Brewtown Tales: More Stories from Milwaukee and Beyond

by John Gurda

Overview

John Gurda’s South Side Milwaukee family loved potluck dinners. “From the Jell-O salads at the start of the line through the hot dishes in the middle and on to the pumpkin bars at the end, the food was always hearty, abundant, and certifiably homemade,” he writes. Drawing from Gurda’s long-running Sunday Milwaukee Journal Sentinel column, Brewtown Tales was prepared in the spirit of those fondly remembered meals. The main dish is Milwaukee history, served in a multitude of ways. You will find in these pages the biography of a bridge, a requiem for a union, tales of two shipwrecks, a frank take on segregation, and memories of the summer of ’68, among many other things. There are also side dishes that convey the distinctive flavors of Wisconsin and a few more exotic places, from Vilas County to Vietnam. Brewtown Tales will satisfy your hunger, introduce you to new and unexpected tastes, and whet your appetite for more homemade history.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781976600005
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	10/27/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	478
Sales rank:	532,031
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

John Gurda is a Milwaukee-born writer and historian who has been studying his hometown since 1972. He is the author of twenty-three books, including The Making of Milwaukee and Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods. In addition to his work as an author, Gurda is a lecturer, tour guide, and local history columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The common thread in all of his work is an understanding of history as “why things are the way they are.”
 

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction The Personal Past—Early Sitting on Top of the World Marching with Father Groppi The Long Hot Summer of 1967 Coming Unglued with America My Life as a Barfly Getting Around The Slow Road Home Pedal Power From Steel Wheels to Skinny Tires Blue-Collar Capital Milwaukee the Innovator End of the Line for A. O. Smith Plant Hog Heaven Strong Spirits, Stronger Aroma Requiem for Local 1111 Putting the “Labor” in Labor Day In the Neighborhood Witness to Change History on the Scrap Heap Before the Deer District New Life in an Old Square A Forest in the City Siblings and Strangers Landmarks and Landscapes City Hall Reborn From Bogart to Beethoven The Mansion in the Trailer Park Wrong Turn to the Past Civic Center or Civic Wasteland? A South Side Landmark Restored Used Cars in the Parlor A Bright Idea for an Overbuilt Bridge A City Built on Water Paddling through History Lost on the Lady Elgin In-Town Up North “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” Condo Canyon Echoes with History A Yuletide Tragedy Stream of Memories Summertime A “Breathing Place” for the Masses Generations of Oohs! and Aaahs! Where Have All the Odors Gone(Long Time Passing)? Summerfest’s Prehistory Our Rocky Road to the Big Leagues Personalities Hank, Meet Gertie Beulah Brinton of Bay View A Bouquet for Mr. Whitnall Jay Scriba’s Milwaukee A Green Pantheon City Hall, Northwoods Style Frank P. Zeidler, 1912–2006 The Common Good Socialist Citadel The Power of Work A Pioneering Approach to Poverty Turning on the “Lighted Schoolhouse” A Healing Street The Other Pandemic The Missing Middle The Nature of Things Saner Outside Robin Rudebreast Epidemics in the Treetops Return of the Beaver The Cost of Paper Swimming Upstream A Vote for Autumn A Milwaukeean Abroad A Polish Pilgrimage Luck of the Irish Lost and Found Neighbors and Strangers Ein Prosit, Milwaukee! Latino Milwaukee “Why Can’t They Be Like Us?” From Beaver Pelts to Poker Chips Chinese without a Chinatown Most Segregated Metro Area? Birth Pangs of a New Understanding Wisconsin Winters In Praise of True Winter Skating into the Past The End of Winter? The Personal Past—Late Memory Lane Deep in the Heart of Dairyland Owning the Past The Generation Before Rest in Peace, Naturally A Life in History Index About the Author