Excerpts from: “Madison Women Remember”
Anne Bruno, Greenbush, 1916
At camp we had girls who cried every night. They
didn’t like the
food -- they were accustomed to Italian food! They didn’t know
anything about ham, or casseroles, or things like that. The counselors
thought, well, best if they just went home.
But we loved it, my sister and I, most of us did. Camp was where I learned what ham was, and casseroles, and macaroni and cheese.
Rosemary McDermott, Doty, 1925
A strange thing I remember about growing up was Joyce’s Funeral
Parlor on West Washington Avenue. Everybody who died, from the
Fourth Ward, was buried from Joyce’s Funeral Parlor. And the wakes! We
looked forward to going to the funerals because the wakes were so wonderful
afterwards. You went back to somebody’s house and there was
a lot of friendship, and drinking, and food galore! With visitation at
the funeral parlor, there were usually two nights. I was too young to
be left alone so I went to all the wakes—and I could hardly wait
for someone to die. Another party, that’s the way I looked
at it!
Beverly Fosdal, Campus/Downtown, 1942
We played a lot at the Memorial Union. Our goal was to stay away from personnel, so we would go meandering through the little passageways and hallways. We'd be the detectives and we’d pick somebody to be the bad guy, and just follow him around.
Down under the theater area was a warren of little rooms. One time we were down there and we darted in front of a door and somebody said, “Wait a minute. This is the room, Come in here.” We were sure we were caught.
We went in, expecting to be chastised, but the woman said, “You're here for the try-outs, aren't you?" So we said, "Sure," and we tried out and all got parts in “The Pied Piper of Hamlin.” That was the beginning of my acting career.
