The Greendale Review Newspaper - Revisited Week 3 - 8/24/38 to 9/10/38

With this year being the 75th anniversary I thought it might be interesting as well as fun to look back at Greendale’s beginnings from the viewpoint of its own residents and local news stories of the day. Every Thursday through the end of the year, I will be posting humorous, relevant or just interesting stories from Greendale’s original newspapers.

The following selected stories are copied exactly as they were originally written (including some misspellings) unless otherwise noted. Some may be shortened with “…”. They will be in bold and italicized type.

Also, just a reminder - Greendale first opened to residents on May 1, 1938.

The Greendale Bulletin – August 24, 1938

COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE PHONE SERVICE FOR VILLAGE

      Hales Corners rural telephone service is the only service now offered to the residents of Greendale at a rate which is reasonable. This rural service is eight-party line service, and all calls to Milwaukee are long distance calls with a 10-cent minimum toll charge. Since practically all of the villagers have come to Greendale from Milwaukee, and the wage earner of the family is still employed there, it is obvious that the need of Greendale families is Milwaukee phone service rather than Hales Corners rural service.                                                                                                                                                                          

…they are sending questionnaires to every home in the village.

     Should the questionnaire returns confirm our belief that Greendale people want Milwaukee service at Milwaukee rates you may be sure that this committee will do everything possible to secure such service. We are informed that Milwaukee service now extends to within several hundred feet of Greendale, that is, to a point just north of Edgerton Avenue, so that an extension to Greendale does not seem unreasonable.

     The cost of a Hales Corners rural phone is $2.00 a month net. This means eight parties on a line with unlimited calls within the Hales Corners exchange and a ten-cent toll charge to Milwaukee. Milwaukee service, at a comparable rate, would be a four-party line with a flat net rate of $2.00, allowing 60 calls a month and all over that number would be three cents each, but this would eliminate the Milwaukee toll charge. …

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WANT HELP?

     George Stange, grounds foreman knows a great deal about lawns and shrubbery and how they grow. For those who are looking for first aid information on the treatment of lawns during the remainder of the month of August, he advises that this is the time to repair, or seed, the bare spots in the lawn now. …

   …Villagers are asked to cooperate in keeping the streets clean by depositing grass clippings and leaves in the proper refuse can provided for that purpose rather than on the streets or in nearby parks. …

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GREENDALE SCHOOL STAFF HAS 21 MEMBERS

     Mr. John Ambruster, principal of Greendale School, announced Saturday that all the appointments to the teaching staff had been made. The staff includes twenty teachers and the principal. …

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     St. Alphonsus congregation is making plans for its first social activity which will be a bingo party for the benefit of the St. Alphonsus Congregation at Greendale. It will be held in the St. Martin Parish Hall on Friday August 26.

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LIBRARY OPENING TO BE ANNOUNCED LATER

     Many people have made inquiries about the opening of the library. Although the library will be organized as rapidly as possible and opened to the public at the earliest convenient time, it is impossible to name a definite date. The books have arrived and two librarians and their assistants have been working steadily to get the books accessioned.

     Since the librarians, however are getting so many inquiries about the opening of the library, it seems desirable to state at this time that the work in the library will be greatly facilitated if the villagers will wait until the date for the formal opening is announced through the pages of the bulletin.

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 BUS SERVICE HEARING

     The Public Service Commission of the State of Wisconsin has fixed Tuesday, August 30 at 10 A.M. in the offices of the Commission at Madison as the time for oral argument on the Greendale petition for public transportation to be provided by the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company of Milwaukee. Argument for Greendale will be presented by Community Manager, Sherwood L. Reeder and M. Phillip Frank, Regional Attorney of the Farm Security Administration.

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COMBUSTABLES OR NON-COMBUSTABLES; ONE VILLAGER KNOWS HOW TO HANDLE THEM

     It seems that here in Greendale there are rubbish cans and rubbish cans, and to the uninitiated, the matter of a stripe or two around the bottom means absolutely nothing. Our guess was that the striping might be just another step forward in our progress toward larger and more colorful rubbish receptacles.

    But now we find that we were wrong all the time; that these stripes really have some significance. We have just received our bulletin, titled, “Garbage and Refuse”. It reads, “the red band can is for combustibles, the other can for non-combustibles”. Just like that. Simple as can be. But how was I to know that even tin cans will go up in smoke here in Greendale? As a result of this revelation, I had to spend quite some time, Sunday morning, ferreting the tin cans out of the rubbish can, which was chockfull of ashes and broken glassware.

     But then, there must be some reason for these regulations, and I’ve come to the conclusion that when the management makes some rules such as these, it’s for our own good and the good of Greendale as a whole. So from now on, I’m going to resist that urge to “plop” the whole accumulation in to the first can in sight. I’m going to visualize those poor collectors, raking over their haul, far into the night separating the combustibles from the non-combustibles; even as I had to do last Sunday. I’ll co-operate, so help me, and if it’s the last thing that I do!

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The Greendale Review – September 10, 1938

--WANTED—

Your Subscription!!!

     It costs money to get out this paper. More money than the staff themselves can bear. Then, too it isn’t quite fair to ask your delivery boy to work for nothing.

A study of costs indicates that a subscription fee of four cents per copy will just about cover the cost of getting out this review.

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“TWO BIRDS WITH ONE JOLT”

… Thursday, August 25, about 4 P.M., the supply of electric current to Greendale suddenly stopped. Greendale authorities, failing to locate the trouble locally, were later notified by the Electric Co. that two birds, alighting on high-voltage feeder lines outside the village had caused a short circuit. The trouble was corrected in about an hour.

The birds, with exception of the beaks, were burned to a crisp. The size of the beaks indicated that their former owners must have been quite large.

Incidentally, power failure due to this cause can never occur in Greendale proper, because all power lines are underground.

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Stay tuned as the exciting life in 1938 Greendale continues next Thursday with a new fire truck!

Thanks to the Greendale Historical Society, for which I am a member, for providing the original newspapers.

Steve Peters