MENOMINEE — Armed with 10 cents or even a quarter, Sally Kudlicki would go down Broadway Street with her pals.
This was the typical 1940s day in Menominee.
“We would get our skates, the ones that clip on our shoes, and we would skate all the way down to Pietsch’s Market,” Kudlicki said, whose maiden name was Sally Staquet. “We would take our quarters and we would get penny candies at each one.”
She’d stop at all the grocery stores along the road — now known as 13th Street. Many kids would buy candy cigarettes, but she said she favored chocolate.
“I didn’t buy as much candy as my friends did — I bought Popsicles or Fudgsicles,” Kudlicki said.
Stop two was Ray Lemire’s grocery store (later Bob’s IGA, then Bill’s IGA) on 34th Avenue and 13th Street.
“They all had the basics — milk, eggs and candy,” Kudlicki said, laughing.
Then Delgoffe’s (later Stiebohr’s) at 32nd Avenue and 13th Street.
And then, Broadway Market, on the corner of 27th Avenue and 13th Street.
Ellen Kirt, later known as Ellen Ackerman, owned the market, which was named after the famed “Broadway” strip in 1946.
“The gal who owned the store was a very, very close friend of ours,” Kudlicki said. “She was always taking pictures of me and my cousin.”
Kudlicki lived next to the Emmanuel Lutheran Church, so Broadway Market was one block south.
When a recent billboard was uncovered underneath the siding of the building that once housed the market she visited so often, she cried out.
“When I saw they took the siding off that Broadway Market, I said, ‘Oh my God, I got that picture of mom and I sitting on the curb in front of it!’” Kudlicki said.
The siding was uncovered by the most recent landlord, who was unable to be reached at the time this article went to print.
The photo shows her mother, Margaret Staquet, posing on the left with a young Sally on the right and the sign in the background.
The side of the building advertised, “Drink Orange Crush…and Feel Fresh.”
The advertisement brought up more than just memories for Kudlicki. Larry Ebsch worked for the Hansen family’s Royal Crown Bottling Company, featured on the bottom of the sign.
“I can remember delivering a party pack — orange — to the Broadway Market where that sign was,” Ebsch said. “It was the days of mom-and-pop grocery stores.”
The party packs, which were 32-ounce glass bottles, were bigger than the 8-ounce Nehi or 12-ounce Royal Crown Soda bottles.
He delivered 15 to 25 cases of pop to the taverns, restaurants and grocery stores around the city, sometimes with his partner, Dick Gignac.
“He was my helper during the holidays, especially Christmas when people would stock up on Royal Crown and Nehi,” Ebsch said.
The company carried Orange Crush, Royal Crown Cola, Nehi Upper 10 (similar to 7UP or Sprite), root beer, cream soda, strawberry soda and even “white soda,” the carbonated water sold to taverns.
“The Orange Crush was a good drink. We didn’t have the franchise, but we bottled it,” Ebsch said. “It was in a dark brown bottle where all the other pops were in a light bottle.”
The bottling company was located in a now-defunct building on 10th Avenue, which was known as Ogden.
That’s where Lloyd “Wimpy” Ruatti would mix the soda each day on the second floor.
“He was quite a character, but a good bottler,” Ebsch said. “He was good at fast-pitch softball.”
They would carry the sugar, tanks and ingredients up a flight of stairs.
“For 75 cents an hour,” Ebsch said. “That gave us money to buy a beer and go to the show — maybe get a hamburger.”
The Hansen family delivered soda daily to Marinette, Peshtigo, Pound, Coleman, Crivitz, Wausaukee, McAllister, Goodman and Pembine and Stephenson, Michigan, with five drivers and five trucks.
Kids would often chase the trucks — and more, he said.
“Some of the pops were in cases on the outside of the truck,” Ebsch said. “They used to go and help themselves. Kids being kids, ya know.”
A blue-uniformed Hansen employee would often visit each store to restock the shelves in the basement and dust off their inventory, each trip taking about 20 to 30 minutes.
“A lot of times, I’d come back and have empty cases,” Ebsch said.
It was the days of “Cash and Carry,” as the Orange Crush sign noted.
Back then, Kudlicki said that the stores would also let you charge — they would write down the name and how much was bought. Then, families would come back later and make their payments.
“Mostly, my family went to Broadway Market — it wasn’t a very big building,” Kudlicki said.
Kirt, the store owner, lived in an apartment behind the store. She died young, around 45, Kudlicki said.
“She never had children of her own,” Kudlicki said. “She was a sweetheart.”
Her mother died a year and a half ago at 105 years old.
The memories are still very much alive.
“I just loved growing up when I grew up — I loved that era.”
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