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Jennifer, Spaight Area & People
Beaches Moulton Ct. raised in 2005 Clark's Coins on Winnebago Sunshine Supermarket Gas station on willy that gave out glasses and stuff from a glass display case by the pumps. Amoto's Grocery Space Port on State St. Barber shop by old Arcade Lanes & Nibble Nook 117 Leon St. |
Bobby Gile
The first best friend I can remember is Bobby Gile. The day Deb and I met him coming home from school he was riding a tricycle. He wasn't real friendly, I seem to recall a smart-alecky attitude. I think it was over me asking what his name was. When Deb told him his name was Bobby it really surprised him. He didn't realize it was on his bike license plate.
We lived on the same block so we hung out at each others houses and in the neighborhood a lot. Their house was on the same block of First St., just off the corner accross from the church. There was a parking lot on the corner and the house that "Big Don" lived in was on the other side of the lot. Big Don's real name was Don Moon but we called him Big Don to differentiate him with Bobby's brother Donny. We had a blast one day running around the parking lot on a windy day dodging the leaves falling from the trees. We wanted to do it again the next day but there wen't any leaves left. Today there is a garage and garden where that parking lot used to be.
Bobby's family didn't have a lot of money. I didn't realize it at the time but I remember my mom saying something about us eating mayonnaise sandwiches. No meat or anything else on the sandwich. At that age I would have never thought of something like that. I actually thought they were good tasting.
The family was into stock car racing. Bobby used to talk about Dick Trickle & Johnny Ziegler, two Wisconsin racing legends. We used to run around making noises like fire trucks and police cars. We were imitating what we saw on a TV show we liked at the time called Emergency.
I didn't see much of Bobby's oldest brother Bill or his sister Judy because they were out of the house at that time. Another brother, Donny, who was older than us was still around. Donny was a typical older brother, only doing stuff with us when he had nothing better to do, and being rude to us when he did. I remember one time he handed Bobby a sandwich. Since Donny wasn't normally inclined to do nice things like this Bobby was suspicious and opened it up. It had cat poop in it. I remember laughing at many references to "Cat Poop" sandwiches after that.
Bob's mom, Evelyn, was a drinker. She wasn't around a lot I think because she was always at a bar. I can rememebr being in the Ideal and Crystal Corner at a very young age with her. Evelyn got very sick and died. I don't remember what she had I just remember her boyfriend telling Bobby "You have one very sick mother". Bobby went to live with his sister Judy and her family (Erv) in Oregon. I kept in touch with him for a while spending the night and doing stuff on the farm.
Bob Moore & Kent Heinz
Were they really friends?
Bob Lived on First St., next door to Mr. French. Bob was a rough kid with a bad temper. He had like 6 or 7 brothers. Today he has a criminal record that's just unbelievable. I can remember being in his house a lot. Vauge memories of his "Old Lady" and "Old Man" as he called them, and a few of his brothers. Moved to Talmage St.
Kent lived on the corner of Winnebago and Buell St. His family seemed kind of snobby. Played chess. Shoveled driveway while dog Shep barked at us.
Bikes stolen by Law Park
Quentin Falkenstein
Rusk St., Rick Yanke, Doug & Mark Nelson
Father Ed - Died of cancer, Southern trip
Mother Virginia - Jewelry, Black Men, Cats
Steve & Paulette
David
Brothers almost my parents age, his parents almost my grandparents age
Snuck into drive in, Saturday Night Fever
I moved and we grew apart, Quentin did more drugs and got in trouble
Don Huggins & Ronnie Peterson
Ronnie - Rick & Sheri
Don's older brothers & sisters, Nerf bb
bb at the church parking lot
Richie Pobanz
Upham St. then Tomahawk
Played Hide-n-Seek
Father Dick - Town Pump
Mother Peggy
Bob - Paralized
Teri - Murdered
Building Models, Army stuff
Bus rides up to Tomahawk, Stevens Point, Snakes
Tom Brandt
====================================== Marquette School ======================================
I went to Marquette from Kindergarten through 8th grade. That's 10 years when you throw in Junior Primary. My mom decided to send me to school when I was only 4 because she thought I was becoming too much of a mommys boy. I apparently was too imature so they put me in Junior Primary after kindergaten rather than first grade. The kids I knew who went into 1st grade teased me about flunking.
The first main doorway I can remember faced Spaight St. We used to line up in front of this door before school. We played a game where a teacher would call a student up to the top of the steps and they would try and guess who was holding something behind their back. These steps were eventually taken out and the doorway sealed up. After that the entrances on each corner of Thornton Ave. were used as the main entrances. The one at Spaight for elementary and the one at Jennifer for Middle schoolers.
I was the first president of Marquette elementary. I don't really know how that came to be. When it was decided that there was going to be a president I think someone just said hey Ron should be president and things snowballed from there. We had some kind of fundraiser to get new balls and stuff for the playground. After they were ordered it kept getting delayed and they didn't arrive until after the school year was over.
I can remember being in the cafateria for lunch. When we were done eating we could walk out the back door to a paved area between two wings of the school that led to the playground. This area would disapear as it was the site of the new library. They called it the LMC for Learning Materials Center I think. Prior to that I remember the library being on the second floor along Jennifer St. at the end near the playground. This is where the chess club met. For a time chess was pretty popular with us.
The Plyground. Tetherball, Monkey Bars.
Behind the playground there was a large field. Way in the back corner there was a break in the fence (or did we climb?). We would sneak out there during lunch and go up to the Sunshine Markett and buy candy. Wacky Waffers were the big thing then. One time when it was really foggy I went out into the field and couldn't see the school.
New Library, I can also rememebr the big gym being built.
I was a pretty good artist. I loved to draw Snoopy.
Teachers
Kids
====================================== First Street Area & People ======================================
I lived in this house from birth (Madison General) until the summer of 1980 when we moved to 117 Leon St. The house was heated with hot water radiators and the pipes that ran throughout the house were always very warm in the winter. Some mornings when I was cold I would sit on the radiator in the living room next to the couch. It would get so hot I would have to sit on a towel. We poured water into pans that were attached to the back of the radiators, using a milk carton, to keep the house humidified.
The house was a three flat with us having the entire downstairs, and two apartments on the 2nd floor. I can only remember one person living in the back apartment upstairs the whole time we lived there, Marv Grinde. In the front apartment upstairs for many years was a sweet old couple who we were very close to, John & Elma Morrell. We used to go up there and borrow stuff a lot. John used to tell us if we ever needed him in an emergency to bang on those water pipes that went through our apartment up to theirs. I remember Alma coming down one day and saying that she couldn't wake John up and that he was blue. "You don't think he's going to die on me do you"
After that a younger guy who played the drums moved in. We got to know him too. Marijuana plant to Karls house.
Back in those days doctors still made house calls. I can remember a doctor coming several times because I had bad earaches. There was some syrupy goop in small plastic packages mom would have to put in my ear while I laid on my side. There was also a door to door salesman that would come around. He had a huge basket with cleaning supplies and stuff in it. I used to try and talk my mom into buying any toy that might have been in it.
We rented the house from the Trinity Lutheran church across the street. I used to walk rent money over to the office there.
Backyard
We had lots of space in the back yard. The driveway went all the way past the house to a garage but there was a grassy area behind the house that went back on the other side of the garage to a larger grassy area behind it. There was the big green apple tree, several plumb trees, a berry bush and rhubarb that grew back there. I loved to climb those trees. In the fall when the fruit we didn't eat fell to the ground it attracted a lot of bees.
Kathy Karls lived in the apartment next door in the back for a while. This is the same apartment where a guy (family?) lived that had a female dog named Bomar. Our dog Droopy had pups with Bomar. I remember him naming some of the pups "Bomire" and "Droopmire".
I used to shoot baskets until all hours of the night in the back. I can remember listening to Cheap Trick Live at Budikahn and STYX Pieces of Eight while I was playing. One time Mike Connery stopped by and decided to show off by dunking the basketball. The rim must having been only about 8 ft high because he could never have come anywhere near dunking on a 10ft rim. The backboard must have been pretty week because when he hit the rim it broke off and fell to the ground. My dad must have put up a new one after that.
Play Areas
East Madison Clinic - The grassy area in front of the clinic was pretty small but still bigger than anything else close so we played football and stuff there. The ball would end up in the street a lot. The brick wall with the lights that shined up on the building made for good chairs. We also used the parking lot in back on occasion. Climbed up on the roof a few times, needed to get the football.
Parking Lot - A 6 foot fence separated the house and yard from a large parking lot. That open paved area served as a playground in
many ways for us. Frisbee, football, skateboarding, Bike riding. In the winter snow plows pushed all the snow to the back creating a large
hill. The parking lot was already elevated from the train tracks so it made a great place to slide, build tunnels. A Kid got tine poked
through hand.
Train Tracks - The train tracks that ran near the house was another area we spent a lot of time.
We used to run along side the trains and grab ahold of the metal ladders attached to the side of the cars and pull ourselves up. Some days we would just be walking with not much to do and then the railroad signs would start dinging. We'd look at each other and then just start running for the tracks with no words being said. I think I did this with Bobby Geil, Bob Moore and maybe Kent. Sometimes we would ride for long distances and end up with a long walk back home. We would cross streets where cars were sitting facing us. Once in a while there would be bushes that needed to be cut back more and they would scrape us. One time a train started going really really fast. We had no choice but to jump off or end up who knows where. I hit the ground and tumbled head over heals. It hurt pretty bad.
There were lots of gardens along the tracks that we used to "raid" at night. Cucumbers, tomatoes, Calarabi, Carrots, sometimes we would even bring a salt shaker along. One night someone must have called the police on us. We ran from the squad car and hid in the tall brush or a garden while he shined his flashlight around. He didn't see us so he left.
Leaving Pennies on the tracks so the trains would crush them was another diversion. If you got to them right after the train went through they would still be warm. Other times we would see how far we could walk on the tracks, balancing without putting a foot down.
We could just let Droopy out the front door to go down to the tracks and do his business. Seems like a bad idea now but he would always stay in the area not crossing any streets. When he was bored he would just come back to the house and sit in front of the door. He did get at least one dog pregnant.
The Yahara River - I spent a lot of time in and around the Yahara river when I was younger. We used to wade in it, swim in it, jump off the bridges, and play in the fields beside it. We would ware shoes when jumping off the bridges because sometimes you hit bottom and there was always junk in there.
Bobby and I used to walk across the train bridges on the outside which was pretty tricky because the ledge was narrow and there were bars to go around.
One time Quentin had this big inner tube and with Rick Yanke we paddled around asking boats to throw us their ski rope. Some would and we had a blast. Another time we tied a rope on a tree near the mouth to lake Monona. We would wait for boats and time it so we swung out over them and scared them.
There's a footbridge right at Jennifer St. & Marquette school. This was the bridge that when I was in school some tough guy was always going to throw someone off of. Never happened.
We would spend hours walking along looking for crayfish & watching people fishing for carp.
There were some people along the river we used to stop and see. I remember an older woman who lived on the corner of the Yahara and E. Main St. It was at her house I saw a remote control for the first time. There was another woman a couple houses down we used to stop and see. This may have been who I was with when I saw Snowball. She pointed him out and we must have talked with him. Being a young kid I made the statement when we walked away that he stunk. She said Everyone's beautiful in their own way. She was what I would describe as a flower child/hippie type.
Tenney Park - Fishing all day. Sunfish, Bluegiles and the Northern pike from the Marston Bridge. Bridges; Marston, Zimmerman, Foot, Steel
Trinity Lutheran Church - We used to sneak into the church a lot. Just run around mostly, sometimes we took stuff.
Didn't have much else to do I guess. Went to Cub Scout and Boy Scouts in the church too. Played in the huge window wells.