"A No Snow Ball Throwing Policey is in effect....."
--Melvin J. Lipke, Principal
What do you remember about our days at 38th!?!
Here's a message that Dennis sent to Barbara Wagner back in August 2001:
-----Original Message-----
From: O'Boyle, Dennis
Sent: August 14, 2001 7:53 PM
To: 'Barbara Wagner' <bbinder@******.com>
Cc:
Subject: 38th Street School
Barbara Wagner!?!
Is this the same Barbara Wagner who attended 38th Street Grade School? If not, please disregard this message, and forgive the interruption, but if YOU are the same Barbara Wagner, wow, long time no see! Thirty-three years!!!
Classmates.com is a fantastic website, great for looking up old friends and schoolmates, so when I saw your name there with the Washington High School Class of '73, it brought a flood of memories from the past.
You may remember my brother Robert and me from the "Good Old Days" back at 38th Street Grade School.
Back in those days, we were still reeling from the assassination of John F. Kennedy (do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone!?!), and talking in the schoolyard about new shows on t.v. including "Flipper", "Batman", "I Dream of Jeannie", and "Lost In Space". Oh, the pain--the pain!!!
Barbara, a few weeks ago I even pulled out our old class picture from 1965-66 and studied the faces.
WHY would I pull those old pictures out? Well, at this stage in life, people in my family are starting to die. It seems we only get together with the relatives at funerals, and after the last one (a cousin's husband died on June 14th; my father passed away on July 24th), it had me thinking about life and looking back on all the years. So, I pulled out the family photo album and thought back to our days in grade school when things seemed so much simpler. There's Linda Zeke and Karen Johnson, they were good friends, and there's all the rest of us along with a picture of the school in the center, maybe you have your old class pictures, too--if not, let me know, Barbara, I can scan and e-mail them over to you. There is just about nothing cooler than this Internet!
I started at 38th in the Fourth Grade during the fall of '64, in Mr. Hartman's class that year, then Mrs. Frazier's class the next year, and finally Mr. Schubert's class for Sixth Grade. Remember him shouting, "You lazy loafers!" all the time!?!
One day, three kids with guitars and drums came in our class and played "Louie, Louie" for us. I wonder if anyone else remembers that. The Beatles were quite the rage and I think most of us (guys, anyway) secretly coveted an electric guitar. Barbara, I confess, I used to stand in front of the music store on North Ave. just east of 37th Street and stare at the instruments, wishing I could have a guitar. North Avenue was quite a business district back then, starting on the east end with the big J.C. Penney store at about 33rd Street, then the Rexall drug store on 35th along with Kohl's Food Store just south of there, and Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, John's Discount Variety Store, the bank, A&P Food Store, as well as Grebe's Bakery and all the others, straight west to what I believe was your neck of the woods and on to Grant Boulevard, Sherman Boulevard with the Finney Library, all the way "up" to the "Uptown" neighborhood on Lisbon, including the famous LaChoy Chinese restaurant and of course the Uptown Theatre. Those were the days!
But, things were not that good for us financially, our parents had divorced when I was eight years old and as a consequence we didn't have adequate food or clothing, believe it our not. My brother and I used to patch the soles of our shoes with cutout pieces of a Quaker oatmeal canister just to go the three blocks to 38th Street School. Things were not good and a guitar was out of the question.
A couple of times Edward Hummel had me over to his house. It seems to me that the place always smelled like sauerkraut for some reason; his mother would be cooking up a cloud of steam in the kitchen and Eddie and I would play with toys in his room or around the house. Although I don't think he wanted anyone to know, Eddie was quite an accomplished accordion player, and I remember being amazed at seeing him play that thing! His parents were both from the old country, Germany, "The Fatherland", Barbara, and when Eddie and I were playing his mother would speak to him in German. He'd translate for me, of course, he was a nice, polite kid. What'd his mother say? She'd say things like, Eddie, time for accordion practice. Your friend can watch if he wants to, but you must practice the accordion for at least a half an hour. And Barbara, Eddie would haul out that accordion case, set up his music stand and sheet music in front of the big, stuffed couch in the living room, strap that beast of an instrument on like a pair of pregnant suspenders, then I'd watch his fingers rip over those keys like lightening across a cloudy sky, it was amazing. He'd play some orchestra-type music, then a few polkas, and maybe his father would arrive home from work and he would dance with Eddie's mother for a minute, hopping around the kitchen together. On the sly, Eddie might lapse into some Beatles music, but if his mother heard him playing that stuff he'd get scolded for it! "ED-Vard!" she would sternly shout! These days, Barbara, I understand that Eddie lives in the Green Bay area and works in the funeral home industry, imagine that.
We had some talent in our class. Remember the day we watched Karen Johnson on WITI-TV 6 do that ballet number on television, that was far out! The announcer said at the conclusion of her demonstration, "Karen Johnson with a very unique technique." Although I never would have imagined it during those grade school years, later on in college, I would take ballet as an elective, but I haven't kept up with my deep "plies", Barbara, yet I can manage a petite battement sur le'coup de l'pied now and then, how about you?
At 38th Street School, they had me sit in the back, I was one of the tallest kids, or as they used to say, "tall for his age", whatever that means. I chummed around mostly with Tom Wagner at that time. My brother Robert had his friends, Arlen Folker, Jeffrey Fritz, Martin Zabel, those guys. I see other names with your class from Washington High who were with us at 38th; Joan Ellenberger, Steve Wright, Richard Gresen, you know the rest. Georgia Sotiropoulos attended Juneau High before transferring to Washington. She had a cousin at Juneau (Deanna Lambron, now a top real estate agent) who was often translating things into Greek for Georgia, I wonder if you knew Georgia, too. Barbara, the funny thing is, my best friend in high school, Todd Ovokaitys, had a H-U-G-E crush on Georgia, I think he still does! Todd is now a doctor, he graduated with top honors from Johns-Hopkins (check out his company at www.gematria.com).
Barbara, I wonder if you remember or know what happened to some of our other classmates including Norbert Weishollack (sp?)-- I think that his father was a pastor--or how about Eleanor Reitzenstein (sp?) and Kay Nehmer (sp?), Janice Mann, Tommy Sanders, Carl Seeger, or anyone else. I guess it really doesn't matter, everything is in the Lord's hands, although it's fascinating to catch up with old classmates after all these years!
Remember a class trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry? We went on a Saturday, aboard a yellow school bus, all the way to Chicago and back, what an experience. I think that was during Fourth Grade, Barbara, do you remember? We took turns talking on a t.v. telephone with kids out in Disney Land, Anaheim, California, maybe you remember that.
One thing I clearly remember is the principal at our school, Mr. Melvin J. Lipke, issuing his famous annual "No Snowball Throwing Policy" mimeographed on green paper each November. As a Safety Cadet the last three years there at 38th, I frequently had to enforce the policy, as well as the "Stay Off The Snow Banks!" policy that we had. Perhaps you remember those "policies" that we all had to have our parents sign, Barbara, "Have your parents sign this and bring it back Monday," something like that. Barbara, I remember you were a very nice, very good kid, I'm sure you didn't break many rules, you were fairly intelligent and a more or less well-behaved child. Being compliant has its rewards. On the other hand, I noticed how some of the kids, especially those rebellious ones, picked on other kids, for no apparent reason. I remember the "Slam Books" and the uproar that they caused. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but names will never hurt us, but that is not true. The mean things kids do and say to other kids can have life-long consequences, and they are quite harmful. I never liked seeing kids pick on others, I knew what it felt like. It was evil.
Back at 38th my brother and I used to hang out with Tom Wagner, he lived on 41st St. Robert and I ended up moving to Virginia shortly after getting out of Sixth Grade; we lived on an Army base with our dad until his next trip to Vietnam came up, then we were back in Milwaukee, finishing grade school on 30th and Michigan at St. Rose, before going on to high school, Robert at West Division then Bay View, me at Juneau High. Phew, by Eighth Grade, I had attended seven grade schools in three different states (Wisconsin, Georgia, and Virginia), such is the military way of life, plus life in a broken home. But God has patched all of that up in the years since, lucky for me!!!
Barbara, in the sweet way that Milwaukee is small, I frequently run into people who have attended either 38th St. or Washington, and Classmates.com is great for reaching back and exploring some of those old memories. Everyone gets excited if you mention J. Pipp's Bakery, or the little corner stores like Dot's Food Market, or Eckert's, or Grace's, as well as hanging out at Washington Park. How about this memory, Barbara: Ice skating at Sherman Park in the winter time, didn't the boys snatch your knit hat and skate off, playing "keep away" with it, how nice.
Robert and I graduated from St. Rose, Class of '69, then things turned sour at home and all five of us kids were placed somewhere. Two weeks after my fourteenth birthday (July 2), I ended up in St. Charles Boys Home, and from there attended and graduated from Solomon Juneau High School (Class of '73, of course!). Barbara, one of our classmates from 38th Street School, Larry Bielfuss, ended up at Juneau senior year, to the amazement of both of us. It was almost like role reversal, Barbara, because in grade school, Larry was "in with the 'in' crowd", and I was a new kid, definitely "out". Well, at Juneau High, here comes Larry shortly after the start of senior year, what's his story? Parents divorced, he had to move in with one of them in the Juneau neighborhood, and there he was, the new kid in school. On the other hand, I'd been at Juneau the entire four years (somehow I ended up making it all the way through high school with perfect attendance, unreal), plus I did well in sports, was the newspaper editor, had my name announced weekly on the P.A. system for one thing or another, and so on. Larry was in my homeroom and in my English class. I tried to welcome him to my circle of friends but he resisted. After a couple of weeks he said, "So, O'Boyle, you're the big man around here, huh?"
I said, "No, not really, I'm just on a lucky streak."
Larry hung his head and remarked how different things were a few years earlier. I told him, "Ahh, forget about it, Larry, at 38th Street School you and your friends were just kids being kids, that's all over now, come and sit with us and I'll introduce you to some new friends," but he wouldn't have any part of it, Barbara, he wouldn't open up and chose instead to stay by himself. One day Larry talked to me about his father's drinking and abusive nature, then Larry sort of drifted away; after a few months he quit coming to school altogether and our homeroom teacher asked me if I knew anything, this teacher thought I had befriended Larry, so I had to tell the teacher what had transpired. Then that was it, we never saw Larry again, he dropped out of school, I guess he never graduated, how unfortunate life circumstances can be, almost insurmountable for most of us if things turn rotten at home we don't get the help we need. I knew about this stuff personally, only for me it happened way earlier in life and things were able to straighten out before I went off the deep end. There were some close calls, but I made it, by the grace of God, with a little help from my friends and other people that the Lord put in my path, praise Him for that. Maybe you can remember Larry in your prayers tonight, Barbara, for the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous person availeth much, as the Scriptures say.
I remember seeing Karen Johnson and Linda Zeke at State Fair one year during high school, I bet they're still the best of friends.
After high school, I attended and played football and basketball at UW-Milwaukee before transferring to Marquette University for my senior year, 1977, the year the Marquette Warriors won the NCAA championship with Al McGuire. I worked as a Crisis Counselor at St. Charles Boys Home and after seeing the movie "America Graffiti" I became quite interested in cars, eventually restoring several classics ('55 Chevy is my favorite) and muscle cars, which lead to a career as a Technical Writer starting around 1984. Before that, though, I left the boys home position and worked for a while as a Milwaukee County Transit System bus driver, Barbara, where I drove Jeffrey Dahmer to work every night for two years, before he became famous as a mass murderer! And he wasn't the only mass murderer who rode the bus, there was a guy named Robert John Wirth who killed seven or eight elderly people in the winter of 1987-88, I testified at his trial, historic because it was the first time in Wisconsin history that a murder conviction was obtained with the help of DNA evidence; this was all written up in the newspapers for weeks and weeks, interesting stuff in my scrap book. Anyway, I bridged that career by working nights driving the bus and days as a writer at an ad agency and as a result, I became involved in writing training programs and manuals for various companies, covering a variety of marketing, engineering and technical perspectives.
In 1987 I was fortunate enough to win the annual Milwaukee Advertising Club Contest, and my career branched off in another direction including broadcasting, video and special events production. I've worked in radio and t.v. and have a "side job" as an announcer, so life has been exciting and fun. My wife is a registered nurse, we met in 1978 and were married in 1982, and have three children, all boys, including twins. You can read more at www.geocities.com/dennisoboyle/ if you want to.
Barbara, this message is starting to get long, so I'll end for now, but it has been 33 years since we last talked! I pray that the Lord has richly blessed you and your family in all the years since 38th Street Grade School, and I will always remember you.
Take care, Barbara, message me back when you get a chance, God bless you, bye-bye.
--Dennis J. O'Boyle
38th Street Grade School 1964-67