Boots & Sabers

The blogging will continue until morale improves...

M
Month: September 2016

Accused NY/NJ Bomber Arrested for Stabbing

by | 2159, 19 Sep 1616 | , , | 0 Comments

This guy sounds like a real peach.

The 28-year-old man suspected of planting bombs in Manhattan and New Jersey over the weekend was previously arrested for stabbing a person in the leg and possession of a firearm in 2014, DailMail.com has learned.

But a grand jury let him walk, despite a warning from the arresting officer that Rahami was likely ‘a danger to himself or others.’

Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was arrested on Monday in Linden, N.J., after a manhunt ended in a shootout with police, was also a deadbeat dad who didn’t like America and hated gays, according to the mother of his young daughter.

Rahami is accused of planting multiple homemade bombs in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, which injured 29 on Saturday night, as well as explosives near a train station in Elizabeth, N.J. that were disarmed by law enforcement on Sunday.

So he was vocal about hating America, traveled multiple times to Afghanistan, and was arrested for a violent crime. I’m no anti-terrorism expert, but it seems like we spend billions of dollars on government people who should have noticed this guy.

Good Guy With a Gun Stops Mall Attacker

by | 1906, 19 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

An American hero.

(CNN)The stabbing attack at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, could have been much worse, if not for the actions of an off-duty police officer.

That officer — identified as Jason Falconer — fatally shot Dahir Adan on Saturday after Adan had already stabbed nine people and threatened other shoppers.

Fraternal Order of Police Endorses Trump

by | 1713, 19 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

But it’s her time!!!

The president of Philadelphia’s police union says Hillary Clinton has only herself to blame for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) endorsing rival Donald Trump after she declined an earlier invitation to meet with the group.

[…]

McNesby on Monday said Clinton’s campaign shrugged off the FOP’s overtures to win its backing earlier this year.

“They didn’t care,” he said. “Their attitude, then, back in July, during the [Democratic National Convention], was they were going to win this thing anyways, so who cares?

It is interesting that much of the media’s coverage of the national FOP’s endorsement has been centered around them defending not endorsing Hillary. Instead of just reporting the endorsement, the media felt a need to probe them on why they wouldn’t endorse Hillary instead.

U.S. Accidentally Admits 858 Possible Terrorists

by | 1258, 19 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

Wonderful. If we took our borders seriously, these kinds of things would be far more rare and would be caught well before almost a thousand slipped through.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.

The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that the immigrants used different names or birthdates to apply for citizenship with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and such discrepancies weren’t caught because their fingerprints were missing from government databases.

DHS said in an emailed statement that an initial review of these cases suggest that some of the individuals may have ultimately qualified for citizenship, and that the lack of digital fingerprint records does not necessarily mean they committed fraud.

The report does not identify any of the immigrants by name, but Inspector General John Roth’s auditors said they were all from “special interest countries” — those that present a national security concern for the United States — or neighboring countries with high rates of immigration fraud. The report did not identify those countries.

Terror Strikes America

by | 0643, 19 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

It appears that the only thing that saved lives in a massive, multi-state, coordinated terror attack was the terrorists’ own incompetence.

New York police say they’re looking for 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami in connection with the Chelsea bombing over the weekend.

[…]

The intense investigation into the weekend bomb blasts in New York and New Jersey is leading authorities to signs of a possible terror cell in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN Monday.
The ongoing investigation, which includes two bombs in New York City and devices in two cities in New Jersey, has given authorities leads on specific people who are urgently being sought.
Also on Monday morning, a federal law enforcement official said BBs and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal that appeared to be packed into both pressure cooker bombs in New York.
One of those devices exploded on 23rd Street, but the fact that it was partly under a metal trash container may have diminished the force of the blast.
The latest developments came just hours after a backpack containing multiple bombs was found Sunday night near an Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station, according to the FBI and the city’s mayor.

Who Cleans Up the Blood?

by | 2129, 18 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

This is fascinating.

When I was about 17 I started experimenting. I went to the butcher and bought cow’s liver and bones and then at home I would investigate how to clean up the blood.

And that’s how I became a forensic cleaner.

Over the years I have invented more than 300 different formulas to clean up blood. Some I have perfected over the years. Others haven’t changed since I first used them.

You need different methods depending on what you are cleaning – whether it’s the carpet of a car, for instance, or personal objects like watches or rings. It also depends on how and when the person died. For instance, someone may have been lying dead in the bathroom of their house for a week, in a humid environment. In another situation, perhaps where a man has hung himself with his own tie, you need to consider other bodily fluids such as semen or faeces.

[…]

I am the last person to visit the scene of the crime. I come after the police officers have left, and after the funeral has taken place. I am the last person associated with what happened, and often the dead person’s family use me as a bit of a therapist. In the beginning I used to get personally affected, but now I listen politely and then get on with my work.

I usually work with my headphones on because music helps me concentrate. I always listen to the same three things: Tristan und Isolde by Wagner, 666 Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden and Paranoid by Black Sabbath. The opera relaxes me, it helps me concentrate and prepare mentally. But once I put my uniform on and start cleaning, I want to listen to heavy metal.

Driver Rescues Children from Burning Bus

by | 1017, 18 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

What an awesome lady.

It’s hard to imagine a more troubling scene: a yellow school bus engulfed in flames.

That’s what residents of 51st Street in College Park, Maryland, saw Monday afternoon.

But all 20 students of Glenarden Woods Elementary School in Prince George’s County made it off the bus safely thanks to the driver. Reneita Smith jumped into action when she saw flames.

“I opened my door, took off my seat belt, and I got my babies off that bus,” she said.

[…]

“I have people calling me a hero, and I say that I’m just a mom,” she said.

Clinton’s Armed Guards

by | 1741, 17 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

The overreaction by the Left to this comment is pretty telling.

Donald Trump said that Hillary Clinton’s “bodyguards” should disarm themselves because Clinton supports gun control during a rally in Miami on Friday. He has made similar remarks in the past, but this time took it a little further.

“Take their guns away,” Trump said. “She doesn’t want guns. Let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. It would be very dangerous.”

Trump told the crowd of supporters that Clinton “wants to destroy your Second Amendment” and that “she goes around with armed bodyguards like you have never seen before.”

This is a pretty common retort that 2nd Amendment supporters have been giving to years. It speaks to the hypocrisy of rich and powerful liberals who want to restrict gun rights while enjoying the protection of armed security. Not all of us can afford, or are provided by the taxpayers, armed security. We have to fend for ourselves. It is not a statement intended to incite violence. It is a statement that we should all be able to keep and bear arms for our personal protection even if we can’t afford to pay someone else to do it.

But it appears that either the lefties haven’t heard this before, which would be indicative of them living in a bubble that doesn’t include 2nd Amendment supporters, or their outrage is falsely amplified for political purposes.

US Bombs Syrians

by | 1728, 17 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

Wanna get away?

“The coalition airstrike was halted immediately when coalition officials were informed by Russian officials that it was possible the personnel and vehicles targeted were part of the Syrian military,” CENTCOM said.
The Russian military said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed near Deir Ezzor Airport, according to the state-run Sputnik News Agency. It quoted Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov as saying two F-16s and two A-10s carried out four strikes.
On the bright side, they are all bad guys.

Opioid Epidemic Hits Home

by | 0907, 17 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

I’m going to rerun this entire column that appeared in the West Bend Daily News today because it deserves it. Sometimes we forget that when we read a statistic like “13 people died of overdoses on Labor Day weekend” that they were 13 real people, with real families, with hopes, with dreams, with talent, with laughter, and with demons.

My brother may not have been a shining example for all mankind, but then again, few of us are.

But his death is yet one more clarion call to all of us about what’s going on in homes of every stripe across America.

On Labor Day, my brother Matt — Matty, to us — died at 41, one of 13 who died of probable drug overdoses in Milwaukee County over the holiday weekend, one of thousands across the nation who lost their lives in the whirlwind of opioid addiction. The sounds of my mother’s heart breaking, the sight of my father’s tears, the crushing feeling of seeing it coming and our worst fears being realized, will be forever etched on my heart.

And then, a week later, there he is on the TV news, footage from an incident involving him and his girlfriend in March. They were a previous version of what happened in Ohio last week, where a couple was photographed passed out in a car on drugs, with a child in the back seat. The people who found my brother contacted my friends at Channel 12 and there it was, video of them oblivious to their surroundings. Victoria shaking off the haze, coming to after getting a Narcan shot, while Matty is still splayed out on the sidewalk.

After that incident, both went into treatment. Victoria cleaned up, but had a bump in her supervision. I knew Matt had a relapse at least once. But when I saw him a week before his death, I could see he was much better, he’d been clean or much cleaner. And then Labor Day weekend — the rest of the family but me out of town, he got high, and the whirlwind came, the breath of God to take him home.

Matt was the third of four sons but always the biggest boy of the family, earning a short-lived nickname of House on the high school football field. Fittingly he was a headstrong man whose heart was always in the right place, someone willing to do almost anything for anyone he knew. He lived large, but loved larger, but despite his stubbornness was enslaved by opioids. The pull of addiction for most is stronger than the flesh, and even the spirit. Even Houses fall. Even rocks crumble under pressure over time.

He had the biggest shoe size of my brothers, and leaves deep footprints in the lives of many more than we know. And his shoes will be present at his funeral service next week. I want them there as a visual reminder when I deliver his eulogy, signifying that we can’t judge another man until we walk in his shoes — and, frankly, Matt’s shoes won’t fit most and can’t be filled by anyone.

In the job, I’ve seen this happening, knowing it could happen to us. Some numbers as of Thursday, in Milwaukee County, where we live: In 2015, there were 254 fatal drug overdoses; this year is on track for 288. In 2011, there were 180. Opioid-related deaths: 231 last year, on pace for 288 this year. Fentanyl, the powerful painkiller used as a cutting agent, was involved in 30 overdoses last year; this year it’s on pace for 75.

“But I think we’re gonna see a lot more than that. This does not take into account August or this month,” said Karen Domagalski, operations manager at the Medical Examiner’s Office there.

And the whirlwind is howling. In the last seven weeks alone, there were 71 probable drug overdoses in Milwaukee County — 10 a week, more than 1 a day. The city is on track for75 fatal car accidents this year. The overdose rate in that short time is about triple the annual murder rate.

“That’s what we hear from other families, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a question of when,” she said.

In Waukesha County, in 2015 there were 44 drug-related deaths; 21 of them were related to opioid medications — the legal pharmaceuticals. Another 18 were related to heroin. Kris Klenz at the ME’s office here tells me there have been 15 drug-related deaths so far this year, but there are numerous cases still pending, so that number certainly will rise. And it’s not just about counting the dead — so far this year in Waukesha County, 114 people have been charged with simple possession of narcotics. Will they follow my brother’s footsteps to the end?

Other members of my immediate family live in a rural area of the state. They see this up there in Westfield, too. It’s everywhere across the nation.

In my search for understanding, I reached out to District Attorney Sue Opper, whose job entails working with families whenever this happens to them. Her advice is useful to families everywhere, no matter whether their children have died from opioid use, or are using now, thinking it won’t happen to them even as it happens to their friends.

“Really the message I try and send to the families is there is no shame, there is no stigma,” Opper said. “I have met so many people from so many different backgrounds that this isn’t a look-down-your-nose-at-somebody type of issue where your loved one is a junkie or your loved one is an addict. It’s been so far-reaching and so many families and people from all walks of life. … These are good people who don’t wake up and say, ‘I am gonna be an addict today.’ These are good people with good families and good lives who are sucked in by this evil.”

But Opper said there are ways to break through. Treatment programs abound, and always are available even to people, like my brother, who encounter initial success and make measurable progress in improving their lives before falling off the wagon. There are success stories in such programs and in the county’s Drug Treatment Court of people getting out from under their addiction.

“I haven’t tried to kid anybody into thinking it’s easy. I’ve heard people describe it where your kid is in the deepest pit possible and your arm can barely reach down far enough to help them out,” Opper said. “There are success stories. There are people in recovery. It can be done. It is it easy? No. It takes every ounce of the addict themselves and the community. … They are in the fight of their lives.”

Opper told me that even though not everyone feels the devastation the way my family is right now, people are noticing the toll this is taking — churches, community groups, law enforcement, legislators. Klenz told me mine was just another of the families who have done all they can do to help a loved one who tries with uneven results to change his life. But there is no one thing we could have done differently, no magic bullet to stop this national epidemic. It will take a multifaceted approach beyond the many things we are doing now.

Yes, it sucks to have some of the family’s dirty laundry aired on TV. Yes, it hurt a friend and us to know people were trashing Matt’s memory. But I maintain that unless those people are themselves addicted to opioids, or lost someone like this, or have someone in their lives who could be lost like this, they mostly don’t know. Those people didn’t know Matt. They didn’t know his problems or his strengths.

But my family’s conviction is to let our hurtful truth be a warning to the world, to maybe break through to just one person, whose own footsteps can affect countless other lives, so Matt’s death won’t have been in vain.

Since this happened, I learned more people in my life than I knew were in a similar situation: the childhood friend who we lost touch with whose dad died at 44. The former co-worker of mine from my hash-slinging days whose longtime boyfriend was another of the 13. The middle school buddy of mine who had a friend succumb the same way years later. Klenz’s message hits the heart for mine and every family who lost a loved one this way: “The final outcome of a person’s life doesn’t define who they were.”

I hope all you Channel 12 viewers out there would agree.

Instead of haranguing a very good reporter who was doing his job, I called him asking to relay a message to his source. I told him to tell her I am sorry her kids had to see that, and, more importantly, that I said to thank her for making a difference.

We as a family, a community and as a nation are experiencing a range of emotions: Profound sorrow and piercing anger at our loss. Relief that our loved ones are free from their mortal suffering. Frustration that there are no easy answers.

The support of our friends and family from all our lives supports us as the whirlwind whips the waves around us. So are we all in this together, each connected to the others, the fabric that make up our human tapestry of any size.

In the maelstrom of the past two weeks, I heard from a friend of Matt’s I’d never known, who had lost his own mother just this way years ago. But he, too, got lost in the fog of addiction. He said he was the one to get Matt into a support group. Matt repaid the favor by offering the support his friend needed to find a way back to the light, where he has been clean six months running, even as Matt couldn’t find a way out of the fog. This man lost another friend to opioids, too, and he said simply, “This has to stop.”

So, when it’s your family, your son, daughter, sibling, or a friend or a child of one who may have, like Matty, been a Scout, an altar boy, a kind and funny man who lost his way and refused or ignored the voices pleading with him to correct his path, the only thing that matters is this: What will you do to make a positive difference? Brian Huber is an editor and reporter with the Waukesha Freeman

Around the Bend by Judy Steffes

by | 0857, 17 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

Washington County vets on today’s Stars and Stripes Honor Flight.     

There will be several veterans from Washington County on today’s Stars & Stripes Honor Flight including Edward Burke, a WWII Navy vet from Hartford,   WWII Navy veteran Dale Carlson of West Bend,  Korean War Army veteran James Menzel of West Bend and Charlie Beckman a Korean War Navy veteran from West Bend.

James Menzel, 86, of West Bend is a Korean War veteran.  Drafted in 1952 into the Army, Menzel was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. where he specialized in hand-to-hand combat.

Sitting in a comfortable recliner at his home on Meadowbrook Drive, Menzel tried to recall his past with the best of intentions. Pleasant and helpful, he struggled – still affected by a stroke 11 years ago that stole his speech and his memory.

“I specialized in hand to hand,” he said with confidence. “Bayonet and grenades.”

In the service for about three years, Menzel saw little action in Korea as he was stationed about a mile from the front lines. “I had tools in a truck and a grinder and I took care of everything,” he said.

Discharged when he was about 25 years old, Menzel returned to Hartford and picked up a job as manager of Delaney’s clothing store. “It was right on the corner across from the Fire Department,” he said.

Within a short period Menzel was asked to manage the men’s clothing section at JC Penny in West Bend. “I fitted people for suits,” he said. “I was good at it and I worked a short time for Fred Sager.”

During his prime, Menzel could fill out a suit. “We had wide ties, bow ties, and suspenders,” he recalled. “I could even make my own bow tie and I taught all my kids how to tie ties.”

Menzel’s son Bob is going to be his guardian on the Honor Flight.

Charlie Beckman, 86, grew up in Eau Claire and graduated high school in 1948. “I enlisted in the Navy and went for basic training at Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois,” said Beckman.

After training Beckman was an Interior Communications Electricians 3rd Class; he shipped out of Los Angeles on the heavy cruiser U.S.S. St. Paul and went to Japan.

“We were going to Formosa Island and our assignment was to keep our eye on China,” he said.

“It was dangerous because as we were going up the Yangtze River in 1949; this is when Communists were fighting the Nationalists and as we went up the river you could see the shells go from one side of the river to the other,” said Beckman.

Beckman initially signed up to serve three years in the Navy but received an extension in what was called a “Harry Truman year.”

Discharged in 1952, Beckman returned to Eau Claire where he bought his first car, a 1952 blue Ford.  “I ended up driving back to California because I met a guy in the Navy, Owen Porter, and we started working together,” he said.

One of Beckman’s memorable experiences was being a forklift driver for Howard Hughes.
“We were lifting weights and putting them on a helicopter for Howard Hughes,” said Beckman.  “He was testing how much weight helicopters could have on board. He called me by name.” said Beckman.

Taking advantage of his intelligence Beckman left the forklift and went to work for Western Electric in L.A.  Following a brief stint in the Eau Claire area in 1960 Beckman put in an application to do defense work with Western Electric in Greenland where he spent a year and a half before transferring back to the states.

Beckman has been to Washington D.C. before. He said he is looking forward to seeing the Korean War memorial.

Edward Burke, 88, of Hartford will be one of five veterans from Washington County on the Sept. 17 Stars and Stripes Honor Flight to Washington D.C.

Burke served in the Navy during WWII.  “I was at Pulaski High School in Milwaukee and enlisted when I was 17,” Burke said. “The Navy gave a bunch of high school seniors a test and I passed and it said we were suitable for training.”

Burke went to Great Lakes, Illinois for basic training where he pursued radar repair. Stationed at Wright Junior College in Chicago the Navy eventually shipped Burke to the west coast. “It was 1945, the war was over and the military didn’t know what to do with us,” he said.

While on the coast, Burke served on a sea-going tug boat. He became ill and by the time he got out of the hospital the tug had left. Burke later found himself sailing out of San Francisco to Hawaii. “We were called the Magic Carpet Fleet,” said Burke referencing Operation Magic Carpet which was a post WWII effort to bring military personnel home. “We went to Hawaii and brought back people from the war zone and we took others over there to replace some.”

Burke said they made two trips on the U.S.S. Arthur Middleton AKA 25 and then the military “decommissioned our ship in Norfolk, Virginia.” In the Navy for about “one year exactly,” Burke was discharged, returned to the Milwaukee area where he made his way to West Bend and bought a small farm in 1958.

Burke said he’s excited to be going on the Honor Flight. His guardian is his granddaughter Allison Dunavant.

Hartford band announcement is Monday

Hartford Union High School is rolling out the red carpet Monday as the Lord Mayor of Westminster will arrive at 7:15 a.m. to present a formal invitation to the Hartford Union High School band and orchestra as it has been selected to perform in the 2017-18 New Year’s Day Celebration and Gala Concert Festival in London. HUHS director Andy Hacker will formally accept the invitation during an all-school assembly. The Gala Concert and New Year’s Day Celebration is attended by over 500,000 people who line the streets for the parade each year.

Kewaskum Classic car show is Sunday, Sept. 18

One of the largest, local car shows in Washington County is just around the corner as the annual Kewaskum Classic Car Show & Benefit is coming up September 18.

“In 2015 there were 450 classic and modern cars, trucks, and street rods,” said organizer Mark ‘Curly’ Kissinger. “We had to start turning them away around 10 a.m.” Sunday’s show runs 7 a.m. – 3 p.m.  Driver goodie bags will be given to the first 150 cars (includes dash plaque). This is a non-judged show (meaning no trophy).

Raffle prizes, silent auction and 50/50 raffles. Kewaskum Firefighters Association will be providing the food. Benefactors this year include Troy Krezinski (cancer) and Jason Anderson, who suffered a head injury this past winter. If you’d like to donate please contact Kissinger at 262-347-9992 or drop off at The Grand Larsony.

Updates & tidbits

-West Bend School District Superintendent Erik Olson will be the guest speaker Sept. 28 at the Common Sense Citizens meeting held 7 p.m. at the West Bend Moose Lodge on 18th Avenue. The meetings are free and open to the public.

– Research trials that pay up to $2,525 are underway at Spaulding Clinical, a Phase 1 pharmaceutical testing firm in West Bend. Paid volunteers are needed and Spaulding Clinical will cover an Uber ride so you can schedule a screening and receive up to $250. Call today 800-597-4507 or visit spauldingpays.com. Information on the study is at spauldingpays.com/current/

– Wisconsin Women for Trump will be holding an event at the GOP Office, 519 Hickory St. in West Bend today/Saturday at 11 a.m. “We are doing a short program regarding the constitution,” said Katy Kiernan. “I’ll read the preamble and then have a discussion regarding where Trump and Clinton differ regarding the constitution.” The meeting is open to the public.

-The funeral for Washington County Sheriff’s corrections officer Timothy F. Kraft is Monday, Sept. 19 at the Phillip Funeral Home Chapel on W. Paradise Drive in West Bend. Kraft died on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the age of 60. Visitation will be at the funeral home from 3 p.m. until the time of the service with Military Honors to follow.

-The funeral for Tom Piwoni is Sunday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 331 Main St. in Kewaskum. In his early 20’s, Piwoni moved to Kewaskum where he owned/operated his first of many taverns in the Kewaskum area including Tom’s Place (which is now an apartment at the bottom of the hill from Hon e Kor), he also ran the bar that is now Grand Larsony/ Kissy’s in Kewaskum, The 5th Quarter and Trollops just north of town. Piwoni co-owned T and Vern’s back in 1995 which is now the location for Speakeasy.

WBHS Class of 1944 has 72nd reunion

The West Bend High School Class of 1944 held its 72nd class reunion Wednesday at the Top of the Ridge in West Bend.  There were 11 classmates in attendance.  They had a list of classmates who had recently passed including Eugene Otten, Douglas Ziegler, Werner Martin, Caroline Gerner Reisse, Joe Cechvala and Russel Becker.

There were a lot of laughs and a few sketchy memories about the old school including the cement owls that hung on the roof line of the building. Some recalled teachers saying there were cameras in the eyes of the owls and they’d be able to keep an eye on the children.

Darold Hoelz, 90, said he remembered the good times and the girls. “There was a balcony round the top of the gym and the kids from the country ate their lunch there and the kids from the city ate in the cafeteria,” said Hoelz. “That’s because the kids from the country didn’t have any money; we’d brown bag it. We’d have a sandwich, a pickle and a cookie.”

Hoelz recalled they’d play cards in the balcony or they’d talk. “A lot of times we’d go down to the gym and play during the noon hour, either volleyball or boxing. We had big pillow gloves,” said Hoelz. “I did it once and got pretty scuffed up. I didn’t like it at all.” Hoelz said he slugged it out with Webster Hron and Webby showed him “what for.”

Marion Otto Ward, 90, said she remembered teacher Mike Hildebrand. “He taught citizenship and social studies. He’d come over and tap on the desk with his long ruler and he’d say, “Mildred … why aren’t you paying attention?” And I sat there and he tapped again and said, “Why aren’t you paying attention – what’s wrong with you?” And I said Mildred was my sister and she graduated four years ago, my name is Marion. I’m surprised he didn’t throw me out the window.”

August Uttech, 90, said the Amity Leather Company was across the street when he went to Badger High School. “I worked for 45 years at the West Bend Company and then everything went to pot because Amity closed, Enger Kress closed and the West Bend Company closed.”

Marjorie Isselmann Grotelueschen, 90, said the class of 1944 was the best. “We all worked together and there weren’t any cliques,” she said.

Katharine Hassmer Lutzke said they had dances but she was from the country. “We lived on the farm in Jackson and we had a school bus and our driver was Smokey Weinert,” she said.

Eileen Barber Ecker, 90, said she lived on a farm and she drove to school and took two passengers in her Dodge. “I started driving very young; when you’re on the farm you drive everything.”  Ecker said she liked everything about school except Mr. Hildebrand.  “He thought you weren’t paying attention and he’d throw an eraser at you and he had good aim,” said Ecker. “In the middle of winter and if he thought class was getting a little boring he’d open all the windows and we froze to death.”

Audrey Brumm, 89, talking about Mr. Hildebrand and one of the kids was Bingo Oemen. “He was a little guy and I don’t know what he did but Mr. Hildebrand put him in the closet and when the class was over he opened the door and said you can come out now and he couldn’t find him. He was hiding in a box.”

Hedy Bieri Gumm, 90, lived in the country in Jackson and got bused in. “One day the bus couldn’t get through and we ended up at Schwai’s tavern,” said Gumm. “We all went in there and spent the day there until they could plow us out. That was an exciting day.”

Arlene Abel Goebel lived in West Bend. “We had Doug Ziegler and Don Schneiss and they’d have to go to that farm on Decorah and they’d come in with big high boots with manure on them. And they’d come in the main hall and they’d come clopping in with their big ole’ boots on all the way to the other end to get a lot of attention and they were always a hoot,” she said.  “Doug Ziegler was a little bit of a trouble maker.”

Margie Klein Willkom, 89, was from Barton. “I walked 2-miles to school and it was downhill all the way to school but uphill all the way home,” she said. “And then we’d walk down for basketball games and football games. My favorite teacher was Miss Florence Meyer and she taught algebra and I often think of her but I think she has to be dead by now because I’m so old.”

Fashion wise, there were no slacks for the girls. “We wore blouses and skirts,” said Willkom. “We could wear snow pants during winter but we had to take them off as soon as we got to school.”

Ollie ‘Bud’ Lochen Junior, 90, and I was involved in the Ford agency with my father Ollie. “The dealership was at Fifth Avenue and Walnut and yes there was an elevator. In the old Model T days the cars were on display downstairs at the street level and they were repaired upstairs and carried up by elevator.”  Heipp grocery was across the street. “I lived up on North Street, just east of the West Bend Aluminum Company,” he said. “We walked past lots of taverns on the way to school including the Gonring brothers and walked past White House Milk Company. I worked there part time after school and I unloaded the tin cans from the railroad cars that the condensed milk was put into.”

Lochen also worked at the JC Penny.  “I worked in the men’s haberdashery and I did the window displays,” he said. “I wore a blazer or sport coat and a tie. I had three blazers and a close friend Bob Hron – we dressed the same, always.”

The Class of ’44 normally had reunions every five years but it was Doug Ziegler that resurrected it and since then they’ve had it every year. Darold Hoelz said the annual reunions make him feel good.  “Nice people,” he said. “Our class really stuck together.”

Tidbits from 1944:

-“There were no blue jeans,” said Hoelz. “Everybody dressed nice.”

-“You paid attention in school or they’d let you know,” said Hoelz.

-“Punishment was staying after school, eighth hour or you scraped gum off the bottom of the desks,” Hoelz said.

-“The main room the guys would roll marbles down and there was one monitor up front.” said Hoelz.

-They all remembered tragedy in 1943 when their classmate Dick Bascom was killed. Bascom was a member of the Student Senate and president of the Latin Club; he played football and was coming to play in the last game of the year before leaving to serve his country when he was killed while changing a tire on his car.

-“First girl I danced with I married,” said Hoelz. “Her name was Peggy Varnes. We had the freshman dance. I didn’t know how to dance but I grabbed her and then after the war we got married.”

-Lochen also worked at the Amity Leather Company. “I was part time and I cut the silk for the purse linings. It came in large rolls and I cut it into assorted sizes,” he said. “I made good spending money and I spent it on girls. I treated them to movies at the Mermac and the West Bend Theatre. Weekends there were western movies.”

-Steve Swedish was the popular band for the era.

-Senior pictures were taken by Rackow’s Hollywood Studio. “He was the only one in town. He was located where Riverside Brewery is located,” said Hoelz.

-The grocery store in 1944 was the A&P and National Tea. Both were located by the West Bend Theatre.

-Homecoming football game was normally against the Mayville Cardinals. “We both had red and white uniforms,” said Hoelz.

-“We always had a bunch of outhouses on the bonfire for Homecoming,” said Hoelz. “They burned really good,” said Lochen.

20160906_081351-1

Dems Shift Money

by | 1704, 16 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

This is interesting.

The top group helping Democrats win Senate seats is canceling advertising in Florida and Ohio to invest more heavily in Missouri and North Carolina.

The financial rejiggering by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spells the latest disappointment for Ohio Democratic Senate hopeful Ted Strickland, who is being abandoned by the party as he plummets in the polls. It’s also ominous for Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who’s fighting incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio in Florida.

By shifting cash, the Democrats are revealing two elements of their strategy that would have surprised anyone 18 months ago: They believe they can win in Missouri and North Carolina.

Week in Review 9/16/16

by | 0704, 16 Sep 1616 | , , | 0 Comments

I’ll be on the Week In Review on WPR with Joy Cardin this morning at 8. The topics for discussion include the illegal Doe document dump, Walker’s transportation budget proposal, Colin Powell, and of course, the latest happenings in the presidential race.

Tune in!

Hillary Clinton Overcharges Donors

by | 2132, 15 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

That’s one way to drive up donations before a reporting deadline.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is stealing from her poorest supporters by purposefully and repeatedly overcharging them after they make what’s supposed to be a one-time small donation through her official campaign website, multiple sources tell the Observer.

The overcharges are occurring so often that the fraud department at one of the nation’s biggest banks receives up to 100 phone calls a day from Clinton’s small donors asking for refunds for unauthorized charges to their bankcards made by Clinton’s campaign. One elderly Clinton donor, who has been a victim of this fraud scheme, has filed a complaint with her state’s attorney general and a representative from the office told her that they had forwarded her case to the Federal Election Commission.

Clinton Foundation Would Divest Interests if Hillary Wins

by | 2023, 15 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

Seems legit to me… not.

Washington (CNN)Clinton Foundation president Donna Shalala says the charity would need to transition some of its work to other organizations if Hillary Clinton is president — even though it didn’t do so when she was secretary of state.

“When she’s president, there’s no process you could set up that would eliminate conflict of interest — so we actually have to reduce the size of the foundation and what it does,” Shalala, who was secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, said in an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”

“What we have to do when she’s president is we have to actually eliminate any aspect of conflict of interest — so all the international programs are spun off,” she said.

“There’s no evidence that policy was impacted by anyone requesting an appointment. So let me dispute any indication that Mrs. Clinton’s behavior on policy was changed in any way,” Shalala said. “The most important thing is, this is a magnificent foundation that has reinvented philanthropy.”

Somehow it’s not very reassuring when the Clinton camp says “there’s no evidence” when they have a habit of destroying said evidence.

F-35 Shoots Down Threat Without Firing

by | 1456, 15 Sep 1616 | | 0 Comments

Now that’s cool.

An F-35B just carried out a remarkable test where its sensors spotted an airborne target, sent the data to an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense site, and had the land-based outpost fire a missile to defeat the target — thereby destroying an airborne adversary without firing a single shot of its own.

This development simultaneously vindicates two of the US military’s most important developments: The F-35 and the Naval Integrated Fire Control Counterair Network (NIFC-CA).

Also read: Before the F-35, these 10 airplanes became legends after rough starts

Essentially, the NIFC-CA revolutionizes naval targeting systems by combining data from a huge variety of sensors to generate targeting data that could be used to defeat incoming threats.

So now with this development, an F-35 can pass targeting data to the world’s most advanced missile defense system, an Aegis site, that would fire its own missile, likely a SM-6, to take out threats in the air, on land, or at sea.

This means that an F-35 can stealthily enter heavily contested enemy air space, detect threats, and have them destroyed by a missile fired from a remote site, like an Aegis land site or destroyer, without firing a shot and risking giving up its position.

Doe Prosecutors Abuse Power Again By Illegally Leaking Documents

by | 2142, 14 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

These people have no shame and no morals. This is what a rogue prosecutor looks like.

It’s supposed to be a secret investigation. But it never really was.

Leaking like a sieve since Day One, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm’s politically-fueled John Doe investigation into Wisconsin conservatives saw its biggest leak yet on Wednesday. With weeks left on its legal clock before the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take the case, 1,500 pages of documents related to the case were leaked to the U.K. Guardian.

How did that happen? After all, these documents were supposed to be sealed. At one point, they were ordered to be destroyed by the late federal judge Rudolph Randa in May 2014.

Obama Appoints Ron Johnson to U.N.

by | 2125, 14 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

This is interesting.

President Barack Obama has named U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, as one of two U.S. representatives to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

The assembly, which convenes each September, is the main decision-making body for the U.N. and includes representatives from all 193 member nations.

On the merits, it’s a good choice by Obama. Johnson knows his stuff and will represent America’s interests well. On the politics, it is curious that Obama would appoint a Republican Senator from a battleground state. My guess is that Obama wants to get him off the campaign trail as the election nears.

I would note that in 18 years as Wisconsin’s senator, Russ Feingold was never trusted with anything important.

Trump Proposes Paid Maternity Leave

by | 0634, 14 Sep 1616 | , | 0 Comments

Yes, by all means, we can encourage yuge economic growth by foisting massive regulations and expenses on businesses and transferring more tax dollars from those who pay taxes to those who don’t. That’s the ticket.

The core components of Trump’s proposal include allowing working parents to deduct child care expenses from their income taxes, creating dependent care savings accounts and guaranteeing six weeks of paid maternity leave.

[…]

The plan accounts for lower-income families with no tax liability; they would receive rebates through the existing earned income tax credit.

[…]

Under Trump’s plan, tax-deductible child care would be capped at the average cost of care for the state of residence and would be available only to individuals earning less than $250,000 (or $500,000 for parents who file their tax returns jointly).

Login | Register

Archives

Categories

Pin It on Pinterest