Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this April 12th, 2024. Have your host James
J. Mailoff here. In part two today at 330, we have the visit Wisconsin Rapids Bureau
helping us focus on the Southwark County Historical Museum. We'll have Phil Brown and with
us looking forward to that. And we're going to continue talking some history to start things
off. We have this store point boss with us. We're going to focus on the campfire cooking
and some other great events going on with our friends over there. We have Mike Hittner
with us. Good morning, sir. Good morning, James. Good afternoon.
How are you? I'm good to see you. Hello. Thank you both for being here so much. Doing
all the great work that you guys do in your team over at this store point boss. Before
we get into future events, I want to rewind a little bit, talk about sugar bush with
you and how that went. Yeah, that was James March 16th and had good weather. It was I think
probably around 45 or something like that. And we had collected our maple sap beforehand
just because it was such an early spring and so warm so early. So we collected, I think
the first week of February and then we froze it and then thought it out and put it in
for boiling down and everything. But had a great turnout and people from Iowa and from
different parts of Wisconsin was a real nice mixture of people that came out. Tommy,
you want to tell me your perspective from the campfire? I thought it was really good.
There was a lot of kids, never enough, but always could have more certainly. But it was
a good flow. It took a little while to get started during the day. It was kind of gray
and that so. But once we got rolling, there was people in there all day and sometimes
quite a few. Yeah. So it was good. Yeah, it was good. And Tom says, you know, never enough
kids. Boy, we got our school groups coming up. Starting next Friday and then through
May, we got, I think, about 10 or 12 lined up so far and it looks like a busy time and
he won't say that so much after next Friday. You know, guys, when it comes to these
events, we've been doing a lot of these events for many years. I'm sure that there are
some regulars and people that you see at these events every year. But one of the things
I was talking to listeners about that they've experienced is seeing new people, even though
that they might be a regular and they show up at a sugar bush event every year or something
they're always seeing new people at these events. And I think it's a credit to what you
guys do over there and a credit to this community really loving their history and keeping
it alive. Well, it's James is one of the hidden mysteries of central Wisconsin historic
point boss. Even people sometimes from Nikusa come over and we didn't know where you're
here. Well, we've been neighbors for 35 years. So, but they could be newly, you know,
to the community and that sort of thing. But Tom and I just gave a presentation Wednesday
night up at the rail library up in Marshfield and we were invited up there and we had done
some displays in their in their display cases a couple different times of some artifacts
and different things. And we were invited up and it was kind of refreshing because it
was people I think one of the parties that was in attendance had been to the site. The
other people I don't think ever had. But one asked about one of the people who works in
the cabin with Tom Joe Greco and they said, well, is Joe there or something like that?
And of course, you know, Joe is there. So, before the thing started, that's the first
thing he said when he came in, he asked me, you know, like, well, yeah, we see him all
the time, which is kind of nice and he remembered the name, you know, which is unusual. You
know, Pierre Charade, well, you remember that name, but yeah, yeah, sort of thing. So,
yeah, it was good. Yeah. When it came to this year's event, a successful one with sugar
bush and looking forward to next year's. We have the campfire cooking class that we're
going to touch on here and everything, but gotta let you guys know right away, this is booked.
This thing is booked. One thing I want to note with that, do you guys do this every year?
Yes. And every year, it seems to book up. So, I wanted to remind people out there,
get in on this early and sign up for this class early next year because it's a fun one.
We've moved it from fall to spring. It was up for last last fall and for a whole bunch of
reasons, things just didn't work out right. So, we didn't hold it. But this year, we started early
and started promoting and we said, 15, well, I know that there's more than that signed up now.
So, we've kind of done well, even if we have somebody drop out, we're still going to be full.
Yeah, yeah. Pretty much. I mean, we can always take one. And you know, yeah, and that's kind of
nice. We went to spring. We were a little, a little crowded in the fall, you know, one thing after
another. And so, for some of the people, it was like, well, we just got done with this. Now,
we got to prepare for this one. It was a little bit too much together, too close. And so,
we never really had anything in April. And so, this was a good way to start out the spring
right after sugar bush going to this. And then, of course, our festival in June. So,
it was kind of a natural. It really does fit out timeline wise. And it takes a little less
off of you guys have not having to punch everything up in a couple of months stretch.
And people like the idea, I think, of it's camping season coming up. So, let's do cast
iron cooking. Well, gee, I don't know how. Well, guess what? Yeah. Yeah.
You can utilize this the whole summer camping season because you've learned it early in the
season in April and carried forward through all your park visits and wherever you go with
camping. Yeah. And while you can't maybe take in this class this year, keep in mind next year,
we're going to have another class and another opportunity. Right.
Especially now that we know the audience gets a little more familiar with the time of year it's
going to be. I know this class is always going to sell out. It's just one of those things.
It's a fun idea, too. And there's so many people around here not only that love cooking,
but like cooking in a unique way or cooking a different way or making some of the foods that
we've made for many years, but just with something different. Right. Cast iron is a whole different
animal. I'd learn that the hard way. There's no knob on there. Well, and the interesting thing,
too, James with the cast iron cooking is that this cooking campfire cooking class is excellent
because one of our members says he just signs up and goes to it every year and he helps out at it
just for the food because of such a you know, gets fed every time you turn around. So that's
a great part of it. It's a smart man. That's a smart person right there. It's a fun event and we're
looking forward to hearing how it went the next time you guys join us and everything. When we got
James too coming up early May and we want to put this out to other troops and everything. We have
a boy scout troop coming down and spending the weekend on our site and they do a little service
project and maybe work on a few badges, but they also camp out on our site and for any
scout troop or anything that we don't ever charge anything for that. We like to work with the
Scouts girls or boy scouts or explorers or whoever it is. So that group is coming in. I think it's
either the Saratoga or Nicosah group. Nicosah troop that's coming in and one of our members is
involved with it and everything and they just asked and we just pass that right by. It's right
after a couple of schools are there, but they don't come until Friday night and
and this thing is going the school groups are the course during the day on Friday.
If there are teachers or our principals or anybody out there listening and they'd like their
school or their class to be involved and check things out at the store pump bus, is there still time
to do that? Oh yeah certainly and Tom has a wonderful segue for that by the way. Well my wife and
I were talking the other day and there's a we have to charge when the kids come because we have
expenses. We don't pay anybody to be there but the lights and the gas and everything else need
to go on. That's up and maintenance. Good Lord. But she said you know wouldn't it be neat
if a grandparent or a civic person said okay I know Johnny in this class I'll give that class
a scholarship to come down to the site pay the fee they'll have to do they can do transportation
I mean transportation has got to be handled by the school district so that's another whole deal
but just to pay you know I'll sponsor that for my granddaughter's class and then come you
could come with them there's nothing wrong with that just to bring along the sponsor even if you
go do it anonymously you know. Most teachers aren't going to shy away from having an extra adult
around either and we just thought it would be really cool. That's an awesome idea. I wish I had
an opportunity like that you know myself when my kids my grandkids were small enough. Yeah you know
the interesting part about it is is that we've had a little bit of resistance from some schools
just because of this issue because we charge for a whole day activity basically from nine to
two thirty or something like that seven dollars which is about a buck and a quarter an hour but
but because of the cost of gasoline and diesel fuel and everything the transportation the busing
is more expensive than what they get they get in for our charge for our site and then a lot of
groups sometimes want to go to Heritage Hill and Green Bay or Old World Wisconsin or some well
the problem with that is you've got four hours plus on the bus and not many many hours on the ground
and point bus if you're within most groups that come or within an hour or so of point bus they
get almost all the time on the ground so they aren't sitting in the bus because I think for a kid
a lot of these kids ride the bus anyway to school back and forth here another another two hours
or something they have to sit in the bus gets kind of a little bit over. That's such a strong point
Mike that is such a great point I think to make and you know for kids in this area this is more
I'm not to say that exactly you know nothing against what's going on in Green Bay that's
important in history but this is your history this is your ancestors history and that there's
a little more pride to come from. We've had that problem I think James and just in talking about
history in the sense that we think of Philadelphia or Boston or Washington or something like that
and we think that all the history is there but it was there and then it came here and then we made
our own history here and we don't neglect that history but we want to also make an important
point that we've got local history and it's just as important it's probably more important for
our local people right here. One of the things that stood out to me when I went out to California
that I thought was really cool and I never hear anybody talk about what Californians is the way
they incorporated so much of like the Adobe buildings and a lot of that into like you go there
now and there's like a bank in there they're you know they didn't tear the building down they just
put something different in there. It reused it. Yeah and I really like that and I found a actually
like it made me a little homesick when I saw those things in California because I think we're very
good at that here and was in Wisconsin and the Midwest and the idea that the pride that they
taken this it's so different when you're able to get to learn more about your history the soil
that you've stepped on since you were a kid in that and learning more about it. It's just a different
animal and it's a pretty unique opportunity to be able to have that. Well and I was talking to
somebody the other day and they brought up and and I realized that though we don't think of it
off and that the Spanish were here in the Southwest in the 1500s way before the pilgrims ever
landed at Plymouth Rock and they were in here and there's some of those old churches and missions
down in in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico are from the 1500s and and it was settled you know a lot
longer goal than we realized and I think it's good just to realize that that you know depending
where you are California was even settled you know the missions up and down the coastal father
Sarah settled those missions and everything and a lot of those areas were settled long before we
think of in the east or the Midwest or anything like that. It's interesting it's fascinating American
history so awesome I love it. We're speaking with Mike Hittner and Tom Bremmer from the historic
point boss and guys I'm just showing them something to what audio is going to ask you about that.
My my oldest daughter Bria she got into like felting and knitting and stuff she's been doing
it she's so creative it does a lot of great stuff like that. I saw this and then I saw your guys
you're felting class coming up and I wanted to talk about that I know Bria is probably going
to sign up for it so you're going to be seeing one of my kids warn you about that. She's a good one
she's good but this wool needle felting class coming up can we talk about that a little bit?
Sure. Let me say this way Michael do you anything about that? Well because I do not.
A lady from Portage Wisconsin who's been in the wool and all kinds of aspects of wool is going to
lead that felting class and I believe it's at the Nikusa library. Yeah Joanne Lester Public Library.
Yeah and and I think it's for I think 14 and up or something like that and 12 and up 12 and up
and I think it's a good time to learn this. My granddaughters know a little felting but they use
kind of plastic needles and stuff just because of their four and seven years old and this is going
to be using actual needles and felting is very utilitarian you know I've got I've had some sweaters
at home that had a little moth hole or something while you you get a contract or color that
coordinates with it and you felt that little hole and you can wear that sweater it's nothing
wrong with it doesn't look quite perfect but then again best to use things as long as we can.
Well and and you guys know this even better than I do what was once old is now new and what's
new is old and the younger generation the big thing for them is not new designer clothes it's
going to like a flea and yeah and repurposing things and stuff and learning how to do this is
repurposing I mean it's right up the alley of where they're going with their fashion and a lot of
that so I think this felting class should be real popular and the price I think it was like $15
or something yeah it was very reasonable like the cost of it and she brings all the materials
for you there to use and everything like that so $15 to have a lifetime skill yeah I mean that's
a pretty good investment right there that that's pretty good check out the wool needle felting
class coming up Saturday May 11th 9 to 12 it's again $15 as Mike said if you're 12 or older you
can take in the class and it'll be taking place at the trials in Joanne Leicester Public Library
at 100 Park Street in beautiful Nacusa we say good morning to all of our friends at the
Joanne and Leicester Public Library love our friends wonderful you guys have a blacksmith class coming
up Friday May June June 7th June 7th let's touch on that a little bit it's just 16 and over there's
only I think room for three in the class yes if they had more sign up they would probably open a
Thursday on the sixth class to take it because you got to kind of have my hands on but it yep
you can only handle so much hands on with with blacksmithing with the pony of the metal and
the small shop yeah small shop but John Berg is going to do that who's a very accomplished
blacksmith and has been a teacher in the I mean in the district here for years is killing both
plate both sides of that yeah yeah yeah it's a fun class and one of those ones that I know a lot
of people are excited about they enjoy taking but it is a limited amount of people yeah first
comfort sir keep that an older yes and it's 16 and older there's a number of different things that
you want to keep in mind with a class like that there's a great list on the historic point boss
website if you'd like to check that out it's twerkpointboss.com and we'll give that website again
before we wrap up but these classes these workshops if you will are so much fun they incorporate
wonderful way of tying history into the modern times and a lot of that as these things go on we
of course I know that you guys would like to do more and include more and we can help you do that
by volunteering and I want to make sure to mention that too and remind everybody out there that
well you guys are great at this and wonderful at what you do we want to make sure that we can keep
this going for the next hundred years and we can only do that with more more people being involved in
more volunteers and volunteers get involved because they come down the site and they visit
they like what we do or they come to one of these classes that we're talking about
whether it's felting or blacksmithing or the sheep to shawl one that's coming up in June
this sort of thing which we don't have time to do when you're at the site when we have a regular
day this time you can get really into it and get down to the basic brass tax of whatever we're doing
so I think it's a good opportunity to take it one step further for these people
there's I mean anytime every season there is something going on over at this tour point by
so we've covered a lot today there's even more going on over there and even more to do
you're going to have a foraging class in the fall oh that's not I don't know if there's
a lot and one of our members Ann Rosner has done foraging in the past and and has talked about it
at different times and you have the festival or some or the fall harvest fair and she's going to
do one in the fall before when when the cooking campfire cooking class was in the fall she did it
in conjunction with that but now we're going to do it as a separate entity another thing that has
been going on for a handful of years now it has been very not just trendy it's been it's a thing
now it's not just a fat people love being able to do that I've got a couple of friends of ours from
extension reach a wide here and a couple of other people that I've talked to over the years
they are so into this and there's so much of it you can do right in this area I mean like I'll
write off highway 54 of their spots that you can do where fine foraging then it's just important
to really know what you're looking for what you're doing out there identification yeah that goes
a long way you don't want to be a city boy like me out there try to look for stuff this foraging class
is going to be very helpful when it comes to that that's smart that's really smart is there anything
else you guys want to touch on before we let you go today I would think just our signal or our
biggest event Pioneer Festival is June 8th and 9th this year and that's where we have about 20 25
campers doing different arts and skills of period skills and that's a good opportunity we're
going to have some civil war involvement this year civil war soldiers and some cannons for letting
the neighbors know down there we've talked to the sheriff's department right in the in the
kusa police department and we told them we're going to do probably set one off on the hour or
something like that they said it was okay but we just thought smart thank you let everybody know
that yeah the thunderstorm is incoming in there whatever it is it's not a big cannon yeah you know
but what cool history to be able to take in and how many times you can you say in your life you
saw a cannon you know an old school like Hannah from the Civil War era go up I think especially
in these day and ages learning more and more about the Civil War and learning more about those
things is very important and a number of different fronts and it's just interesting and exciting
it's fun to hear about this games I shouldn't probably say it but if we don't learn from the Civil
War we're we're going to head for it together not too far off the way it's going yeah you said
exactly what was in my head my head yeah and it's it's it's it's fun too and I don't want that to
get lost and at this history is exciting it's fun you feel something I can't walk on the land
out there I go to the spirit walk almost every year I love taking that in I can't go out there
in a minute hunting times I go there not get goosebumps like I just feel the history I feel that
out there well especially during spirit walk you know we were talking the other day with the
group in Marshfield and and we you know we were talking about stuff and I says just remember I
says you know Mary lost a child in the river and then watch that river flow by for 50 years
after that yeah yeah I mean the body was never recovered they never recovered you know it's one
of these things where it had tragedies happen in every family but when you that makes it you
stand there in that house my god and think about that old woman living there yeah and doing that
you got to have a good empathy with them yeah those people I mean yes it gives you it gives you
some appreciation of today I think I think we can all use a little of that there's that and there's
of course great volunteer opportunities and great ways to help keep history alive over at
the historic point boss if you want to find out more encourage and check out the website
historic point boss dot com that is historic point boss dot com all one word you can also give
them a call at 715 459 1722 459 1722 and email them historic point boss at gmail dot com historic point
boss at gmail dot com Mike Tom love talking to you guys thank you so much for all you do for our
community and hanging out with me for a little bit thanks James thank you appreciate you guys
we'll have more midday magazine coming up right here at WFHR locally grown radio
