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From the previews; it looks like a 'Dark Superman ' like the Dark Knight for Batman. And, why hasn't there been a Superman-Batman movie. They always seem to be together in the comic books.

06/12/13 12:47 PM

#1076

I just wanted to say how much enjoy reading about everyone's towns, where they live, what they do. When we all said good-bye after the reunion, and went off to our separate places, who knew where we were all going. That is one of the valuable things about our website: we can get mini-tours of all our respective towns/cities; see the snow photos in the winter, the lake photos, the back yard photos, the critter photos, the aircraft carrier photos, etc.

06/13/13 10:13 AM

#1077

I've been in 43 states; and, it's surprising how much alike small towns are; regardless of where they are. The biggest problem of moving to a small town, is getting accepted by the locals. But, once you are; you can't beat living in one.

Also, I drove one of those orange semi's for a year. Hard to believe it it was 17 years ago. You'd be surprised at the number of small towns you go through, when driving semi, over-the-road. Three quarters of the US; looks the same, through a windshield.

06/14/13 11:25 PM

#1078

Jim Cejka

Terri,

There are small towns and there are small towns. I moved to one and about the third person I met told me you have to live there at least 10 generations before anyone would consider you a resident or do business with you. I moved to another and in 2 weeks the local little paper ran a humerous article about me being known as "the guy who bought Grandpa Muellers house," and everybody was super welcoming. And those 2 towns were only about 80 miles apart. There's more of a teeter-totter risk in moving to a small town. Fortunately, the heavy guy is usually on the good side.

06/15/13 07:41 AM

#1079

Melody Jones (Parker)

I lived in the small town of Lake Mills, Wisconsin after graduation from high school. I was living with an aunt and uncle who had a lovely large home on Ferry Drive, right on the lake. They were pillars of the community and very active in church. In January, I dyed my light brown hair blonde and styled it differently. That weekend, I went bowling with my uncle. In church on Sunday, a "friend" of my aunt told her that her husband was seen around town in the company of a young blonde "hussy". When she got home and related the "gossip" to my uncle and I, all three of us had a good belly laugh together!

06/15/13 08:08 AM

#1080

The small town thing isn't that hard. The trick is, as soon as you have enough boxes unpacked, get out and volunteer for something. Soup kitchen? Town square garden? Here, it's Friends of the Library and lighthouse museums. As soon as they figure out that you'll show up when you say you will and do what you say you're going to do, you'll be on the board. Then only the most curmudgeonly of diehards will question your credentials as "one of us".

Great story, Melody. That "friend" should have spent more of her church time in the pew, sitting quietly and listening to the sermon, and less time flapping her mouth. The other secret to success in a small town: lead an exemplary life, like Caesar's wife - beyond suspicion.

06/15/13 09:48 AM

#1081

Jim, your first small town reminds me of the towns in Massachusetts. I spent 2 years near Boston, courtesy of Uncle Sam. If you can't trace your family back to the Mayflower; you'll always be an outsider. It doesn't matter if you lived there for 20 years, as a Pillar of the community; if your neighbors house is broken into; you're the first one that they look at.

When my brother first moved to Big Falls, WI; it was the opposite. There was a 4 page newspaper, called The Pine Valley News; and, every time one of us would visit him; guaranteed to be in the next issue. " Long John's brother visited him, over the weekend; and a good time was had by all. " Everyone had a nickname.

06/15/13 10:24 AM

#1082

As a kid, I spent my summers at my aunt's house in Pelican Lake, WI. I still love that place, and we still go back to visit. I remember sitting on the front porch and watching cars go by, and my aunt knew almost every car; I remember her remarking, when her sister-in-law drove by, "I wonder where she's going, at this time?" Everyone knew what was happening with everyone else. Even the regular vacationers who came every summer were part of the community - known and "discussed". But neighborhoods in cities or larger towns are like small towns: they can be either friendly and welcoming or standoffish, with "everyone for themselves". We live on a court, and everyone knows each other in a nice way. People are always ready to help out, watch each others kids in an emergency, buy Girl Scout cookies, lend a tool, etc. The tone can be set by a few people who, as Nancy said, reach out to the community - throw a barbeque or say "hi" when they take a walk. Yet I know people in other neighborhoods who don't even know who ives next door!

06/15/13 12:34 PM

#1083

Terri - I think I would like to have YOU for my neighbor.

06/15/13 12:46 PM

#1084

Oooh - woudn't that be fun! AGAIN. Remember, we were pretty close neighbors in Kindergarten - across the alley and 2 doors down. :-)

06/15/13 03:17 PM

#1085

Oh, alleys! Such a useful construction! With those square, cement ashboxes that had a big metal lid on top and a little metal trap door at the bottom.

The nice thing about garages in alleys was that the garage door wasn't the largest fixture of the front of your house. The not-so-nice thing was that you had to schlepp your groceries along that skinny little sidewalk and open the garden gate before you got to the back door and went up the four or five curvy steps to the kitchen. That skinny little sidewalk continued around to the front of the house through what we used to call the "gangway". That's where I fell on my skooter and broke my left arm. Karsten broke his left arm on a skooter too. I wonder how many of us broke our arms on those things?

How many of us roller skated so much on those bumpy, city sidewalks (and in the alley, too) that we had scabby knees from Easter to Thanksgiving?

Ah, those were the days. (And now some of us don't even have those same knees)

06/15/13 03:53 PM

#1086

Jon just said, "Yes, the alleys are gone - the skates are gone - and the knees are gone!" I still have the scars on my knees from roller skating. But you're right - the alleys were a great way to get those hulking, traffic blocking garbage trucks off the main driving streets! And kids could play without worrying about gettng run over.

06/15/13 04:53 PM

#1087

Marian Schopp (Bringe)

Roller skating and doing cart wheels. I told my mom I would NEVER stop doing cart wheels. I tell my granddaughter that comment because she is always upside down - and she giggles at me thinking about it :) When my mom took me for my 10 year well check - the doc looked at my knees and said - yup, she's healthy :)

06/15/13 09:52 PM

#1088

Jim Cejka

The sound of those wheels on the sidewalk. As a kid, your shoe wardrobe was tennies. The only shoes that had leather soles that you could tighten your skates to were your Sunday good shoes [with an appropriate reprimand from Mom] . Boys wore long pants, so not too many skinned knees - just knee-less pants [with an appropriate reprimand from Mom]. Skating so fast that the only way I could stop was to grab that big blue mailbox on the corner, or sail out onto Silver Spring.

06/16/13 09:03 AM

#1089

What, no one rode bicycles ? My brothers and I practically lived on our bikes. We were probably the best customers at Dean's bike shop on Villard. That's a library, senior apartment building, now. We lived a block north of Silver Spring; and, a block south of Edison. My older brother still lives there. Traffic on Silver Spring never stopped us from riding our bikes.

2am one morning; we were riding 3 high; that's right, 3 high on Silver Spring.We used a parked car to get started. Stopping was easy; we just fell over. Some guy came out of Karl's bar and saw us. I wonder what he told the others; when he staggered back in. I have to admit that we weren't the sanest ones around.

06/17/13 11:21 AM

#1090

Melody Jones (Parker)

Ice skating in the winter, roller skating and bike riding in the other three seasons and always swinging on the swing set. Girls wore dresses, not pants, or shorts in the summer, so no protection on those knees. But in the summer, mine were always scrapped, from jumping off the swing while it was in the air. (I lived dangerously)...LOL! Riding a bike with one foot balancing my weight on the seat, standing up with my arms out wide (you have to be going very fast for this trick).

And yes, I don't have those original knees either, two titanium ones for me now.

I had a few lacerations that needed stitching in the ER of St. Joe's, but never broke any bones growing up. (As an adult, I broke 2 fingers and 2 toes; in 4 separate incidents.) As a senior citizen, I'm way passive in comparison.

06/17/13 02:59 PM

#1091

Do you all think there was something about growing up in Milwaukee in the 50s nd 60s that brought out the daredevil in all of us? I remember getting stitfches for a 4 inch laceration on my leg from trying unsucessfully to do a balancing act on the fence, and landing on the metal edge of the garbage can. And I was constantly taking miles-long exploration walks around Milwaukee, even as a little kid.

06/17/13 03:53 PM

#1092

Garry Sellers

Terri - I think we were left to our own imaginations as kids, which sometimes left us a bit vulnerable to our own stupidity. We were walking along a picket fence and a neighbor fell and impaled himself on a picket! He lived to tell the tale but we didn't walk that fence anymore. We left home in the mornings and often never came home until dinner. We'd go for miles and miles. Our parents didn't have a clue as to where we were. We climbed all over the mounds and equipment at Tews Cement near Teutonia and Silver Spring, right next to Pat McCarthy's house. Played on the train tressels that went over Silver Spring at 28th and one at Green Bay not to mention the ones on the train line parallel to The Mill Road. Rode my bike from 33rd and Thurston to Browning at 76th and Silver Spring in the summer to play baseball. I don't know how young we were when we took the bus downtown to the museum or the YMCA. Alleys were for basketball hoops so we could play at any time, even shoveling snow to do so. Tell me, who didn't play "Kick The Can" in the alley?ht

Nan - Terri is close to being my neighbor now and she isn't anywhere near as nice as when you were neighbors! Wild parties, barking dogs, terrible fights, police making regular visits. Poor Jon. On second thought, maybe she hasn't changed at all

06/18/13 08:28 AM

#1093

Jim Cejka

Ah yes, kick the can. What about flashlight tag? Can you imagine a bunch of kids running around at night now, hiding between houses, shining flashlights...

And riding my bike carrying a bow and arrows down to the Lincoln Park archery range.

I don't think we were daring - we were kids then and that's what kids did before video games, tweets, twitters, tableted entertainment, malls, et al.

And, Blue Cross and Blue Shield where always there for us.

06/18/13 10:25 AM

#1094

Klara Ruppert (Grigg)

I lived with the skate key on a chain around my neck every summer. Hence, skinned knees and scraped elbows! Nothing was sweeter than the time just before it got dark and you knew you were going to be called in for the night. "Alle, alle, in-free." (Or however it was spelled.) Also, I can't be the only one who has fond memories of the alley--much later than the roller-skating period--as a great place for "necking." Until my mom came and pulled me out of the car. She was a good woman, and intent on keeping me that way as well. Thanks, Mom.

06/18/13 11:19 AM

#1095

Garry, I’m shocked! Terri was once a paragon of virtue. I think California must have been a bad influence…………..

Jim – Ya, try now to go down the street with a load of lethal weapons on your back. Right.

Klara, thanks for reminding me about “allee, alee, in free”. Another important “alley landmark” for me: I was allowed to ride my bike down to the end of our block (on the sidewalk, of course) and then come back by way of the alley. It seemed like forever before I was allowed to actually go around the block, and find out what was there on the other side (it was more two-flats, more kids, and more sidewalks with cracks).

My world was pretty limited; no one had time to cart me around to have “experiences”. Unlike our two-year old grand daughter, I didn’t fly on a plane or get a passport until I was 26. Got one new pair of shoes a year (the week before school); wore hand-me-downs from my cousin; had a “vacation” every summer at my aunt and uncle’s farm, started sewing my own clothes in 8^th grade. And never knew what I was missing.

06/18/13 12:50 PM

#1096

Gary, Gary - don't I wish life were that exciting. My biggest thrill nowadays is getting tomatoes on my tomato plants - oh yes, and the beans are coming too! I had forgotten about "Alley Alley en free!" That must translate to something in French. Allez, allez.. . . . . okay you linguists out there! Do you remember that when we wanted to play with a friend, we'd just go up to the door and say "Call for _______" - and either they would come out, or their mom would tell us they couldn't right now. Perhaps "grounded" - but we didn't call it that. I can't believe our parents just let us roam free all over Milwaukee. My Congress Schooi classmates and I would hop on the bus because we HAD to find a book in the main library. But then, once we were downtown, off to other adventures.

06/18/13 05:26 PM

#1097

Garry Sellers

Did we have a different phrase on 33rd Street? We said, "Olly Olly oxen free!" ... as Wikipedia says, is suspiciously close to, "Alle, alle, auch sind frei!" .... "everyone, everyone also are free". Makes sense in a German town.

06/18/13 05:46 PM

#1098

Oh Garry, if Terri is anything like me, she wouldn’t know a bong if it fell into her lap!

I guess the sixties would have been different for us, had we not married so early (fifty years, next year!) Yes, I knew a few in ’62 in Madison who dabbled with LSD, but they were pre-med, and could get weird stuff. By the time the riots and Father Groppi were the big news in Milwaukee, my concern was that the park where I usually took our toddler had armed guards and tanks in it. A very jarring scenario! So, we basically sat out the hippie scene. Then came the 70’s and everyone was big on “open marriage”. We sat that one out too – didn’t seem like a great idea. So, here we are, with gray hair, arthritis, and lots of shared history.

06/18/13 08:38 PM

#1099