Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Albert J. Braun (1911-1991) oral history

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Track 9: Track 9
Transcription: TRACK 9 Today the kids have no place to go like we had those days. No dances anymore - we could go anywhere and have a party in someone's home. Take turns about once a month - a gang from Des Plains and some from Evanston, Skokie, we'd all, all chip together and get the eats, and one night have it here, and the next night over at my uncle's - Doetsch's and all over. Just made the rounds. About once a month we'd do this. Instead of going to the Kit Kat or somewhere. RA: There was much more home activity AB: Home activities in those days. Yes. RA: They had games, and things that the young people AB: Yes - we had a band - someone would play the concertina just not a big orchestra or anything. Just something to dance to . . . And today, the kids don't have that. It's not as much fun. They can go in the tavern now, when they're 18. In those days we had enough taverns to go to, so it was more fun hiding to sneak that drink! (laugh) RA: And one or two drinks probably satisfied you, too. AB: Yes! No one ever got drunk or anything. Not like today - they're not satisfied like the kids in those days. With well, they'd have it in their house the parents were there to supervise, and - RA: And you expected them to be there! AB: And we didn't have to sneak to have that drink. Like today, most girls - their parents don't want them seen in... AB: a tavern, where even the younger generation was RA: Well, when you were growing up, the connotation "tavern" was a bit different than it is today, wasn't it? AB: When I was just a young kid, yes. They were quite a bit different. The - you couldn't take a kid at the bar - parents, or even husband and wife - the wife would have to sit at the table RA: With the children. AB: With the children. And some of them had a back room where they RA: Families? AB: They called it the family room, yes. Where they'd gather. Well, today, heck, you could take a 10 year old kid and sit at the bar, with you. It's supposed to be illegal, but no one enforces it. RA: I know. This is very true. But in those days, really, the taverns were the social life of the community, weren't they? AB: Yes, they were. There was a place for everyone to go, and Al Leverne when he had his tavern out there, it was a regular Sunday gathering. He had tables for the kids, and parents would sit at the table with the kids, and a bowl of popcorn, and the kids would have a coke while the folks would have a beer. But you don't find that today anymore. RA: No - that's quite true, you don't. And I often think today's youth really is pretty bored. AB: They're cheated. RA: And cheated. That's right! And yet they have TV, they have radio, they have built-in music if they wanted to dance to it AB: Well, they can't have the parties like we had today. RA: Well, I suppose not. And yet almost every home has a family room. AB: Well, when I say we had parties, we'd have maybe 20-30 couples RA: That's 60 people, that's a big crowd. AB: Well, like in the summer - in the winter we didn't have that big a crowd, but in the summer we'd be outside, and some dancing down in the basement and stuff like that. RA: I'm interested in that Weller story - of the tent for dancing. So it was almost a natural for him to have a restaurant, wasn't it? AB: Well, he had a little - hamburger, and hot dogs, ice-cream In the front, then in the back he had the tent. It was, oh, like a circus tent. RA: Oh, yes. AB: Big tent. A couple of hundred people inside.
Creators: Braun, Albert Joseph, 1911-1991, Interviewee; Adler, Rhea Saul, 1906-1990
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview with Albert J. Braun by Rhea Adler in Wilmette, Illinois, on October 15, 1978.
ABSTRACT

Interviewee: Albert J. Braun

Interviewer: Rhea Adler

Date of Interview: October, 1978

Account of Braun family, six boys and three girls
Farm of 25-30 acres — Truck gardens — Randolph Street Market
and South Water Street Market with horse-wagons
Indian Hill Estates developed by Henry Drucker - Streets
laid out - Turned over to Bill’s Realty - Swampland - Skating on pond - Drained into Skokie Lagoons

CCC Camp - (Civilian Conservation Corps) - Harold Ickes - Sump pumps needed in houses built throughout the area

Earlier times they were able to ice skate north to Glencoe in winter and west to Waukegan Road — Clamp-on skates - Playmates Bohnen’s and Braun’s and Borres — All relatives but Thalmann’s

Thalmann’s Grocery and Tavern — Now Wilmette Fire Station #2 — Tavern later a bowling alley - Ballroom during Prohibition - Old Gross Point band
Moonshining - Blind Pigs - Home Brew - Raids Judge Peters Warrants needed — Warnings given before raids were made — Contents of various liquors
Picnics held at Lake/Locust - Mostly family reunions - Several generations
Otto Kempe - Shoe shop - Paul, Mathilde, Walter
Ditmer - Shoe Shop - Lake Avenue

Dance halls of 1930’s — Weller’s tent - Waukegan/ Dempster - Kit Kat at Howard/Sheridan second floor, one on Peterson Avenue - Saturday night at Diamond Lake - Young people’s parties - Taverns of the 1930’s family affairs
Winkler’s Grove at Ridge/Lake

Stores on Ridge Road: Beuscher’s Hardware, Klinge and White Grocery
Segar Street now Schiller - Reinwald now Illinois Road - Blum Street and Brown Street

Families on south side of Lake Avenue — Goldbach, Zeutschel, Carrier, Ditmers, Spiess, Braun, Joe Thalmann and Millie Thalmann
Meier’s Ice Company — Wilmette at 1900 Washington (from Seltzer’s Pond at Hibbard/Illinois Road) stored in saw dust in barn

Annexation of Gross Point by Wilmette 1921-1926
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 15 October 1978
Subject(s): Farmers
Prohibition
Oral histories
Gross Point (Ill.) — History
Personal Name(s): Braun, Albert Joseph
Local identifier: R 977.31 BR
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 1978
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Public Library
Copyright Holder Contact Information: 1242 Wilmette Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091
U.S.A.
Recommended Citation: Braun, Albert Joseph, and Rhea Saul Adler. Albert J. Braun. Wilmette, Ill: Wilmette Public Library District, 1978
Contact: Wilmette Public Library
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