a place in LaCrosse and now also  in Sparta called Rudy's.. where the car hops wear roller skates...anyone remember the famous "Drive In Movies?"  those were great Friday and Sataurday nites!!!

Garry Sellers

Nancy - Among other shows there was "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie",  "Superman" and "Sky King" (to this day I can't stand Ovaltine!).

But who didn't watch the Mickey Mouse Club?  "What day is this????"  Annette Funicello  ... sighhhhhh .... what boy wasn't in love with her and probably still is? Also on MM Club, "Spin and Marty".  And The Hardy Boy Mysteries, my favorite of which was "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure".  We drive through the town of Applegate on the way up to our condo at Lake Tahoe.  And every time through my then young boys would hear the jingle from me, "Gold doubloons and pieces of eight, that's the mystery of Applegate."  Remember in the 93rd installment where they finally found the treasure?  Under the stairs in the abandoned Applegate mansion.  Trust me ... I know!

But, as Gordy Sauer likes to point out, I won a bicycle playing ping pong on Gehl's Half Pint Party (Gehl's Dairy, owned by the people who lived around the corner at 34th and Thurston, in which Mayor Maier later lived and two doors down from Billy Gregorius!).

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

I loved the ice man on a hot summer day because he would give kids smaller chips of ice that didn't stay attached to the blocks of ice he was selling.  My mom didn't have an ice box in my lifetime but some older neighbors did.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Wow, you guys! The memories keep coming!  I had forgotten about Smith Park, the skating and the wading pool. Our Iceman "cameth" with a large set of tongs grasping this humongous block of ice that went into the ice box. Later when we all started to get a refrigerator, my grandma insisted on calling all of them "Frigidaires", although ours was an International Harvester. Our TV was a Hallicrafter's and I begged mom to stay up til 8:00 (age 7) to watch "I Love Lucy". When those episodes come on now, I can still remember how funny they were the first time we watched them. My sister and I constantly rehearsed our "act" for auditioning for the Mouseketeers, should we get the chance. 

Kenneth Pallaske

How 'bout  "The Buster Browm Show with Andy Devine? "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy"

My prayers are with all of the family members impacted by the Brookfield shooting yesterday.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Ken, "I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. That's my dog, Tide. He lives in there, too".

Julie, Our poor grand kids will never get to skate on the river (probably because of lawsuits),and thus will never have the fun of skating over and through frozen reeds.

Kenneth Pallaske

Gar(r)y,

Just to keep you on your toes, I put a new picture up. Which one do you think is me? Tell Gordy I will probably run out of photos....if your information is correct.

Nancy,

Don't forget Midnight, the talking cat.

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

When Elvis was on The Ed Sullivan show my girlfriend and I sat on the floor, right in front of the TV, and touched Elvis as he sang.  We couldn't believe the bottom half of the screen went dark.

My mom only allowed one hour of TV on Saturday because she wanted us out in the fresh air riding our bikes or playing tag or roller skating - year 'round.  My brothers and I would each pick different shows to watch for an hour. I would sit on my bike outside and watch the Lone Ranger while sitting on my bike seat and watching through the window.

Every Thanksgiving I make the complete, traditional Thanksgiving dinner just as my mom had.  She typed or hand wrote all her notes and taped them to the inside of her Settlement cookbook.  The first comment is to "Put the turkey in the garage for three days to thaw out."  Can't do that in Arizona :)

Kenneth Pallaske

We had the first TV in our neigborhood circa 1949/50 (Our house was very popular), my grandparents had a coal chute in their hosue in Sheboygan - my job was to shake the klinkers out, we had an ice-box in Wison Park and I was in love with Nancy DeYoung in grade school ------then Annette.

Carol Albers (Pederson)

Ahhh.. . old TV shows.  First, Garry, you guys had Annette.  But the girls had  Spin and Marty.  Now they were cute!  Besides all the wonderful westerns, Howdy Doody, etc., there were some local ones that wouldn't make it today.  One read the comics to you as you followed along with your newspaper on Sunday morning, before or after church????  I remember Sid Stone.  You could learn to draw a cartoon character step-by-step.  Then there was one where you sent for a piece of plastic that you could put on the TV screen and then draw on it like the guy on TV?  Milton Berle, Sid Caeser and Imogene Coca and Loretta Young (loved her dressses) and later watching Walt Disney on Sunday night with pizza in the living room!

Sal, we got flooded a number times too.  I can remember putting the chest freezer up on cement blocks as the water was coming in the basement. 

Also, there was no 50th street behind us for years.  So when hydrant froze and  broke, it flooded the woods behind our house, we had our own skating rink .  Fell and split my lip - boy was my mom made when I didn't come home when it got dark.  She didn't see my lip.  Still have a scar.

There was a great candy store near Edison.  We went there during lunch if we had a few pennies.  Yum.  Big stuff!  I think that was the same one near 35th School???

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Sally, thanks for all the memories! I loved the Lustron Homes website. I am sure I saw some in Milwaukee.

I loved skating on Lincoln Creek in the winter, as far as we could go. We skated right up to the dead end, which was a huge concrete intake tunnel, where the creek apparently went "urban" and underground. We also loved playing there in the summer. It was wild then, surrounded by mixed hardwood trees, many oaks, with uprooted trees fallen over the creek. It was the perfect setting for many "Davy Crockett"-type adventures!

I talked to the principal about the possibility of having some kind of foundation for the students that are there now. When I went to my husband's Madison West reunion last year, the Class of '61 has a foundation that sponsors an after-school leadership program. Teachers recommend promising students (those with potential, but not the resources at home)  and they have them lead and organize community projects, as well as provide advanced courses for them, take them on field trips and  have speakers talk to them. I thought that was a great idea, but  it would be difficult to organize. Someone would have to run it full time, as well as the fundraising. But I was wondering how much it would cost to get the pool open and running, and maintain it? I absolutely loved swimming at Custer, and it's such a shame that it's closed. The principal seemed to think the alumni from the other classes might also be interested in contributing to a foundation. As far as he knew, there wasn't one.  I have his e-mail.

Ray Thompson

One thing I have not heard about yet is the old "Villard Gang"--I used to walk with buddies to the restauranr on Villard. Kinda like a Happy Days place. Got stopped more than once by what they thought wrere bad guys. More than once had a confrontation,. Am I the only one?

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

NorCal goes to the World Series! And 9 -0!!! Go Giants!!!

I DO remember the Villard Gang. They hung out at the Corner Cafe and were scary! I remember when I went to Edison, you didn't look down a certain alley on the way to our bus stop. They (I think it was them, or else some Edison wannabes :-) were always hanging out there, skulking around in their tank jackets smoking and trying to look tough. Once I glanced down the alley and they were fighting. I walked a little faster to the bus stop that day.

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Garry, if we called it the Custer Alumni Foundation, then those kids  and parents might know that some pretty cool people went to CUSTER!!

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

I think Winky Dink let us send away for the greenish plastic to put on the TV screen and then draw what he was drawing. Spent many hours wishing I could get on his side of the screen.  Right after that came Tom Terrific who could do anything. Loved him too.

Carol Albers (Pederson)

Winky Dink!!! Thanks Marian!  I would never have come up with that on my own.  Good job.  Sounds like we have come up with a Forum version of "Do you remember??"  The more connections, the better.  We need to save all these messages, Garry, for the 100th reunion.   Then we have something to talk about, or at least shake our heads about.

Now I have to go back in the Forum and refresh my memory about the name of the custard stand near 51st and Hampton. What page was that on?-just kidding.

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

Was the custard stand on Hampton Kitt's, or maybe the original Kopps??  

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Kitt's was, and still is, on 70th and Capitol.

Garry Sellers

Sally - Annette only has MS in the real world not the fantasy world in which young boys lived!  I was well aware of her health problems but have chosen to remember her only in Mousketeer Ears and beach movies with Frankie.  Could they have found a more hideous swimsuit for her?  It almost made me forget I was in love with her!

Go back to the first few pages of the Forum and you'll find a number of posts regarding the name change, including some from Tom Winslow.  It may have had little or nothing to do with Indians.  And even if it was in reference to General Custer, he was famous for a lot more than attacking Indians.  I personally have no problem thinking of Indians as proud, courageous warriors and somebody to be honored not disrespected. 

Jim Cejka

The grade school that shared the block with Edison was 36th St. school. The descriptions here of 35th St school and 36th St. sound so similar, even to the little candy store across the street.

Roy Franks

Does anybody know what is going on with the Custer Reunion Video.  Has anyone received their video dvd ?

Carol Albers (Pederson)

Wow Sal,  Terri and I just discovered we were so close to each other up north during our childhood summers.  She was near Pelican Lake and I was 10 miles north of Anitgo, near Kempster.  Now we find out you were near Rhinelander.  That's spooky.  Our "cottage" was a one room log cabin with a hand pump in the house, and of course the outhouse.  Dad bought it as a hunting cabin, but it became our summer place.  Talk about alone, i was an only child.  Mom and I stayed up there and had a big garden, while dad drove up on weekends.  They wanted me to be out of the city-safe from polio and of course nuclear attack.  Learned about that in later years.

Nancy Davison (Boerger)

Sally, I agree about the swim requirement – thanks to that, I still love to swim. Never got very good at it, but good enough not to sink. Remembering water ballet brings back memories; also brings to mind how much that sport has changed. Wow – the Olympics teams are fabulous! The only one from our group at Custer who could have measured up to those new standards would be the very talented and fit Sandy Wachs.

Too bad none of us had the benefits of the professionals who now give swim lessons to toddlers. Our 1 ½ year old grand daughter knows how to roll over onto her back and float if she falls into the water and can also swim underwater for a few feet. None of that for us at that age! Lucky kids spent summers "up Nort" and thrashed around among the weeds and turtles until they figured it out.

Kenneth Pallaske

I spent some time with Jeannie in Breed. Is that anywhere near where Rhinlander and the other sites you were talking about, girls? My brother has a place in Crivitz, near the Peshtigo River. That is his retreat.

I feel so lost with all of the chatter about Villard, 35th and 36th street schools and the custard stands. It just so happens, I talked to Pete K. the other day and we both realized how little we know about anything east of 60th street and south of Silver Spring and our classmates from that area. Lu and I took a trip up that way last month and I was lost.......did not recognize anything anymore. Thanks for all of the memories.

Sal, I went on a couple of fishing trips with my brother in Cetico (Not sure of the spelling) National Forest in Canada. It is just across the Canadian border in northern MN.