Dear Tess,

First of all I want to thank you for sending us the Riverwest Currents this past year. We have enjoyed each and every copy. After all, I was born, raised, and lived in Milwaukee for over 50 years. So even though I have adopted San Diego as my present domicile with no regrets, Milwaukee still holds strong roots in my life.

Particularly interesting to me was the article about "Polish Town" by Tom Tolan in the February issue. His description of life in the 1920's and 1930's is very
familiar to me.

I just substitute the location of the Polish-German East Side to the similar locations of the Polish-German-Irish environment I experienced on Milwaukee's South Side where I was born and grew up. In place of Brady St., King Drive
(old 3rd St.), North Avenue, etc. I insert Mitchell St., Lincoln Avenue, Greenfield Avenue, etc. In place of St. Casimir, St. Hedwig, and St. Mary, we had St. Josaphat near Kosciusko Park, St. Stanislaus on Mitchell St., St. Anthony's - the German church, and St. Patrick's - the Irish church.

Our lives revolved around those schools, churches, early settlement houses, and the neighborhood social centers, libraries, and natatoriums. The papas worked long hours in factories like the Bay View Rolling Mills, Pfister-Vogel
Tannery, and many small machine shops. The mamas worked long days and nights as homemakers. Most of my childhood friends and neighbors were the first born children of European immigrants.

We lived in a house on Grove St. now know as S. 5th Street, and there was a gas lamp post in front of it. And like Tom Tolan writes, the lamp lighter came every evening at dusk to light the lamp, and early every morning with his pole to shut the light off.

The Chicago North Shore electric trains traveled on our street and many times during the summer months us kids would stand on the sidewalk and wave to the passengers as the trains sped by. Horse-drawn wagons delivered milk,
coal, and other supplies. The Fire Department still had coal fired engine wagons pulled by 3-horse teams. So the Polish Town article brought back a lot of memories of my early days on Milwuakee's South Side.

Congratulations to the Riverwest Currents on your first anniversary.

Henry Reiss, age 89
Milwaukee native