Yep, that's my town, Les - but it's a distorted view, because the Chamber of Commerce map doesn't show any of Racine's myriad and fabled taverns. Members of the Chamber of Commerce are all Episcopalians and Presbyterians and Methodists, and they don't admit to the existence of taverns in the Belle City of the Great Lakes.

St. John Nepomuk school was for Czech Catholics. There was a Catholic church near the center of town for each ethnic group - ten Catholic churches, all within walking distance of each other. I went to a Catholic school run by German refugee priests on the outskirts of town - it served farm people of mixed ethnicity, and us yuppie kids who were suburbanizing the farmland. When the kids got old enough, they worked on their family farmos or could get summer and after-school jobs at Willie Quadracci's Sentry Market and at Kortendick's 4-Mile Drive-In, businesses owned by prominent parishioners.

The tavern near our house was called the "German Beer Garden," but the name was changed to "Danish Garden" during World War II. My folks used to put us five kids to bed, and then they'd sneak out to the Danish Garden for a hamburger plate and beverages they didn't admit to. I was friends with the tavern owner, and we'd do chores in the tavern on summer days. It was a typical Wisconsin bar, a wonderful neighborhood gathering spot. Not much singing in Wisconsin taverns, but lots of good conversation.

-Joe-

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Click here for some terrific pictures of Racine Wisconsin, the Belle City of the Great Lakes, on the mighty Root River.