Catching Up with Jim and Carol

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All right, bring them back to the memories.

Summer is 65, Part 2.

Here and the summer of 65.

Where were you back then?

I was getting all my beetle records in the summer.

65, Jerry The Pace Makers, Dave Clark 5, Freddie and the Dreamers.

Freddie and the Dreamers.

Freddie is still around by the way.

He still performs.

Yeah, he looks good, too.

Oh, really?

How old is he now, 88?

Freddie Garrity is his name.

Yeah.

He looks good.

Okay.

He's still around.

We had great music.

We had great music.

Freddie, you can't forget that one.

Freddie's arms and legs are the same.

You don't have to go over the flaps your arms like this on your side.

Freddie is not for me.

You are the audience.

You are the CDs, too, guys.

Right now, they are a fair haven.

Ever since they twist, everybody had to do news on this.

There was the mashed potatoes, the jerk, the pony, the Freddie.

Everybody had to have a dance.

That's right.

Because the twist was so big,

and everybody ever did one like the twist.

And the mashed potatoes.

Remember the mashed potatoes if you beat them.

Okay.

Carol's thinking, I remember the mashed potatoes.

I want a dance contest doing that.

Okay.

You guys are here.

We did the summer 65, and we're seeing last time.

But there was so much.

We had to do a part two, so let's get started with this.

Yes.

Thank you, Don, for allowing us back here.

Again, we always enjoy coming here.

Yes, we did part one last time.

This is part two.

We're going to add a few more things that we did back in the summer of 65.

And it turns out this was our last carefree summer after graduation.

So what do we cover in part one, Carol?

I forgot.

Well, we did some things, Jim.

Like going to the outdoor.

Oh, yeah.

That was always great with hiding in the car.

Hiding in the trunk.

Yep.

Yep.

That's right.

You know, we've been waiting now for 60 years to catch you.

And we finally got the admission of guilt.

Right.

Bob sir, bring that warrant.

Yeah, she's right under the hat.

And the final got to.

Yeah.

Talk in fashion.

Oh, we just talked about the great songs.

And we did that last month, our great songs.

And we had the theaters downtown, the Venetian and the Rialto.

So we covered a lot, but we didn't cover it all, Jim.

Right.

Well, let's start with sports.

Back in 1965.

This was the last year for the Braves to be in Milwaukee.

So it was the last time we were going to see Hall of Famers, Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews.

The Brewers came here in 1970.

But turning the football, of course, we had the Packers.

They won the NFL championship that year in 65.

The next year was the start of the Super Bowl.

And of course, we had Vince Lombardi as our head coach, Bart Starr as our quarterback and

names such as Nitschky, Horning and Taylor to keep us entertained.

Another thing we sort of switched gears on from 1965.

We got our driver's license.

So we didn't have to walk or take the bus anymore.

Before we got our license, of course, we took the bus to school or walked football games

and whatever.

But now we had to have a car.

It was a guy thing, I guess.

So we looked for used cars or junkers from friends or relatives.

But we like to work on our own cars.

We could have bought a car at one of our many dealerships in Racine, who remembers Don Hudson, of course.

Kovac Motors, Pendleton Olds, Weezy Rambler.

That was a big name in town.

Or Schaefer Pontiac.

Of course, there was the cost of cars as well to figure, right, Carol?

Yes, but the cost would be great if you had a friend or a relative.

Yes.

That you could eye their car.

Mm-hmm.

Junker or not.

Yep.

But yeah, we talked last week, last month, about the cost of the cars.

We were earning a dollar and a quarter an hour if we even had a minimum wage kind of job.

Sure.

But I think, let's see now, but the average cost of a car gym was about $2,600.

I don't think many of us were out buying Corvette's.

We found out about $4,300, so there was a little out of our price.

My Camaro in 72 was $4,900 for a brand new Camaro.

That was in 75.

75.

So prices didn't jump up.

Now the average price is $67,000 for a car.

So you were a Camaro owner.

Well, just, you know, by bought a Camaro, 18 years old, or 20 years old, so I put a Camaro.

Pretty nice.

Pretty nice.

And you had a one, you had a great car gym.

I had a beautiful 54 red Chevy convertible, which I got from my uncle.

He used to deal with use cars.

And I had that for four years.

But the biggest mistake of my life was selling that convertible for $100 back in 1969.

I had a 1964 Chevy Impala convertible.

My brother bought it, and then he went away to medical school, and he said, oh, you can have the car.

He said, really?

So he gave it to me, free car.

And then he came back to visit.

I need to borrow the car.

He said, no, it's my car.

You believe I wouldn't let him borrow the car.

And he's still speaking with you.

Oh, man, I was sorry.

This thing is still on my head from now.

Yeah, don't forget it.

Yeah.

Your husband had a car too.

Yes, yes.

When I met my husband in the summer of 65, he had a red 1957 Chevy.

It was not a convertible, but I still stuck with him.

Even if it wasn't a convertible.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, that we got you.

He got a car.

And that's all you needed to think of Carol to your forte.

Just grab the get a car.

We all have a price.

You got a car.

Speaking of cars.

Yes.

What was our favorite activity we did with our cars?

Of course, we scooped the loop.

So on Friday and Saturday nights, the place to be was downtown to scoop the loop.

Now, picture this, if you would.

Windows were down.

Radios were blasting, probably to Wky or WLS.

Cars revving their engines at red lights.

Peeling out, burning rubber.

Noise.

Oh, my gosh.

Drag racing.

Cars were everywhere.

And we figured the length of a scoop was maybe what, maybe in a mile.

And it took about five minutes to do that.

But it was so much fun to be there every Friday and Saturday night.

Well, what I like is I think there have been some events downtown we're seen in the last couple of years.

Inviting people to scoop.

Sure.

Yeah.

But when Jim and I were doing scooping the loop at the Golden Rendell a few years ago,

and with our, you know, our thorough research, we got the route.

And we went all on our own.

No one noticed us.

And it was amazing.

It just took five minutes.

That's right.

And so in all of our life, we never spent that much time.

But you actually went back and did it in time, did it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

That's what I wanted to do.

Yeah.

I agree, I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

I agree.

Anyway.

And then, let's get to the next day.

In 2018, Jim Bisseira with me.

We're doing part two to summer of 65 in Reseon.

Talked about the car dealers.

We found out that carol can be bought with a nice shiny red car.

You get a date with carol when you get a nice red car back then.

They show up.

I've got to stick up for women now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Let's continue with summer 65.

I guess scooping the loop, we're touching on that still.

That was one of the highlights of our entire teen years, Jim.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And that last summer, it was, it would have never been the same afterwards,

because this last car-free summer was when we could act this crazy.

Yeah.

And I think when we go back to it, we think of mainstream.

We see all this flashingness, but the noise, like you said,

peeling out, burning rubber.

Yeah.

But a lot of it was watching, guys watching for girls.

Yeah.

The girls watching for guys.

That's right.

Those summer nights standing in front of the nitty gritty, the Ivan Hole,

and watching those crazy guys even get out of the cars, run around,

get back in the car, wave at us, and I bet you picked up a few girls, Jim.

Off the streets.

Oh, well, you know, that was relatively easy.

You just had to pull over and see it.

See, we had our price.

Yeah.

Jump in or, hey, you want to ride or whatever?

Hey, good looking ones.

Yeah.

Most often, they would say no.

Yeah.

So to try.

So to try.

Was the draft a problem back then?

No, I'm draft in 65.

People were starting to go, yes.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

They were.

Yeah.

That was a somber part of summer.

Yeah.

Because I was in the draft lottery, and when I was 18, the number,

my number came up 360.

So I didn't.

I don't know.

It's not going to get my draft card and get everything done.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Casting as well.

We said when we began last month on this that the backdrop to it was some very serious

things, including that.

But we in general were still insulated from bigger problems.

Yeah.

But back to scooping the route we took was, of course, you wanted to get back on

Main Street because that's where all your friends were.

So we would go what maybe seventh street, make the loop going down Main Street, say,

a load of your friends, go buy the theaters and whatever.

And call me down to State Street, make the loop again and then come back.

But the idea was just to get back on Main Street because that's where all the action

was, right?

And the police never really bothered us.

That's the question.

Yeah.

I mean, where were the police?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Most of you were peeling rubber.

You know, I'm going 60 miles an hour.

Yeah.

I never, never saw any.

No.

Any apprehensions.

They just said the word.

That's a loan.

Jim, Jim is your teenage rebel.

No.

And we, we said, thinking about this to Jim though, we never did see an accident.

No.

We never did.

No.

No.

We had great drivers back in those days.

In the bright car drivers.

Yeah.

The price of gas was cheap, right?

Well, yes.

No.

You reminded me that we had two gas stations down town.

Yes.

Two standard stations.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

And so that is not in my memory thing.

Where were they?

One was across from the museum.

Really?

Yeah.

On the southwest corner.

And the other one was down.

Like we're, like we're that in the new cafes.

No.

That's your block off.

Oh, block off.

Yeah.

By the police department.

Okay.

Yeah.

And the other one was down on Main Street just before you hit the Main Street bridge.

Is it where Aunt Fellows is today?

The convenience store?

No.

No.

No.

No.

It was on the west side of the street, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Uh-uh.

The west side.

That was the one by the museum.

Yeah.

Where was the other one you said?

Down by as you're going down Main Street.

Uh-uh.

Before you get to the Main Street bridge, you'll be on your right-hand side.

That's a very nice office building type.

Yes.

There's some medical in there.

Yeah.

It's a four-story on the corner.

Yeah.

A main nuclear building.

Both gas stations.

Well, and then you were reminding me as a driver, Jim.

Uh-huh.

Well, it was, even if we were in a big hurry, because we had to get back to Main Street.

This was full service.

Uh-huh.

And we forget what that was.

Uh-huh.

I mean, they washed the windows.

Yep.

They checked the oil.

Yep.

They, I guess you had to ask, but they checked the tires.

If you wanted it to check, yeah, they would do it for you.

Yeah.

In their uniforms and, you know, uh, dipstick in their pocket and all that stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's 25, 27.

Yeah.

Ethel.

Ethel.

Did you need Ethel in your car?

No, not my.

Ethel.

Ethel Mertz.

No.

Here's something else.

So you don't see anymore.

This was at a gas station in Union Grove.

You know how you find 87, 89 and 93 octane.

Check the first one.

110 octane gas.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

Look at that.

Oh, laid.

Yeah.

110 octane they sell.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it likes drag away.

Oh, changing Union Grove.

Oh, wow.

So they can, they can, uh, if you look at the car, one on I saw that I said, whoa, the cars

gonna fly with that.

Well, Jim, now we said that it was just a five minute loop.

Yeah.

But now I've got to add in.

We did have a related destination.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

We went north.

We went north.

And that was because there were a lot of submarines.

Oh, yeah.

We had a North watch the submarine.

And that's where the police were though.

Oh, yeah.

They would come and check on us.

The police in the dark with their flashlight.

Yeah.

You know, I never understood that because we had a DJ where I grew up.

We were the K.

And he always said the submarine race watchers.

And there's a kid.

What do you mean submarine race watchers?

But I heard that back where I lived and it was here too.

Yeah.

They were over in New York as well.

Submarine race.

Why do they want to look at mint?

Yeah.

But we actually understood it.

Yeah.

That's right.

Submarine is old as you too.

Yeah.

Right.

I know.

I want to know how that parking lot was pretty crowded.

Oh, yeah.

We're talking about the point.

Everybody went out to the point there.

We all went there to catch some great races.

Yeah.

And you know where we're talking?

Is she a park?

Yeah.

That's right.

By the lighthouse there.

Sort of.

Yeah.

Overlooking the.

More of the juvenile the Lincoln song.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But we had a backup plan.

If that was crowded, the backup plan was to go behind UWR, which is now gateway.

That was not quite as exciting to go there as far as views, but there was.

It was.

It was.

They're here as submarines.

Yeah.

I think so.

Didn't anybody have a summer job?

Yes.

We're going to get to that.

We're going to get to that.

We're going to touch on that.

All we're doing is creating havoc and recede during the summer of 65.

I'm waiting for it.

When you guys actually work.

We're coming.

Turn it.

Turn it.

Okay.

Yes.

Well, then Jim on these evenings.

Mm-hmm.

Now, I never did this, but you were reminding me how beautiful the Washington park pool was

at night.

Mm-hmm.

And we've done programs on the pool and we've never included anything about being there at

night.

But this was news to me.

Mm-hmm.

We could go there till 9 o'clock.

Uh, yes.

It was a lot less crowded then because the kids were gone, mostly adults.

Yeah.

But there was just so much to do.

It must have been so beautiful.

You said it was.

Yeah.

The lights were on and it was really, really nice.

And then you could still have the challenge of swimming out to the island.

All the island, of course.

All those diving boards that were on top of that island.

Yeah.

I mean, how crowded that island was.

We had to watch out for the kids jumping off the diving boards, though, because they

would miss us by inches.

It was like incoming missiles with those kids.

But not too much at night, though.

No, not really at night.

That's right.

Yes.

I missed that, though.

I did get there.

Right.

And then, of course, we have to talk.

We've recently talked about it.

But the beaches.

Mm-hmm.

And this is if our jobs did allow it.

And you had a job where you could be at the beach.

Because you worked there at Chifters.

Second Chifters.

That's right.

Yeah.

So it left you time for the beach.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Now, like this in the notes.

This must be where this is coming up.

It's Jim.

Pick up girls.

Oh.

Carol wrote that.

Just just a little reminder that you could do that.

Jim, pick up girls.

I had no luck, though.

You know.

Over your car.

I think it's all in the car.

You're right.

Yeah.

Well, you had to have suntan lotion, you guys.

No.

Did you have suntan lotion?

The girls did.

Oh, yeah.

Sure.

And you had a transistor radio.

Yep.

All you needed for it going to the beach was, like you said, a towel, suntan lotion, and a transistor radio,

tuned into WLS.

And like you said, all we did there was just, you know, trying to get a tan.

Trying to get a tan and look for girls.

I want to thank you for giving me the most wonderful summer.

It was so heavenly.

You meant no word to me.

And anyone could see that I was so in love.

A wonderful summer.

The summer is 65 and we're seeing.

I think that's, I'm clearing my throat.

I'm seeing my throat doctor later.

Who's not going to make it to the summer of 2006?

Let's get back to where we were here in this note here.

Jim.

Pick up girls.

Oh, no.

He's not going to let us forget those.

Yeah.

Pick up girls.

Move on, Carol.

Okay.

So let's continue with the summer 65 routine.

And you know, looking back that we got to say, we were so innocent.

And we compared to what we think possibly while teenagers do today, innocent.

But another destination we had in the summer, on a hot summer night, our drive in, our drive in restaurants.

And even though I was an outsider, the A&W.

Well, that was a destination.

Orange, over right by Park High School, known for that great root beer in the frosty mugs, good hamburgers.

And I think we were trying to remember.

Even orange or yellow lights at night.

I was watching, reading online about people still remembering A&W.

And I think it's like, I remember, frankly, Mary Goldarian, Carla Lavinou.

No one is going to ever top those root beer drinks again.

They're still comparing everything to the A&W root beer of those years.

Yep.

How about another seasonal one, Jim?

Well, we had other drive-ins, of course, who remembers the four mile drive in on Douglas and Four Mile Road.

That was owned by the Connitchek family.

Another drive-in was Little Richards, on Douglas, along with Park Inn.

Park Inn is still there, by the way.

Moving on to...

Did we move on to hamburgers yet?

Sandies and carols?

Yes.

Yes, that's right.

Sandies, of course, was a very popular hamburger place over by Washington and 31.

I think that became a hearty slate around.

But another good one was Carols, on Washington Avenue, right across from Turnstile.

I believe that was a chain, too, but that had a tremendous following here right in Racine.

And my friend Karen and I would always go to Doug and said that we were outside.

On Rapids, there he is.

Yeah, Rapids.

After a hard Sunday afternoon studying at the library, maybe the Saturdays at the library.

Sitting by the card catalog to pick up boys.

Yeah, yeah.

Is that where you go up the card catalog?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that was a good central location.

Yeah.

And we would go to Dog and Suts, love that.

And then Horlick High School, that was our neighborhood to Boy Blue.

And I was looking online about memories people have of Boy Blue from the Ventorini family.

This was 1971, so this was still to come, but I got a kick out of this.

Their prices were $0.07, $14.21, $28.35.

Wow.

So that was hard of it to make change.

Yeah.

It was hard on the staff.

Yeah.

How about on the south side?

Oh, well, we had the red barn that was right across the street from the plaza.

And of course, the building looked like a red barn.

That was a chain as well.

They're all, you know, it's gone now.

The buildings are still there.

So if you go to a strange town, you see this abandoned old barn that was probably a red barn.

Well, as you drove in, you gave your shopping list.

You talk about the convenience store.

No, this is a hamburger place, right?

All hamburgers, right?

Yeah, right.

Not to be confused with the farm.

Oh, right.

Yeah, not the farm.

That's right.

Yeah.

Cars were barns.

Yeah.

But they all look alike.

And then McDonald's.

McDonald's, of course.

I mean, we were fascinated.

Yep.

I don't think that in general, they could compete with our still favorite locals.

But we had two.

Now, you think that the one on laythrop was even number four in the country.

One of the earliest, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, one of the earliest.

You're right.

Yeah.

But then there was one on the north side, which is still there on Douglas.

That's right.

And maybe only what was it?

15 cents a hamburger?

It was 15 cents for a burger, 10 cents for fries.

And I think maybe 10 cents for his sodas.

You can buy a whole meal for under 50 cents.

And then they were up to date on their figures.

Yes.

Those big arches and the big sign.

Yeah.

Remember how many?

I wonder how often they changed that thought.

I don't know.

I think it was seven million for a long time.

Now it just says billions.

Billions and billions.

They're just rounding it off.

Yeah.

That's right.

We also had some dairy queens in Racine.

The one on Durand Avenue was there for a long time.

It's still there.

There was one on state street, not too far from where you used to live, Carol, right?

And that was big news in my neighborhood.

I'm not really sure why, but I can even see that owner or proprietor.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

He was about as large as the dairy queen, because it was a little teeny tiny place.

I wonder why.

Yeah.

16th Street had one by Johnson's Wax, of course.

Funny story about A&W.

Oh, yeah.

In my basement, I have six of the original glass mugs from A&W from actually 1945.

When my dad got out of the service after World War II, he took my mother to visit his parents in Rice Lake.

They went to an A&W.

There was a very, very slow car hop.

So my dad didn't want to wait anymore.

He just left tray and all.

And I ended up with those mugs.

And it's whenever we have a Ruth beer, we always use those mugs.

And it tastes better.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Another one.

Yeah.

Another one.

Another one.

Take us both away.

Wait, it's since 1949 and we finally got them.

What are those TV shows for, you know, the cold case?

Yeah.

That's right.

I remember the car hop.

Well, yes.

That was a big attraction.

Oh, yeah.

They were nice.

Yes, they were.

And nice gals.

Yeah.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah, they were great.

Another thing that some of us guys did was drive to the Kenosha County bars.

Now, back in the back in 65, Kenosha County only required you to be 18 to be able to drink beer.

Racine, of course, was 21.

So every Friday and Saturday night, there was a mass exodus of Racine kids going to Kenosha.

So places that I remember were the broad stop, which is still there.

Shaky's pizza.

They were in that class as well.

Earl's bar and leos.

And it's a wonder we ever made it back to Racine sometimes.

I'd tell you about the.

Yeah.

I don't even want to get into that.

But that was.

Let's get into it.

No.

With the speeding and weaving back and forth.

Oh, please.

No, I don't want to get it.

Yeah.

Sir, we found the guy.

That was the time.

Also a fake IDs.

If you didn't have a legitimate ID, a friend of mine, Nibs would be the guy to see it.

Nibs costume.

Yeah.

Nibs costume.

He's gone now, but he was the guy to see about fake IDs.

He would always go up to a group of guys and say, who wants to be 18?

And everybody would raise their hands.

So let's see stolen mugs from me and W.

Yeah.

Fake IDs.

Yeah.

What else?

Oh, my gosh.

What did you do, Carol?

Oh, I'm trying to think, but it just slipped my mind.

Yeah.

Right.

It slipped my mind completely.

I was a boy.

I never did any of that stuff.

Yeah.

Take us away, right?

Of course, we never told our parents where we're going.

We're going to the library or study at somebody's house.

But, uh, yeah, yeah.

Now, Diane, you said, didn't we work?

Yeah.

Didn't we work?

Yes.

It was.

Carousing and doing stuff and flashing fake IDs.

Yeah.

Did we do work?

What did you actually get a job?

Well, I remember my friend Sue Bush.

She worked at the outdoor nights, the outdoor theater.

So she could be at the beach during the day.

So that was one thing.

That's clever.

That's good.

Yeah.

Yep.

And, uh, Gales, um, they were a lot in retail now.

I don't know when your wife Terry started at Zayers, but some of the big discount stores,

the young girls, could work there, you know, but mainly daytime hours.

But, uh, I don't think you have to be as involved with the customers as our fancy,

fancy stores downtown.

Uh, Gales were still babysitting.

Uh, but the guys kind of had a pretty, pretty tough in some ways.

Yeah.

Hard labor.

Yeah.

Usually, guys would work in the local factories, you know, for summer jobs.

Also, I knew guys who worked at the grocery stores, men's stores, things like that.

I personally worked as a janitor at Johnson's wax second shift.

So, like Carol said, that enabled me to take my red Chevy convertible and head down to the beach almost every day.

Yeah.

That's where it comes out.

Right.

Yeah.

But, uh, yes, I was a janitor for them, but my official title was sanitary engineer.

Well, yeah.

Well, when I got out of high school, my first summer, my father said, what do you do?

I said, don't hang around.

He said, oh, no, you're not.

You're going to get a job.

I don't care if you have to pick your nose this summer to get paid.

You're going to get a job.

I got a job.

It's a janitor at a radio station.

Yeah.

August 2nd.

August 2nd, 1972.

I got my job at the radio station.

Yeah.

Years later, the guy who was the program director at the station, I met him in Atlanta where I worked.

And he said, you know, you're my Cinderella story.

Oh, yeah.

He said, I've never had a, we've, in all the years, I've been there 25 years.

We never had a better janitor than you.

Oh, my God.

Nobody said he should just start that cleaning.

And you never slack.

Even when I was on the air working overnight, I was still the janitor.

God.

And I put on rare earth, 22 minutes, get ready, clean the building.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Put on days of future pass by the booty blues, clean the building.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it was a lot.

It was a lot nicer to telling a girl that you were a sanitary engineer as opposed to a janitor.

I was a janitor.

I didn't care.

I worked in a radio.

But my husband, there were some relatives, some neighbors of his and his brother who were highly involved with the young radiator.

So, John, of course, had a real in there.

And his in was right by the blast furnaces.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Well, I'm just going to say a quick one of those break here and we're going to get back to the summer 65 in Racine.

Part two.

No, part three, right?

No.

No.

We're still in part two.

We're not going to be part three.

No, this is the end.

This is the end of the summer.

Yeah.

Then we go to the summer 66.

That's it.

Carolyn Jimmer here.

We can do a wrap up of the summer 65.

And let's continue where we left off.

Now, the reason we are still spending so much time on the 65 summer is that was this came up in our planning because this year it was the 60th anniversary for you, Jim, and for my husband.

And then you gave a talk that you're saying cats reunion.

Right.

That summarized all this.

So that's where we.

So here we are.

But I don't think you had in your talk this next topic that I'm throwing in.

Oh.

The romance of the summer 65.

Here's where we get Jim pickup.

Yeah.

No, I'm going to throw this in.

Okay.

Because, you know, when there were couples in high school, people would look at them and kind of fantasize probably about, oh, will they get married someday?

Or how long have they been going steady?

But now over this summer, we had this Paul of the ending.

And a good part of us were going to have to part in what was going to happen to these romances.

Now, I don't think you guys, you weren't confiding in each other about your worries about a girlfriend, but we gals were.

And we didn't have the luxury of internet or anything when a guy or girl was leaving town.

You had to rely on letters.

Yep.

Maybe a few long distance calls.

In our dorm, we would have one pay phone on the entire floor for calling home.

So the concern about what was going to happen to our romances was starting to really be on our thoughts that summer.

Yep.

Well, then we transitioned to what's going to happen to us after graduation.

A lot of big changes coming.

Some guys joined the service.

And of course, they had Vietnam to worry about, but a lot of my friends joined the service after graduation.

Some of us stayed right here in town for permanent jobs at the local factories.

And it was interesting because there were so many factories in town.

If you didn't like where you were working, say, a J.I. case, you could always get a job a couple days later at other factories, a Hordex malt and milk,

do more Hamilton Beach, or if you're desperate enough, Bell City Malibu, but working in the blast furnaces there.

And gals could be working at those factories, at those companies too, in the offices.

Sure.

You bet.

So many.

That's right.

Many of us stayed right here in town to continue our education.

That would have been signing up at Dominican College or UWR, which is University of Wisconsin, Racine.

And that was located where a gateway is now.

Everybody called that UCLA, which was University closest to Lake Avenue, of course.

Some of us even signed up to learn a trade at what we called Khan School, which was otherwise known as vocational school.

And then some of us were leaving town for college.

Yep.

I think a whitewater, Madison, UWM.

I know my friends and I.

We were signing the autograph books and promising to write and once in a while to call and visit each other.

But there was a lot of undercurrent of the sadness of the ending and the parting.

I was never sad at the end of high school.

From some reason I said goodbye.

I had enough of you guys.

See you at the reunion in 30 years.

Did you?

Yeah.

You did.

20 years I saw him.

Wow.

Well, you haven't had a 60th reunion yet.

That's the first.

You're waiting for the 60th like us, right?

Real quick, we had two people, Chris and I'm not going to mention the next.

He was the quarterback.

She was the cheerleader.

They got together.

And they were the power couple in high school.

They got married.

They got divorced at the 23rd union.

They started a big screen fight on the dance floor at each other.

Oh.

And Bob Shrek and I pulled our chairs up to the dance floor and I said, this is why I came to the reunion.

Oh.

This was the floor show I've been waiting for.

Oh.

My goodness.

Oh.

Well, anyway, now next time.

Well, and like the song says, yes, Jim.

Yeah.

Well, our last carefree summer.

It was our last carefree summer.

And that's right.

And like the song says, those were the days my friend.

Yeah.

We thought they'd never end.

Yeah.

Let's talk about next time.

Yeah.

Oh.

Maybe two are going to hibernation like bears.

You're going to be hibernating for the month of November.

We're coming back in December.

Yeah.

After the first blast of coal bears here.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, now we're going to return to our, not our teens, but our real childhood, Jim.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Jim has got two in his collection of so many things.

He's got two catalogs from the 1950s.

From Zanz.

And from a firestone store in Eugene.

Firestone station downtown.

Racine.

Right.

Toys.

Oh.

Right out of the 50s.

Right.

So along with that, we're thinking of just.

Talking about our favorite toys and also just presents in general in our younger days.

Sure.

What we gave.

Should I, should I steal your thunder right now?

Oh.

Jim is going to tell about how he picked out a present for his mother when he was a teenager though.

Yeah.

He bought his mother a vegematic.

Vegematic, remember that chops anything.

Yeah.

That's right.

Let his fingers.

It was everything.

It's amazing product.

That's right.

So the catalogs with the yellow pages from our past and favorite stores.

Yeah.

And the toys that we loved.

And then some stories about the presents that we're given.

Yeah.

What were some of the toys in there?

Model trains.

I know for boys, wagons, like dolls for girls.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Dolls, dresses, clothes.

The radio flier wagons we were counting them on.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.