MENOMINEE — Larry Ebsch, a longtime editor for the EagleHerald, recounted his youth growing up in Menominee and the buildings on Broadway Street.
This came after a billboard advertising Orange Crush was uncovered on the siding of a home on 13th Street, which was known in earlier years as Broadway.
He worked for the Hansen family or Royal Crown Bottling Company, which commissioned the painting in the late ‘40s or early ‘50s.
They were simpler times.
“People didn’t have a lot of money back then, but they were happy,” Ebsch said, recalling his childhood.
If one neighbor had no radio, families would invite them over to listen to music.
Ebsch said he would look forward to the Hit Parade — a radio show rating the Top 10 songs from the week.
“One of our fellow students had a car, and we’d drive around and listen to the Hit Parade,” Ebsch said.
A popular tune was by Frank Sinatra, called “Linda.”
“Thirteenth Street had more grocery stores than any other street in town,” Ebsch said.
The reason?
“Most families were one-car families — the man took it to work,” Ebsch said.
That meant if the woman stayed home, she would need to be within walking distance of a market.
“That’s the days when women didn’t have the refrigeration you have today,” he said. “The woman made breakfast, dinner and supper and would have to go to the grocery store mid-morning and pick up their choice of meat, and then go home and cook it. And then go at night again and pick up the meat of their choice so they could prepare supper when the husband came home from work.”
Ice boxes were still common in the early ‘40s, which meant visits from the ice man every day or every other.
“They [families] would put a card in the window ‘no ice today’ or ‘ice today,’” Ebsch said. “People just left their doors open, and the iceman went in.”
The milkman dropped off their quarts of milk early in the morning on each doorstep.
“The kids used to race to get the cream that was on the top of the milk,” Ebsch said. “They would get out of bed early to get the brother or sister to get the cream. It was fun.”
The neighborhood kids would play hide and seek and kick the can.
“Our mother called us in when it was dark. Then, we went to bed, and that was it,” he said.
As the lights went out on Broadway Street, the nightclubs would brighten the night on Broadway.
Ebsch remembered getting rides from Frank “Boots” LeBouten, who owned a glass storefront on the bustling thoroughfare.
“He took me up and down those streets,” Ebsch said. “We used to call him the mayor of Broadway.”
People passed the time by going to neighborhood parties and picnics — or catching the occasional movie for 25 cents.
“There’s just so many wonderful memories,” Ebsch said.
Broadway Street had several stores, listed below from north to south:
• Pietsch’s Market — 36th Avenue and 13th Street
• Lemire’s IGA — 3309 13th St.
• Stiebohr’s Grocery & Meats — 32nd Avenue and 13th Street
• Broadway Market — 27th Avenue and 13th Street
• Frank “Boots” LeBouton Beer and Confectionary — 2614 13th St.
• Smith’s Market — 2214 13th St.
• Franck’s Shoe Store — 2419 13th St.
• Louie Lemire’s Store — 2022 13th St.
• Cherney’s Store — 1405 13th St.
• Bernie Lang Mobile Gas Station — 1400 13th St.
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