March 2013
President’s Message During the past month, I was asked to do an interview by a Racine radio station, which gave me the opportunity to "brag" about the Burlington Historical Society and our award-winning website. Also being a vice-president of the Burlington Liars Club, I did have some convincing to do, but that was easy after a quick look at the site. Now that the problems with our previous website host are behind us, we are constantly adding more material and data to keep up with our reputation as one of the best historical society websites in Wisconsin. Paraphrasing Rick Harrison of the "Pawn Shop" TV show, "You never know what’s going to come through that door." Quite often, a local resident (or even a far-distant one) or Society member will surprise us by offering to donate an item for our archives that has some connection with the great history of the Burlington area. We recently had a visitor alert us to a forthcoming donation of an historic business sign that shows up in many of our early 1900s photos of the downtown area (more about this to follow). We remind all members to get the word out to friends and relatives who may have some historic Burlington-related items or photographs or written remembrances or genealogies, to consider adding them to our collection. As we approach the end of the winter season, we look back at the hustle and bustle of the recent holiday season. Now is a great time to plan our new season of spring cleaning, planting, relaxing, reminiscing and reflecting on the many cultural and physical assets that Burlington and our great State have to offer. Happy spring to all, Dennis Tully |
"The Babysitter!"
Have you ever noticed that it never really works when you have an older child babysit for their younger siblings? As parents we logically or illogically believe that this should be a no-brainer – Mom and Dad leave for a few hours, put the oldest child in charge – what could be more logical? – the younger children will listen to the older child just as if Mom and Dad were right there in the room. My personal experience is that this theory does not seem to work very well. Many times I can remember Mom and Dad lining us up before going out. We would get the "talk." "You listen to your sister, she’s in charge, no sassing, go to bed when she tells you, no fighting, no making a mess and be nice to each other and no going out of the house after dark." Then it would be my turn – "Don’t be bossy, be nice to your brother and sister, make sure they mind and we don’t want to find a mess when we get home, don’t let them eat a lot of junk. Bed time is at 8:30 – remember you’re in charge." The closing of the door was like the clanging of the bell for the start of Round 1. The words Mom and Dad uttered to us traveled with the speed and velocity of a freight train racing across country – they went in one ear and out of the other for all three of us. I know they told us those things, I saw their lips move and I saw Mom shake her finger at us but honestly, she might as well have speaking in a foreign language for all the attention we paid to what was said. The first round started with the whining – "Why can’t we go outside? We don’t care if it’s dark out, let’s play hide and seek!" "If we can’t go outside can we turn off all the lights and play monsters in the dark here in the house?" (This game was always good for a few nightmares.) "Can’t we have more soda and popcorn, how about some ice cream – can we have grape soda and chocolate ice cream? We won’t get sick, honest." (Not true! Try to explain that mess when the parents come home! – no one ever made it to the bathroom before disaster struck!) "We don’t want to go to bed yet, can’t we watch scary movies – we won’t have nightmares – we won’t be scared." (Also not true.) I’ll bet the neighbors really wondered what was going on at our house some nights. The screams in the middle of the night were positively unnerving and of course the unwritten rule was, "Gee, Mom I don’t know what they’re scared of, all we did was watch television before they went to bed, they were really good, honest." It is a wonder to me that brothers and sisters survive childhood and grow up to be mostly articulate, well-adjusted, productive adults. Remember getting nominated to take your younger brothers and sisters to the movies? It was usually when a new Disney movie came out. Every kid in America wanted to go to those movies and it seemed like every kid in America was lined up outside the movie theater when the parents dropped you off. The line was enormous and all you could do was hope that they didn’t run out of seats before you got to the head of the line. Of course when they dropped us off, I was "in charge." Keeping track of two kids while standing in line for what seemed like hours waiting to get into the theater was a scary deal! No kid stands still for more than 2 minutes at a time much less 30 minutes to an hour. I had the money and was responsible for getting the tickets, making sure we all sat together, making sure we all left the theater at the same time and were all waiting in the appropriate place to be picked up. They gave us enough money for tickets, popcorn and one soda each and for a phone call home after the movie. Getting out of the theater with everyone in one piece was almost as bad as getting everyone into the theater in one piece. Coming out, you had to work your way through the crowd of kids waiting to get in to the next show. There were kids everywhere! What a zoo! The year Mom went back to work was a real beaut! She worked at Montgomery Wards in Lake Geneva. Her day didn’t end when the school day ended – it was a little later than that. That meant – oh yeah – I had to watch the twins after school each day and during the summer it was all day. If ever there were a recipe for disaster, this was it. The after school watching wasn’t too bad, school at least slowed them down somewhat. It did however add one more chore to my list, in addition to keeping an eye on the twins, I had to get supper started. We had some very interesting meals back in those days. I’m pretty sure that Martha Stewart would not have approved of some of the food that came out of that kitchen. Our least favorite meal was liver! To this day I cannot stand the thought of eating liver. The first time I had to fix this culinary delight was a real experience. First, it took me ten minutes to get up enough courage to take it out of the package – it just looked disgusting and felt worse when I actually picked it up. Eventually I did get it seasoned up and in the pan along with onion and bacon. Poor Dad, he really liked liver and onions and I’m sure that what I did to liver and onions had nothing to do with what it should have tasted like. He never said a word, just piled on more gravy and chewed away on it until he could swallow it without choking. On nights when the main dish had a questionable outcome, I would add extra potatoes to the pot. Even I couldn’t screw up mashed potatoes too badly. At least if we couldn’t eat anything else, we could fill up on potatoes. That year summer was both a curse and a blessing. Mom and Dad left early for work and that left me and THEM alone in the house for the whole day. Of course, there was a whole list of chores to be done during the day, the house needed to be picked up, dusted, swept, etc. I was to make sure the twins were reasonably clean and somewhat respectably dressed. Their clothes didn’t have to completely match but Mom thought it would be nice if they came close. She drew the line at dirty underwear and socks and for some reason thought it would be nice if they both combed their hair before running all over the neighborhood. The rules were basic, they could do pretty much what they usually did but they were to tell me where they were going, they had to report back at lunch time, and they had to be home by the time Mom and Dad came home from work. They were not to fight with each other or me and they were to help with the chores and help clean up the kitchen after lunch. We always started out pretty good, but as is normal with three kids, things sort of started going downhill around 9:00 in the morning. I remember one day when my brother decided he had had it with girls – and his sisters in particular – and he hopped on his bike and ran away for the whole day. As we watched him pedal furiously out of sight, Jackie and I looked at each other, shrugged and said "Oh well." We didn’t get worried until about 4:30 in the afternoon. Mom and Dad were due home around 5:00 and we knew he had to be there or we would have some tall explaining to do. Wouldn’t you know, exactly three minutes before the parents were due – here he came pedaling down the street, turned into the driveway, put his bike away, and sauntered into the house just as if he had been there the whole time! In walked the parents with all the usual questions, "So, did you guys behave today? No fights? All the chores get done?" And of course our answer was a unanimous, "Yes Mom, we were good, no fights, we’ve been here all day – all of us." What little liars we were!! By the end of that summer all three of us should have had noses at least 3 feet long. I guess the important thing is that we all lived through the summer with no visible scars, no broken bones, no major mental deficiencies and we were still talking to each other. Miracles do indeed happen and if anyone tells you that Guardian Angels don’t exist, don’t you believe them! How else would the three of us have managed to survive that summer with me in charge? |
Kids waiting in line to get into a movie, December 1956 Emmett Raettig photo
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