Our first home was on St. Claire Street in Sheboygan. It was a two story, wood frame structure purchased in 1968 for $17,000. I don't know what the square footage of the house was but I would guess around 3,000 square feet. The house had high ceilings, beautiful woodwork and a stunning red brick fireplace.
After the first couple of years we were visited by some bats. Thats right! Little mice with wings. They are nocturnal and considered a mammal. When they spread their wings, they suddenly appear larger and are kind of intimidating. Somehow bats were getting into the house. The most logical suspect location was the fireplace but we had it inspected and that was not the source. Baffling! Just baffling!
I killed several bats one morning as they clung to the "picture molding" that circumvented the living room. I found a broom and "wham"! I hoped that was the end of it.
A friend of ours said that we should not kill the bats. They do not attack people and they eat their weight in mosquitos every day. That didn't change my mind. They are creepy little bastards.
My exposure to bats was through movies where Bella Lagosi plays a vampire and after he has sucked the blood from his victims, he turns into a bat and flies into the night. Eerie.
Then I watched documentaries about vampire bats that inhabit the caves in Mexico and they actually attack and eat full size cattle and people. So much for being harmless.
One night around 11:00 PM, the whole family was tucked in their bed. Debs would have been 10, Kelly 9 and Christopher 6. I was awakened by a clinking sound. As I listened, it was coming from the closet in our bedroom. It sounded like metal clothes hangers "clanking" together. Then I heard a flapping sound and I said to your mom, "there is another bat in the house". I was hoping she would jump out of bed, turn on the light and kill the little critter. Yeah, right. I think she pulled the covers over her head. Soon we could hear the bat flying in the hall.
Suddenly the bedroom door at the end of the hall opened. Christopher was about to walk down the hall to the bathroom and we could envision the horror if he saw the bat flying over his head. Mom told him to get back in his bedroom and close the door. Good thinking!. Suddenly, Chris screamed and said there was something in his bedroom. He had returned to his bedroom and so had the bat. He opened the door and the bat flew out. We had been told that the police department would remove the pest because bats were potentially rabid. The police came and walked the house. As the policeman was coming down the back stairs, the bat started up the stairway. The policeman swatted it to the ground with his hand and stepped on the bat. Squish! Crisis over. You could tell the policeman didn't like this encounter either.
It took several weeks to find how the bats were entering the house. There was a slight crack where the roof had warped away from the house. I mean a "slight" crack. You couldn't believe that the bat would fit into such a small opening, but they did. We sealed the crack and our bat problem was solved.
The perception of bats is worse than the reality. Apparently they are good for the environment. Hopefully they bless your abode and not mine.
By the way, Christopher survived the ordeal!
Love,
Dad
Thanksgiving 2006 was at Van Abel's restaurant in Hollandtown for out group of 16. Thats right! Just walk right in, our table was reserved, and food was served family style. There were abundant waitresses and waiters so take care of us. The food selection was awesome. The best part? No dishes!
Van Abel's is a "throwback" to the City Club in Plymouth. The large open area with wooden floors lent itself to long tables and lots of people. I couldn't help remembering the last couple of years that my Grandma Myrna offered to hold Thanksgiving in the "side-room" of the City Club. The tavern was closed all day and I think opened at 6:00 PM to regualr customers. It was the late 1970's and Myrna knew that she wouldn't be able to offer to host Thanksgiving many more times.
The "Bucky and Alice Clan" came. We still have pictures. It was Alice and Ray, Myna and Chuck, Chuck and Shelby, Jack and Mary Ann, Addie and Ike, Jerry and Jayne. Of course there were grandchildren totaling 15. Everybody brought food and I think Myrna did the turkey in her big roaster. The food was put on tables and it was a cooperative effort.
There was always something special about the City Club being closed to customers. It was quiet. The grandkids could wander anywhere in the tavern and Myrna set the orthophonic music machine so that songs could be played by pushing the selection button (no money).
For kids, it was like exploring. Nothing was off limits. They could run and slide. They could dance to the music. They could play pool. They could walk behind the bar. They could do all the things that were normally off limits. I think soda was made available from all the coolers behind the bar. There was a kind of freedom.
As I remember the Thanksgivings at the City Club, I am stricken by the fact that they were one of the few times that my whole family consisting of Grandma (and Step Grandfather), Mother (and Step Dad), brothers and sisters with spouses, and nieces and nephews got together in one place and the same time. It was special. I don't think anybody attached much significance to the gathering at the time. It marked the end of an era as The Andrews Family moved on and the business was sold. It was a time that was neither good or bad. Things were changing. It was a warm memory.
So I hope everyone had a special Thanksgiving. For me it was a reminder of Thanksgivings past! At the Club! In Plymouth! With my family! It will always be special.
Lots of Warm Hugs
Dad
I'm struck by how complicated life can get. We have a propensity to take something really simple and complicate the hell out of it. Harrison Ford falls in love with Anne Heche in "Six Days and Seven Nights". Ford is a small plane pilot in the Carribean Islands. He crashes his airplane and falls in love with Heche. Nobody, he repeats nobody is going to screw up the simple life he has womanizing, drinking and flying around the islands. Nobody until Anne comes along. The last scene shows Ford surrendering to her charm admitting that he will return to New York with her and he wanted to "complicate the hell out of his life". No Harrison! No! No! No! It is the wrong life lesson.
Grasshopper No. 4 picked up on the "simplicity idea" with his Saturday morning football team. When the team went from remembering 15-20 plays down to 3-4 plays, the team did better. Yep, they did it simpler.
I was going through some papers the other night and I came across the purchase of our first cottage. You've heard the story about how we bought it on sight and sealed the deal with a handshake. The owner was Mr. Ray Mallman and he believed in keeping his word. You can't get much simpler than a man's word and a handshake.
I have mentioned Garrison Keelor, host of "Prairie Home Companion". It is a Saturday night radio show out of St. Paul, Minnesota. The charm is that he makes reference to his growing up in a simple farm community in Minnesota. It makes you yearn for the simple life of a farm boy. The biggest problem Garrison refers to is removing piers on Lake Woebegone (I haven't checked to see if there really is a lake by that name) at the end of the year. He refers to characters constantly from home where "women are strong, men are handsome and all children above average". Excitement was the county fair and a barn-dance Saturday night. Simple was good.
Then I watched a one hour TV special on Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world. Despite all the issues that go with money, he is really quite simple. He likes cherry cokes. I like cherry cokes. He likes cheeseburgers. I like cheeseburgers. He likes Dairy Queen shakes so he bought the company. I like Dairy Queen products but I have to pay market value. Okay! Okay! He can do things that I can't do. He has lived in the same nice but simple home for 48 years. He knows what makes him happy and he doesn't apologize for it. A nice afternoon is sitting at home in his sweatsuit with a bowl of popcorn watching Nebraska beat Texas. Hey, I like to do that.
Buffet's formula for success is "do what you love and do it well". The word simplicity isn't in that success statement but it is implied.
So Grasshoppers my advice is to "strive for the simple life". Sometimes it seems hard to do but with a little practice, you'll find it is really quite simple.
Love,
Dad
I watched "Dancing With the Stars" with my loving wife. Emmitt Smith won the competition along with his dance partner, Cheryl Burke. Grasshopper No. 4 said I grossed him out when I said that Emmitt had a cute smile. That charismatic grin and a lot of enthusiasm took his team over the top. At the end of the last dance Emmitt slapped his partner on the ass. He can't do that! That could be grounds for sexual harassment.
Then I was flipping channels and I came across a basketball preseason game with Texas Tech playing Oklahoma State. My favorite coach, Bobby Knight, was prowling the sidelines and his team was winning big time. One of his players failed to fight for a rebound. As the player approached the bench during a timeout, Bobby decided he would give the player some loving tips. As the kid stood in front of Knight taking the barrage of comments, he had his head down. Knight wanted to look the kid to look him in the eye so he clenched his fist and lovingly "popped" the kid under the chin to get his head up. To put it mildly, the kid got the message. In fact, it showed the kid sitting on the bench afterward trying to see if he had broken his jaw or something more serious. The incident was dismissed as a "teaching incident". Seems to me it could be close to child abuse.
And then there is Sony's new Play Station 3. The new unit is out today and there are only 400,000 available. So people are lined up outside the major retailers to get the first editions. People are standing in line with $600 in their pocket to buy the first units. One Walmart store had only 10 units available and had to turn hundreds of people away. Some people were selling their spot in line in for $100, $200, and $300. Then the people who bought the unit were re-selling it on ebay for amounts as high as $3,500. One report had bidding as high as $8,000. Is this a great Country or what? Robbery was committed on people standing in line. Dah! They make a great target for thieves. To top everything off, a person was shot in Connecticut for refusing to yield to a thief. Is everybody nuts?
Finally there is Terrell Owens. He is the "fruitcake" receiver for the Dallas Cowboys. He feigns injury, mocks the coaching staff and falls asleep in strategy meetings. His outrageous behavior gets written off as eccentric. He is not a role model! I repeat, he is not a role model! Guess what? He has written a childrens book. You've got to be kidding me!
Maybe it is the newly elected liberal Democrats that are encouraging outrageous behavior. What else could explain the strange things going on? Maybe it is just a sign of the times.
Love,
Dad
The cottage season always ended in late October or early November. It required turning off the cottage water system before it froze up along with removing the pier from the lake.
The inclination was always to wait until the last possible moment to close things up. We intended to enjoy the fall colors and we could run the boat well into October.
I had lots of volunteers to help me take out the pier. My inclination was always to take it out just after Labor Day when kids went back to school and activity on the lake really slowed down. I remember Chris pleading to leave the pier in well into October and he offered to help me remove it. I think Paul volunteered also.
Guess what? It came the end of October and there was no Chris. There was no Paul. And the G-- D--- pier was still in the water. Did you know lake water gets very, very cold in late October.
The first few years I tried to endure the cold water with a swim suit and work fast to remove sections of the modular pier. I know I am a little bit of a whimp, but I think the blood stopped flowing in my legs a few times. I remember thinking, where are those damn kids?
Then I decided to buy some hip boots to wade out into the water. This is a little known fact, but when cold water spills over the top of hips boots it is just as cold as having no boots at all. The numbing pain doesn't end until you get the boots off. Again I remember thinking, where are those damn kids?
The process of removing the sectional pier evolved into a "rope system" where I could take out the pier without ever having to go into the water. I still had the privledge of complaining about lack of help but the truth was that I had eliminated the numbing cold. I still thought, where are those damn kids?
Finally, my common sense took over. The use of the boat and pier after Labor Day was quite neglible. So over the Labor Day weekend when lots of family was visiting, I solicited help to take the pier out. That ended the problem of having to deal with cold water.
The truth about September and October is that a cottage seems romantic. You know: the fall colors, tranquil waters and fresh air. The reality is that once kids were back in school, they ended up with weekend commitments. Factor in season tickets to UW-Badger football games and the cottage hardly ever got used.
But I have to admit, every now and then in the fall, the family would end up at the cottage among the collage of colors and enjoy the day. Those few moments almost (and I stress the word "almost") made postponing removal of the pier worth while.
Love,
Dad
Because I can be anal retentive, there are numbers and dates that roll through my mind!
On this date, November 10, 1957 my dad (Bucky) died. It is hard to believe that it was 49 years ago. I was called home to the City Club from the Plymouth Movie Theater to learn the news. It was late on a Sunday afternoon. He was 37 years old.
One year later on November 13, 1958 my Grandmother Helen (Alice's mother) died in Ashland, Wisconsin. She had high blood pressure along with diabetes. Because she lived in the "woods", it took extremely long to get her to the hospital which was 30 miles away. The cause of death was never determined. She was 58 years old.
Within the span of 1 year, my mother lost her husband and her mother. Mix in the fact that there was no money and Alice's world probably seemed to be collapsing around her. She developed a toughened exterior but to me she was always the same mom.
Now we move to consecutive dates. My Dad (Bucky) was born in May, 1920. He was the oldest son of Chalk and Myrna.
20 years later, I was born in 1940. I was the oldest child in our family
20 years later in 1960 Deborah was born to our family. Yep she was the oldest child.
20 years later, Debs blew the whole series of "20 year numbers". Dano was supposed to have been born in 1980. That deviation might have had a significant effect on the cosmos and sent our family into a totally different dimension.
It is a good thing that you guys are not a slave to numbers. Wait, that is not totally true. Christopher shows signs of fretting over number detail. Curses!
Love,
Dad
First, my advice is to get out and VOTE today. If you don't, I don't want to hear any complaints. Exercise your most important right!
Now the nonsense. Every year there is competition for our extra tickets to attend UW-Badger football games. For some reason, Paul has been witness to some of the more memorable games. There has been occasion when Paul and Chris have both witnessed history but Paul has been pretty lucky. Paul does lobby to hard to attend the "bigger" rivalry games like Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State and Penn State. Last year for example, Paul and Jenny witnessed Wisconsin beating Michigan in the last 24 seconds with quarterback John Stocco running a "quarterback draw". The Badgers won by 4. Paul essentially won the battle to see the best game of the year.
This year Paul chose attending the Penn State game. On the home schedule, it appeared to be the best potential game. Yeah the Badgers won in a steady slugfest. Final score 13-3. Yawn! Don't get me wrong, the Badgers winning is great but the game was not real exciting unless you consider Penn State coach Joe Paterno getting his leg broken on the sideline.
Chris and Collin settled for the Illinois game a week earlier. The Badgers had some mental brain farts early in the game and found themselves down at half time 21-3. Curses! But the Badgers came out in the second half, played excellent football and gradually took the lead. They won by the final score of 30-24. It was not the way you plan a victory but it turned out to be very exciting and probably the home game of the year!
So this year Chris and Collin are the winners. They saw the best game. Yep, Paul loses. He will have to be a little more clever next year!
The good news is Bucky has not lost a home game. Nobody had gone home totally disappointed. It makes for fun Saturday afternoons in the fall.
Love,
Dad
There is music that marks the pages of our minds. Melodies in time that bring back memories.
It was the 1950's and I had just become a teenager. On a warm summer night, my Dad and I were returning home from Hickory Hills golf course in Chilton where he was the manager. On this particular day, my mother had come along and had joined in some celebration. Both Alice and Bucky were feeling no pain (perhaps it was the martini's). As we passed through one of the small towns along the way, the new song of the day "Tennessee Waltz" was playing on the car radio. I think it was sung by Patti Page. The Waltz has a haunting melody but nice. I remember my parents were both singing the words. I guess when you drink, you think you sound pretty good. For some reason the song, the warm summer breeze, and my parents singing made the world seem mystical. For that brief moment in time everything seemed right with the world.
Fast forward 50 years to the present. Your mom and I have been watching the TV show "Dancing With the Stars". Jerry Springer has been one of the contestants and he was told he had to master a waltz. It was one of the few dances he enjoyed because he promised his daughter he would learn to dance for her upcoming wedding. The song that had been chosen was the Tennessee Waltz. The haunting music began and Jerry glided across the floor with his "drop dead gorgeous" professional dance partner. It was an enjoyable performance and Jerry Springer even "mouthed" the music. It was spellbinding. When the dance was finished, Jerry walked to the edge of the dance floor where his daughter was standing and he gave her a loving hug. Again for a brief moment in time, everything seemed right with the world. It is well known that men don't cry but they are allowed to get "teary eyed". Thats it, I got a little "teary eyed".
The lesson grasshopper is that you all have music that brings back special memories. When the music transports you back in time, enjoy the trip.
Love,
Dad