I have two daughters, 16 and 19, so my life is pretty much just pure bliss at this point.
The 16-year-old thinks I'm an idiot, and the 19-year-old knows I'm an idiot.
It's a progression.
The one good thing about having teenagers is you can speak to them in complete sentences.
When they were small, they're only going to hear the first three words you say when they're little.
So you got to talk in those idiotic three-word parent sentences all day.
They say, hey, hey, hey!
Stop that now, stop it now.
I said now.
Yes, you will.
Yes, I will.
Yes, we will.
Turn it off, turn it down, turn it off, shut the door, shut the fridge, shut your face.
Ask your mom, go to bed, go to sleep, clean your place, have a bath, pick it up, put it down.
Don't touch that.
I said no.
No, I said, what can I say?
Say that again.
I dare you.
I hate you.
How true, how true, how true, how true.
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Bye!
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We'd like to know a little bit about your whole own plans.
We'd like to know you know to know yourself.
Look around you all we see us.
It's 7-09 at WRJN.
hometown radio refreshed.
Thank you for joining us here today.
I was telling it to show you.
This is Robert.
I just showed Jim and Sierra and Carol.
This is a picture of that kid Michael.
I told the story they didn't hear the story real quickly.
In first grade, we were in school.
And this kid who was a normal kid just started laughing maniacally.
Not loud.
He wouldn't stop laughing.
And Miss Healey told him to stop laughing.
Because he's disrupting the class.
And he wouldn't stop laughing.
So she said, Michael,
go to Mr. Dodd is our principal.
Go to Mr. Dodd's office.
He wouldn't go.
And this was so out of character for this kid.
And so she said, Michael, go.
And he wouldn't go.
So she picked them up by the arm and he started kicking her in the shins.
Over and over and over and over and over and over.
And her, she was wearing stockings.
You see the blood coming down her?
He was not kicking and he's flally.
And all the kids are sitting there with our mouths open.
We couldn't believe what we were watching.
We didn't have a helper.
She said somebody good to get Mr. Dodd.
Go get Mr. Dodd.
So one of the kids ran down to the office.
He took Michael through him in the closet and locked the door.
And he's kicking on the door.
And so she's crying because her blood's coming down.
And this is shocking.
So Mr. Dodd came in.
Mr. Dodd's like six foot five.
Nice guy.
I just spoke to him before he passed away to a nice guy.
Anyway, he's flailing the whole time.
Legs flying, you know, kicking and screaming.
And Mr. Dodd drags him down.
We never saw Michael again.
Now that was in 1961.
Never saw Michael again.
However, until yesterday.
I told my daughter the story.
She looked on Facebook and found him.
Now how can you make sure it's the same Michael?
Well, Massive Equal Park.
And he graduated Catholic High School the same year I did.
And you saw the picture.
He looks roughly the same.
And that's Michael.
So I wanted to send my daughter.
I said, what did you contact him?
I said, what am I going to say?
What happened to you after you kicked the teacher and got thrown out of school?
So I wanted to put a text down there.
There was a movie like that.
I know.
Yes.
And pretty soon I'll have somebody at my door with a hockey mask.
Yeah.
Kicking your yard.
Kicking my door with a machete.
Yeah.
I am curious to know what happened to him.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Good evening, everyone.
Hey.
You guys Post.
Yeah.
All right.
Uh boy.
Then we discuss.
I bless you.
Talk to you.
I'll be right back.
Thank you.
Hi.
Hi.
Have you already had a group with you in front of the whole segment?
Yeah.
That is because I was very worried.
It was called the store and I was there listening to her program at the library.
And after the program, I suggested, well, why don't we get together?
I have a lot of old grocery store memorabilia, you know, the giveaways, the freebies, things
like that.
So eventually we combined forces and after I retired, we started our own little presentation.
Our first one was at the library and then we moved on to the Roma Lodge and then we ended
up at the Golden Rondell, where we had what maybe about 15 presentations there, right,
Carol?
15 and then already?
Not at grocery store.
Not at all.
Yeah.
All together.
My mother used to love those presentations.
Oh, I remember you're being, I remember you bringing, and she's not from this area, but
she loved them.
Oh, because some of the things you talked about are still from other people's towns.
It's basically the same thing.
You know, you change the names.
Yeah.
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, when we pick grocery stores, you know, you might think, and a long time we did, really,
and Chris, we found out that people did, in fact, love their grocery stores.
And just lately, Jim and I were talking about this.
It wasn't so unusual because, you know, it is a neighborhood.
It was a neighborhood center of influence.
And so if we weren't at school, Sunday at church, almost every other day, we were at the
grocery store.
So it was our center.
Now, Jim is going to tell us a little bit about the lecture on this, but also my story.
The story that was the store, a long time ago in the Racine Journal Times.
So if you don't mind, I want to read just a couple of short excerpts from this, not even
starting from the beginning, but this will kind of set the mood for how Jim and I got
started and thinking about stores.
As a matter of fact, I was enjoying a summer afternoon, right in my own backyard, sitting
high up in our big chestnut tree, peering down over the neighborhood through the huge
leaves, when an exciting possibility presented itself.
Seeing my mother come out of the back door to stand near the tree, she called up to me,
Carol, I want you to go to the store, the store, why that meant willies.
What could be better than going to willies?
With my mother's grocery list in hand, soon I was headed to the end of our 1,400 Carleau
block, turning left on Albert, crossing Blake Avenue, and in another half block as an
eight-year-old, I was standing at 1620 Albert Street, quadratches, peaches and tomatoes
and orange crates were displayed outside in the shade, underneath the awnings, but willy
standing in his white apron near the front door, with his wide smile greeted me by name,
as he did all of his customers, including the neighbor kids.
Mrs. Pedrachi, Sylvia we knew, greeted me as well, and customers called from the aisles
to each other in friendly fashion.
What was best on that day, however, were the words my mother had written at the top of
her grocery list, willy, will you please send home with Carol one court homogenized milk
and a treat for her.
A treat for me, mother was all was so nice, but picking out just the right one was going
to take time.
Should I pick them?
Oh, how about the penny candy, but maybe ice cream?
Then again, I liked so many candy bars, finally though, I was on my way home with our
milk and my treat, ready to tell mother all about the store.
I hope that kind of gives us the picture of us as kids going to the store.
You know, and this is my name, my sister-in-law reminding me this the other day when I spoke
to her, when I grew up, he's called the food store where I came from, and when I first
moved to Wisconsin, what did it put to the food store, the supermarket, I said, call
the food store, I said, with, why come from, we called them on my planet, we called it
the food store, but they don't do that here, they call it the supermarket, right?
So we're going to the food store.
Yeah.
Well, how times have changed on, oh, by the way, I have to say that we almost had a different
subject today, I grabbed the wrong file on the way out, and I grabbed the file on our
dishwasher, and I was already in the car realizing I grabbed the wrong file, so we're going
to have our dishwasher repaired, so we almost had to talk about dishwashers today, however,
and I left my stuff at home too.
Great minds to go like.
Well, like I said, times have really changed when it comes to grocery shopping.
Now we shop at what festival, Walmart, Woodman's, Pick and Save, the Pig, and as I see it,
it's a lot more complicated now than what it used to be.
Parking is, you have to park a long distance away, you have to deal with the crowds and
you can't find what you're looking for, at least I can't.
I always bring back the wrong thing.
Long checked out lines, not very pleasant, but it used to be every neighborhood had
its own corner grocery store.
For example, if you know where 17th and Grand Avenue's are, there were 10 stores within
a four-block radius.
The 1100 block of villi-street, that's just a little bit north of St. Cats, had four
stores alone on one block, and most were mom-and-pop type stores, family-owned for generations,
and if a couple words could describe them, it would be long hours and hard work.
Now there was no need to stock up on groceries back then, you just went to the store when
you needed things.
Freezers and refrigerators weren't readily available until after World War II, so the
grocery store was like an extension of your kitchen pantry, and only a short distance away.
Now in the old days there were no shopping carts, no check out lines, no crowds, and no
traffic jams.
Hold it right there.
Yep.
Traffic jams will continue with that just a moment.
Okay.
We're reminiscing about food stores, supermarkets, we're coming up with WRJN.
And suddenly it's hard to find, the memories you left behind remember.
Do you remember?
Good afternoon, the tears, the shadows of Mr. Esther Ears.
The good times and the bad you've seen, and all the others in between remember.
Do you remember the times of your life?
Do you remember?
We're talking about the supermarkets growing up here in Racine, where you were, and they
had shopping carts obviously, and they had, you know, Pickley Wiggly was the first supermarket
in America.
You knew that, right?
Yeah, we're talking about that.
Yeah, we're talking about supermarkets.
And they just closed up one of their markets here.
Yes, the one in Washington Avenue.
Yeah, Ralph Mullikies.
Yeah, why did I feel bad?
I was like, oh.
Well, he was such a civic-minded backer of so many things in Racine.
I know what I felt terrible when they closed it.
And I didn't shut it there because it's not where I live, but it's sad to see a closing.
Any time something closes, it's sad.
You know, George is closed on Main Street, but somebody else bought it.
Yeah, and we're so glad.
It's out there called Encore.
Yeah.
It's there.
Yeah.
Something closed.
That's right.
Yeah.
I passed Regency Mall and it's other rubble.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
I'm like, I'm parked outside.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't think you were here, Don, but yes, in your past year, the restaurant to Taros over on
the street.
Oh, yeah, I've been there.
I'm not mistaken.
When that was closing, there was a line probably a block block.
And now, this might have been a rumor.
This might have been a rumor.
But someone told me that Lasagna was auctioned off for $250.
Maybe it was.
I know.
That's when they serve lunch.
You have to take what they serve.
You didn't get the right.
I get right to the kitchen.
Yeah, you have no menu.
This is what we're serving that you like it or not.
Yeah.
Let's continue.
Talk about food.
Let's talk more about the markets here.
When grocery shopping, you gave the clerk a list of what you needed.
And he would get it for you.
Or you simply phone in the order and he would have it delivered.
And these were the days when your doors would be unlocked.
The delivery boy would just go in, like the milkman and just drop everything off on your kitchen table.
Now, Don, this is what you talked about.
The first self-service grocery store was a pigly, wiggly, located in Memphis, Tennessee.
Back in 1916.
And it was a Clarence Sanders, maybe some relative of a Colonel Sanders.
I don't know.
He priced his goods individually and had a checkout line.
Now, this idea really caught on.
So, other stores began to copy this new idea.
Now, when we were seen, we had a lot of competition for grocery stores.
Almost every major street, like state street, Washington Avenue, high street, Douglas.
The name of you had many grocery stores.
They were everywhere.
And what were their services?
Well, they offered credit.
Now, during the Great Depression, this was very risky because you ran the risk of not being paid back.
Others did not, and they were simply called cash stores.
Some offered free delivery, usually by the owner's son who would pedal his bike or wagon and drop stuff off.
Now, the larger stores began selling.
Other things not associated with groceries, such as meats, bakery, liquor.
And this was not a common practice back in the old days.
They just kept getting bigger and bigger.
I remember stopping at Christianos every Sunday after church for their capis glazed donuts.
And they were just so good.
Now, the stores kept getting bigger and bigger, which we all know.
They had a bigger selection and many cheaper prices, of course, because they bought in bulk quantity.
And some of the individual family owned stores began to form groups to combat these chain stores by forming groups like IGA,
which was the independent grocery association, lead way, united cell rights, clover farm, and others.
Oh, speaking of united cell rights, I have, in my collection, an old sign, which is probably about 18 feet long and maybe three feet wide.
And when I bought it, I was going to hang it above the garage door.
But my wife wouldn't have anything to do with it, and I just can't understand why.
I think it would add a lot of class to the house.
And that's the sad part. You can't understand why.
I know it.
But the chains began to replace the mom and pop type stores.
You know them, the A&P, the National Tea, Krulger, or Century.
And they were eventually gone by the wayside.
They offered cheap prices and they advertised a lot.
Now, there were exceptions. A lot of stores, the independent survived.
Cristianos, of course, Choppiacs, Wells Brothers, Foods, Halfaways on Taylor,
Patrangers, Dosses, Nevinz, and a few more.
Now, these stores were followed by the mega-marts.
They kept getting bigger and bigger.
A funny story. I lost my wife at Woodman's once.
I could not find her. It took over a half hour for me to locate my wife.
That's so big.
That is too big.
Yes.
You can get...
I could lose my wife and pick and save up.
You can't use your phone and pick and save because there's no signal.
And I'm going to shoot. I like their island Woodman's.
It'll be like that song, the MTA, the man who never returned.
Yeah, never returned.
That's right. That's right.
Find me in the candy aisle.
I don't know where to look for you then.
Yeah.
But we all miss our corner grocery stores.
It was really the social center of the neighborhood.
That's where you met your friends.
And if you had new neighbors, you'd probably meet them there.
Life was a lot simpler back then.
I think we lost a piece of Americana when they closed.
And I think they were really the good old days when it came to grocery shopping.
A lot of the old buildings are still around, by the way.
Well, some were torn down.
Others were boarded up and they sit empty to this day.
Some were repurposed into other businesses or even private residences.
And some are still being used like grocery stores.
But Trangas, Cristiano's are good examples.
So, and now Carol will talk about some of the grocery stores she frequented.
Well, when we did our programs starting at the library,
Jim and I had a big surprise.
You know, we turned to the 1955 telephone directory.
Well, how many grocery stores were there of our neighborhood stores?
Where were they?
And so, we copied two pages from that telephone directory.
And we thought this would be a good handout for people.
And maybe they would just put it in their pocket and actually throw it away at home.
Well, what happened was people were engrossed to our surprise in this list.
And so, anyone listening, you could go to the library and you could get the 1955 telephone directory.
Because what I'm going to continue on saying is, I guess what happened.
Well, hold it right there because we think we could break.
But is this the directory you're talking about?
Yeah.
That's correct.
Yes.
Oh, wow.
1955.
120 stores.
And my wife grew up in the, she grew up in Union Grove,
but she always came to Racine for everything.
So, I have to ask her about that.
So, I'm going to show her.
Remember, hold on.
Take a quick break here.
It's a 729 WRJN home town radio refreshed.
Don't forget our keyword today for right in the spring is bike, bike.
Download the Civic Media app for your chance to win an overnight stay at Tula Vista Resort in the Dells.
Just download the app wherever you need to get your apps, the Civic Media app.
Go to WRJN and type in the keyword bike for your chance to win it.
It's 729.
Give it here.
Saturday.
Saturday.
Saturday.
Saturday.
And if we took the holiday.
Now some time to celebrate.
Just one day, I'll arrive.
It would be.
It would be so nice.
Everybody's got the world.
We're gonna have a celebration.
All across the world.
It's every nation.
It's time for a good time.
Forget about the bedtime.
Yeah.
One day you come together.
We need a holiday.
We took the holiday.
736 WRJN Radio.
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All right.
Jim Monsieur and Carol G.
And 14 here.
We're reminiscing about Racine,
and Carol, when she was in the middle of naming them.
What did you have to mention?
Red Owl.
Red Owl.
I don't think we had a red Owl here.
You had a Douglas Avenue.
Did we really?
You had a Red Owl.
Because I was freaked out by the big Owl looking down.
And now I think it's a, it's not a good will store,
but it's one of those time stores now.
It's right there in Douglas Avenue.
Just north of, north of Gould.
It used to be there.
If you're going north, it was on the left side of the road.
Red Owl.
I was just freaked out by it when I saw it.
We'll just show you that our research can have a few holes in it.
Flood research.
Look at this.
I just mentioned I'm looking at the two pages
from the 1955 telephone directory.
And right away, I went to quadratches.
It is not here.
And I learned that when we were first reviewing this again.
And I guess we're missing a red Owl.
So somehow, this is not complete.
But anyway, I think that our audience so surprised us
by just getting into this directory.
Why did they?
I think, first of all, you would go and you would say,
where's my store?
Just like I did with quadratches, but not to see it.
And then the address, like it really existed.
And then the phone number.
Now, I don't think most of us would know our grocery store telephone number.
But they were all five digits.
So the Melrose was not here being shown in 1955.
And each front first digit was either two, three or four.
Well, just to pick out a few.
Carlinos.
That was at 637 High Street.
Chapex.
Harry and John.
Two relatives.
One was at 625 17th Street.
The other was at 238 Chicago Avenue.
Cristiano's 2047 need.
And I'll add here that when we gave these presentations as time went on,
Delora's Cristiano now passed away, spoke about her store.
Dazies was at 2700 Erie.
This is near and dear to my heart.
Gen 40's and they Americanized to Genfort.
This was my husband's grandparents.
1403 Superior.
Would that phone for 7402?
Matrangas.
There were two prospect and villa.
And in our presentations, Rick Bonano and Joe Povkovich each talked about matrangas.
Polanskies.
Just in case you want to know.
That was at 2501 Douglas.
Nileka.
726 Yout.
And Jean Nileka was a wonderful panelist also for us.
And then Vito Capocias, who follows us quite closely,
wrote me lately to say don't forget we have all these nationalities represented.
But there were several Lithuanians.
Lithuanian stars including Grimmels and Carlyle.
So anyway, believe it or not, this was a successful handout.
Bringing to proof, I guess, that these places really existed.
Now Jim, maybe...
I tried to look at Red Owl on Douglas.
I can't find it in the phone, but I don't know why I would have seen a Red Owl.
Not here.
I don't know.
Maybe it was in Milwaukee.
You know what?
I'm going to ask my wife.
But maybe it was in Brown Deer.
That's the authority.
That's the authority.
Because I am losing it.
So maybe it was up in Brown Deer.
I think it was up in Brown Deer.
Well, then our research isn't so bad.
Yeah, we don't know.
You let us know.
The verdict of the jury's out on this year.
Report to us next month.
Maybe it wasn't Brown Deer.
Maybe I'm losing it.
How about your favorite?
Well, my go-to store was of course Christianos.
And Christianos.
By the way, it's still there.
Under different ownership, of course.
They were located on Carnian 21st Street.
I remember going there almost on a daily basis.
My mother would send me for old bread, milk, canning supplies, baking supplies.
Actually, let you get a treat?
Oh, yes.
Oh, yeah.
And I was in a second grade.
I was in a second grade when I was walking back.
You were the one saying I want this.
I won't go unless I have a treat.
You can try to get temper tantrum in the aisle.
Oh, no, my mother wouldn't tolerate that.
But I either walked or took my bike there.
It was only four blocks away.
And that's where our closest mailbox was, by the way.
And the best part of going to Christianos was,
it was halfway to Snyder's dime store,
where I would spend my allowance all the time.
Carol has some memories as well.
Well, I've already touched on quadraches.
That was such a favorite.
But I've also touched on the Gen 40 grocery store.
Now, I was never in it because I met my husband when I was 17
and his grandparents had just newly retired from the store.
But I love some of the stories.
These are behind the scene stories, more or less,
by the owners and their family.
It's for years, though.
I know that reminiscing would go on about the customers,
because it was a close-knit kind of customer-owner relationship.
But John's grandmother, Sarah,
who was always there in the store with her husband,
she had a problem.
And that was she had a lot of energy and a lot of ambition.
And she could wash those wooden floors, I understand,
with no problem.
But the situation was a customer,
as soon as the customer walked in, the floors were dirty.
So that was a problem.
Do you have customers or a clean floor?
John, as a kid,
has talked still today about going with his grandpa,
his grandpa, John, in a diamond tea truck,
leaving Douglas Superior Street and going up to the
produce markets in Milwaukee.
And his grandpa being totally Italian,
and the Italian people calling to him,
in the accents.
Mr. John, Mr. John, bananas, bananas here.
So that was behind the scenes that my husband still loves to recall.
And then another behind the scenes,
he came up when he was just a kid,
maybe probably seven or eight.
They had a big cookie box, I guess.
I got dispensered like a donut counter by cookies.
And he decided on a busy Saturday afternoon to hide under that.
And then he heard the grandparents and his parents saying,
well, where's that kid?
Where's that kid?
Until it got to the point where they were getting very upset.
They could not find the kid.
And then he didn't feel he should come out.
And finally got to that they were going to have to call the police.
He came out, but he was like the prodigal son.
Because they didn't punish him.
They were so glad that he was there.
Then another story, the last one that I'm thinking of in our neighborhood,
was Lincoln Super.
Now, compared to Kodrachi's, Lincoln Super was enormous.
It still stands empty on stage in Carlyle.
But that was known to for a big meat market, big.
Every Saturday morning, my mother and the back of an envelope
would write out her grocery list.
It was common to call in to Rose Mrs. the owner.
And Pete Folst, the employee, would deliver in the afternoon.
As I think Jim said, doors didn't have to be locked.
You could just assume that your groceries would be delivered.
And a lot of this was on credit, I think.
So such favorites.
Credit card, but you have like a list in the store like credit with the store.
Just wrote your name down how much you owed.
Now, the G and four days are way behind.
They owe us $100.
No more credit for the G and four days.
They're more serious. They do that worse.
Oh, yeah.
Now, these grocery stores were famous for their giveaways or freebies
or premiums, as they were officially called.
And these could have been calendars,
thermometers, wall hanging pictures,
cookbooks, bean pots, mixing bowls, you know, things like that.
This is what they gave away.
That's what they gave away.
Now, the important thing is the store's name.
They wanted that store's name to be inside your home.
And you hang this in the kitchen.
You hang it in the kitchen or anyplace else.
Here's a few other examples here.
Where's it to that? Look at this phone number.
9627. Where's the rest of the phone number?
Well, Melrose was not there.
Right. That was the prefix.
Oh, that's right. The prefix is missing.
The prefix is missing.
They left it off this thing.
That's how you dial back then.
This is how old it was.
I mean, I remember when I grow up,
we had Lincoln one, Pyramid one,
and all these different things.
They printed them out on this.
You know, you had dialed the first two digits.
This one doesn't have the first two digits.
That's food store.
Food store. Okay.
Here's an example of a calendar plate, as you can see there.
That would have been given out.
I think the what's the data on there, Don?
1909.
The calendar date is 1909.
Right. Yeah.
So it was a hope that you would look at that,
you know, on a daily basis and see what the date is.
Likewise, the thermometer here, as you can see,
it was hope that the store owner would hope
that you would look at the temperature and obviously...
They don't do this anymore.
No, no, no, no. It's probably too expensive.
I don't have my pick and save plate
or my festival food store plate hanging.
You could put it on your wall, Don?
There's another example.
A grocery store bag.
The store that Carol mentioned.
Grimmels.
You want to take this from me?
But it served two purposes.
They wanted to get the store's name inside your home.
And it was a thank you for the better customers.
Now, some of the more expensive items,
like your bean pots and mixing bowls, casserole dishes,
they were very expensive, of course,
to hand out to everybody.
So they would probably give them to the very best customers,
maybe around Christmas time or so.
In fairness today, you get the plastic bags
with this supermarket on there.
Pick and save bags. I mean, they do print them on there.
You can hang that on your wall if you want to.
Yeah, right. I pick and save plastic bags.
That would look really nice.
Right above your couch.
The same party you throw them out as soon as you take the groceries out of them.
That's right.
These are safe bags. You're right.
You're right.
We have some old ads here from some of their grocery stores.
We'll tell you some of the prices back then.
Here's one from Choppiacs.
What do we got here?
Coffee, two pounds for 99 cents.
Two pounds for 99 cents.
Strawberries, three pounds for a dollar.
Is that what that says, Carol?
Oh, here we go.
Prunes for us, for some people.
They're not just ordinary prunes.
They're Italian prunes.
And they're 12 pound bucks for a buck 59.
Carol mentioned polanskies on, or was it the Douglas?
Yes.
Oh, here we go. Coffee again.
99 cents.
Strawberries.
Same thing, three pounds for a dollar.
What else we got here?
Well, this was interesting because they, on their ad,
were talking about they were open on Sundays.
Some were, some weren't.
Oh, that's right.
Oh, over there right there.
It's 749.
WRJN.
Hongtian Radio.
Refreshed.
Civic media station.
Jim and Carol are here.
A few more minutes left.
Putting a little jingle surprise for you.
Come on up in a few moments.
Here we go.
Here we go.
What else?
Matt Oh Lover.
He's the grocery store.
All right, 751 Jim and Carol are here and we've got a few moments left so let's start.
What else you got there?
Another grocery store in Racine they had a couple of them was Nevins.
They were not a chain store but they did have what maybe five or six stores in Racine.
The one that we know was one on Sixth Street.
Look at some of the prices here.
For you cigarette smokers, two packs for 25 cents.
I have no idea what they are now but unbelievable.
They're about six bucks a pack.
And Jim, I know at least one person and I will not reveal her name but this is very common.
She was sent down Prospect Street frequently to Lincoln Super to get her parents cigarettes.
All you had to do was show up and say I need cigarettes.
Well I brought her head of band members.
I was about eight, nine years old, sent me down to the start again.
The cabels for 29 cents a pack.
They sold them to me.
That's a little cab.
They didn't care.
They thought it was good for us anyway at the time.
Crazy.
Okay then we have Kellogg's.
They've been around forever.
25 cents for corn flakes.
Also at Nevins it says everything for your picnic bunch.
Everything for your picnic.
They were ready to help us with our picnics.
Nevins was very popular.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Now next month when we appear on Don Show, we'll be talking about some of the products
that you probably remember about buying at these old grocery stores.
And they were quite numerous.
And we remember the course, the candy bars, the penny candy and things like that.
We'll get into that next month.
But there's a few things that we'll be talking about.
But first, Carol has some parting words.
Well, back to how this really all began with Jim's collections of things from Racine
and which were the store giveaways.
And the fact that I had written a story for the journal Times called the store.
So here is how that ended.
And I hope it maybe strikes our hearts with how we felt.
Ires was a sad neighborhood when Willie announced that his store was closing
even as we were in awe of the enormous sensory store he and Sylvia were opening way out on Douglas Avenue.
When its awnings were rolled up for the last time our friendly neighborhood attraction
at 1620 Albert was sorely missing.
Since then, however, and more often with every passing year,
I am amazed to find Willie's Albert Street store still frequently open.
I simply envision a walk down Carlisle to Albert past Blake Avenue on a summer afternoon
to see the friendly man in the white apron welcoming me in my mother's special note in hand.
A treat is still waiting for me right in that store.
You know, I want to mention Carol's book here because you always get Terry Avenue here.
Especially when you read it, my wife reads your book.
It's called My Heart Leads Me Home, A Daughter's Memoir.
And this is based on your home on Carlisle.
Yes, the only home I grew up in, the only home we had.
And we drove past and took a picture of it because we're reading about it.
So I want to see the actual house.
It's like going to the set up back to the future.
You want to see the house.
The whole way to place it.
And we're about a third of the way through.
And I thought I got teary eyed.
Oh, God.
When you're talking about your neighbors, when they were young married couple,
then they moved there as an old couple.
And you ruined the story by telling me they passed away, which I kind of knew.
But you dad, how your dad used to get on the ladder, fixed the house,
got too old to fix the house.
And you know, even though I'd never lived, I didn't grow up here.
I mean, everybody can relate to this because everybody had the same dad
who couldn't do these things anymore.
Have the neighbors who moved away.
I mean, you don't have that.
Well, I found when I wrote that book, my parents both had died just not that long ago.
And the memories helped me so much.
And then I'm so glad that you've been enjoying it because it turned out,
I guess, that people who read it, it's a curiosity,
but it helps them remember their memories.
Yes, we can leave you with this commercial that I'm sure many of us remember,
especially the guys out there.
So I never put anything on my hair in my life.
Really? No.
And everybody keeps saying, that's what you hear is curly.
Excuse me.
Well, you don't use a Tony home perm or anything?
I'm not using any of Tony. Tony, I remember.
Oh my gosh.
So this is Brill Cream.
Who remembers this?
This is featured especially next month.
A little dance to you.
Yep, here we go.
Brill Cream.
Brill Cream.
A little devil to young.
Brill Cream.
You look so dead of the air.
Brill Cream.
The cows love us to y'all.
They love to get the fingers in your head.
Get Brill Cream today in my handy, unbreakable tube.
And you know, it really freaks me out.
They had puppets doing the stop-motion puppets.
And they're freaky looking.
It's the kind you turn on your lights in your bedroom
and you see one in the corner in your panic.
Oh.
In fact, a sign-filled Mr. Marbles on sign-bone Jerry Astey
at Cramer's Room in the heavy beat of this puppets sitting in the corner
and staring at Jerry's head.
I think it's a move.
Well, next month, we will be going into all these products
that we loved and we can also envision them
with the TV commercials or the radio commercials
like Brill Cream.
And there were other slogans that we're going to be talking about.
Papsident.
You'll wonder where the yellow went when you're brushing teeth.
You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brought your teeth
with Papsident.
And then, of course, we didn't realize about cigarettes in Winston.
It's good.
It's good.
Like a cigarette.
A cigarette.
Yeah.
L&M.
L&M has the flavor that unlocks the filter that unlocks the flavor.
Oh.
What are we thinking about?
And then Bosco.
I love Bosco.
That's the drink for me.
Maybe you can find that one because that was a song.
Well, that was also George Costanza's password to get into his ATM.
That was his Bosco was his password.
And he told it to this woman who was dying.
So I guess I can tell you now.
It turns out her last words were Bosco.
And they're going to try to figure out what do you mean by those dying men?
Bosco.
It was George's password.
We'll have a sing along next month.
I'm with all these old commercials.
All three of us will start singing.
Well, thank you guys for coming in.
Well, thank you.
Do appreciate it.
You guys were always fun.
Always with people loving.
And of course, if you missed any of this, it'll be podcast.
Just just go to we get Apple Podcasts to go to WRJN.com,
Civic Media.US.
Just type in Don Rosen's show.
And you'll see it after about 10 o'clock this morning.
It will be downloaded.
And so you can get to hear also all the other times Jim and Carol will hear.
They're also on the podcast.
You can still hear those.
Get you guys tomorrow, 6am bright and early.
So we should have a lot of fun.
Then to 758 WRJN, home town radio refreshed at 1400 am, 99.9 FM, 98.1 FM in Kenosha,
a Civic Media station.
Irlingrim's coming up next.