looking through the history of the old lacrosse it's obvious that the cross ended at the South End of the causeway goes north and that was the start of the north side which as we've said before was a community of its own had its own factories and the electric light and the rubber mills and tobacco company there Rose Street and so on.

And the two railroads. But it was self-contained in that. The interesting thing that has happened is since I've moved I've met a number of the northside LaCrosseer by each and one of them comes Oh yeah yeah I think remembered every Sunday afternoon my dad and make me go to your dad's store.

We'd cut through the whole the yards coming from over on the side of the street and going to the store because he wanted the nice juicy Apple for dessert. And so I talked to them about the nature of the neighborhood nature and our site. And I have not had one word of what or anything just one of them that's just the way it was.

We are our own neighborhood community and within that there was the the north the Roosevelt school I'm that editor eventually and in the middle and then the south and then Indian Hill that's what we used to call it by the river mills. What do you think that there was this thing as Northside pride because you hear people say Northside pride way more than you hear people say Southside pride because we were that neighborhood and everybody within our within our neighborhood area you know we didn't. We knew people wrong the whole north side but we were family and we do things with them for each other and stuff.

And that's what the pride and that's what we shared to me by this one lady that tight knit just two days ago again.

So you're quite often now but that neighborhood community and caring and family may have said this.

She said she'd have to go to my dad's and she's after a while I so I could just go in the back door and get in and go back out now.

Have you seen people kind of come together more in your later years and he did in the earlier years.

Because like I said the Northside Pride was a thing and people are still saying that but define find that people are kind of getting along better now than perhaps they used to when it comes to the city of lacrosse.

The nurse said people now know him very easily feel a part of the greater lacrosse. There wasn't that standoffish because again this whole side didn't want everything to do with her side. And we were happy with that.

You'd give me a couple of names of people that were characters in the back in the day like one arm Brown crazy band type and a half.

These are people who lived in this Northside community who were given a name and one name wrong because he lost his arm in a collision with a tree on a slender toboggan on the Indian hill because people had names that didn't mean they were lesser thought of or anything like that.

Well just nicknames and they're the characters that made you into the person that you are because you knew that right.

Yeah. They were characters but they were characters. And you know I didn't put words to put to it but it was just people who didn't get all upset about that name when I was called Billy or Bill or William didn't make any difference and I told the story about how and maybe I need to collectability the hand of a 50 of class reunion. We're sitting there in one of the lovely ladies of our high school class said Billy why didn't you ever ask me out on a date. And I said Derek I'm going to go back to the name. Billy.

Let me ask you this. What's that. What's the memory. If you were to if you were to tell somebody about your childhood what's the biggest memory or the memory that sets out the most.

Probably going fishing to brace prairie sitting in the back of the pickup truck of Phil Vitaliy in the car across the street. It had a place for people up front. Mom and Dad. Phil and Mabel vitality and then those four kids and some amount of the fifth riding the back of the pickup truck up 35 Z and then Z as far as who would go. And we'd stay up there two days a week we do this and we'd stay up there all day and a nice lunch would be prepared for us in the cabin which was the cottage and we'd fish from the bank and get a little older. We would push off in a rowboat. Good safe water and fish all day and then get thrown in the back of the truck and come home. The adults have a little more adult fun time. You can figure that one out. Yes it was. So that's one of the things that really members the more memorable part was Christmas at the tempting family. We read organ and my mother played the carols on the organ and as kids learned to sing at an early age. And my dear Dad would put on a Christmas program in the living room of this little bitty house of ours. The main living area and the mother would sit at the organ and play carols and ask kids. We were the three wise men because we had bathrobes that were checkered looked appropriate. My poor dear sister had to play Mary with the little darling baby and we'd stand there and sing Christmas carols and the neighbors would come in the front door

stand on the step out there with the front door open middle of winter. And that was our gift as a family to the neighbors for Christmas and Christmas tree was a masterpiece every year drilling holes and sticking branches until we discovered how my uncle he would get the biggest haul us with the spaces of all the spaces out and pay them back together and have the most perfect Christmas tree you could ever find. It was make your own tree. And most people just had kind of a scrubby tree and put a lot of tinsel hanging tinsel and stuff. Christmas was very special because that involved first of all Trinity Lutheran. Was a wonderful church for many people the church of the North Side. St. James was a Catholic and Trinity was the Lutheran so Christmas and fishing had tried to have these cottage or the two memories that still live very much with me deep in my heart.

You said that your your uncle worked at the brewery. Was there a brewery on the north side or was it just it was just the Highland girls haven and was there was there any small breweries on the north side that you recall those days.

Ol La Crosse Beer song. I've never heard that before. Well it disappeared many years ago.

That used to be the liquor was drinking beer so any parting words fell anything that you want to share that I know that I had maybe didn't ask.

No I've enjoyed sharing memories of the north side with you and with the people who choose to listen to the things I have to say. It's all done from me in love for the north side and my experiences and growing up there.