Chapter 3: Durand - The Early Years

I grew up in the small west-central Wisconsin city of Durand. It was a farm oriented town with population of just under 2000. 

It doesn’t take long to understand that Durand centered around the farming industry when the No. 1 surname is Bauer. The name Bauer means “farmer” in German. I remember counting the number of Bauer families in the Durand phone book back when I was in high school in the late 1960’s.  164 “Bauers” were listed in the phone book in 1968! Add to that, many of the Bauer’s grew up and large families (5 kids or more) and went on to raise large families.

I went to school through my first six grades at Sacred Heart School located 5 miles east of Durand at a wide spot on County Highway V in the Town of Lima. The Catholic school at the time was grades 1 through 12 with almost two-thirds of students sporting the Bauer surname.  

If you were a “Bauer” or “Brunner” you were officially known by your first, middle, and last name going to school at Lima. I still see, for instance, Mike Brunner on the street.  My mind automatically registers him as Michael J. Brunner. Weird huh?

My sister Sue was eight years ahead of me in school. She graduated from Sacred Heart in 1960. Sue wanted to be a “cowgirl” in grade school but turned her attention to music and band when she entered high school.

Mom and Dad elected to send my sister to Lima instead of Durand because of its renowned music program.

Sacred Heart High School - Lima had an incredible band for a school of less than 100. Robert Bauer was the band director from 1953 to 1961. Susie played flute and piccolo and was greatly inspired by Mr. Bauer. Early in high school my sister decided she wanted to major in music in college. In her junior and senior years she drove to Minneapolis weekly to take advanced lessons.

Sue chose Indiana University to attend college due to its nationally recognized music program. She transferred to the University of Minnesota after her freshman year. 

It was in 1961 that my sister, and three other coeds became the first females to be allowed to be members of the Minnesota Golden Gopher Marching Band. Even though I was only in fourth grade, I remember how cool it was to be able to go to every Gopher home football game at Memorial Stadium that year.

I naturally started my elementary school at Lima as Susie was just a junior when I entered 1^st grade.

Lima’s student enrollment was dominated with kids growing up in farm families. My father was a highly respected asphalt salesman with his territory covering two-thirds of Wisconsin. He made a very good income.

As non-parish members of Holy Rosary Catholic Church – Lima, tuition was required for us Pattison kids to attend school at Lima. Dad not only wrote the tuition check but each year but would purchase new tires for the school’s busses, plus picked up maintenance costs for the busses throughout the year.

In 1960, he and my mom made the decision to build a new house that they exclusively designed. What was intended to be a 2,000 square foot ranch style dwelling ended up as a 5,500 square foot brick home across Highway 10 from the Woods Corner one room school two miles east of Durand.

In those early days we would have people walk into our house thinking they were at Club 10 which was another mile up the highway.

Their was also the rumor that we had a bowling alley in our basement and were taking business away from both Club 10 and the two bowling lanes at Sacred Heart High School

Coming up tomorrow my grade school years at Lima before being asked to leave do to 50+ student classes sizes that the nuns revolted against

Looking back, what I remember most from my six years of elementary school education at Lima was the huge class sizes. Like 50 to 60 students strong in Sister Charity’s 1st grade and Sister Lucentia’s 2nd grade classrooms.

This is really weird, but I remember doing a poor job as a “bluebird” in one afternoon’s reading group. The “bluebird” level meant I was “middle of the pack” in reading skill.

I got flustered after mispronouncing several words and expressed that frustration outwardly. Sister Charity was not amused. She made me sit under her big wooden desk for the remainder of the afternoon. That was after having to write on the blackboard 50 times I will not get mad!

Every school day at Lima began with all students attending mass. One morning in 2^nd grade I remember I got the sniffles - a runny nose.  I didn’t have a Kleenex or hanky and was probably wiping my nose on my shirt sleeve. Sister Lucentia tells me to go over to our classroom and get something to wipe my nose with.  The only thing I could find was an old, dirty rag that was used everyday to clean off the chalkboard.  I remember the elderly nun as I got back to my pew whispering, “Now Thomas, don’t you feel better now?”

Those big classes were not an easy situation for either us students or nuns. By the 6^th grade, the nuns and parents of of many of their own parish’s (Lima) students told Father Wolf that something had to change.

Shortly following my 6^th grade, tuition paying parents were informed to either join the parish or find another school to attend. Those students came primarily from the Durand, Rock Falls, Eau Galle, Arkansaw, Nelson and Pepin areas.

Me and my brother were immediately enrolled in our home parish school, Assumption Catholic School (St. Mary’s) in Durand.

Despite being asked to leave Lima my father continued to make a significant donation to the school each year

My dad raised 2000 roasting chickens each year. He would give 6 to 7 pound chickens as gifts to business associates around the state.

Each Christmas Eve day I would help him fill gunny sacks with frozen chickens. We would deliver them to the priests and nuns at both Lima and St. Mary’s. John Henry never made a “big thing” out of his benevolent deed. To this day those Christmas Eve days with dad remind me of what Christmas should represent.