MEMORIES OF A MENEKAUNEE TOMBOY

Born and raised in Menekaunee

Sharon (Brix) Powilaites was born in 1945 to Robert "Brixie" and Mildred (Johnson) Brix. We lived at 117 Lake Street, next to Elmer and Lou Woodrow's store. Menekaunee Grade School was practically at the end of our street. I have one sister, Susan (Brix) Gauthier. Dad did commercial fishing on his tug, the "Glenn;" he worked for Gabes Construction laying pipeline for natural gas; and in later years he sailed on the Great Lakes steamship SS International hauling iron ore from Escanada, MI to the Wisconsin Steel Works in Chicago, IL. Mom worked at home keeping all of us dressed and fed, the house clean, the grass mowed, and the snow shoveled.

My Menekaunee husband, John Powilaites, was raised by guardian parents Ruben "Snubs" and Elsie "Bobbie" Anderson at 312 Leonard Street. John and I lived 20 years in Menekaunee, 40 years in Racine, 3 years in Dunbar on Town Corner Lake, and in 2009 we moved back to Menekaunee, where we have come full circle from where we started.

As a child, I remember

• Mom rolling the Maytag ringer wash machine to the middle of the kitchen and filling it with hot water, pail by pail from the kitchen sink. Then she filled two big galvanized tubs to rinse the clothes. These laundry tubs were our swimming pools in the summer when we were young.
• Laundry hung outdoors, and throughout the house during winter.
  Long johns could stand up by themselves when taken in from the outside clothesline when it was cold.
• Mom baking bread in the old cast iron stove, which was heated with wood.
• Hauling in bushel baskets of blocks of wood from the barn to use for heating and cooking.
• Playing with the blocks of wood.
• Grandma and Grandpa Brix lived on the flats in the house at the end of Ogden Street.
  To swim, we had to wade out through the muck to get to solid bottom.
  I remember Jimmy Van Hemelryk pulling blood suckers off me.
• "Calling" for friends Pat Heck, Carol Johnson, and Vicki Malmstadt.
  I'd stand at their door and "call" their names.
• Walking down to Red Arrow to go swimming.
  Stopping at Peterson's for a free smoked fish to eat on the way.
  Taking swimming lessons at Red Arrow.
• After a good rainfall, neighbors' yards would become our "wading pools.
• Listening to Jack Benny on the radio.
• Climbing the M&M Box Shop lumber piles.
• Making tree forts in summer; and snow forts, snow horses, and snow angels in winter.


• Playing cowboys and Indians.
• All us neighborhood kids watching the first black and white TV at Vera Larson's.
• Playing with paper dolls.
• Saturday night baths and hair washes to get ready for next day Sunday School.
• Penny candy at Woodrow's store.
• The ice man chipping off blocks of ice for our ice box.
We scrambled for pieces in the street.
• Stealing and eating rhubarb and green apples.
• Making necklaces from hollowed out chestnuts died black in a bucket of water with rusty nails.
• Putting on shows in our old barn and charging a penny for admission.
• Riding in our old Model A Ford truck.
• Playing Hide & Seek at night.
• Catching fireflies and putting them in a jar.
• Catching pollywogs at first ditch.
• Wearing leggings to school under dresses when it was cold outside.
• Playing hopscotch and jump rope in summer, marbles in winter.

As a Teenager, I remember

• Laying on a blanket in the yard reading "True Confessions" magazines.
• Playing Smear on the steps of Menekaunee Grade School.
• Nickel root beers at Bromund's.
• Going to the Fox or Lloyd'sTheaters.
• Snake dances through Woolworth's and other uptown stores.
• Street dances behind Stephenson library.
• 18 year-old beer bars where we would dance to the Vikings and eat Olive Tangos.
• Walking the railroad tracks.
• Swimming in the channel, the coal docks and the government pier.
• Hanging out at The Shack at Menekaunee School.
  In summer we played Zell ball, box hockey, ping pong, and softball. In winter we ice skated. Played Crack the Whip, Red Rover, Kick the Can. The boys with their racing skates.
• Horseback riding at Cy Hoebreckx'.
• Playing Monopoly with my sister and putting the board under the bed so we could continue the next day.
• Making big bucks babysitting (25¢/hr. 35¢ after midnight).
• Sleeping out in tents.
• Playing our 45 rpm records.
• Drowning of Buster Goodlet and death of teenage friend Allen Litts.

I hope that my random memories will trigger some of your own.
Now a "Menekaunee Old Timer,"
Sharon (Brix) Powilaites
smbrixie@yahoo.com