I'll tell you, man, I admire flat attendance.
I really do.
I couldn't do what they do.
They're for safety, first of all.
They've got to put up with so much garbage from people.
Have you ever been sitting in your seat and you see somebody trying to fit something
in the overhead rack that you know ain't going in there, like in a million years, you
know?
You're looking at them like, what kind of perception problems is this guy I have?
And the flat attendance are so nice.
They run up and act like it's close.
You know, they run up there.
Oh gosh.
Oh, I don't know if that's going to get up there.
We can check it for you.
You're moron.
That's what I would do.
I would last like nine seconds at that job, you know?
I would just run up, hey, does that look like it's going to fit?
What the hell's the matter with you?
You got this much room.
You got like a dead yak.
You don't see all these people jammed up behind you?
Oh, this is your world.
Oh.
Oh, it's all about you.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be a good cheer.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
It's the happiest season of all.
With those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings when friends come to call.
It's the happiest season of all.
There'll be parties for hosting marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow.
There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmas as long as I go.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
There'll be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near.
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
There'll be parties for hosting marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow.
There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmas as long as I go.
Love Andy Williams and Christmas to them.
He's one of those people, you know.
I'm picking up at the library today, the Andy Williams Christmas TV show on DVD.
There's another archaic term DVD.
But they have them on DVD where you can watch compilation to the Andy Williams Christmas
shows.
And I grew up watching that Kelly Cruz is here executive director of the downtown
Racine Corporation.
I'm a lot older than you, but I remember growing up to used to run all these Christmas
specials.
Every star had their own Christmas special on TV Andy Williams had it and they had Perry
Como had his and Bing Crosby had his and whatever.
And I always loved him and I we were going to Branson.
Why I was going to Branson, I don't know, but we decided to go to Branson.
And we wanted to go see Andy Williams at the Moon River Theater and I said, wow, let's
see Andy Williams.
This guy is Mr. Christmas.
So we get down to Branson, I go to pick up my tickets and there's a sign Mr. Williams
will not be appearing due to illness.
Now he never recovered.
He passed away from that illness.
So he never went back to the theater.
But we saw Ann Margaret filled in for him.
That's pretty big.
You got Ann Margaret filling in for you.
The Ann Margaret probably shouldn't been there because she had to be held up by the two
dancers.
They would hold her arms so she wouldn't fall down while she was dancing.
But I saw Ann Margaret.
That was good.
And the Lennon sisters were there.
So it was a good show.
But I wanted to see Andy Williams.
He just never recovered.
He passed away.
So how are you?
I'm doing great.
You getting all your downtown stuff done?
Oh, always, always working ahead.
I saw the Christmas tree.
Now this is an artificial tree and this is the first time you use an artificial tree.
Yes, it is.
And it's a we're excited about it because there's so much potential and it's so
much easier.
And we're not cutting down a healthy fur.
And there's a sneaking of the people's back yards when they're away and cutting down
their trees.
LED lights that actually work that we don't have to replace.
There is a lot that actually goes into trying to get a real tree.
I'm on your mid square every year.
It has to be a certain height.
Can't be too big or too small.
It can't be near electrical lines.
It can't be near a house where it's been next to another fur where it's not symmetrical.
Then you have to get somebody to cut it down.
Then you have to get somebody to decorate it.
It looks great.
Thank you.
I really remember that.
It's beautiful.
I think it's beautiful.
It is so perfectly symmetrical.
Yes, it is.
And you said you can actually make that taller if you want.
Yes.
So the plan is that every year we'll put some more money in our funds and it will grow
by eight feet at a time from the bottom up.
So that's exciting.
We're going to add a star to the top next year.
So incremental improvements.
What do you store it?
Can't be somebody's basement.
We're still working on that.
You get a box and put it away in the attic somewhere.
You can't do that.
Now it is beautiful.
Now could you imagine that is your problem doing the tree here?
Could you imagine Rockefeller Center with their tree?
They have to find a tree that big and they do.
They find them upstate New York and Pennsylvania.
They can't go too far away because they got to slurp that thing back to New York City and
they've got to get it through Manhattan.
I mean, it's not like you could just put it on this huge truck.
You've got to wrap it right because you go through the streets of Manhattan during
rush hour of the tree.
I cannot imagine because it was so stressful every year just trying.
We probably drove by 20 to 30 houses each year of people who said they had a tree potentially
and there's always an issue.
This is so much nicer.
It's beautiful.
I'm excited.
And you don't have to worry about it.
The needle's falling off.
Now I always felt bad when you took down the tree because it Christmas was over and then
you see that empty spot.
Now you do fill it up with other stuff.
You put other stuff in it.
But the first day that it's empty always depressed me.
I always felt bad because Christmas was all over at that point and so I saw the people
hanging up the wreaths on their phone post right at the last second.
You got them all up there.
The wreaths and the lights on the post.
So it's all Christmassy downtown and downtown used to be the hub of Christmas activity
because if you watch the movie, a Christmas story, it's all about downtown where the movie
takes place.
Absolutely.
Now I didn't have it.
I had a downtown when I grew up, but it wasn't the Christmas hub.
The local shopping center was.
That was the Christmas hub.
That's where Santa.
He never appeared at the downtown or Santa always hung out at the shopping center.
Well, that shopping center was gone.
The downtown is still there.
Yes, and going strong.
And we are giving people some great reasons to actually come down.
I mean, last weekend alone, we had the Grinch was downtown all day into the evening,
gave out over a thousand dollars in gift cards to downtown Racine.
Wow.
And my boss, the Grinch was down there.
The Grinch was in a good mood on Saturday and that was phenomenal.
Thousands of people were down there taking pictures, giving up candy to the kids.
And of course, I mean, everybody likes free gift cards.
It's like anything free, not just gift cards.
Yeah.
So let's talk about the, by the way, it's, I think it's ironic that downtown areas got
hit hard when the shopping malls went up.
Now the shopping malls coming down, isn't that ironic?
And downtown is still there, but the malls being taken down to build something else.
That is true.
I mean, these merchants are certainly gone the extra mile to make sure that the
downtown is still there.
I mean, it's not an easy road to success as a downtown merchant.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it, right?
These are people who put their heart and soul into their business, into their merchandise,
into their staffing.
They eat, live and breathe it.
And that's why they succeed.
You know, there's actually a soul behind the business compared to a shopping mall
that can easily be torn down and nobody, nobody feels, it feels like it's happening
here in Racine.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I mean, nobody feels that hurt the same way.
The, these small business owners really, I mean, this is, this is their livelihood.
So I think just recognizing the importance of that and how important downtowns are is,
is the catalyst for how we're going to continue to succeed, right?
Making the effort to go downtown, making the effort to stop at a restaurant, making
an effort rather than buying a gas card or an Amazon gift card for somebody, stop downtown,
grab a restaurant gift card, grab a, to a store, maybe they've never been to.
I mean, those types of things are super easy and go a long way.
My question was, and I wrote it down, how many restaurants, including Sixth Street, and
all those?
There's a lot of restaurants around here.
Yeah.
Kind of, we have over 20 different ethnicities of restaurants and about 30 plus restaurants,
which is insane.
We are a foodie district.
We have every ethnicity of a restaurant that you could ask for in a 12 block district,
which is pretty exciting.
My mother's favorite restaurant.
Now my mom came to Lever and Racine in her later years for sticky rice.
Now that was her favorite restaurant on her 88th birthday, 89th and 90th birthdays was
at sticky rice.
And we have pictures of her.
I'll show you where these birthday glasses we made or where at sticky rice, but she just
loved it.
She said, this is what I said, we didn't want to have a birthday dinner, sticky rice.
And she didn't know the name it.
So I'm going to that restaurant.
We always go to and hit my nose on this thing.
And she just loved it and it was downtown.
My brother and sister-in-law came to a visit and they said, this is wonderful.
This is what a nice downtown area because they came from Long Island.
And then they didn't have a downtown.
Yeah, you can't recreate downtowns, which is very interesting.
So you have some of these newer communities that are trying to actually recreate a downtown
atmosphere.
And you just can't because you have the architecture.
It's in the main street.
It's in the hub of the city.
We're very lucky to have such a beautiful downtown right on the lake, gorgeous architecture,
well maintained, very walkable.
You ever see pictures of downtown years ago?
The two people I had in yesterday, Carol G. and Forte and Jim Mercere, were here and
they did a presentation at the Golden Rendell, I don't know if you've seen it, but and they
don't have these lights anywhere anymore, but they used to have these, even movie theaters
having these big giant vertical neon lights that hung from the buildings.
They didn't go out in the street that were vertical, even when I was growing up, the
theaters all had these giant vertical, I don't have any more.
But it was so bright and lit up downtown.
The only thing I never understood back in the day when they had the movie theaters downtown
and all the, when did people park their cars?
Now the answer everybody gives me, it's very easy to give this answer today.
Well, they took the boss and they walked.
Now they didn't walk, but it was 10 degrees outside from their house to downtown.
I don't know how people got around and where they, where they parked their cars.
If they went down, movie theaters, these were movie palaces, had over a thousand seats
in them and you had two movie theaters on a Saturday night.
Maybe that's a thousand people altogether, maybe if they're half filled.
Where do they park their cars?
I know.
It's, I don't know when those ramps were created, but I do know there's tons of parking
downtown now.
I mean, multiple ramps, two dollars all day.
I mean, it's, and that's fine.
When you have two movie theaters with each a thousand plus seats each, I mean, that's
a lot on a Saturday night, but yeah, now there's plenty of parking downtown.
You got the ramps, you got the garages, they on street parking, you have plenty now,
but when they had two movie theaters, oh, how they did that.
It's 719 at WRJ and Kelly Cruz from the downtown Racine Corporation is here.
Got sunshine today with a higher 40, a lot different than yesterday.
Some clouds tonight, lows around 30, partly sunny with a high of 44 tomorrow right now,
a clear sky sunshine coming out, 25 degrees at WRJ and
WRJ
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?
Rudolph the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose,
and if you ever saw it, you would even say it goes.
All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say,
Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?
Then how the reindeer loved him, as they shot it out with glee.
Rudolph the red nose reindeer, you go down in history.
Rudolph the red nose reindeer, you go down in history.
Rudolph the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose,
and if you ever saw it, you would even say it goes.
Rudolph the red nose reindeer, I could be wrong on this one,
but I think it was a marketing ploy from, what was that department store?
The department store, you should know this, your downtown person,
you should know department stores, they had a catalog too at one time.
Anyway, it was their marketing ploy.
They put Rudolph the red nose reindeer coloring books in,
and that's when they wrote a song about it, and that's how it came about.
I'm pretty sure, don't quote me on that.
Before we get to downtown Racine, I've got a little quick trivia for you here.
723, by the way, WRJN.
Frosty the snowman, you're very familiar with the TV show in the song, right?
Is that...
Alright, Frosty the snowman TV special is older than the song.
True of false.
Remember that Frosty the snowman TV show that rank in bad, bad type of...
I would say false, I think the TV show came first.
The animation classic was based on the song.
Genotry released it in 1950, that's the song...
No, that's not the song you just heard.
One year after he did Rudolph the red nose reindeer, that's what you just heard.
In the cartoon, Frosty becomes a normal snowman whenever this scarf blows off.
True of false.
I guess you didn't watch the TV special.
He does have a scarf, but the top hat is what brings him to life when they put the top hat on him.
He'd aired on TV every single year since it debuted.
True of false.
True.
It is true.
He'd aired on CBS every year since 1969.
It's the longest, continuous, running TV special in history to air on the same network.
Frosty the snowman with Burr lives doing Frosty the snowman.
We just played a Burr live song two a few minutes ago.
My favorite TV special ever you and I mentioned this before was Mr. Mugu's Christmas Carol.
I have it on DVD.
I never saw that one.
Oh, it's amounted with you.
You got to go watch Mr. Mugu's Christmas Carol.
And then all fairness, it's from the early 60s.
But they don't run it on TV anymore.
They just you get have to own it.
And what really depressed me was you can't watch the peanuts and not peanuts.
Yeah, Charlie Brown.
You can't watch those anymore unless you pay for them now because Apple Plus owns them.
It used to be on ABC and CBS every year though.
Those Charlie Brown specials, the Halloween, the Thanksgiving and the Charlie Brown Christmas.
Got to pay for them now.
Unless you have a DVD or VHS cassette of it like I do, then you can watch him anytime for free.
Kelly.
What's that?
I just haven't had a DVD player of VHS in probably over 10 years.
What do you do with your life?
I'm working downtown.
The downtown Racine Corporation is Christmas time downtown.
I had the parade go.
I had tickets for the Racine theater girl.
I couldn't go.
I would say theater girl that day.
I would say it was definitely our best parade ever.
The best floats.
The more people than ever, the weather was beautiful.
The tree lighting was amazing.
We had extended fireworks even at the end.
It was such a good community vibe to the entire event.
It just felt like the official kickoff.
It was also landed on Veterans Day, which was really neat.
Those were the parade marshals and we did a huge salute to veterans at the beginning of the parade.
I can't believe I missed it.
I don't know.
I mean, definitely number one in the books, as far as holiday parades go.
I would say that the crowds were close to that of fourth best.
Fourth of the day parade.
Oh, I missed it.
You know, we buy season tickets.
They're seeing theater guild.
And you buy them a year in advance.
You don't think of the dates because just give me the tickets.
And you get them a year in advance.
And I found that it was the same day as our receiving theater guild tickets.
No.
I was hoping you'd say it was no good.
So I wouldn't feel bad about missing it.
Amazing.
Now, there is, I don't know if it was the Christmas parade or the same Patrick's Day parade.
But the receiving journal times took a picture of a little girl sitting there on a chair with her brother enjoying the parade.
And if you look right to the right of that picture, you'll see my foot.
Probably was not the last year's St. Patrick's Day parade because it was a couple of years ago.
Because last year's St. Patrick's Day parade was negative 20 degrees out.
Yeah.
Now it was it was negative 20 years back before COVID, which was ridiculous in March.
Well, it was our worst job.
You're lucky even getting into the Christmas time.
Yeah.
I just can't even imagine how mid March it was that cold.
But it happens.
It does.
Yeah.
St. Patrick's Day parade is always so strange because it could either be 70 degrees or negative 20.
And how long should they get to put that together?
Is it like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade where they start the next day and putting it together?
No.
We don't start the next day.
But we start about two months in advance.
Not them.
You couldn't get share for your parade.
They got it for the Macy's Thanksgiving.
You know, I put a request in.
She never got back to me.
They get share.
Actually, you know, I was surprised she did it, but she was pushing a new album that she put together.
And when they, you know, you can't do better than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade to do it.
Is she look great?
The song sounded great.
I don't know if it was pre-recorded or not, because if it was, she certainly pulled off the lip-syncing part of it well.
I was really surprised at how well she did.
They brought like a fake ice skating rink.
They slept down the 34th street in front of Macy's.
And I thought it was pretty good.
They did a great job on that parade, but you couldn't get her.
All right.
Well, maybe next year you'll get her.
The parades are always great.
I love that.
I think everybody likes parades.
I think we're seeing sort of known for having some solid parades.
Now, do you feel funny doing it in November?
No.
Because, you know, if we get snow, if it gets too cold, the dancers and the singers and the bands can't perform if it's too cold.
So, this way it's, you know, why not kick off the holiday season a little bit earlier, avoid any of those mishaps and a couple more weeks than a shopping and getting into the holiday season?
All right.
Coming up with Kelly Cruz, we're going to discuss some of the bench coming up to the downtown area in January.
That straight ahead, 729 at WRGN.
Clear skies, sunny, 25 degrees now at 729 at WRGN.
The plug is right at the back and the wire, so you can't see it.
So, it doesn't ruin the aesthetic.
The problem with this, of course, is that every night you leave it on because it looks so lovely.
And you're halfway out the stairs and you stop.
And you think there could be a fire.
It means that literally every night of December, before bed, I'm downstairs under the tree.
I'm just going to get you help me.
I can't reach the button.
The button.
Here comes sand, it's all here comes sand, all around.
Downside, it's all land.
Next up, and next up, and all the waves are rainded.
Pull it all around.
Well, as long as they can cheer and see it all, they'll melt in bright.
Hang your stock and then say you pray to your self-love come tonight.
Are you coming sand?
It's all here comes sand.
It's all around.
Downside, it's all around.
It comes sand.
It comes sand.
I'm gonna know, that where God is still.
I just tell the spressily.
Here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane.
Getley Cruz, executive director of the DRC, the Downtown Vests Corporation is spending this morning with us.
Now, I don't expect any of the history of that song.
Most people don't.
I always say, do you know the history of that song?
And people say, should I know it?
No, you shouldn't.
But it was written by Jean Autry.
Jean Autry was a movie star at the time.
He was the singing cowboy in the movie.
The California Angels Major League Baseball Team too.
Very wealthy guy.
Later on in this life.
Big, big business man.
He owned Golden West Broadcasters of Joan Radio and TV stations all over the Pacific Northwest.
Very nice guy from one of here.
He was in the parade.
The Christmas Lane Parade in Hollywood.
And he was the last float before the last car before Santa Claus.
And while he's going, all he can hear the kids sing, here comes Santa Claus.
Here comes Santa Claus.
And he went home and wrote the song, here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane.
I love that.
And that's where the song came from.
It was the Christmas Lane Parade.
The Hollywood Parade.
Nobody cared about him.
It was here comes Santa Claus.
All the kids yelling and he wrote that song, here comes Santa Claus.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to have the float right before Santa is always the last float in the holiday parade.
So I'm pretty sure now next year the float right before them is going to have to play that song on repeat.
Here comes Santa Claus.
Also the song Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire we talked about this earlier.
We had Mel Tormay was actually in this building.
He was appearing at the Christmas House for Cancer.
This is back in the, once say the 1990s.
He was the guest star at the Christmas House for Cancer on South Main Street.
And he wrote that song.
It was in the boiling heat of summer in Palm Springs.
He wrote down some notes.
He was so hot.
And he wrote down some songs, you know, like, oh, this would make me feel cool.
And he connected the words and sat that afternoon and wrote the Christmas song.
Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire.
Jack Frost.
That's the first words he wrote.
Jack Frost nipping at your nose.
That's the first thing you wrote.
Oh, I got it.
It's funny how these songs come around.
And I always say to you going to write one song in your life.
Make it a Christmas song because everybody uses the same song every year.
True point.
And they have to pay royalties on it.
You know, you have a hit rock and roll song.
All right, it's a hit.
And then maybe we'll play it on the oldies station.
But Christmas song every radio station plays the Christmas songs every year.
Now, you've got some big events coming up.
Let's get these out there because people are sitting there by their radio saying,
come on, don't shut up.
What do we have to, what's, what do big events do you have coming up?
Well, we still have a couple of events here to promote, you know, coming downtown.
This Friday, we have our first Friday.
So our last one of the year, Santa Claus is going to be making an appearance
with Mrs. Claus doing photo ops and giving out candy cane.
So that's 49 this Friday.
All of the shops are going to have holiday themes.
And just come down.
Do your small business shopping, go out to dinner, visit with Santa Claus.
And then really exciting is the following Saturday, December 9th.
We have what we call the Chris Kringel tour.
So we partner with Owen H. Bakery.
And we have over 30 businesses participating.
And they're going to have 30 different types of Kringel,
where you can stop by and probably do a thin slice at each place, right?
If you're trying to do the full tour.
But, you know, Owen H. does a great job of coming up with brand new Kringels every season and every year.
So we'll be highlighting some of their brand new ones.
And we have Park High School.
We'll be down there doing Christmas caroling.
And then we've got the Grinch is going to be making an on-court performance
because he was such a big hit on small business Saturday.
So he's going to be back giving away over $500 in downtown locally, local gift cards.
So just a lot of activity.
A great day to just walk around downtown.
That's from 11 to 2 on Saturday, December 9th.
So I'm going to write this down here because I'm going to repeat it later.
11 to 2 downtown.
Now we're downtown again.
All done on Main and Sixth Street.
Over 30 participating businesses.
Park High School Choir will be at Davino Gelato,
as well as the Red Onion, between those hours.
So if you can grab a nice coffee.
Yeah.
The Grinch will be down there doing photo ops at both of those locations,
as well as walking around giving gift cards.
So just a really fun, good atmosphere.
Go downtown.
Shop.
You know, grab some lunch.
Eat some cringole.
And they do a great Christmas cringole.
Yes.
That one is really good.
They do a great one.
They're the custom ones of my favorite.
But I mean, they're all good.
You can't say no to cringle.
I remember when President Obama came to through Wisconsin.
He stopped at Owen H. Danish bakery to bring back a cringle to his wife.
And he said, I bet I'm not eating it here because he finds out I'm eating this.
And this guy was skinny.
Yeah.
But he had to worry about probably because he didn't need a lot of cringle.
That's why he was skinny.
He was saying something there for us.
Oh, Davino Gelato.
Yeah.
When I do the, I host the, what do they call that?
We're seeing concert band every summer.
And every once in a while they'll ask me to narrate while the band plays.
And I always have my meetings at Davino Gelato with Mark Geichner,
who was the conductor of the band.
And we always sit there on the upper level.
Which used to be a movie theater at one time.
Davino Gelato.
Yeah.
When you sit was with a projection booth, what?
You can see where the projectors came out.
You can see the projection booth up there.
And that was an old theater.
I have pictures at home.
They had an art fair downtown once.
And my wife bought two pictures.
They were drawings.
There used to be an opera house slash later movie theater at the corner of state and main.
It's where the corner print is now.
Oh, sure.
There used to be an opera house movie theater.
There's a way of a picture of that.
And right across the gelato place was the Biju.
And they were talking a long time ago.
And you could still see where the theater was inside Davino Gelato.
If you look around, now that you know.
Now I'm going to look.
Yeah.
You know, it's so interesting because I, the DRC offices in the arcade building.
And I park in one of the underground parking ramps, which used to be a bowling alley.
So they recently just white washed it all.
But prior to that, you could actually see the bowling lanes and everything in there.
If you know what you're looking for.
If you know what you're looking for and let the can end.
That would be so cool to have an underground bowling alley in downtown Racine.
You know, in Milwaukee, there are, it was the first sanctioned bowling lanes.
They're in a bar.
And they're the very first sanctioned bowling lanes in America by the American bowling association or whatever they call it.
And whenever the PBA tour pulling, yeah, the professional ball association brings their tour through America.
They always stop there and roll a line of bowls.
You know, they call it a line when you do a one game.
They do a line on those bowling alley.
It's like an honor.
And I forget the name of the bar.
But we have a bowling alley right on the North Main Street there.
The corner of high and main, the Rhino bar as a bowling alley in there.
Oh, isn't that called?
It's the Rhino.
Yeah.
But it's a, it's a different type of bowling.
It's called something separate.
Depends.
I think it's that.
Depends.
It's going to come to me later.
I'm going to come to you.
You're off the air and you're going to call me.
It's called something else.
I'm taking a nap and you say, Hi, this is Kelly.
And I remember the name.
You know what?
Yeah.
The people who were in yesterday told you to do the, um, the growing up in Racine.
They did something called scoop the loop.
This is way before you and way before me.
It was called scoop the loop.
You ever hear of that term?
Yes.
We actually had a first Friday theme with the scoop the theme.
Oh, did you really?
Yes.
And we brought down a car show and yes.
Yes.
Yes.
There was a certain path that the kids did in their vehicles.
Did you have another link when she used to get in their cars?
Show off their cars back then.
Yeah.
They used to, they used to do scoop the loop, go around downtown.
And onto the lake front there and scoop and go around in circles.
And I guess it looked like American graffiti in the movie when they used to think their cars
and just show them off going down the main drag, cruising, scooping the loop.
That would be great if we could actually do scoop the loop first Fridays where the cars,
rather than just being parked there, are actually scooping the loop.
I always thought that the greatest downtown promotion was party on the pavement.
Now, for people don't know how that started.
They dug up the entire road and re-did the concrete on it.
And it was real mess while they were doing it.
When they got it done, the first thing they did was close down the road to traffic.
Okay.
But it was a great tradition that was started.
It was a great tradition.
We just celebrated our 20th year of it, actually.
It wouldn't be our 21st because of COVID.
It was our 20th.
We actually broadcast from the very first one and subsequent ones.
And the guy who I used to do with Tom Kramer is no longer with us.
It's the only celebration I know where they built a road.
And they said, no cars on it.
Let's walk on it.
That's the first weekend.
And it's been a tradition ever since party on the pavement.
And people who don't know about how it began, that's how it began.
They put a new road in and they closed it down the traffic and said,
we're going to walk on it today.
You know, and it's become such an incredible event.
It's the largest street festival in South Eastern Wisconsin.
Last year it actually won a state award for Best Event in the entire state.
So because there's just so much diversity that happens there.
Literally when you say that there's something for everybody.
There is.
And the other and you bring a little festival down with a mini Ferris wheel.
There's rides.
They actually bring the rides right there at the five stages of live music.
Yeah.
I mean, so many food trucks, 100 vendors, craft vendors, art vendors.
My wife loves the flea market and it comes to monument square.
They don't do it in the winter.
But in the early fall, you had the flea market.
The harbor market.
And she bucksed by local honey.
And she bought it from a guy.
But I mean, she bought out enough to get her through.
I thought enough to get it through the next few years.
But it got her through a few months because she eats a lot of it.
And she got the guys business card.
And now that's her source for local honey.
Met the guy there at that.
You called it the harbor market.
Yeah.
So it's the racing harbor market.
It's an extension of the Kenosha harbor market.
You know, so we're actually going to be expanding that next year.
So some details will be coming out.
I'll have to come back to tell you about that.
But it'll be bigger and better than ever.
I remember one year you built an ice skating rink at monument square.
It wasn't big.
It was very small.
But if you're a little kid, it was enough to skate around.
As an adult, it probably wasn't enough.
It laughed.
It didn't work out well.
You know, it was great.
The kids loved it.
I saw so many kids that got to ice skate probably for the first and only time in their entire life.
Right?
We had free ice skate rentals and just going even on their shoes being on this.
The biggest problem with it was it was a year that snowed a lot.
And we had to have Craig, Mr. Downtown, actually manually try to get that snow off every time it snowed.
You know, probably about every fifth winter, there's just more snow that we can imagine.
That happened to be that winter.
And so the upkeep of it was just a little bit too much for a free ice rink.
Well, it could have been worse.
It could have been the hottest summer on record.
The hottest winter on record.
And then you really would add a problem because you would have been slushing through the water.
But what about the ice sculpting?
Is that back again or?
Yeah, we're doing that again in February that it's called the chili ice walk, chili ice festival.
And we're going to have about 12 to 15 ice carvers out there creating their magic.
You get to watch them do it, which is really fun.
And we've started to get a lot more female carvers, which is also really fun just because in the past used to be all male.
So you get to see women with chainsaws and picks and axes and doing their thing.
And then we'll have about 15 locations that are going to give off free chili samples, which you can't go wrong with.
And then there's a little friendly competition between the businesses who has the best chili, of course.
I love it when they're chiseling like that.
And you can't make a mistake because you can't fix it.
Yeah, it's so funny because we'll watch them.
And there was always at least one mistake, which they always make it a move.
Right, they turn it into something else.
So are they all sudden have two ice sculptures when we were expecting one ice sculpture because it fell over.
But that's what makes it fun.
Yeah, it is fun.
Kelly Cruz, executive director of the downtown Racine Corporation, the DRC is here.
We're going to have a sunshine today today with a high-tier 40 increasing Claudiness tonight lows around 30.
And partly sunny with a high-tier 44 tomorrow.
Right now I think it's still 25 degrees sunshine at WRJM 1400 AM 99.9 FM 98.1 FM 749.
And hometown radio refreshed a civic media station WRJM.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Let your heart be light.
Next year troubles will be out of sight.
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Make the you'll tight gay.
Next year troubles will be miles away.
Once again as in olden days happy golden days of your faithful friend.
One near to us will be near to us once more someday soon we all will be together.
I'm the movie meet me in San Loa as Judy Garland saying that to the little Margaret O'Brien but of course Kelly you knew that.
A lot of classic Christmas songs come from movies like White Christmas didn't come stepping on the movieourt Christmas.
It came from the movie Holiday Inn.
That's where that was written for it then the song was such a big hit.
We were talking about good Christmas movies Thanksgiving movies playing strange automobiles has got to be the greatest Thanksgiving movie ever.
There are too many Thanksgiving movies out there.
But that takes place like Miracle on 34th Street is not a Christmas movie takes place during Thanksgiving the makes these Thanksgiving Day parade.
And Chris Cringle is in it because he's in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
All right Kelly Cruz is here executive director.
Hope you had a good time today by the way.
Kelly Cruz the director of the director of the DRC downtown nursing corporation.
I want to go over again.
You've got some events still coming up big December events.
Let's go over the list right now first Fridays.
Yeah the first Fridays is this Friday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
All of the stores are going to stay open late have holiday specials.
All of the restaurants of course are going to be ready for you.
A great time to pick up some gift cards do some shopping and of course meet the big man himself Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
Yes he's coming to town.
We're here at Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus will be down there as well.
And then Saturday December 9th we have a really funny event to encourage everyone to check it out.
It's called the Chris Cringle tour.
And we've got over 30 locations and businesses that are going to be sampling 30 different types of Cringle from ONH Bakery including their Christmas Cringle and their latest flavors.
That they always do a couple you know new ones every year.
And we'll have Park High School be Christmas caroling will have the Grinch making an on court performance.
I'm doing photo ops with the kids handing out candy and also giving away another $500 in local gift cards.
So he's going to be stopping unsuspecting shoppers and if you're down there you're most likely going to get one.
So what a fun day to just walk around downtown.
Take some pictures by the Christmas tree.
Eat Cringle, go to lunch and meet the Grinch.
Even stuff by the ram.
Absolutely.
They have great gifts in the ramp star.
Definitely.
What I want to see is when I go to the ramp.
I went there and I didn't.
I wasn't thinking about it at the time.
I want to go to the spot.
They used to be a bank.
Yes.
And it was robbed by John Dillinger.
John Dillinger.
And I want to go to the spot where John Dillinger stood.
I want to find out where that Keller window was.
And I forgot.
We used to actually have a studio broadcasting from there.
Oh.
With the ram is at one time before we were here in this building.
But yeah, there's so much history downtown too.
And here's something.
I took the, what's that, the walk they do, the break of homes.
Yes.
And we were downtown.
There's actually on some of these buildings.
People don't realize it.
Like patios and grassy areas on top of these, these stores.
You don't see them from the ground, but they're there.
There's also a lot of beautiful Airbnb's on top of some of these stores
that are completely renovated, gorgeously fused.
They are, you know, you don't see them from the ground level.
You don't realize how beautiful some of these apartments
and some of this outdoor areas and patios are definitely.
Yeah.
If you, the parade of homes, if they go to the downtown area,
or if they don't, take the, the parade of homes tour in Halloween.
I don't know if they still give them the haunted tours.
Yeah, they do.
That's kind of fun.
Yeah.
Some of the stories are a little out there.
But it's fun taking the walk anyway.
Absolutely.
If they're not true, which maybe they are true.
Go, go to a restaurant downtown.
There are so many great restaurants on six street, state street downtown area.
And they serve great food.
And it'll become your new favorite place.
I promise.
Just like my mother's sticky rice.
I mean, listen, Greek, Pakistani, Asian, Spanish, Italian, American.
You name it.
Whatever you like, you will find it.
And top it off with some gelato.
Definitely.
At the old Beiju theater.
And that's the, now you know, are you going to go in there next time
and look for the projections?
I'm definitely going to.
And now you're going to look for that kind of stuff.
So much happening downtown.
And then Kelly's going to come back, obviously.
We've got all of next year.
Yeah.
And I just want to mention there's also free meter parking in downtown every Saturday through Christmas.
So don't bring your change.
Don't have to worry about it.
Just go ahead and park at a meter.
And they're going to give you some grace.
This, these couple of Saturdays to promote a small business.
And if you want to just rest on Monument Square, you got the chairs.
You can sit there by the Christmas tree.
The chairs are gone for the season.
Oh, they're gone.
Sorry.
But you could take pictures about the foot.
That's true.
By the Monument, you could sit on the steps there.
There you go.
You didn't take the steps away.
We did not take that foot.
That might go viral.
You didn't take the steps.
And of course, you got the Civil War Cannon there.
Of course.
I heard a story years ago.
Kenosha tried to get that cannon.
Really?
Yeah.
Because they have a Civil War Museum down there.
Oh, that's true.
And Racine said.
Absolutely not.
Yet, no, no, no.
It's in Monument Square, which used to be Haymarket Square.
I've found an old photo.
I think it was online or somebody sent me a postcard.
When the wagons used to actually bring hay.
Yeah, we have a huge photo of that in our office.
Probably eight feet by five feet big.
But yeah, it's Haymarket Square turned into Monument Square
and became the hub of the downtown.
Thanks for coming in today.
Thank you for having me.
I'd love to come back.
You're going to come back all the time.
Believe me.
Okay, good.
This is, I'll give you the key to the front door just coming
from there.
They're up to stand outside of the call.
Kill it.
Get it right.
Kelly Cruz, who's the executive director of the Downtown Racine Corporation.
So much going downtown.
Check their website for more information.
I'm Don Rosen.
I'll catch you tomorrow morning.
Right here at 6am at WRJN Radio.
All right.
Enjoy the day's sunny.
With a high near 40 right now sunshine in 25 degrees.
Thank you.