Shows›The Don Rosen Show›School Days Part 3 With Carol Gianforte And Jim Mercier›Transcript

Transcript

School Days Part 3 With Carol Gianforte And Jim Mercier

The Don Rosen Show · Wed Mar 25, 2026

The sun's rising, the coffee's back in, it's going to be morning, without dawn frozen.

WRJN

Up in the morning and out to school, the teacher is teaching the cold and blue.

American history and practical man, you study him hard, open to pain.

Working your fingers right down to the bone, but the guy behind you won't leave you alone.

Ring, ring goes the bell, for cooking the lunch, you're ready to sell.

That song brings back members, not the song itself, it's what he's talking about.

Chuck Berry and school days, local news, timeless hits of WRJN, and right now it's time for

a month to get together, Jim and Carol are here and we're talking about school days for the third session.

This is it, right?

Third and final.

When the bell rings, school's over.

That's right.

Yeah.

And let's give a recap.

And this is by the way, what, 50s, 60s growing up in Racine.

50s and 60s growing up in Racine, going to school in Racine.

And you guys are local, yokels, you went to a Catholic school, right?

Yes, Holy Trinity, Prokyl school.

And you went to Lincoln.

Lincoln.

Well, let's give a recap of what we went through for the first two hours.

We'll get into that.

Thanks, Don, for allowing us to be here again.

Yes, like Don said, this is our final installment of our grade school memories.

And for the most part, I think we all have some very pleasant memories of going to grade school, right, Carol?

Jim, we're going to eventually get to the discipline and the antics.

Yes, most of our memories, we're concentrating on the pleasant memories.

Yeah.

Little Jimmy, you've been naughty.

Give me your wrist.

Where's that ruler?

Yeah.

Give me the ruler with the splinters.

Yeah.

The nails in it.

The nails.

Oh, audience, you can see these two guys.

They have so much fun.

Well, yes, what have we covered in parts one and two?

Well, easy things like we can remember what our classrooms look like.

The pulled-on maps, the globes, the chalkboard, the writing above the chalkboard.

We can say all of our teachers' names.

Don, you know all your teachers' names.

Every one of them.

Every, you know the principal's name.

Yeah.

He stayed in touch with him.

It stayed in touch in his 80s.

Yeah.

We were talking on the phone, sending letters back and forth.

Isn't that neat?

Yeah.

I love Mr. Dodd.

Yeah.

Great teacher.

And then we remember our classmates.

And we talked about the names of the 50s.

Jimmy, Susie, Judy, Peggy, Donnie, all those white names.

And we talked about how some of those names stick.

If you haven't seen someone for 20 years and you run into them,

you find yourself calling them a little Johnny or Donnie.

I mean, the names just stick.

So those memories, so strong, so strong.

But what we haven't covered, we haven't a new beginning topic for this morning.

How we got to school.

Now, I was only two blocks away from Lincoln School.

All I had to do was walk down two straight blocks.

We'll hear from Jim later.

He had to walk much further.

That gave him more time for problematic things.

But we were so independent, you know, non-helicopter parents.

And in my situation, in our neighborhood,

with all those baby boomer kids on Carlisle,

lo and behold, because of my birthday,

I had to start a year after the whole group had started.

So a lot of times, in the early years, I walked alone.

Kindergarten.

No problem.

So anyway, we had to be very careful, though.

And so, do you remember, did you know this out east?

You can't step on any crack.

You break your mother's back.

That's what you would do.

Step on a line, you break her spine.

That's what you would do.

Well, that's a rule. That's a law.

Yes, right.

I still, to this day, don't want to step on cracks or lines.

So we paid so much attention, honestly, to the sidewalks.

And then, Carlisle had all these old, old trees, big old trees,

and that their roots would raise up to sidewalks.

So occasionally, you take a spill, too.

But when we'd get a new sidewalk section, we knew that, too.

The contractor for our area, John J. Johnson.

And all around Racine, you might see.

But we knew that.

We knew the neighbor's front yards.

We knew their porches.

I did this seven years.

Those two blocks.

And twice a day.

Because you've went home for lunch.

In winter, sometimes the snowbanks were just thrilling to be high on those.

And then, it was sometimes very fun to do something really different.

And maybe this was just me, but walking there through the alley,

not the sidewalk down in front of the porches, take the alley.

Ooh, spooky.

It was.

And when it got to be spring.

Oh, how about fall with the leaves blowing?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, the cats going.

Yeah!

Colley is barking.

Well, you know what, frankly?

We had a couple old women now that I think about it.

I'm Carl L.

That could have been a little scary.

Carol!

Come here!

Carol!

I want to talk to you.

Oh!

Come here!

Oh!

So anyway.

I'm scared sitting there.

Listen to that.

Okay.

So Jim, now, you had Frithetical.

Yes, but one thing we could not do for school was be late.

Yes.

Rule number one.

You had to be there on time.

You had to be there before the bell rang.

That's the word.

So how did we do this?

We called it correct time, and I can still remember that number.

I think it was 6-3-3-7-7-3-1, and a recorded message would say, through the service of your

telephone company, the time is whatever, 9-15.

So you knew you were going to be going to school on time.

I guess you didn't want to invest in a watch or anything.

No.

Well, the watch could be off.

Yeah.

But the time.

That's right.

That was official.

It wasn't your favorite radio station.

It was here to the time every few seconds.

Yeah.

And we did.

Of course.

Yes.

Correct.

That's correct.

But walking to school, we had a little bit further to walk than Carol did.

We had to walk all the way to Decoven and then cut back again because the road crossing

21st Street was, it did not exist.

It was just railroad tracks.

So sometimes being lazy or crazy one or the two, we would cut across the tracks.

And it wasn't just a single track or a double track.

It was one of their yards.

So it was probably maybe seven or eight or nine tracks there.

And we would just been a walk across the tracks with thinking nothing of it.

On occasion, there'd be some box cars blocking our way.

So what did we do?

Of course, we went underneath the box cars to save time and, you know, just kept on

going.

It's like a whole bowl.

Yeah.

We saw few of them there too.

Of course, we never tell our parents what we did.

But yeah, we also ride our bikes to school.

And those were the days where there were no locks.

I think every bike was a Schwinn bike and we park it behind school again, unlocked.

Sometimes our parents would even drive us to school, usually in bad weather.

Those were the days of station wagons, mothers stayed home.

There's no seat belts, right, Carol?

No, no seat belts.

Jam yourselves in there.

Yeah, yeah.

Bye for a place.

Yep.

But we look forward to some special days.

We're talking about growing up and recene going to school, school days in the 50s, 60s,

Carol, June 14th, Jim, Miss Sear here.

The way I used to go to high school now, this was high school.

I didn't get a bus.

Some kids got a bus.

I didn't live that far away.

But it had across the Long Island railroad tracks.

Now I could have walked down about three or four extra blocks and crossed it to crossing,

but I didn't want to do that.

So I crossed, it's an electric train now, keep in mind, it's not like train drive here

that it's electric.

So you get a third rail and the third rail, you touch it, it's instant.

You don't feel anything.

You just, you die, you get shocked.

So there was a piece of wood on top of the third rail, a protective piece of wood, and

we used to jump on that and jump over.

We give you a moment of wobbles, but you know, when you're like 16 or 15, who cares?

You're invincible.

Yeah.

So a lot of kids just jumped over the whole thing, but I didn't like doing that.

I quietly stepped onto the wood and quietly stepped off because I didn't want to trip

because it's right there.

You can see it's right below your foot, it's only a couple of inches.

But when I was going to high school, Joseph Sino, who is in my class, went home for school

one day for lunch, and he tripped when that was it.

No.

They said instantly, it didn't, it didn't feel a thing.

He just fell and then laid off when they found them, he's just laying on the third rail.

Oh.

Yeah.

It's just a horrible thing.

But you know, that's Shumoshaki thing is my mother.

Let me do it.

Well, I was just going to say now, did your mother know?

She must have known.

I mean, four years of jumping over the third rail, she's got to know, actually the last

year I had a car.

So I drove.

But wow.

Because your parents did watch it over you so carefully, but she didn't seem to care

about the railroad track.

Yeah.

With a lot to play sports in school, I was going to get hurt and everything.

You can jump over that third rail.

No problem.

Yeah.

I don't think she knew.

But really didn't comprehend probably.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's my horror story.

So continue talking about school days and we're seen.

Special days, we said, well, we're going to include the first day of school.

Many things went downhill after the first day, but we had everything new, you know,

new pencils, new paper, new shoes, new school clothes.

Now at Lincoln, we had several rooms per grade.

So that was very exciting and important, which room were you in?

And then sometimes even if you'd known, all the second grades are over in that part

of the building, sometimes they moved.

So that was very exciting, and then maybe there was a new teacher in the building that

was yours.

So we would walk in, Mr. Tammy, Ms. Nelson, the secretary, everything new, meet our classmates,

that was also so important, who was going to be in our class.

Now you had a one room per grade, Jim, I think.

Yeah.

We had eight classrooms and each room had their own specific grade, one through eight,

really easy.

Now, and when we got into that classroom and sat down, you and I discovered there was

always a piece of a question, and every one of us was asked every single year.

Absolutely.

And that was, what did you guys do over summer vacation?

And for the most part, it was verbal.

We had a stand in front of class and explain what we did.

Sometimes we had to write it down, of course, and turn it in.

But we always said things like we went to our grandparents.

For me, we had grandparents in Rice Lake, and I would always say, and we went up north,

and the teacher would say, well, we're up north, and I said, well, up north, but it was

actually Rice Lake.

Other places we went to was, I think you went to Riverview.

Oh, Riverview, of course, in Chicago, with the drummer Bucacola, we went there.

We scout camp, which was at Camp Chippacatin.

That's where we spent a week there.

Chippacatin.

Yes, that was near Elkhorn.

We spent a week there, and we'd sleep in tents or small cabins.

But other places we went to was, we both remember Carol was Wisconsin Dells.

That was big.

Yes.

I think most families tried to get there every summer or every few summers.

Now, we really didn't see a lot of Wisconsin Dells, and you're going to talk more about

it, I think, Jim, but what we did was took that boat ride, what it began, the shells.

It was the boat ride, and you'd go between those high limestone rocks, and the boat would

slow down, and high up, there would be an Indian or a man with a black Labrador dock.

And that dock would jump into the air to the next rock.

I never saw it in person, so a picture of the dock, and I said, I never want to see that

in person.

It was something to see.

I know, but I don't want to see a dock.

I know.

Well, then what we would do is we would buy postcards.

We sent postcards on, and one of the postcards was that dock jumping between the rocks.

I remember seeing that, yeah.

And then we would get our souvenirs.

I was always getting rabbit's feet.

Did you have a good luck, but I got it in a-

Did it work?

Yeah.

Well, I'm still here.

I survived.

Good investment.

So far.

So I got a girl Indian doll about eight inches, honey.

Now, what did you do at the Dells, Jim?

Oh, well, we went to Fort Dells.

That was our favorite place to go.

That's long gone, but that was very, very exciting.

The deer park was there, too.

The deer park was there, storybook gardens was there, biblical gardens, Tommy Bartlett.

That was the water.

I ran into Tommy Bartlett.

I was in the Dells.

I was getting something at hearties there, and I said, Tommy Bartlett, and I'm talking

to him.

Nice guy.

Yeah.

He said, did you see my show?

I said, I'm going there tonight.

Sure.

Yeah.

He was just running into celebrities.

Yeah.

He was coming out of hearties, and I recognized him, and I said, Tommy Bartlett, he goes,

yeah.

Yeah.

No.

No, I think so.

I don't think there's any anymore stuff.

We'll look it up.

Yeah.

Don't believe everything you hear.

Yeah.

I won't get too upset.

Yeah.

We'll check it out.

And for souvenirs, Carol, you got what you did.

Yeah.

I got something more useful.

I think I got a cap gun and a Tomahawk.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh.

Yeah.

Where else do we go?

Well, Browns Lake and Lake Geneva.

Oh, yeah.

The nice beaches there.

Yeah.

I thought maybe they were further away than they are.

Browns Lake is really, I think, only 25 miles.

Mm-hmm.

And then right in our own town, we really did.

We had attractions like our Washington Park pool and the zoo.

Yep.

Even our playgrounds.

Yeah.

With us field trips and things.

Sure.

Yeah.

We'll get into that.

So what do we do over summer?

Oh.

I think we got tired of the question, but that was the question.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Then we had holidays, special days.

It was very important, especially when, well, important

for different reasons as we got older.

But those little three by three valentines be mine, you know,

in the primary colors.

By the way, the Tommy Bartlett water show closed down in 2020.

The pandemic shut it down.

Oh.

It's been gone that long.

Yeah.

The pandemic did it in.

So they closed it permanently there.

Yeah.

What's going to say?

I was up at the delts not too long ago.

I went through there on the way to somewhere else.

Actually, you know what it was?

We had one of our Christmas parties up there and one of the resorts up there.

And it was during December.

So it's kind of your age.

Yeah.

And most of the delts is owned by one company now.

Really?

Yeah.

Forget the name of the company.

Yeah.

They only have just about everything up there now.

No.

But it's not what it used to be.

You know, four delts long gone.

Yeah.

Everything's long gone.

Yeah.

Some louder cracker tries to put me down, and says his school is afraid.

I gel right away.

Now what's the matter, buddy?

Ain't you heard of my school?

If it's number one in the state?

Hey, hey, take away your top violin fight.

So what we used to have?

I got a letter in my sweater with the letter in front.

I got the football in trend.

I brought a beret now with my cruiser round the other parts of the town.

I got my shirt down and back.

So be truly a school.

Wow, wow, wow.

Are you a cheerleader, Carol?

I'm so uncorrelated, Don.

No, get a little nerve there.

I wasn't.

We're talking to Jim Asteer, Carol.

It's part three of school days, 50s and 60s growing up going to school in Racine.

We were just doing Valentine's Day, Don.

Jim went to Catholic school.

Yep.

You went to public school.

Right.

And so we left off at Valentine's Day.

Yes, Valentine's Day.

Did you guys keep Valentine's Day to all the school?

Everyone.

Everybody did that in our class.

Yeah, like 26 of them.

And back.

Yeah.

When I was in grammar school, you didn't think much of it.

No.

But we never got them in high school because then you said, oh, she said that.

No, that's something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But everybody got them.

Everybody got them when you liked them or not.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that was fair.

You couldn't leave anybody out.

No, and that was good.

But I thought this was funny because Jim was one of your trumpet valentines.

He reminded me that, yeah, and some of those valentines had envelopes.

So you had to put, if you wrote them to the person for the envelope.

But then he stopped doing the envelopes because there were 55 minutes of class.

We had 55 minutes of class.

That was way too much to do anything on the envelope.

No, just get it.

Passed them out.

Yeah.

Well, it's been a lot of time.

Yeah, 55 minutes of class.

There is not any envelope.

Yeah, you used to buy a box of them.

Yeah, a box of them.

These weren't like hallmark ones.

You were like a dying store.

And the dying store.

And the people were like, hey, be my valentine.

Yeah.

You gave it to all the ugliest kids and...

You gave it to everybody.

Kids who couldn't stand your guts.

Exactly.

And then the mothers, homemade cupcakes, and when we could bring in homemade food, that's the party.

Yeah.

The Valentine's party.

Now, another good day.

Birthdays?

Yep.

Birthdays?

Yes, yes.

Again, now, we were saying last time.

We were all was lining up silently.

So in my at Lincoln School of Fisher Birthday, you often could be the first in line.

And then you handed out your cupcakes and your chocolate chip cookies.

But you and I, you were summer and I was Christmas.

Yes.

So we're trying to say we had our parties.

We missed all that.

We missed all that fun.

Yeah.

The actual in person day.

Yeah.

How about the last day of school, Jim?

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

I think we spent a lot of time cleaning out our desks for the last time.

We had got our report cards.

And we had a check if you passed or sometimes you flunked back there.

Or is it an awful word?

It wasn't flunked.

Yeah, they were.

Never got enough.

Really?

Got okay.

One D in middle school.

My mother went up to the teacher to find out what the story was.

She said, well, your son and I just have a personality conflict.

Oh.

She gave me D.

Yeah.

That's right.

I remember.

We had our class photo the last day of school by our front steps by Holy Trinity.

All the shorties were in the last day.

Last day.

Yeah.

All the shorties were in the front.

All the taller kids were in the back.

Our priest and the nun were seated on chairs.

And we all got those photos.

And of course, we also discovered who our teacher was going to be for next year.

But a lot of us knew it already.

And the famous words from the teachers have a good summer vacation.

You are dismissed.

And on the way out, we were all singing this song.

And I think many of you remember this.

No more teachers.

No more books.

No more teachers.

We look.

Yeah.

See?

There you go.

Nice Christian school.

Yeah.

So.

Well, then another special day unscheduled snow days.

So it might be snowing the night before.

And then mothers had the radio on WRJN or WRAC.

Correct.

Yep.

Right.

Yep.

To tell us.

Yes.

And then going crazy when we found out it was snow day.

Yeah.

Well, the first thing we did when we discovered it was a snow day was to call our neighborhood friends

and say, hey, let's get out there and play in the snow.

So we built our snow forts and snowmen.

And of course, we had a lot of snowball fights.

Don, I'm sure you remember the snowball fights.

Mostly guys.

I don't think girls weren't involved on that.

No, we were making snow.

And you get some jerk who would take a snowball and freeze it.

Yes.

Right.

And then so they just say, you got to get a cushion when you got hit with it.

Right.

That was one jerk in the neighborhood.

Yeah.

I didn't ask you this before.

But did you and your buddies ever throw those at cars, passing cars?

We did.

We had to have a good hiding place, though.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a requirement.

We bring in the sheriff.

We finally got him.

We miss you a deal.

It took 50 years when we got that admission a deal.

Yeah.

We're going, buses were our biggest target, I think, though.

Yeah.

But you went to, you went to a religious store.

I know.

Yeah.

What did they train you?

I know.

It's awful.

We could do anything.

We could be a black mother jacket on the corner.

I started it.

And after all that, of course, we'd come in for lunch and watch cartoons.

I remember watching shows such as, geez, Amos and Andy.

Three stuages were our favorite, though.

That came on at 3.30.

Yeah.

We always made time for the three stuages.

What did you watch, girl?

And then I watched Queen for a day, I remember.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Jack Bayley was the best.

Jack Bayley.

Yeah.

Queen.

And you heard three sob stories.

Yeah.

The three sob stories.

Yeah.

And then there was a meter.

You clap.

It was a clap meter.

And that meter would go all the way to the right.

Oh.

And give her the cape, the crown.

Yeah.

And since, point for day to song.

Yeah.

I remember that.

Yeah.

Well, you know.

We've been leading up to this point, Jim, like the snowball discussion we just had.

You know.

Some people do have unpleasant memories about the discipline.

Discipline.

Yes.

Needed out to them.

Yeah.

But what did some of you guys especially?

Yeah.

You were the trouble maker.

I think the boys were the trouble makers.

You were.

Yeah.

You know, we had snowball fights and other fights between boys.

You know, that got us in trouble.

Minor things like chewing gum during class.

Talking back to the teachers.

Pushing and shoving, that was a big one.

Turning in latest assignments.

I think it was just a matter of us boys trying to get attention.

You know.

And we paid the price.

What were some of the pushments you remember that school?

Alcatraz?

Yeah.

Boys will be boys.

Well, a lot of these, and it's probably true, would be so politically incorrect today.

An easy one, of course, would be banned from recess.

You're to stay in recess.

Or you have to stay after school.

Yeah.

Um, but standing in a corner, putting your nose into a circle on the chalkboard.

Yep.

You know, not done today.

Where did you guys go to school?

Well, you must have had some punishments in Massa Piqua.

The only thing was have to go in the hallway and sit at a desk in the hallway for an hour.

And they came back and he had it easy.

He's looking at our nose on the chalkboard.

We were kind of in the backwards here.

Yeah.

Uh, standing in a corner, I don't know if I said that too.

But here was the big one.

Writing 100 times.

Yes.

I will not push.

Yes.

And there was a shortcut you could do if the none wasn't looking.

You know, these are racers.

You could fit two pieces of chalk in there.

So when you're writing on the blackboard, it would repeat itself.

So I will not.

And they were actually writing twice.

You know, you had one of those things that made the music scales.

They had five pieces of chalk.

Yeah.

Right.

And then didn't notice.

And that's why you got in trouble.

Because you're thinking of ways to get around the race.

Exactly.

And while you're getting punished for getting around the rules, you're trying to get around the rules.

Right.

Exactly.

It's a vicious circle.

Right.

Yep.

We're talking to Jim Bessier and Carol G.

We're talking to the four T.

School days and the 15s and 60s and Racine.

And we're still we're still in the discipline.

Oh yes.

We are.

Yes.

That was a big part of our lives.

Didn't they have like a stockade here in Racine and Village Square?

Yeah.

There were people in Monument Square.

Yeah.

Put the bad kids in there.

For great school kids who, yeah.

We needed punishment.

Yeah.

Well, just as bad we had notes to the parents.

What happened was the teacher would write a note to be given to your parent.

And you best better give that to your mother or dad because they would know.

And they had to sign it.

And there were no forgeries allowed.

You had us give it to your parents to sign.

Don't even think about signing their names because they would know.

Right Carol?

Forgeries.

Yeah.

Well, and a company one was I'm going to call your parents.

And my husband to this day, you know, 78 years old.

He's still, once in a while comes up, we laugh.

But anyway, he was told that, yes, his parents were going to be called that night.

And this will be on your permanent record.

And you know, parents sided with the teacher in those days.

Today, it's not quite as clear.

They might not side with the teacher, which can be good or bad.

Well, I remember when I got rehired here as talking to Chris Morrell, our general manager

he said, I'm looking at your permanent record from grammar school.

Man, some sense of things that you're out of life.

Yeah.

This is not the civic media way.

Yeah.

Well, you put out no whole way in second grade.

Yeah.

No, we have to rethink this.

Yeah, you're on probation, you know.

So my husband goes home knowing that the phone's going to ring.

And the afterschool hours go by and then there are four of them are sitting there at dinner.

And sure enough, the phone rings.

And in those minutes, he about died.

And it was just a neighbor.

So he escaped and then never caught the call, never came.

I forged my mother's signature once.

And they had, I was a second grade.

They had to know it was a forgery.

Yeah.

My mother had a very fast cursive signature.

And I like copied it.

So it was like my mother had some kind of, you know, you know, fan problem.

Yeah.

No, it was a fake.

Yeah.

Sure.

And we talked about this before, but the, uh, all the nuns had rulers.

And they had complete control over that class.

And I personally think that was part of their uniform with the crucifix around their neck, you know,

and the rosary from their side.

They also had a ruler dangling their someplace.

Oh.

And talking about the prelical schools.

One thing that everybody remembers if you went to a Catholic school was the pagan babies.

And that was a fundraiser for babies who were knocked baptized, non-Catholic.

And they lived in poor countries.

We all had a contribute to the pagan baby, uh, fund.

The name.

Sounds like a senior to the extra system.

It does.

I mean, just those words, pagan babies.

Oh, or something else that happened in the public schools.

I think until, uh, including my third grade, and then it stopped.

But I've talked to my friends about it in the fall.

This was a case for some new furniture in at home.

This was a case for home cleaning.

Our teachers had home visits to us.

And I can still see my teacher sitting on our living room couch.

And then the child would be asked to, you know, go to, like me, go to my room or something.

The teachers came to the homes.

Can you imagine that individual attention, not, not continued after maybe third grade though?

Mm-hmm.

Not, what about, um, field trips?

Field trips.

Oh, that was a good part of, uh, going to grade school.

I know we had a field trip to the old uptown theater where we saw the 10 commandments.

And it wasn't the bus that we took to get there.

We had a walk from 21st Street where Holy Trinity was all the way uptown to the uptown.

To the uptown theater to see the 10 commandments.

Were you able to buy popcorn and stuff?

I think so.

Yeah.

It's like a four hour movie.

Yeah.

Did it make you a turtle?

And he has to mesmerizing.

Yes.

It was incredible.

Was it astonishing?

Oh, my gosh.

Yes.

Uh-huh.

And our eighth grade field trip, we went to Muskego Beach, a amusement park, which was, we're in Muskego.

That was not as big as, uh, a river, a river view, but it was certainly much bigger than Kittyland Park.

And what I was remembering, this seems astonishing.

Every six grade class in the city of Racine had two or three nights, probably two nights, at Camp Anakige.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

We all went as a class.

Mm-hmm.

And when I went, it was, when we, my classroom, when it was getting hold.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, but Jim, you said you couldn't do this on your field trips.

Mm-hmm.

We sang 99 bottles of beer on the wall for hours, there and back, there and back.

Well, incredible.

Yeah.

We also had, uh, show and tell.

Um, sometimes we'd have to get in front of class and talk about where we were at one time or, uh, bringing some souvenirs.

When, uh, we went to San Francisco to, uh, to visit my aunt, we were in sixth grade with my grandparents.

And I had to give a talk about what we did in San Francisco, to Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown.

And I brought some souvenirs, like a toy metal cable car, a mystery box from Chinatown that only you knew how to open.

And you can keep secret things in there.

Oh, that's amazing.

Yes, yes, yes.

Mm-hmm.

How about you, Carol?

I think, um, in our, a typical show and tell, probably was more about the pets we had.

Mothers would bring in a rabbit or a hamster or something, you know, our little pet.

No, we're running out of time.

So what are we going to do next time?

We're ending grade school.

Yes.

We're graduating.

Yeah.

It's about the end of the part three.

Yep, we're moving on.

We're moving on.

That's going to be about how dangerous life was back in the 50s and 60s.

And some examples would be what, smoking cigarettes, of course.

And even the doctor said, hey, use this brand of cigarette or whatever.

My doctor used to blow smoke.

He's a doctor feeling.

Yeah.

He used to smoke while he was examined.

Yeah.

He was out all around.

Yeah.

Well, along with that was if we ourselves did not smoke, especially at young ages, we lived.

We grew up with secondhand smoke.

Sure.

Yeah.

All around us.

Yeah.

And then my street, I still love it to this day to think about it.

But Carlisle, big trees and a pretty street.

But it wasn't that far from Bell City Foundry.

And if the wind came from the east, there was soot all over.

One day probably was wash day hanging out the wash.

The sheets would be sit on them when you think of us kids playing on the grass and everything.

Sure.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And we used to eat all that sugar cereal.

Sugar.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yeah.

Shutter going off these chains.

That's right.

Yeah.

I used to.

We had asbestos shingles on our house on the back of the house.

Yeah.

And I had a hot day used to lick this asbestos shingles.

Oh my gosh.

Because it was cold.

Yeah.

And we used to put our tongues on it to think that we used to lick it.

What was I thinking?

I know it.

We were licking asbestos.

Yeah.

We even drank water from my hose back then.

I know.

Who knows where that water is coming from?

And then the miracle, the miracle medicine for any scrape or cut mercuric rum.

And then it turned out mercury.

Yeah.

So we're going to go over quite a few things that we survived.

It's a miracle all for you here.

Yeah.

We're here.

Well, thank you guys.

Yes.

Thank you.

Pleasure.

Now, if you missed any part of this lunacy and you want to hear it again, it will be podcast

later today at WRJN.com, civicmedia.us, and also Spotify.

It's on Apple podcast.

Where we get to podcasts.

The easiest way to search Don Rosen's show and you'll see it.

If you go to WRJN.com, just go to the menu.

Click on my name and you'll see we have a 500 podcasts on there.

And you guys are a bunch of them.

So that was good.

Thank you guys for coming in.

Hey.

So now we know this was lunacy.

Thank you for that word, Doc.

Yeah.

Jim is here.

I can still pick you in the stockade at Monument Square.

It's wrong tomatoes in your face for punishment.

And I hate tomatoes.

Me too.

Oh, candy bars next time.

Thank you guys for coming in.

I do appreciate it.