Classios: A Look Bach ot the 1950s 33 David Aschenbrenner In the 1950s, David was a student in the D.C. Everest school district. Could you tell us any of your memories you have of the 1950s? I could start off with like in that entertainment section, channel seven first came on in, think it was 1953, We got a TV set in 1955, and half of what you'd watch they weren’t on 24 hours a day like they are now. You'd have a test pattern for most of the day, and what you did have everything was black and white. ‘And I remember going back, going to school with some of my friends. I went to Schofield School up to sixth grade; we're talking early 1950s, 1950-1953, when the Korean war went down, We're talking about, what happened if we were grown up enough to be over there. Like I said, I was in 6th grade at that time. I remember when Castro took over, but I thought get rid of Batista, a dictator, and didn’t realize that Castro would be just as bad as he was. Brown vs. Kansas Board of Education that was, what, 1954, so I was only 11, I remember reading about it and wondering how people could keep other people from going to school, of different r and sent the troops down, the National Guard, down to Little Rock to desegregate that school. Some of that stuff is still happening today. It was settled but it’s still there: ces, In 1957, Eisenhower was President, | liked Buddy Holly, he was killed in 1959 in a plane crash, he played at the tas ie you remember about the technology of the Roth schild Pavili on Some of the things about technology you have in there. | 11957. A ticket cost Sputnik raced everybody to get a little more math so that | $4.50 to get in. we could learn how to get more rockets, or any rockets, up into space. There was a section on the Cold War; in 1960, was in the army in Germany. Then, in 1961, | was in Germany when they built the Berlin Wall and every person in an outfit that was the United States troops in Germany was on alert, ready to go to Berlin, Some people did go, we didn’t go, There was something on sports heroes; I liked baseball, my Milwaukee Braves, Aaron, and Matthews, and Warren Spahn. Spahn just died in 1985. Aaron’s still living, he started out playing in Bau Claire, Wisconsin, professional team. Rock and Roll in there, when Elvis started out; my singer, I liked Buddy Holly. He was killed in 1959 in a plane crash, he played at the Rothschild Pavilion in 1957, A ticket cost $1.50 to get in, which I didn’t have, so I’ve never seen him. Clothing style, they had what they called saddle shoes, white in the back and the front, and black or brown around, ‘over, across the instep. £0005 BC eet Ae Schone Pbioons Asstestetnr, DasAre teenagers different today than they were back then? I think there’s more pressure on teenagers today, because drugs and everything are so different. Everything was more laid-back in the 1950s. There wasn’t as much stuff out there to get involved with. T think it was 1961 that the Beatles hit big in Europe. Then when I got out of the Army in 1963 and I came back, they hit it big back over here again, only on the Ed Sullivan show. So I went through that twice. When they were records in the States, I think they were the top five tunes in the top ten chart. That one, Emmit Till, where he was murdered, I remember that bit the headlines in the paper. Now they're going to retry that case. They're looking into that again. ‘The Classics: A Look Bach ot the 1950s two people, I guess, the main two that did it, I guess, are dead. There’s somebody who is still connected, so they're having a new trial, There's a section on the Cold War, I was in the Army, during that, like I said , they built the Berlin Wall. While I was over there they never wanted to give the G.Ls passes to go downtown because May Ist was Communist Day and they figured some communist would make trouble with the American soldiers. So everybody was kept on base and that during that time. With the Emmit Till case, how did that affect you personally? In Mississippi, he whistled at a white woman and they hung him or killed him or however they did it. Like when T was in the service, I took basic training at Fort Laramie. When I came home on leave, I had to go down to San Antonio, Port San Huston. We went to Tulsa, you would come into the bus Up here, there was nothing like that. The only Negroes in Wisconsin were in Milwaukee and Madison. That was kind of a shock to see that thing up here. station, one half was for coloreds and one half was for whites, two separate doorways. Up here, there was nothing like that. The only Negroes in Wisconsin were in Milwaukee and Madison. That was kind of a shock to see that thing up here, There weren’t any Negroes up in this part of the woods. That was the same thing that Hank Aaron and all the other ballplayers faced in the 1950s. They had to eat separately from their teammates, ‘They couldn’t go anywhere that the white people could go. In the south when they tried to boycott things, the police would turn a fire hose on them in Birmingham. Those poor Negro girls got killed in that church fire too. Pll tell you, some of this stuff, it’s not as evident as it was then, but there’s still racial prejudice all over. It’s the Hmong and every other race color coming over here now. I wondered why, like Emmit Till, why stuff like that happened. Do you remember the Montgomery bus boycott that happened in 1954 and 1955? T was eleven or twelve at the time, I remember Martin Luther King Jr. led that. He got killed in 1968, acer, Did ‘eam Dv Are Soho astonpe Classics: A Look Bach at the 19504 35 What do you remember about the Little Rock situation? Orville Faubus was part of that. He was the governor of Arkansas. He stood in the doorway and wouldn’t let the Negro children get into the school. Eisenhower called in the National Guard of Arkansas to help them get into the | lived in Schofield on school, A lot of these white schools went | Bridge Street. We'd walk private so the blacks couldn’t go there even | Qyer to the 19th Hole and then we'd take a bus to after they were integrated. Do you remember any television shows you | Wausau to see a movie watched when you were a kid? on Saturday or Sunday. Milton Berle was a big show back then, All the ; shows were all lack and white, We had a black | GC IN for a quarter, you and white set. They didn’t broadcast all day. John {| Watch two movies. Schofield had a show on channel seven, It was the first television station with a kid show. Rudy the Wrangler with Rudy Kapinka. J Love Lucy was around then, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. I also remember, The Many Loves of Dobie Gilli. It was about this beatnik, Maynard G. Krebs. He was always in the coffechouses reading poetry. How about with the movies. Do you remember Marlon Brando or James Dean? James Dean did two real big movies. He got killed in a car accident. Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Stewart and Bing Crosby were big movie stars. I remember we used to go to the movies. I lived in Schofield on Bridge Street. We'd walk over to the 19th Hole and then we'd take a bus to Wausau to see & movie on Saturday or Sunday. Get in for a quarter you watch two movies. Coming attractions, serials like the Lone Ranger with Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers, Cartoons and the news, and you could stay in as long as you wanted to, I could go to a movie for a quarter. Prices have changed. It’s like a haircut. That was a quarter when I was young. Now you have to pay S13. Do you remember going to McDonald's when you were a child? The first one they had was on Grand Ave. in Schofield. Hamburgers were fifteen cents and french fries, small french fries were a quarter. And then, where it is now, that used to be a gas station, They built it in 1955 Could you tell us more about your job in the 1950s? T graduated high school in 1959. I had a paper route for a couple years. I worked at a grocery store stocking shelves for a while, When I got out of school, I joined the army in 1960. T was in the army until 1963, then I ‘worked at the Memorial Hospital. There were two hospitals in the city. at that time, Memorial and St. Mary's up on the hill on 6th Street. I worked there for two years and then I started working at the Wausau Daily Herald, | just retired from there. I worked there for 37 years, I really didn‘t have that many jobs. I left the hospital in 1966, That's where I met Sharon. We got married in 1966 and I started at the paper in 1966.