12A • 50plus • March 2013
The thrill of the hunt at neighborhood sales By Doug Mayberry
Q: It is obvious to my family,
neighbors and friends after walking through my garage that, as a widower, I have become addicted to hoarding. It is piled high with treasures from my former home, which include a bike I no longer ride, several inherited items I would feel guilty about dumping, things, which provide wonderful memories and some junk. My family does not want, need or have space for them. Spending time making decisions as to what I will never use again is not high on my priority list. One son told me a dumpster or a major charity pick up is my only solution. I find it difficult not to stop when I drive past an estate sale sign! Is there an easy solution to make others happy?
A: There are many reasons why
estate, garage and tag sales are popular. Experts say the major reason is because of the thrill of the hunt. Walking through a stranger’s home can be not only diversionary pleasure and interesting, but it is a chance to see how others live. There, is the opportunity to fantasize and compare your lifestyle. Others enjoy shopping just to hear strangers and neighbors openly judge what is being sold. Although, be careful, sometimes a family member is lingering in the crowd! Seeing the family’s goodies, such as their kitchen contents, bedspreads, clothes, exercise equipment, paintings, book selection and how they decorated their home offers ideas for one’s own home. Some visitors end up buying because it is an item they have never seen or it would make a great gift, to choose something they always wanted but could never afford, or even because they may be able to resell the item and make a few bucks.
The challenge is to begin a serious ongoing routine of donating or getting rid of something every week. You may choose to consign some treasures in your cleanup. This will make you and your family happier. Final resolution: NO NEW PURCHASING!
Q:
My husband and I are still driving in our 80s, and we often wonder how we compare with other age drivers. Luckily, neither of us has a major accident in our lifetime and only a few tickets. Mentally, we feel, as seniors, that we are more likely than any other age group to be more likely to get a traffic ticket. Is that true?
A:
No. Statistics indicate that, as a group, seniors are no more likely to get tickets than teenagers. Speeding is the number one reason for traffic tickets. Monday through Friday are the most likely days tickets are given. Seatbelts, cell phones,
red light, stop signs and distractions rank next in that order. Officers focus on safety evaluating seniors for their physical abilities, vision and other signs of impairment. Traffic rules vary by states, and some require a driving test for renewals. Safety is their number one concern. Recently, one long-time officer was asked if drivers can ever avoid getting tickets. His answer was “rarely.” The only acceptable excuse that may help avoid a ticket is when the driver explains they are on the way to the hospital for a birth or family emergency. Sometimes they give you a break! Doug Mayberry makes the most of life in a Southern California retirement community. Contact him at deardoug@msn.com.
Being social- Make the most out of growing older By Chelle Cordero Growing old means having experience and wisdom, probably the opportunity to retire and for some the joys of children and grandchildren. Growing old can also mean disillusionment when expectations fail, long time friends and partners pass on, jobs and daily routines take a sudden change, physical limitations become a virtual prison and
offspring are too busy to reach. Many seniors experience pangs of loneliness even when they aren’t physically alone. According to a recent AARP article, “the number of Americans without any close confidants has risen dramatically in the past 20 years,” and “even though Americans are closer to their spouses than ever before, that kind of intimacy can work against us if we al-
low ourselves to ‘cocoon’ within the relationship.” Avoid allowing the stereotypes of old age to limit you and your partner, and be willing to accept help from other family members or community organizations if you’ve become the primary caregiver for an infirm spouse. Also, don’t let feelings of depression over loss of people or lifestyle become contagious. Loneliness, one of the common afflictions of “old age,” can be avoided when the senior citizen is surrounded by activities and involved with people. Taking opportunities to stay mentally and physically busy and maintaining a feeling of self-worth and connection also help. Recent studies published in the Annals of Family Medicine and The American Journal of Public Health state that seniors who have active social skills tend to have fewer memory loss problems and better overall health.
Make the time to stay in touch with old friends and relatives even if they are long-distance. Many telephone plans allow for economical long-distance calling. Speak to your provider to find a package that fits your budget and needs. Using the Internet and social media sites can also help you maintain relationships; some sites, such as GrowingBolder.com, specialize in the over-50 crowd and will also provide access to local resources and problem solving. Some high-tech features, such as Skype, will allow the advantage of face-to-face communication using the Internet. Shut-ins and seniors without easy transportation find computers to be a big asset towards communication with other like-minded individuals. Depending on your skills, you can probably find mentoring situations. Use your years of work know-how, knowledge of languages and even life experiences to mentor being social continued on page 13A
March 2013 • 50plus
sports continued from page 20A never desert Spahnie. I wrote that segment entirely from memory but of course wanted to fact-check it afterwards. I consulted the Milwaukee papers on microfilm at the UWM Library, but I could not find the game. Eventually, I realized I was looking in the wrong year. It was at this point that I was reminded that what I most needed to consult-a Milwaukee Braves history-had never been written. “The Milwaukee Braves had one of the best teams ever. They never had a losing season. They had the greatest home run hitter and the leading home run tandem of all time. They featured the all-time winningest left-handed pitcher and the winningest pair of pitchers in the past hundred years. They established attendance records and sent six ballplayers to the Hall of Fame. And yet, their history had never been told. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that someone had missed the boat. I decided to write it myself. The fact that I was a totally unknown author and that I knew next to nothing about the publishing industry deterred me not at all.” In order to compose a book like The Milwaukee Braves: A Baseball Eulogy, Buege spent hundreds of hours researching, going through microfilm of old newspapers at the library, reading record books and media guides, and then checking all your facts over and over again. He also necessary spent a large amount of time setting up and conducting interviews. Buege spent the better part of two years at the task all while he was still working full-time as a teacher. Beginning book writers, like Buege, have basically two ways to get their manuscript into book form. One, they can try to find a publishing company that will print it and assume all costs, or two, they can publish it themselves. In the first option, the publishing company controls just about everything (cover design, content, number of copies, etc.) and the writer gets a royalty, usually about 10 percent of the net profits of the sales. Not a bad deal if the writer can find a publishing company that will take his book.
The other option is for the writer to pay for the book’s entire printing cost himself. In effect, he becomes the book’s publisher. That was the route Buege chose. “I knew I was taking a certain financial risk,” Buege said. “But I had poured my heart and soul into the Braves book. I didn’t want anyone to change a word, or to put their title on it, or use their own photos, or to mess with it at all. Also, I felt strongly that there were a lot of old Milwaukee Braves fans out there who really wanted this book. I decided to have 5,000 copies printed.
truck’s contents is not in their job description. My wife unloaded 5,000 books, in cartons of either 32 softcovers or 20 hardcovers, by herself. This was in 1988, the hottest summer in our lifetime. And by the way, it was her birthday.” After Buege returned home and learned about the delivery of the books, and after he made his apologies to Margaret, he looked at the stacks of cartons in his garage and thought to himself, “Now what?” He placed a few paid advertisements in sports periodicals, and he tried to persuade the larger bookstores in
Bob Buege with two of his books on baseball set in the Milwaukee area, one on the old Milwaukee Braves, the other on slugger Eddie Mathews. My up-front cost was somewhere around $25,000, which to my wife and me was a lot of money.” He paused for a moment. “There’s something else about my wife’s involvement that’s kind of interesting. The company that printed the books is in Michigan. When they were finished printing and packaging them, they shipped them to me by truck. They were supposed to call the night before delivering them, but for some reason they didn’t. The truck showed up on the street in front of the house. I was teaching summer school that morning, so my wife first had to get a ladder out of the garage and climb up and saw off a limb of a tree so the truck could back into my driveway. “Now, by contract, truckers just drive the truck. Unloading the
Wisconsin to sell his book. A few were interested, but the largest ones, the ones in the big malls around the area, did not want to give the book any shelf space. As one buyer said the book would never sell because “the Milwaukee Braves don’t even exist anymore.” But then something most fortuitous occurred. Buege had sent a review copy of the book to the Milwaukee Journal sports department. Their assistant sports editor, Karl Svatek, liked the book and wanted to do an interview with him and then write a review of the book. The next day, on what must have been a slow day for sports news, the Journal ran a major feature covering more than half of the front page of the sports section. It included a large picture of Buege posing in a bookstore in front
• 21A
of several shelves filled with the book and a highly complimentary review of the book by Bob Wolf, the retired Milwaukee Braves beat writer. The next day the phone started ringing. Every bookstore in town wanted copies of the book. Buege spent the rest of the summer delivering and shipping cartons of books. Six years later, Buege decided to go through the whole process again and write and publish Eddie Mathews and the National Pastime, a collaborative autobiography that he wrote from interviews with the Braves’ slugging third baseman. “I had always admired Eddie,” he said. “He had agreed to do the foreword of the Braves book, which is how I first got to know him. The day after school was out in 1992, I flew to California and spent three days talking to Eddie and tape recording the conversation. That’s how that project started.” Buege has also written a couple of non-sports related books. One was on the small town of Pine Bluff, Wisconsin, and the other was the history of a meat packing company in Middleton, Wisconsin, the UW Provision Company. In both those cases, Buege was paid for his writing and the cost of the publication of the books was borne by UW Provision president-owner Jim Kalscheur. Buege is currently writing a book about Borchert Field. And although most people probably don’t remember Borchert Field, he says, “I’m writing the book for myself. Borchert Field has a very interesting history. Did you know that Babe Ruth played there three times? Or that Jim Thorpe played both baseball and football there? Or that the Green Bay Packers played eight games there?” Hardcover editions of both The Milwaukee Braves: A Baseball Eulogy and Eddie Mathews and the National Pastime are out of print and may only be found in area libraries; however, Buege still has a limited supply of softcover copies of the Braves book on hand. If you’d like to buy one, send him a check ($13.68 including sales tax) to P.O. Box 210074, Milwaukee, WI 53221. He’ll pay the postage.
2B • 50plus • March 2013
Mark & Margie Wukoman are quite a pair of bowlers By Jack Pearson At 56, Mark and Margie Wukoman of Franklin have loved to bowl virtually all their lives, ever since they were little tots. That affinity for bowling is an attribute that could apply to thousands of other senior keglers, to be sure. But what sets Mark and Margie head and shoulders above all the rest is how exceptionally good they are at the game. In the category of senior bowlers who are husband and wife, they are probably the best in Wisconsin. More, there’s probably not a better pair in the whole U.S. And not just seniors; you’d be hard-pressed to find another married couple, of any age, anywhere, who are better bowlers. Blatant hyperbole you say? It is not at all. Consider just a sampling of what they’ve accomplished. There have been only three 900 series (three consecutive perfect 300 games) ever bowled in Wisconsin and only 21 in the whole U.S. over the past 111 years of competitive bowling. Mark has bowled one of those. And while no woman anywhere has yet rolled a 900, four in the Milwaukee area have reached the same 836 total. One of these women is Margie. Thus, the Wukomans’ combined total for a three-game series (sanctioned and approved) is 1736. According to the National Bowling Congress headquarters in Dallas (which used to be located here), there isn’t another husband and wife in America that it knows of who have attained anywhere close to that total. Mark has maintained a season-long average as high as 239; Marge 221. Do you realize what it takes to have an average like that? Most bowlers would love to have just a single game as high as either of those averages. Can you imagine rolling a 220 game and having your average drop? In 2000, Margie became the 25th female to be inducted into the Wisconsin Women’s Bowling Hall of Fame. She joined such former stars of the game as Jeanie Bopp, Vicki Vukovich, Janie Leszczynski and Carol Miller.
As for the Wisconsin Men’s Bowling Hall of Fame, 31 male bowlers have been inducted, including such famous names as Ned Day, Hank Marino, Dennis Wright, Bob and Wayne Pinkalla, Billy Sixty and Dick Ritger. The Bowling Hall has long had a rule that any inductee had to be at least 65 years of age or deceased. The rule has now been changed to at least 55. It is because of this rule and Mark’s age that he has yet been inducted into the Wisconsin Men’s Bowling Hall of Fame. “So I guess now if someone wants to nominate me, the Hall can have me if they want,” Mark said with a chuckle. Mark has never sought such honors, even though he has been one of the top bowlers in the state for many years and has won scores of tournaments and events. When I told him that I was impressed with his season-long average of 239, he shrugged and said, “Oh, come on. There are many bowlers today who have higher averages. And you can’t compare that kind of an average with averages from 50 years ago. The equipment is so much better today, as are the lanes and the way they are prepared. Everyone’s getting great scores today.” As noted above, Mark is not one to blow his own horn. The one who hangs up all the plaques, awards and newspaper clippings in their spacious rec room of their beautiful home is Margie. She also keeps track of the dates and locations of all their bowling achievements and can rattle them off instantly. They both speak proudly of each other’s many accomplishments. They are very supportive of one another, yet there is a bit of rivalry, too. Back in April of 2006 when Mark rolled his perfect 900, what made him happier than anything else was that he had finally bowled a three game series that totaled higher than hers. “Margie had that 836 series,” Mark said, “and the highest I’d ever managed was an 825. After I had rolled the first two 300 games, the whole place became tense and quiet. It seemed everyone had their eyes on me. Then, after I’d rolled strikes in the first five frames of the
Here are Mark and Margie Wukoman at home in Franklin, two of the best bowlers this state has ever produced. third game, I jumped up in the air a long trip out to a tournament on in glee. Everyone must have thought the West Coast,” Mark said. “I was I’d gone nuts; I still had five frames really beat. It was the last day of to go, and why was I celebrating so league bowling (at the Classic Lanes early? The reason was, known only in Greenfield), and my original into me, that after I had struck in the tentions were to stay home and rest fifth frame, I knew I had enough of and pass it up. But Margie wouldn’t a score to beat Margie’s 836. I was have any part of that. She said she more concerned about that, then the had a sort of feeling that I’d do well, possibility of getting a 900. ” and got me up off my duff. Thank The next day the Milwaukee the Gods of Bowling or whatever Journal ran a story about Mark’s that she did. What happened that 900 on sports page one, right under night was something I’ll never forthe big banner headline “Favre Will get, as long as I live. It was easily Return.” The Favre story was about the highlight of my bowling career, how the great quarterback would and it never would have happened, come back for his 15th consecu- if Margie had not been so insistent.” tive season and how much everyone By the way, Mark has rolled 23 wanted him back. Nowhere in the perfect 300 games, and Margie has story was there a mention of Favre’s five of her own. understudy, a skinny kid named While the 900 was Mark’s most Rodgers. memorable bowling event, Margie Something else about that 900 in bowlers continued on page 3B ’06, “I had just returned home from
March 2013 • 50plus
bowlers continued from page 2B has been named to both the Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Women’s Bowling Halls of Fame. And when asked how she manages to be such a whiz on the lanes, she laughed and said, “Bowling is in my blood. I’ve been at it ever since I was around eight years old, maybe younger. My
grandfather owned a bowling alley (The Highway 41 Bowl on S. 27th St.), and my dad spent so much time teaching me. (Her dad, Art Grandlich, was a pretty fair bowler himself, and was a member of the famed Pinkalla Brothers team.) Even my grandmother and my mom were good bowlers, so some of that had
to have rubbed off on me.” Mark and Margie have cut back on their involvement in the game, each bowling in leagues only twice a week and entering in just a few tournaments. Their careers also take up a good deal of their time. Mark has his painting contracting company that his dad founded, and Margie
• 3B
is the branch manager of the Edward Jones Investment firm in Muskego. They also own the absolute cutest little Ruggles breed dogs you’ve ever seen, Roxy and Chopper, who demand as much free time as Mark and Margie can wrangle.
HUNT FOR YOUR ROOTS WITH GENEALOGY While hunting for the past, be sure to preserve the present for future generations By Chandra Orr Thanks to television shows such as NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” and PBS’ “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” more Americans than ever are on the hunt to discover their roots. With sites such as Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com, amateur genealogists have never had an easier time hunting down details on their ancestors and unearthing hidden family secrets. But what about the future generations? While chronicling your family’s history, keep impeccable notes, verify everything and take some time to record your own life story. Your children’s children will thank you. *Hunting for the Past In the Internet age, even on reputable sites, it pays to be a bit skeptical. Scrutinize the information, even information on popular sites. Don’t blindly accept the information you find online as fact. Check the source of the information, which may be detailed in footnotes or appendices elsewhere on the site. “Because people copy information so freely over the Internet, a mistake in one family tree can quickly propagate through hundreds of other trees,” says Janice M. Sellers, professional genealogist and founder of the blog “Ancestral Discoveries. “What may look like a fact, because it is in so many places, could have started with one person’s error,” Sellers says. Create a file to keep track of your search. Make a list of websites you’ve visited, even if you didn’t find anything there. You’ll thank
yourself later, as you’ll have a goto list to check again and again. Recording each stop on the Internet -- with notes on the information you found -- will make it easier to verify the details you uncover. Even if you have doubt, hold on to the information. “Whoever posted that information may have privately-held family information that isn’t available anywhere else,” explains Corey Oiesen, communications officer for the Association of Professional Genealogists. “Keep that clue and try to prove or disprove it.” *Preserving for the Future While scouring the Internet for details on your forefathers, take some time to create an archive of your own life. In addition to the usual items like birth records, grade cards, diplomas and marriage certificates, a personal archive should include plenty of personal effects that detail your life -- and feel free to get creative. At the top of the list should be rare items and information not available elsewhere, such as personal journals, artwork, treasured mementos and, of course, plenty of photos. “Save as many photographs as possible, and try to identify as much as you can in each photo -- people, locations, dates, events -- and keep that information with the photo,” Sellers says.
“It is far easier to find facts about ancestors in documents such as the census, naturalization files, court documents, etc., than to find photographs -- and if a photograph is not identified, all too quickly anyone who recognizes the individuals will have passed away.” Consider the items you find most fascinating. Are you intrigued by old portraits, travel souvenirs and official documents? Or are handwritten letters and personal journals more your style? Chances are what you find interesting now, future generations will also appreciate. “Think about preserving the items that cannot be obtained elsewhere,” Oiesen says. “Photographs, scrapbooks and personal letters can answer questions that other records cannot. Antiques and jewelry can also give clues about your ancestors’ lives, even their country of origin.”
Include handwritten letters from family and friends, printed emails you’ve sent discussing important events, greeting cards from notable occasions -- even children’s artwork -- and don’t overlook the mundane. A copy of your hometown newspaper, a few grocery receipts or a family calendar may seem mundane, but these everyday items provide valuable glimpses into daily life in the 21st century. Each item in your archive should include the date, your full name and birthday, and the full names of those mentioned with their relation to you so future generations don’t have to guess at the origin.
March 2013 • 50plus
• 5B
Go Red
Luncheon at VMP Friday February 1st
Camilla Bryant
John and Marcia Laux
Beverly Ayers
Dorothy Colburn
Naomie and Jim McCarty
George and Marlene Jaeger
Three generations: Mary Jo Spredemann with grandaughter Jacque Jo and mom Tamara.