As a lifelong Milwaukee area resident, I think that Milwaukee has been a wonderful place to grow up, to raise my family and to live now, as a senior. And today, I’d like to reminisce about some of the unique Milwaukee traditions that a lot of people remember – some of them we miss, and maybe some of them – not so much?
Do you remember the joy of going to a drive in theater? As a child, you got to go in your pajamas with a pillow and a blanket. I remember going to a Doris Day movie with my parents, who continued to tell me to lie down in the back seat and not watch the movie. I think they thought it was “too adult” for me to watch.
One of the highlights of the holiday season was getting the Sears Christmas Catalogue called the Sears Wish Book in the mail. Later, it was the Toys R Us Catalogue. It was the highlight of the holiday season! We would get a pencil, circle what we wanted Santa to bring us, then show our parents.
Did you know that Milwaukee used to be referred to as the Bowling Capitol of America? The title came from the city’s deep bowling culture, large number of bowling alleys and leagues, and its role as headquarters of the American Bowling Congress from 1905 until 2008. I remember our parents and grandparents belonging to at least one bowling league.
One thing I haven’t seen in so many years is a clothesline in back yards. Even though we had a clothes dryer, my mother always preferred drying sheets on our back yard clothesline. She said they smelled better. Did you used to have a back yard clothesline?
When I was little, the milkman delivered our milk in glass bottles. Our house had a milk chute – a little cabinet that had two doors. One that opened to the outside and an inner door that we could access from inside the house. That’s where the milkman put the bottles of milk. The house I grew up in was built in the 1920’s. Houses today don’t have milk chutes. Probably because milk isn’t delivered anymore!
A rotary phone is now a thing of the past, and land lines are few and far between in a lot of homes. But those of us who grew up in a land line rotary phone have very fond memories of this phone being a key source of information. For example, one could call a number to get the correct time, or for the weather forecast. What a lot of people don’t realize is this service is still available today! (Milwaukee Weather Now is 414-844-1414 or 414-844-1212 or 414-936-1212 where you can hear the time, temperature and weather forecast.) And one of the best parts about having a phone like this was being able to slam down the receiver when you were mad at someone!
One of the highlights of 30 Milwaukee summers ranging from 1963 to 2009 was the Great Circus Parade. It didn’t take place every year, there were years when it didn’t take place during this time.
1963–1973 (annual run of 11 parades)
1985–2003 (annual run of 19 parades)
2009 (one final return parade after a hiatus)
The Circus Parade, sponsored by Schlitz Brewing Company, was a unique combination of the history of the circus, a showcase of restored circus wagons and it recreated how traveling circuses came to town in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The parade had hundreds of horses pulling the wagons, clowns, marching bands and wild animals.
Another tradition that I loved as a child was going for a ride in the car with your entire family on Sunday. There was a time when most stores were closed on Sunday so the options of things to do (after church, of course!) were limited. So, piling the kids in the car and heading out for a ride in the country was a very common thing to do.
The Holidays always meant heading to downtown Milwaukee to look at the department store windows. Chapmans, Gimbels and Marshall Fields decorated their downtown location’s windows with magical and whimsical Christmas scenes.
A very special outing in the summer was going to the north parking lot of Capitol Court mall where Kiddie Town was located. Later, in the 1970’s they changed the name to Fun Town. It was a little amusement park with rides for younger children.
When Mayfair Mall was renovated in 1973, they included an indoor skating rink located in the middle of the mall. What fun we had ice skating all year round. It existed until 1986.
I couldn’t wait until my 12th birthday because that meant I could have my birthday party at Joy Farm. Joy Farm was located on the northwest side of Milwaukee and was a horse stable and riding farm. I got to have a horse drawn hayride there for my birthday party and my sister had a horse drawn sleigh ride.
What Milwaukee traditions do you miss the most?