The number one single today in 1961 was made more popular by Elvis Presley, not its creator:
Also today in 1961, the Marvelettes released what would become their first number one song:
Today in 1964, the Beatles met Bob Dylan after a concert in Forest Hills, N.Y. Dylan reportedly introduced the Beatles to marijuana:
We begin with an interesting anniversary: Today in 1965, the Beatles used the final day of their five-day break from their U.S. tour to attend a recording session for the Byrds and to meet Elvis Presley at Presley’s Beverly Hills home.
The group reportedly found Presley “unmagnetic,” about which John Lennon reportedly said, “Where’s Elvis? It was like meeting Engelbert Humperdinck.”
Today in 1967, Jimi Hendrix released “Purple Haze”:
Three years later, Hendrix made his last concert appearance in Great Britain at the Isle of Wight Festival, which also featured, for your £3 ticket …
Readers may recall “East Side, West Side,” featuring various aspects of growing up on the far East Side of Madison, much closer to the Interstate than the State Capitol.
A high school classmate found this about Madison and Monona neighborhoods, which were part of the Town of Blooming Grove before much of it was annexed into Madison and Monona. Their source was, I am told …
Blooming Grove was formed in 1850; in surveyors’ terms it is Town 7 North, Range 10 East. Many of the original settlers were from New York and Vermont as well as Germany, Norway, and Ireland. Almost all were farmers whose properties usually ranged from about 40 to 160 acres, although a few were more than 320 and several were almost 600.
By the late 1870’s, the population was about 1,000 and some recreational enterprises were appearing along the eastern shore of Lake Monona. A good-sized retail district was developing in the Schenk’s Corners/Atwood Avenue area primarily to serve farmers.
By 1900 manufacturing plants along the railroad tracks from downtown Madison were expanding beyond the Yahara River. Rapid growth led to the formation of the village of Fair Oaks in 1906. The village was incorporated into the City of Madison May 29, 1913. By 1920 the industrial workforce in Madison was about 5,000, which included 700 women. Industrial employment continued to grow especially after the Oscar Mayer family moved much of its meat packing and sausage business to Madison in 1919.
East High School opened in 1922. By the mid 1920’s, homes for “workingmen,” which meant wage earners, extended to the western bank of Starkweather Creek.
Lansing Place, Walterscheit Plat, Schenk School, Eastmorland
An ad in the Capital Times on June 23, 1928, announced an auction sale of lots in Lansing Place on Milwaukee Street, east of Fair Oaks Avenue, adjoining the city limits. The owner was George C. Rowley, an established Madison developer. He seems to have chosen the first and last names of local residents for all of the street names. The Lansing family, for example, had lived in Blooming Grove since the mid-1800’s and many of the other names appear on plat maps and tombstones over the years.
The 1930, 1940, and 1942 City of Madison maps show Starkweather Drive, Leon Street, Lansing Street, Farrell Street, Richard Street, Judd Street, Hargrove Street, and Harding Street in their present locations. They also show Wayne Street running from Leon Street to Starkweather Creek and Willow Street and Thorp Street in the area that later became O. B. Sherry Park.
In Dane County Place-Names (1947, expanded edition 1968, most recent printing Madison, 2009) Frederic G. Cassidy states that Starkweather Creek was named for John C. Starkweather who built a log bridge over the creek in 1846.
In the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950’s Madison and regional developers became interested in the Lansing Place area as a perfect site for veterans housing. This led to the construction of Walter Street parallel to Harding Street and the renaming of a portion of Harding Street that ran east to Dempsey Road as Tulane Avenue. These are shown on the 1950 City of Madison map, as is a “future school site” that became the location of Herbert C. Schenk school which opened in 1953. Schenk Street, also named for Herbert C. Schenk, runs north and south east of the school. Herbert C. Schenk (1880-1972) was owner of the Schenk Hardware Co. at Winnebago Street and Atwood Avenue, a school board member from 1922 to 1950, a state assemblyman, a Madison alderman, and president of the East Side Business Mens’ Association.
Schenk was a member of the Progressive Party, representing Dane County from 1935 to 1939.
Paus Street and Hynek Road, east of Schenk Street, are both named for neighborhood residents.
In the early 1950’s Aaron Elkind, Albert McGinnis, and Donald B. Sanford became business associates. Elkind, born about 1918, had already built a number of pre-cut houses on Harding Street. He was a Milwaukee native, 1940 graduate of the University of Wisconsin and a war hero. McGinnis (1919-2003) was from Superior, Wisconsin, had earned a law degree from the University of Wisconsin, and had started a practice in the Atwood Avenue area. He was also active in church and civic affairs.
Sanford never revealed much about his personal life to the newspapers; he and Elkind may have become acquainted about 1950 when both men worked for the Humphrey Tree Expert Co, a regional arborist firm with offices in the Security State Bank on Winnebago Street.
Said Security State Bank was my father’s first and only employer … sort of, since Security State Bank was purchased by Marine Bank, which was then purchased by Bank One, and which after his retirement was purchased by Chase. As for Sanford, he comes up later.
Beginning in 1954, these three developed the 75 acre, 314 house Eastmorland project on land surrounding the Schenk School site.
They sold houses the way automakers sold cars. A buyer had the choice of several models, could select a number of options, take possession on a set date, and arrange a fixed payment schedule at the time of purchase.
There were eight house styles to choose from in Eastmorland; about 80 per cent of the buyers decided on a simple ranch with a conventional roof line.
Elkind, McGinnis, and Sanford also feminized the product just as the car firms had feminized automobiles. Their houses featured large kitchens and often came with appliances. Buyers could choose from many interior and exterior color combinations.
The project name and the street names were chosen for market appeal. Eastmorland suggests more land to the east and a pleasant English countryside. It was an imitation of Westmorland, the name of a successful west side development begun by the McKenna’s in the 1920’s.
Because Elkind and the others had chosen to promote Eastmorland by emphasizing comfort and prestige the street names such as Sussex, Bradford, Buckingham, Wilshire, and Cumberland are all reminiscent of places in England or Virginia.
The Walterscheit plat runs south from present Tulane Avenue across the former Chicago and North Western Railway tracks to Atwood Avenue. It was begun in the late 1920’s on land that had been occupied for many years by the Walterscheit family.
The 1930 City of Madison map shows a portion of Harding Street in the area now occupied by Walter Street south of the railroad tracks. There is a Grand View Street which later became Sargent Street,and Johns Street, Margaret Street, Busse Street, and Bernard Street. These all appear to have been the first or last names of local residents. Olbrich Street was added before 1942 probably for Michael Olbrich who had donated the land for Olbrich Park.
Margaret Street extended north across the railroad tracks. Huron Street later became Ring Street, Erie Street became Gunderson Street, and Ontario Street is still Ontario Street. Anchor Drive and Coral Court first appear on the 1950 City of Madison map.
Royster Avenue was added about 1948 to honor the F. S. Royster Guano Co. factory at the intersection of Dempsey Road and Cottage Grove Road. Royster’s main office was in Norfolk, Virginia. The Madison plant formally opened on March 24, 1948 and closed in 2006. It blended many mixtures of plant food for farm use.
The neighborhood’s eastern border was fixed about 1950 when the East Beltline Highway was built east of Dempsey Road and U. S. Highway 51 was rerouted from Monona Drive. The new route was called South Stoughton Road, the East Beltline Highway and just 51.
Dempsey Road is for a local farm family, although, as with many other street names in the area, it is impossible to say when the name was chosen or if it honors the family in general or just one family member. In fact, if a street name in Blooming Grove has a German, Irish, or Norwegian name it was probably named for a local farm family or land owner.
Dempsey Road is near the house my parents owned when I was born and where St. Dennis Catholic Church and school is located; its history can be read here, with added details about the road’s namesake:
Following the Second World War, a swelling population and rapid housing development on Madison’s East Side necessitated the formation of a new Catholic parish. Miss Esther Dempsey donated eleven and one half acres of beautiful and expansive land, her family homestead, for this new parish.Bishop William P. O’Connor established the founding of Saint Dennis Parish on June 1, 1956. The first pastor, Father Joseph Niglis, was joined by approximately five hundred families in a temporary, steel fabricated building that was dedicated on December 2nd of that year. That structure still exists at the heart of the present church complex as the chapel, sacristy, and social area just north of today’s spacious church lobby.
“Spacious” except on Sundays and holidays. About Niglis, an outstanding weekly newspaper once reported this, which amuses me no end:
In February 1956, after a deputy sheriff was fired, Sheriff Robert Seemeyer was accused of, among other things, ignoring gambling activities, including bingo games and dice played at the annual Labor Day celebration of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Dickeyville (which is still held) and at a veterans rally.
Retired judge A.W. Kopp was selected to head an investigation of the accusations leveled against the sheriff. Kopp selected Leary Peterson of Prairie du Chien to pursue the allegations and question witnesses at an investigative hearing.
A sheriff’s deputy who directed traffic at the Dickeyville event denied seeing bingo games in progress. Peterson went so far as to call Rev. Joseph C. Niglis of Holy Ghost to testify. He freely admitted that bingo, which he called “homer,” was played, but denied being promised immunity from prosecution by the sheriff.
Failing to find specific wrongdoing, Gov. Walter Kohler dismissed the charges against Sheriff Seemeyer.
Fr. Niglis thought the most important thing about St. Dennis was Catholic education, and so …
Saint Dennis School opened September 7, 1960 under the leadership of the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. …
Father Delbert Klink became the second pastor of Saint Dennis in 1981. On the feast of Saint Dennis one year later, October 9, 1982, Bishop Cletus O’Donnell broke ground for a permanent church building which had fulfilled the dreams of many parish members. The church was used for the first time on June 13, 1983 as Bishop George Wirz conferred the sacrament of Confirmation on an enthusiastic group of young adults. Then, once again, on the feast of Saint Dennis, October 9, 1983 Bishop Wirz returned to dedicate the new church.
Now, back to the old neighborhood(s):
Leon Park, also known as Lansing Park, was renamed O. B. Sherry Park in 1974 in honor of Orven B. Sherry, a Madison real estate dealer, who donated land for the park’s expansion that eliminated Willow Streetand the eastern portion of Thorp Street.Wayne Street was reduced to a remnant that is now so short there is only room for one house on one side of the street.
In 1993, the Madison School Board renamed the middle school portion of Schenk School for Annie Greencrow Whitehorse (1906-1990), a respected member of the Madison area American Indian community.
Lake Edge Park, Morningside Heights, Allis Heights, Quaker Heights
The area south of Cottage Grove Road, east of Monona Drive, west of U. S. 51, and north of Pflaum Road changed from farm to suburban use in stages from about 1910 to 1960. The first suburban development was Lake Edge Park near the intersection of Cottage Grove Roadand Monona Drive at the site of an earlier Lake Edge dairy.
In a series of newspaper ads from 1912 to 1915 the Lake Edge Park Co. promoted the subdivision as “The Model Suburb.” Lots were 75 x 150 feet complete with trees and shrubs, all owners were guaranteed lake access via a company-owned park, and commercial use was forbidden.
An ad in the Wisconsin State Journal on April 1, 1915 compared Lake Edge Park with three Madison subdivisions.
According to the ad:
A 75 x 150 lot in Lake Edge Park was $500
A 60 x 120 lot in Wingra Park was $1,600
A 50 x 120 lot in West Lawn was $1.400
A 40 x 120 lot in Fair Oaks was $600
The most unusual feature of the streets is that the more or less north-south streets are at a right angle to a southeastern oriented portion of Buckeye Road, which the developers called Main Avenue.
Buckeye Road (Co. Hwy AB) was for many years the main route to Madison from the southeast, especially the Stoughton-McFarland areas. The name may refer to a grove of buckeye trees (horse chestnuts) or may be connected to a person or business related to Ohio, the Buckeye State.
For some reason, the developers ignored the fact that there was already a Main Street in Madison. Their Wisconsin Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, and Park Boulevardwere also similar to Madison street names.
By 1942 the Lake Edge Main Avenue had reverted to Buckeye Road, Wisconsin Avenuebecame Davis Street, Lincoln Avenue became Drexel Avenue, Lawrence Avenue became Hegg Avenue, and Park Boulevard became Lake Edge Boulevard.
The Morningside Heights subdivision, first advertised in 1923, is just east of Lake Edge Park and was promoted as a site for workingman’s homes; most of the streets are extensions of those in Lake Edge Park and share their skewed alignment. Morningside Avenue is named for the subdivision. Maher Avenue and Major Avenue are for local residents.
Morningside Heights was a project of Laurence M. Rowley. In 1924 Rowley announced Allis Heights, a 108 acre subdivision that is essentially a continuation of Morningside Heights. Most of the streets such as Spaanem Avenue are also named for local residents.
Allis Heights, Allis Avenue, and the nearby Frank Allis School that opened in 1917 are named for Frank W. Allis (1865-1915) who was the son of Edward P. Allis (1824-1899), a Milwaukee industrialist whose foundries and machinery factories were among the largest in the United States. The City of West Allis is named for the Allis family. In 1901 the Allis company and several others merged to become Allis-Chalmers.
Frank chose agriculture over manufacturing and moved to the Madison area about 1893 where he concentrated on pure-bred Holstein-Friesian dairy cattle raised on his “Monona Farm.” The farm covered 600 acres in parts of Blooming Grove, sections 9, 16, and 17. His lake shore home still stands at 4123 Monona Drive and is called San Damiano Friary.
Sometime after 1917 parts of the Allis property including several houses and barns were purchased by the Quaker Oats Company for use as an experimental farm to test dairy cattle rations.
The 200 acre Quaker Oats farm closed about 1940 and the land was purchased by Jerome Jones. In 1944, John C. McKenna Jr. bought the Jones land for post-war development and named the area Quaker Heights. Jerome Street honors Jerome Jones. Quaker Circle and Quaker Park are for the experimental farm.
Some of the Allis land became the location of the Monona Golf Course begun in the 1920’s as a private venture. The City of Madison took over the course in the mid-1930’s. It was an 18-hole course until the early 1960’s when some land was lost to school construction. It is now nine holes.
The Village of Monona was created in 1938; the first elections for the City of Monona took place in April 1969.
Three streets in the golf course area share names with those in the City of Monona.
Winnequah, as in East Winnequah Drive, was coined from “Winnebago squaw” by Frank Barnes in 1870 in honor of his Indian wife.
Cold Spring Avenue is probably named for a spring in Monona.
East Dean Avenue is for Nathaniel Dean (1817-1880) whose 500 acre farm was located in the area. Dean House, at 4718 Monona Drive, which was the Dean family’s part-time residence, is now a house museum operated by the Historic Blooming Grove Historical Society.
The Monona Grove High School, 4400 Monona Drive, built on land donated by the Blooming Grove volunteer fire department, opened in 1955 to serve students from the Village of Monona, the Town of Blooming Grove, and the Town and Village of Cottage Grove.
The Robert M. La Follette High School on Pflaum Road was built in 1963. It is named for Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925) who was a member of Congress from Wisconsin from 1885-1891, governor of Wisconsin from 1901-1906, and U. S. Senator from Wisconsin 1906-1925. He ran for U. S. President in 1924 for the Progressive Party, which he founded, and received 17 per cent of the national popular vote.
That would be the same Progressive Party of which the aforementioned Rep. Schenk was a member. As I’ve written here before, I cannot explain why the La Follette teams are the Lancers and not the Fighting Bobs.
In 1970, the junior high school/middle school portion of the La Follette High School was renamed Ray F. Sennett Middle School in honor of Ray F. Sennett (1904-1970) who served on the Madison School Board from 1948 to 1969. He was a graduate of the Madison Central High School and the University of Wisconsin, an outstanding athlete, and vice-president of the Randall and Security State Banks. After his death the Wisconsin State Journal (April 10, 1970) wrote that he was “a quiet, stalwart, dignified man with a ready smile that revealed his innate gentleness.”
Glendale, Edna Taylor Conservation Park
The Glendale neighborhood has two parts. The first area is east of the Monona Golf Course to Camden Roadand south to Pflaum Road. The second area extends from Monona Drive to Camden Road and from Pflaum Road to the southern border of the Edna Taylor Conservation Park.
In 1954 several developers including Harry Vogts, Pete Beehner, the Herro brothers, and Oscar Seiferth began to build hundreds of single family homes in Glendale. These projects were mostly complete by 1956 or 1957; the apartments on Camden Road were built in 1961 and a number of houses were built near the northern edge of the Edna Taylor Park from 1971 to about 1979.
A booklet published by the Glendale Neighborhood Assocation, “Glendale, a Neighborhood, a School, and their Park” (Madison, 2005) gives the origins of many street names.
The name Glendale comes from the Glendale Development Corporation owned by Phil and Norm Herro and Oscar Seiferth. Glendale has been a popular place name in the United States since at least the 1850’s, as in Glendale, Ohio. The Glendale Elementary School opened in 1957.
Many of the street names are those of local residents such as Pflaum, Tompkins, Kvamme, and Bjelde. Jeanette Pugh Johnson chose the name Crestview for a subdivision and Crestview Drive. She named Bryn Trem Road for the Welsh phrase “view from a hill” and also named Maldwyn Lane; Maldwyn is the Welsh version of Baldwin.
The developer Pete Beehner named a subdivision and Linda Vista Avenuefor his daughter Linda.
Harry Vogts named the Aceview subdivision for his Ace Builders, Inc.: “Ace sets the pace.”
Norm and Phil Herro named Herro Lanefor the family; Dixie Lane is from their brother Burt’s nickname. Oscar Seiferth named Joylynne Drive for his wife Joyce and daughter Lynne.
Indian Trace, which runs south from Crestview Drive was originally an extension of Groveland Terrace. Mary Schatz, a neighborhood resident, suggested renaming this section Indian Trace because Jeanette Pugh Johnson said that an old Indian had lived in the area for many years. The Madison City Council approved the new name in 1972.
Kay Street and Ruth Street are first names. Spaanem Avenue and Maher Avenue are extensions of streets in Morningside Heights and Allis Heights. Acacia Lane and Alder Lane are named for trees. Hob Street is for a developer. Admiral Drive in Aceview may reflect Harry Vogts’ love of everything nautical.
Perhaps ironically, I went to high school with a Sponem who was not a Spaanem.
Crestview Drive, Woodland Drive, and Parkview Driveoverlook the northern border of the Edna Taylor Conservation Park.Camden Road, Douglas Trail, Louden Lane, and Lamont Lane may be named for local residents.
The Edna Taylor Conservation Park, established in 1972, consists of 56 acres of land behind the Glendale Elementary School south to Femrite Pond. Thirty-five acres of the park were purchased by the Madison Parks Division from the estate of Edna Giles Norden Taylor.
Edna Taylor (about 1903-1972) arrived in Madison about 1929 where her husband Harry Giles was on the University of Wisconsin faculty. She was born and raised in New York City where she played minor roles in Broadway productions. In Madison she was active in community theater as an actor and director. She was also affiliated with the U. W. English department as a graduate student and writing instructor. A second husband was named Thomas Norden.
At some point Mrs. Taylor acquired 111 acres of land in the present U. S. 51 and Femrite Road area and used some of it as a Guernsey farm that she named “Heartenland.” Part of this land went into the Edna Taylor Park.
Now to the neighborhood we moved to after my younger brother was born:
Elvehjem Neighborhood, Mira Loma Park Area
The first subdivision in the area south of Cottage Grove Road east of U. S. 51 was Harry Vogts’ Acewood from 1959. By 1962 many small, medium, and large builders and developers were active in the area; two of the larger were Towne Realty of Milwaukee that used Findorff, a Madison company, to build its houses, and the Lucey Realty Service owned by Patrick J. Lucey who was governor of Wisconsin from 1971 to 1977.
Lucey is probably the last Democratic governor of Wisconsin who cared very much about business, perhaps due to his business background. He was a native of Ferryville and attended the former Campion High School in Prairie du Chien. But I digress. Again.
Many streets are named for local residents: Steinhauer Trail, Starker Avenue, Vinje Court, and Droster Road. Several are for builders; Montgomery Drive is for William C. Montgomery. First names are common as in Bonnie Lane, Ellen Avenue, Wendy Lane,and Melinda Drive. Female names greatly outnumber male names. Painted Post Roadis from Lucey’s Painted Post Subdivision. Bird streets are Meadowlark Drive, Sandpiper Lane, Pelican Circle, and Tern Court.
In the Mira Loma area south of Buckeye Road are several mini-themes such as Ranch House Lane, Oxbow Road, Blacksmith Lane, Bellows Circle, Wagon Trail, Forge Drive, and Anvil Lane.
Spanish phrases appear in La Crescenta Circle, La Sierra Way, Paso Roble Way, and Mira Loma, which means “view of the hillside.”
Along with Eldorado Lane, where said house was.
Mira Loma Park was established in 1981 and renamed Orlando Bell Park in 1997. Orlando Bell (1950-1994) came from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to study at the University of Wisconsin. He was an artist and art instructor, director of the South Madison Neighborhood Center, a Boy Scout leader, and president of the Madison NAACP chapter from 1990 to 1993.
The Elvehjem neighborhood name comes from the Elvehjem Elementary School that was dedicated on December 12, 1962 in honor of Conrad Arnold Elvehjem (1901-1962). “Connie” Elvehjem was raised on a farm near McFarland within three miles of the school. He attended Stoughton High School before entering the University of Wisconsin where he soon became a biochemist best known for discovering the vitamin niacin and the cure for pellagra. He became president of the University of Wisconsin in 1958 and died of a heart attack on July 27, 1962.
Now to the neighborhood where my parents built their first house:
Kingston-Onyx, Rolling Meadows, Heritage Heights
By 1958 when large scale suburban development began in the area east of U. S. 51, south of Milwaukee Street, and north of Cottage Grove Road, developers such as Aaron Elkind, Donald Sanford, and Albert McGinnis knew a lot about selling houses to middle income clients.
They made certain that subdivisions named Kingston-Onyx, Rolling Meadows, and Heritage Heights promised pleasant surroundings. Streets with names such as Diamond, Turquoise, and Crystal sparkled with the promise of a high-quality product in a landscape filled with singing birds on streets named Chickadee Court, Bob-o-link Lane, and Meadowlark Drive.
Heritage Heights suggested merry England with Kingsbridge Road, Queensbridge Road, and Knightsbridge Road.
Not to mention Vicar Lane, which comes up momentarily. What of Spicebush Lane?
Aaron Elkind wrote ads that said the houses in Kingston were “fit for a queen and built for a king.” Residents could talk about a gem of a neighborhood.
The jewel box consists of Diamond Drive, Pearl Lane, Garnet Lane, Jade Lane, Turquoise Lane, Onyx Lane, Topaz Lane, Cameo Lane, Crystal Lane, Flint Lane, and Agate Lane.
The bird streets are Chickadee Court, Goldfinch Drive, Bob-o-link Lane, Shearwater Street, Hummingbird Lane, and Meadowlark Drive.
Heritage Heights offers Sudbury Way, Cavendish Court, Severn Way, Brookshire Lane, Westminster Court, Windsor Court, St. Albans Avenue, Portsmouth Way, and Merryturn Road.
As was common in the 1950’s and 1960’s several streets are named for builders and their wives and children, which was an expression of pride in workmanship and family; in some cases it was a statement of joy in having survived years of deprivation and war long enough to have a family. Charleen Lane, Lois Lane, Ralph Circle and Beehner Circle are examples. Pete J. Beehner (about 1919-2004) was a well-known Madison builder and developer whose “Beehner built” houses were said to be among the best.
There are several mini-themes such as Lamplighter Way, Stagecoach Trail, and Hackney Way.
In the peaceful sector there are Quiet Lane, Harmony Hill Drive, and a number of “wood” streets—Shady Wood Lane, Inwood Way, Open Wood Way and Twin Oaks Drive. Some of these contain two words which was still fairly uncommon in the 1960’s.
One major street, Acewood Boulevard, began about 1959 in Harry Vogts’ Acewood subdivision. Vogts (1908-1994) owned Ace Builders, Inc., and had already named one subdivision in Glendale Aceview.
Vogts had been an outstanding musician at the East Side High School and the University of Wisconsin. He was a frequent national champion motor boat racer and a well-known Madison area golfer and bowler. He was an officer in the Madison Brass Works, a non-ferrous metals foundry established by his father Henry Vogts in 1907. His wife Betty was also a champion motor boat racer.
Kennedy Elementary School and Kennedy Park are named for President John F. Kennedy. McGinnis Park is named for Albert McGinnis; it is surrounded by his developments.
Tom George Greenway is for Thomas T. George (1924-1999), a Madison lawyer, alderman from 1971 to 1975, and a Heritage Heights resident who lived at 905 Inwood Way.
Most of the Kingston-Onyx, Rolling Meadows, and Heritage Heights area was filled by 1970.
That depends on your definition of “most.” Our house, sold by Sanford Homes (a ranch, one of approximately five available house plans in the neighborhood), was built when Spicebush Lane wasn’t paved yet. (The basement was poured on my sixth birthday.) Vicar Lane, the street to the west, was the last street in the neighborhood until streets were built to the north up to Milwaukee Street. Until then, everything north of Vicar Lane was a cornfield.
So that’s where I grew up — started near St. Dennis, then in the Acewood neighborhood, then in Heritage Heights. The houses in the neighborhood are going on 50 years old, but, I’m told, still in very good shape. (And if you’re interested in one of them — including a house across the street — click here.)
I have never lived in a suburb of a major city, but that’s what living where we lived felt, as if there should have been a city limits sign at the intersection of Acewood Boulevard and Cottage Grove Road or something. As I wrote before, everything except Kennedy School and the Boy Scout troop meetings three blocks from our house was a car drive away. Things that happened in downtown Madison or on the UW–Madison campus seemed a world away.
One must wonder as Confederate statues and memorials are removed left and, well, left, what else can be whitewashed from our landscape as the cancer that is political correctness spreads.
Recall that “The Dukes of Hazzard” was punted from TV Land thanks to that evil Stars and Bars on the roof of the General Lee. (The greater horror is the number of late ’60s Chargers painted orange to match the General Lee.)
Is this music (along with this list of songs) next?
I have a musical answer that is printable, unlike other reactions I might have to this insanity:
Does anyone find it a bit creepy that the number one song in Great Britain today in 1957 is about Paul Anka’s brother’s babysitter?
Three years later, the number one single across the sea required no words:
Two years later, the number one U.S. single was a dance that was easier than learning your ABCs:
On Wednesday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for governor.
If you are cursed with reading Evers’ DPI emails, you know he’s been preparing for this for years. Any quote from Evers lists him as “State Superintendent,” which is not his official title, and gives the perception of more authority than the superintendent of public instruction actually has. Everything DPI does is at the behest of the state Legislature.
Evers said yesterday (boldface and italics his PR flack’s):
“I’m running for Governor because as a lifelong educator I’ve always believed that what’s best for our kids is best for our communities, our economy, and our democracy,” Evers said. “As State Superintendent, I’ve seen first-hand how Scott Walker’s policies have made it tougher for all public schools, and the families they serve.”
Evers understands that the greatest engine of economic growth is a strong, well-funded public school system. “I understand the best way to prepare our kids for 21st Century jobs, and bring those jobs to Wisconsin, is to build a skilled workforce by investing in our schools. As Superintendent, I have led a resurgence of career and technical education in our public school system that has led to more students being college and career ready. If we invest in public education, K-12, technical colleges and the UW System, new jobs and industries will come. And they’ll come without having to write billion dollar checks to foreign corporations.”
Evers also pledged to end the divisiveness that has paralyzed Wisconsin’s government under Scott Walker. “Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen the consequences of having leaders who seek to divide us rather than bring us together. People are getting hurt. Families and friendships are being destroyed. People are scared. Make no mistake – Donald Trump is using the same playbook Scott Walker has been using in Wisconsin for years to create divisions and pit people against each other. The targets of their efforts are different, but their tactics are the same. Trump and Walker are not a symptom of our divisions – they are the cause.”
“Enough is enough. If I am elected to serve as your Governor, the politics of division stop on day one. I’ve won three statewide elections by building a coalition of Democrats, Independents and Republicans because they know that I treat my political opponents with respect and have worked across party lines to get things done for our kids.”
We have already caught Evers in his first lie, and his campaign was minutes old. Politics is a zero-sum game; one side wins, so the other side loses. Should Evers get elected governor, this state will return to the bad old days when government employee unions ran Wisconsin. And as we with enough memory can attest, the default government employee position is (1) give us all your money and (2) shut up. That is an approach Wisconsin voters have had three chances to return to, and that Wisconsin voters have rejected three times. (Five if you count the 2012 and 2016 legislative elections.)
To call Evers an “educator” is a stretch. His website bio doesn’t list what or where he taught before he became a principal. He was CESA 6 administrator before he was first elected superintendent of public instruction. He is an educational bureaucrat, hence the term ‘educrat.”
Evers would appear to be referring to Act 10 in his claim of “leaders who seek to divide us rather than bring us together.” There was nothing unifying about taxpayers being stuck with the highest state and local taxes in the U.S. to pay for the Cadillac benefits of government employees. Gov. Scott Walker and legislative Republicans wanted government employees to pay for their benefits (benefits far better than average workers, for which they pay far less than average workers). There is no evidence that school administrators or school boards want to go back to the pre-Act 10 days. None.
As of 2016 according to the Business Journal, Wisconsin teachers made on average in 2016 $53,458. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, that is higher than the state’s per capita personal income of $47,275. According to Point Homes, that’s higher than this state’s median family income of $52,893, and 80 percent of this state’s average family income of $66,432. (I include this only as perspective for those who will be clamoring to return to the pre-Act 10 days, not to suggest that teachers don’t earn the money they make. Better a teacher be paid than a desk occupant in some state office building or city hall. In fact, I’d prefer teachers be paid more and administrators be paid less because there are far fewer of them.)
I look forward to finding out about this “coalition of Democrats, Independents and Republicans” Evers claims he created. Since the Legislature, not Evers, controls school funding and mandates what schools must do, I look forward as well to Evers’ outlining his actual accomplishments, not glomming on to what the Legislature (or Congress) mandates schools to do.
There is, however, a snapshot of what Evers might be like as a governor, by RightWisconsin:
In one of the rare moments of bipartisanship in Washington under President Barack Obama, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program was replaced with the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA. It was not just exchanging one clever name for a better acronym. ESSA gave states more flexibility for using federal dollars to fix failing schools.
Some states have been bolder than others in creating ESSA plans. Put Wisconsin in the “others” category.
As CJ Szafir and Libby Sobic of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty explain in a op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, the ESSA process in Wisconsin has been controlled by Evers.
“To create the illusion of accountability, Mr. Evers formed the Equity in ESSA Council, an advisory board made up of legislators, school administrators, union leaders and education reformers,” Szafir and Sobic wrote. “In truth, however, the council has no power to set the agenda or control the provisions of the state’s ESSA proposal.”
As Wisconsin Watchdog reported, the chairman of the state Assembly committee on education was kept completely in the dark about the ESSA Council until it was brought to his attention by the reporter. So much for being able to work with the legislature.
Evers used that autonomy to protect the status quo. As Szafir and Sobic wrote:
This flawed process has resulted in a flawed plan, one that reflects the status quo mind-set of the state bureaucracy. The proposal suggests, for example, that school administrators “engage with families and the local community” as one way to meet ESSA’s requirement of “rigorous state-determined action” to fix low-performing schools. Compare that with New Mexico’s plan, under which rigorous action includes forced closure of schools or charter-school takeovers. In Wisconsin, more than 53,000 children attend schools that failed to meet expectations according to last year’s state report card, and they deserve more than “engagement.”
The Wisconsin plan would also pass up the opportunity for the state to assume greater discretion over federal education dollars. Delaware’s proposal, by contrast, would use federal funding to drive improvement: Each low-performing school would receive an allotment based on enrollment while also competing for additional merit-based awards. Wisconsin’s education department has declined to consider similar ideas.
So far, ESSA has been a missed opportunity for Wisconsin, a state struggling with low-performing public schools and the widest racial achievement gap in the country.
Given Evers oft-stated criticisms without foundation of school choice, his protection of educators with very troubling records, his refusal to take an active role in fixing failing Milwaukee Public Schools and his opposition to Act 10, Evers’ behavior regarding ESSA reforms should not be surprising. We have a pretty good picture of what kind of leader of Wisconsin Evers would be, and the Democrats should try to do better when picking their party’s nominee for governor.
Evers is able to win statewide elections, unlike nearly every other Democrat. As someone else pointed out, so has Secretary of State Douglas La Follette, whose career hasn’t advanced past being the keeper of the state seal. Conservatives have never taken the superintendent position seriously (perhaps due to the fact in the previous paragraph), so they’ve never run, say, a legislator who has been at the front lines of education regulation in this state.
Evers’ supporters may be shocked to find out that, although education takes up a huge part of government spending, government does other things besides education. Since he apparently wants every last dollar of taxes (that he shortly will propose steeply increasing) to go to schools, one wonders how Evers proposes to increase funding for transportation, Medicaid and other entitlements that are sucking up a progressively larger percentage of the state budget.
Whatever People’s Republic of Madison Commisar Paul Soglin did as a UW–Madison student besides protesting the Vietnam War, he apparently didn’t study U.S. history.
The American Presidency Project takes us back to Christmas Day 1868, when President Andrew Johnson issued this proclamation:
Whereas the President of the United States has heretofore set forth several proclamations offering amnesty and pardon to persons who had been or were concerned in the late rebellion against the lawful authority of the Government of the United States, which proclamations were severally issued on the 8th day of December, 1863, on the 26th day of March, 1864, on the 29th day of May, 1865, on the 7th day of September, 1867, and on the 4th day of July, in the present year; and
Whereas the authority of the Federal Government having been reestablished in all the States and Territories within the jurisdiction of the United States, it is believed that such prudential reservations and exceptions as at the dates of said several proclamations were deemed necessary and proper may now be wisely and justly relinquished, and that an universal amnesty and pardon for participation in said rebellion extended to all who have borne any part therein will tend to secure permanent peace, order, and prosperity throughout the land, and to renew and fully restore confidence and fraternal feeling among the whole people, and their respect for and attachment to the National Government, designed by its patriotic founders for the general good:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson President of the United States, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested by the Constitution and in the name of the sovereign people of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare unconditionally and without reservation, to all and to every person who, directly or indirectly, participated in the late insurrection or rebellion a full pardon and amnesty for the offense of treason against the United States or of adhering to their enemies during the late civil war, with restoration of all rights, privileges, and immunities under the Constitution and the laws which have been made in pursuance thereof.
So when Comrade Soglin called the Civil War an “act of insurrection and treason,” he was factually incorrect. Andrew Johnson, a Democrat like Soglin, proclaimed so. Johnson was following the words of his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln, in his second inaugural address less than a month before Lincoln’s assassination:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
The fact remains that however you feel about the Civil War (and you don’t see such things as Stars and Bars flags in Wisconsin except by redneck buttheads because Wisconsinites know the Confederacy was the losing side), removing monuments to Confederate soldiers or monuments to the seven presidents who owned slaves changes nothing about slavery, the Civil War, Democrat-created Jim Crow laws, or race relations in this seemingly permanently divided country of ours. A political party was created in Wisconsin to end slavery, and more than 91,000 Wisconsinites fought, and 12,000 Wisconsinites died, to end slavery.
My opponent on Wisconsin Public Radio Friday suggested that this state needs a dialogue among our highest elected officials about race. What he meant, of course, was that whites need to shut up and do whatever people like U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D–Milwaukee) demand. In such a “forum” there will be no slaveholders, nor slave-traders, nor slaves, nor Civil War soldiers since they’re all dead.
Today in 1963, Little Stevie Wonder became the first artist to have the number one pop single and album and to lead the R&B charts with his “Twelve-Year-Old Genius”:
Today in 1974, one week after the catchy but factually questionable number one single (where is the east side of Chicago?) …
… the previous week’s number one sounded like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony compared with the new number one:
Today in 1990, at the beginning of Operation Desert Shield, Sinead O’Connor refused to sing if the National Anthem was performed before her concert at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Homdel, N.J. Radio stations responded by pulling O’Connor’s music from their airwaves. To one’s surprise, her career never really recovered.
That was the same day that Iron Maiden won a lawsuit from the families of two people who committed suicide, claiming that subliminal messages in the group’s “Stained Class” album drove them to kill themselves.
As a member of the band pointed out, it would have made much more sense to insert a subliminal message telling listeners to buy the band’s albums instead of a message that, had it been followed, would have depleted the band’s fan base.
There is always an internal debate over how much political news belongs in this sports section. Such reports and commentary fill the rest of the newspaper and website. And cable news. And our personal Twitter and Facebook feeds. (Man, that high school friend went off the deep end.)
Can’t we have one oasis where we can argue about only the important stuff, such as whether the New York Jets will win a game (yes, but not two), or who is going to take the Travers (no idea; ask Mike MacAdam or Bill Heller)?
But there is no denying politics, partisan and otherwise, crosses into the sports realm, from the ongoing Colin Kaepernick saga and Kevin Durant saying he would not go to the White House if invited to the issue of pay inequality in women’s sports.
Some of these topics are profound, transcending the day-to-day games, and should be discussed. They say something not just about sports, but where we are as a society.
And some are just … stupid.
But they provide fuel to our rage machine, our desire to yell and be outraged and shake our heads.
So Robert Lee, best known locally for his standout work doing play-by-play for Siena basketball, was switched off calling a Virginia football game by ESPN because he shares the name with Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general.
All this stems from the the heightened sensitivities to all things Confederate in the wake of the unrest earlier this month in Charlottesville, the home of UVA, involving white nationalists.
“We collectively made the decision with Robert to switch games as the tragic events in Charlottesville were unfolding, simply because of the coincidence of his name,” ESPN said in a statement. “In that moment it felt right to all parties. It’s a shame that this is even a topic of conversation and we regret that who calls play-by-play for a football game has become an issue.”
In an email to writer Yashar Ali that the contributing writer to New York Magazine, Mother Jones and HuffPost posted on Twitter, an unnamed ESPN exec said the move was done to avoid “memes and jokes and who knows what else” and a “potential zoo.”
What ESPN got instead was … that potential zoo realized, and one of the top-trending topics on Twitter.
Rage, snark, head-shaking — it’s all there.
And what Lee — who, by the way, has a hardly unusual name for an Asian-American — suddenly found himself in the middle of our national nervous breakdown.
Lee did not respond to a request for comment. He did not ask for this. He does not deserve this.
You can argue — as many have — that ESPN was being overly cautious if not politically correct. But the truth is the PR people were right in one sense: Lee, who in a nod to his name goes locally by the nickname “The General,” certainly would have been the subject to at least some Twitter snark.
And … who isn’t?
Instead, ESPN made a move to pull him off this game, a move that inevitably got leaked … which put Lee in the spotlight by a factor of 10. …
ESPN, as always, is low-hanging fruit here. If it did nothing and Lee did a Virginia game in Charlottesville, certainly some would have hit the network as insensitive. At best, the easy jokes would have flown.
And by doing something, ESPN looks worse.
But you know who looks worst of all? All of us. The fact this conversation is even going on. The fact that an Asian sportscaster with the same name as a Confederate general is prompting all this angst, this rage and snark, this column. The fact everything has to be looked at now through the political and partisan lens. This story really does say something about where we are as a society.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 