Posted on Saturday, 26th April 2008 by Bruce
The years sure do fly by quickly, don’t they?
For many who are natives of Milwaukee, certain forgotten memories about this city (which has evolved into this metro area) can often be difficult to explain to outsiders. To this day, when visiting friends in other cities, telling them I need to find a TYME machine because I need to reload on cash, they’ve been known to ask me whether I plan to use it to go into the future, or into the past.
For those of us raised on beer-soaked brats who are fortunate enough to have defied medical science and reached a certain age, it’s fun to look back at the forgotten (and often, entirely forgettable) subtleties of being a Milwaukeean. Dig deep into the memory banks, to a time when a summer night’s family outing to Storm’s in Brookfield for some mini-golf was “a trip out to the country”. To a time when you could visit the “Leaning Tower of Pizza”, a Dutch windmill, and grab your “provisions” at a drive-through liquor store, all without leaving a two-block stretch of Appleton Avenue.
And let’s not even bring up how many of us were dumb enough to sit in the bleachers at County Stadium until 4:00 AM (night after night!) just for the chance to see ourselves on the “big screen”… pretending we were residents of a different city, rooting for a different team.
For other lifelong residents of the area, this could be a fun way of reminiscing… and a topic we can all join in on, regardless of our political bent. For those more recently introduced to the area, this could be a chance to learn something you didn’t know about Milwaukee’s past.
Let’s make this a thread that even John Gurda can be proud of.
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31 Responses to “The Saturday, “Old School Memories of Milwaukee” discussion”
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April 26th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Dandelion Park in Muskego. Man, I thought that was “way” out in the country. Ha, ha.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Bubblers!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:00 am
A big day when we were kids was to walk to the Villa and watch the monster matinee. Or a walk to Ben Franklin for penny candy. How about the big shopping trip to GEX?
April 26th, 2008 at 8:08 am
And who could forget getting the weather from Albert the Alley Cat
April 26th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Retrcom has a great Retro Milwaukee section. Be sure to check out the many pages of it
http://www.retrocom.com/retromilw/milwretro.htm
April 26th, 2008 at 8:35 am
The Milwaukee Public Library has a wonderful searchable Remember When digital collection online
I think it is the old Green Sheet material?
Click on the “Remember When” collection link for the images & text http://www.mpl.org/file/digital_remember_index.htm
April 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Or when Goerke’s Corners had a ramshackle grocery store and an actual Service Station?
Or when there was Pate-brand gasoline?
Or when the Bluemound Road Alioto’s restaurand WAS a genuine Chicago Mafia hangout?
April 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Dutchland Dairy !
April 26th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I remember going downtown with my Dad and looking up at the highway being built in the air near Marquette.
April 26th, 2008 at 11:53 am
going under the hoan bridge late at nite/or early int he morning to watch the submarine races!!!!
April 26th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
The Kooky Cooky House.
April 26th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Capitol Court.
April 26th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
The ice skating rink at Mayfair, the old barber shop on 92nd and North, riding the bus without worrying about crime and County Stadium.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Here’s a good link on Milwaukee’s architecture.
http://people.msoe.edu/~reyer/mke/
April 26th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Well, sorry, I’m not a life-long resident of Milwaukee but I hope its still alright if I interject my memories…I did grow up in a family that made very regular drives up your way.
German Meat Markets! We used to go with my Grandparents ALL the time. Those were the neatest little shops ever and they had the greatest German chocolate. I’d get so excited when we went my folks had to stick a huge bottle of Pepto in the glove compartment to keep my stomach settled so we wouldn’t have to stop every 15 minutes.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
For those of you interested in old photos of Milwaukee — I know I’ve posted this before — but the UWM digital archives has a pictorial history of Milwaukee broken down by neighborhoods.
Perhaps it will bring back memories for some, although I suspect many of the photos are well before most of our time…
April 26th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Jeni. Southside Sausage Shop comes to mind. Probably somewhere on Mitchell Street.
April 26th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Diana: It was on Mitchell Street, just west of Goldmann’s. My great-uncle, Jack Cook, was one of the owners. I always enjoyed when my grandfather took me down to visit uncle Jack, because he’d always give me a smoked, natural casing hot-dog… which was something my mom would have never allowed in the house!
In keeping with a tradition for males in my family, Uncle Jack died of heart complications at a fairly young age. Probably had nothing to do with a lifetime of smoked meat consumption.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
The train station at the east end of Wisconsin Avenue and Michigan St (I think the MTA structure covers some of that ground now). I used to ride that train to visit my Grandparents in Ironwood, Michigan when I was a little kid. And then there were the streetcars and trolley buses with their overhead power wires. The toboggan slide in Riverside Park and the ice skating pavilion on the west side of the Milwaukee River down below the Locust Street Bridge. Now that IS ancient history!
April 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
The Natatorium!
Oh…there’s a story there…
April 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Actually, Dave, I remember when the natatorium had been converted to a restaurant with live dolphin shows. I think it only survived in that incarnation for a couple of years…
April 26th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Working as a newspaper delivery boy for the Journal in the early 1970s, I recall a 15 year-old coworker from the Milwaukee Sentinel being killed by a bomb while doing his route.
A group of bikers had planted exposives under a six pack of beer. The paper boy, who attended Marhsall High School, discovered the six pack first. I think the case is still open.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Sorry….I’m Indianapolis born and raised….but I’ve at least been around long enough to remember Northridge before it’s demise…..even WITH it’s movie theater….last movie I saw there was “Contact” with Jodie Foster…..
April 28th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Growing up near Villard Avenue, I fondly remember Wilberts Bakery (the Saturday morning lines would stretch out the door, and down the sidewalk), Shorty’s Restaurant, Neds Pizza when it was in a basement, and the House of Homemade Sausage where the smell was undescribably delicious!
April 28th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Santa Claus arriving by helicopter at Southgate Shopping Center.
Carrying 15 cents in your pocket for a pay phone call, to let your parents know where you are. (Usually from a glass phone booth)
Seeing the premere of the movie Patton with my Dad at the Southtown theater.
An occassional sonic boom from a high flying jet that rattled the whole house.
Clean, efficient city government.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
How about….. Alexander’s Restaurant! My aunt and uncle (Bob and Sophie)owned and operated this great eating place. (Used to be at 967 W. Lincoln Ave). Served some of the best steaks, seafood and hamburgers in town. The service was always outstanding. Mayor Meier and Police Chief Harold Breier could be found there many a day for lunch. Lots of sports celebs would dine there, too…(when games were played at County Stadium)Packer greats Jim Taylor ,Paul Hornung and Ray Nitchke, ML umpire Stan Landis, Braves players Johnny Logan, Eddie Mathews, Lew Burdette and, of course, Warren Spahn have been known to stop for dinner. Lots of memories there.
April 28th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Thank you.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:20 am
I remember going to the public pools in the parks and having to wear swim caps and having your feet inspected before you went swimming.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:55 am
I remember walking to County Stadium from out house on 60th St. near Hawley Rd. and the Natatorium which was nearby as well. The best one was being 5 years old and being able to safely bike from my house to watch the cars race at State Fair Park.
Someone help me out, I as a little kid around the late 60′s early 70′s riding on a little kidde “monorail” that was on the ceiling. Anyone remember something like that. I want to say Goldmann’s or Woolworth’s in West Allis. Anyone?
September 6th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Does anyone know where to get/see old copies of the Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet? I’m looking
for a copy of one with a boy fishing at the Washington Park lagoon. It was on the Green Sheet cover between 1970 & 1976. Did anybody out
there save these? I’d love to find it – was of my father as a child & I lost the one I had saved.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I am going through my Grandmother’s papers and have found several old postcards from 1907-1915 of Wisconsin where my Grandmother grew up. Am interested in selling them.