The City Stadium, Green Bay, Wisconsin

Home of the Green Bay Packers from 1925 to 1956.

Located between Green Bay East High School and the East River.

The stadium originally seated 6,000.  Was eventually expanded to 25,000 but quickly lost its charm after World War II.

The Green Bay Packers.  Other Homes of the Packers, 1919-1964.

On This Date in 1998

With JoAnna away from home through Wednesday evening, the first half of this week, starting with Sunday evening, was another experience in single parenthood. Sunday is bath night, and sometimes that can result in a struggle trying to get the boys focused on getting ready for bed after a weekend of staying up later than usual and doing pretty much whatever they want (within the bounds that Mom and Dad set, of course!). Minutes before bedtime, I usually ask the question, “Did you brush your teeth?” at least three times. Sometimes I even demand an inspection. A puff of their breath in my face. That wasn’t necessary Sunday night. 

Monday was a fairly typical day. I got the boys off to school without a hitch. Andy rode his bike, as he is still able to do at this point in December with no snow on the ground. The temperature was in the 20s, but I made sure he had his winter jacket, hat and gloves on. Eddie opted for a ride. It felt odd dropping him off in the van. JoAnna had driven the car to Two Rivers. 

Eddie had a cub scout pack meeting Monday night from 6:30 to 7:45. I let Andy watch about three quarters of the Packer game. Not a pretty sight. It looks as though Green Bay will stumble into the playoffs and then probably trip on their faces in their first game. Even with all the injuries, I can’t believe that Brett Favre allows himself to get so rattled during games. Can he look any worse than he did this past Monday? If so, the Packers may not even make the playoffs. Actually, a Bears upset on Sunday would not surprise me. 

I noticed a report in one of the local papers about the energy demand in Wisconsin Monday evening. It set a record for the winter season. A utility spokesperson attributed it to all the TVs tuned to Monday Night Football (what about the accompanying heavy use of microwaves to make popcorn and het up Cheez Whiz for nachos?) as well as the abundance of icicle lights this year. To put it colloquially, those babies suck a lot of energy. Speaking of Christmas decorations, we haven’t done much of anything yet this year. We do have a wreath on the front of the house and our stocking are “hung by the chimney with car” but otherwise, no tree, no lights around the fireplace mantel, no crèche. Since we plan to be gone for the last two weeks of the year, putting up a tree was never a consideration, although JoAnna did causally suggest that we buy an artificial free. I’m not exactly Mr. Deck the Halls, so any further signs of the season at our house will be the result of JoAnna’s efforts. 

Back to our review of the week. 

Andy has band practice at Kromrey Middle School on Tuesday morning, which requires an earlier than usual departure from the house. Usually, JoAnna drops him off on her way to work. This time I had to provide the taxi service while Eddie remained mummified in a blanket on his bed. Kromrey is less than a mile from the house. Can you imagine the outburst if I had told Andy he needed to walk there? 

Andy interrupted my workday in the middle of the afternoon, right after he got out of school, and asked that I drive him to Zany Brainy, a toy store in Madison, part of a new chain that seems to be giving Toys R Us a run for its market share. “You promised me yesterday that I could get a yo-yo today,” he reminded me. And I admit that I did speak those words. I gave him $15 for babysitting Saturday night, and he was eager to spend part of his earnings on what appears to be a revived fad among gradeschoolers. For whatever reason, I don’t know. Is there some TV show that has made yo-yos all the rage? You can’t even check out a book on yo-yos in the library. Every title has waiting list. I tried to weasel out of this commitment because my workday, which is usually pretty flexible on a Tuesday afternoon, needed my primary attention, but I figured a half-hour absence from the library was better than hearing Andy whine for the rest of the day.

At first, I thought I was going to have to juggle taxi service and a work commitment that evening. A Winter Sing, a 1990s-era substitute for the no longer fashionable 1960s-era Christmas celebration, was scheduled at Elm Lawn School. The band was on the program, scheduled to play a few songs, so Andy had to be at the gym by 6:45, fifteen minutes after the start of my library board meeting. He managed to hitch a ride with Meaghan. I was ready to worry about supervision if Eddie wanted to attend the Winter Sing, too, but fortunately, he expressed no interest. His mind was focused on something much more important to him. He reminded me, when I picked him up at school, that I had promised to buy him a Star Wars toys at the local Walgreen’s. (I must look like an easy mark to my sons. I wonder if they plot these scams together.) Now I truly don’t remember this conversation. But then I thought, “This will be a good way to bribe some good behavior out of Eddie.” He was literally buzzing with excitement as we entered the store. He ran straight to the toy section while I wondered how many people he was going to knock over as he barreled his way to the back of this favorite aisle. The store was jammed with people. Eddie made a remark a couple years ago, the exact circumstances I can no longer remember, that is as meaningful today as it was then. “Sometimes I can’t stop thinking about Star Wars.” \

If I hadn’t bought him the toy beforehand, I probably would have done so after the board meeting, which lasted until a few minutes past 8:00. Eddie was an angel. He didn’t look for me once, which would have meant interrupting the meeting, and the staff wasn’t even aware of his existence after they saw him walk through my office toward the children’s area. He either quietly paged through books or played games on the computer we have set up for kids. Andy didn’t get home until nearly 9:00, by which time I had helped Eddie with his reading, about 4-5 pages of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. 

As JoAnna was planning to return home before the end of the day, I considered Wednesday pretty much of a normal day from the start. The only evening commitment I had was to pick up Andy, Drew, and Riley at basketball practice at 7:30. I thought JoAnna would be home from a Dane County Airport Commission meeting by that time. I kept waiting for the floodlight to illuminate the driveway, announcing her arrival, but the darkness persisted. Eddie sometimes complains about having to leave the house when he is settled in for the evening, but with the No-TV-on-school-nights rule in effect, he was ready to think about staying home in quiet house at night. The car was in the driveway when we returned home. The boys and I were very happy to have Mom back home. 

Thursday evening Eddie’s scout troop had scheduled a family night at Fast Forward, a roller-skating rink. We all went along, but I stayed on the sidelines, as did the majority of parents it seemed. I have no problem with ice skating, probably because I did so much of it on the flooded tennis courts at Beaty Field when I was a kid. Even when we took the boys ice skating for the first time a couple years ago, I strapped on a pair of skates and hit the ice (almost) as if there was nothing more than a snap of the fingers between 1962 and 1986. Roller skating is a different story. (I’ve yet to wear a pair of rollerblades.) I feel as though I’m standing on the top of a 10-foot stepladder with wheels, about the lose control. The last time I went roller skating, two or three years ago, I practically dragged my right hand along the wall for support. I just couldn’t seem to get into a rhythm. I should get pair of rollerblades so I could join the boys on their neighborhood jaunts and to build up my confidence on little wheels. I’ll have a long way to go to catch up to Eddie. You should see him motor around the rink. He hardly took a break from the greased-lightning ovals he made around the perimeter, then the interior section of the floor. He was all over the place and looked very confident, always able to avoid what looked to be a sure bump here or push there. Maybe I should look for a roller hockey league for him to play in. He looks like a natural. I’ve always considered Andy as being much more athletic than Eddie, but rollerblading is one sport where Eddie is at least his brother’s equal.

On This Date in 1998

It’s T-minus 30 minutes until the kick-off of today’s big game, at least as far as the Upper Midwest is concerned. Packers vs. Vikings in the dome. We hope that it’s time for some green-and-gold revenge. Yesterday was a proud day for Wisconsin, as the Badgers convincingly beat Penn State, 24-3. It was almost the first time since Paterno’s rookie season as coach that the Nittany Lions were shut out twice. JoAnna and I watched the game on TV from start to finish, cheering or groaning on every play. 

What beautiful weather we are experiencing this weekend. Although it’s a bit on the breezy side, the sun is shining and the air is warm – the temperature already at 50 degrees. Yesterday I tied up our cedar trees so the branches won’t fan out so much. I think they are now ready for the first heavy snowfall of the winter season, which at this rate might never arrive. (I wouldn’t be on it, though.) 

Since Joey Kracht seemed eager to play with Eddie last weekend, Eddie gave him a call yesterday morning. Instead of inviting Joey to our house, he invites himself to Joey’s house, a faux pas that JoAnna caught and corrected. 

“But I don’t have any good toys to play with,” Eddie complained. 

JoAnna tried to explain to him that real friends are more interested in you than in your toys. Joey was here from 2:45 to 5:00, and he enjoyed every minute of his visit, which I think helped Eddie to understand what Mom was telling him. 



After supper last night (meat loaf – which even the boys described as very tasty – baked potatoes, corn and beans), the family went to see The Rugrats Movie, which was at the top of Eddie’s must-see list. I found it a bit tedious, the diapered-kids-lost-in-the-forest storyline almost bizarre, and the musical numbers intrusive. Even Eddie rated it only a half-hearted “OK” as we walked back to the car. Of course, nowadays, even a mediocre movie is an enjoyable experience with the latest movie theater upgrade: stadium seating, the rows of upholstered chair fanning upward from the screen. It’s nice for the boys, especially Eddie, since now we don’t have to switch seats if an adult sits in front of them. 

Time for a change of pace. 

Fifth grade in 1998. Fifth grade in 1960. 

Second grade in 1998. Second grade in 1957. 

I often think about my school and home life experiences during grade school compared with the boys’. I think it would make an interesting article, but what I first need to do is make some notes. So if you’ll pardon my indulgence, I’ll start this task right now. 

• The classroom. Our desks in Mrs. Johnson’s class, as they were in every class at Jefferson School, are arranged in five rows. One of the first things I noticed when I volunteered at Elm Lawn was the varied arrangements of desks. Last year, for example, the desks in Andy’s classroom were clustered in groups of four and five. This year his teacher set up a double-U arrangement, with nobody an island. 
• The school day. Grade school students spend a lot of time out of the classroom nowadays. Music, art, special science and math programs, computer instruction, gym, library – all are scheduled on at least a twice-a-week basis. Jefferson had a library, at the south end of the second floor hallway, but I recall only infrequent visits and I don’t think it was staffed by a librarian. I remember it now as similar to the interior of a bookmobile. 
• Recess. Three recess breaks are scheduled each day: morning, after lunch, and afternoon. I remember occasional trips to the gym or outside on nice days, but most of our time, it seems, was spent in the classroom. 
• Extracurricular activities. Andy and Eddie have been involved in Middleton’s soccer program since kindergarten. I doubt if anyone knew what soccer was when I attended Jefferson. Almost all of the sports activities I participated in during grade school were part of what is now called unstructured play, mostly waffle ball games during the summer. Today there are more opportunities for involvement, although I’m sure the YMCA would have been an option if I had shown any real interest in a sport outside of baseball. Andy is light years ahead of my physical (fitness) development. In fact, he and Ross and Drew and Riley are on the varsity track, working their way through the “minor leagues” of high school sports. 
• Relationships. Andy has started to show an incipient interest in girls, beyond the “Meaghan stage” for friendship. He doesn’t claim to have a girlfriend, someone for whom he has special feelings. It was during 5th grade with I developed a crush on Mary Sandblade, an on-and-off puppy-love relationship that needed halfway through 9th grade. I also had a close relationship with Cam Tassone during 5th grade. We sat in the last two desks in the row along the window and seemed to carry on a running commentary about events and personalities in the classroom. It would be so interesting to listen to a tap of those conversation now. 

 I’m not doing a very good job of concentrating on this letter right now. The Packer game is competing for my attention. At the end of the 1st quarter, the picture is not pretty. Green is down 10-0, Favre first dropping the ball soon after the snap, which resulted in a Vikings field goal, and then, on the next offensive series, throwing an interception for a Vikings touchdown. Arrgh! Things are not looking good. I’m surprised JoAnna hasn’t changed the channel yet. Before the game started, she said to no one in particular, “I wonder if there’s any good movies on this afternoon.” Alternative viewing for when the game gets ugly. That development, unfortunately, is already in progress.

August 17, 1991

There's not much time for chores this morning.  We have tickets for the Bills-Packers game at Camp Randall Stadium and Larry and Martha are hosting a tailgate party.   Parking is a breeze; Larry saves a place in his garage.  During the game, Andy stretches my patience to the limit.  I take him to the bathroom three times before halftime, to the concession stand twice.  I hope he'll want to walk around the playing field during the 4th quarter but he doesn't take to the idea.  We delay our departure home until 45 minutes after the game but still experience gridlock.  JoAnna is tired after a busy week so she takes a nap as soon as we get home.  I take Andy grocery shopping with me.  JoAnna settles on soup for supper, but I'm hungry for something more substantial so I grill some beef ribs and potatoes and steam some broccoli. 

11/01/09. Brett Favre Day: All the News You Need to Know in Wisconsin Today

Raise your hands if you love football rivalries!



Appleton Post-Crescent. Brett Favre's return generates gamut of emotions among Green Bay Packers fans.

Appleton Post-Crescent. Brett Favre's return generates gamut of emotions among Green Bay Packers fans.

Fond du Lac Reporter. Editorial: Packers fans can tip scales for Rodgers, Packers today.

Fond du Lac Reporter. Letters: Packers fans tell Brett Favre what they are thinking.

Fond du Lac Reporter. Aaron Rodgers Drive sign stolen, recovered.

Manitowoc Herald-Times-Reporter. Fans chime in on Favre's return to Lambeau Field.

Green Bay Press-Gazette. Home decor: Get your piece of the Packers.

La Crosse Tribune. The Packers-Vikings rivalry sometimes starts at home.

Capital Times. Packers vs. Vikings: Who has the edge?

Capital Times. Braced for Brett: Packers' defense seeks balance of pressure, coverage.

GM Today. Brett Favre expects mixed reaction when he plays in Green Bay on Sunday.

GM Today. Vikings-Packers game not all about the Brett Favre hype.

Janesville Gazette. Opinion Matters: Brett Favre should shut his mouth.

Janesville Gazette. Icon booed, grudge renewed as Vikes and Pack feud.

Eau Claire Leader-Telegram. Packers hope 'Bad Brett" resurfaces.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Their prodigal neighbor: Green Bay torn as man who fit so well returns as a rival.