Oshkosh: The Way We Were: Remembering People and Places by Ron La Point

This is a book of collected works compiled and written by community members who chose to share their remembrances of the past. The stories take place in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the 1940s and '50s, although a few stories go before and a few beyond.
They are stories of corner taverns, grocery stores, churches and self-contained neighborhoods; of sports and sport heroes, and icons of the past; of movie theatres, a dank basement, and a chance encounter with Gene Autry; of polio epidemics, iron lungs, and stories from two who were afflicted; of hoboes, fearful mothers, and orphan train drops; of the beginning of aviation, steam-driven trains, and motorcycle clubs; of walleye and white bass runs, ice shanties, and spearing sturgeons; of breweries no longer there and barbershop songfests that are; of boating, yacht clubs, and Friday night fish frys; of "regular folks" and community leaders, and others of note; of pin setting and caddying, and other teenage staples; of war rationing, blackouts, and savings bonds; of old-fashion ice houses, traveling circuses, and freshwater quarries; of YMCA's, library expansions, and civic events; of an American war hero, a diary kept, and a fallen president; and of an Oshkosh that in its "heyday" was known throughout the country as "Sawdust City".

Paperback, 2009

Goodreads: 3.50