 My name is George Fridley, and when I was 16 years old, that was back in 1944, I started to drive a truck for Frank Eason's delivery department, worked after school in the candy department and in all drug departments, all kinds of other departments in the city. I stood and I watched there. I did whatever I needed to do, because I was trying to earn enough money to go to college and I was from a family where my father died at an early age, so my mother needed some help from her oldest son. Prangies provided that help and ultimately hired me after my college career to become a buyer in the boys department, and that's a whole other story and I won't bother you with that, but I enjoyed my career there for many, many years and have many great experiences to talk about. Hi, this is Phyllis Smith. I'm here at the Gracie Piscopal Church and this is HC Prangie Day. It's not yours too, you like it, or back in the old days, HC Prangie was the big store. This is part of my collection here. We have over here a hat that was purchased in 1950 for one dollar, including the box. And down in the lower level there was a restaurant and at Christmas time the children were given these as a mask to put over their face, and on the back side is the menu for the children. And today by sheer luck I was going through some of my other things and I ran across this flyer which is celebrating Prangie's 50th Jubilee. And the Marjorie Lee Roth rewrote some of the songs and put them into Prangie lyrics, such as a farmer went to Prangie's store to trade his eggs and butter. He took his busy wife along and also son and daughter. There's several different songs in here. This blue book is the guide for all their employees, teaching them how to act, how to dress, when to take their coffee breaks and their cigarette breaks, and where to take them. This one is signed in the back by Oletta B. Chop, lived at 609 South, 14th in Sheboygan and she worked in the menswear department. But there unfortunately is no date. It's all because the staples have rusted through. And in this bag we have hooks for your hook and eye shoes and these are HC Prangie's. Speaking of shoes, here I have two pairs of ladies high heel shoes. They've been worn but they're still in excellent shape and I don't know if Steve can bring this in but there is the HC Prangie sign printed into the shoe, HC Prangie company, Sheboygan dash Green Bay. And if you were shopping a lot and didn't want to carry your items with you, you could take them or have them sent down to Willcall and they would put it in this wooden box which is collapsible. And when you were about to leave you could go down to Willcall and claim your stuff or if you had too much they would deliver it to your home. This was also used in the grocery department. This is a picture that we have of the HC Prangie company. We believe it's from 1927 or 28. I don't think that Steve could pick it up but there are some very old, old Model T's and Model A's, the latest of the time. And here we have a souvenir, it's a, well it's a stein of a miniature size, compliments of each. HC Prangie company, the big department store, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. And this, this showing is being presented by the Sheboygan County Research Center. Between the research center and the Sheboygan County Museum there's no better place to find the history of Sheboygan. This is Adline Schmidt and my husband Roger Schmidt worked at Prangie. We were married in 1950 and I think he started about a year before that. He worked in the carpeting department and then later on was put into the paint department. I worked there as a teenager when I was in high school and they hired a lot of teens to work Friday nights and Saturdays. So we remember Prangie and of course we had six children and we took our children to see the Christmas windows just the way I did when I was a little girl. I worked here for 42 and a half years. When I started there I worked in the, in the delivery, delivered groceries and the dry goods and then in 1970 they closed the groceries on and then I went to the warehouse and helped there. Got sucked ready for delivery and I also did some of that delivering too with furniture and appliances. Somebody just showed me something that I wanted to share with everybody. Everybody here ever buy a pair of Buster Brown shoes? Let me see it. Oh. Okay. Great. Well, now I'm going to ask for a show of hands if anybody got a Buster Brown comic when they bought, oh man, there's a handout. Did you get those? You too? Wow. My wife and I are going to have a nice talk tonight. I didn't know that you had Buster Brown comic. You too? No. I thought maybe you were hitchhiking and he was going to give you a ride home. I saw your thumb go like that anyway. I just saw these and on the back it shows the types of shoes that if you bought these shoes you got a Buster Brown comic. Now isn't that an incredible value? I also, Vernon, how you doing? I was talking to Vernon a minute ago. You worked there for five, four years? Six years. Six years in the men's department and obviously Vernon had a lot of class. He walked up and said, who fitted you for your suit? And he put me in line just like that. But one of the things that Vernon was talking to me about was that when Pranese had the suits and this is in the late 40s, I think you were saying? Okay. Yeah, so he worked there actually, yeah, 1940 to 46. And I told Vernon, isn't that amazing? We have that in common. He worked there from 40 to 46 and my suit size has gone from 40 to 46 in the past 10 years. So it was great that we could have this bond together, Vernon. But anyway, one of the things he was explaining and I remember seeing one of these when I was a kid and went into Pranese and this was in the 50s, seeing a suit where you bought the coat and it came with a double-sided vest and two pair of pants so you could have any vest. The vest was both sides matched each of the pants. And I know when I was a kid, I dreamt of owning one of those. I think I got it in about 1968. But I also did buy my very first suit ever at Pranese. I'll never forget it. It was a brown herringbone suit and I saw it on the rack, went home and told my dad and my dad said, I'm glad you like it because you'll never be able to afford a suit like that from Pranese. Well I worked and slaved up and my dad put a part and I put a part and I did get this great suit so I didn't get the Buster Brown comic book but I did get that. Who in the room has worked at Pranese? Wow. One more time. Here, get the show of hands. One more time. Show of hands for everybody to work at Pranese. Keep your hand up a minute. He's going around the room and contrary to what you're thinking, this isn't people who want to go to the bathroom, I hope. So anyhow, keep your hand up. Let me know when you're done. What are you doing? Still movie? Okay, thank you. There we go. Just a quick mention on a few things we have. You've seen some of the memorabilia here, all of which has been put together between the research center and the Sheboygan County Museum. We work hand in hand together to keep the history of Sheboygan. The museum is located on the west side of Sheboygan and the historical research center is located on the river in Sheboygan Falls and the research center we have over a million documents that are historic to Sheboygan County and the area and over 500,000 photos. So if you want to go and just to put as an example, I left Sheboygan in 1971 and in 1974 I was living in Chilton. I wanted to get way away from Sheboygan so we moved to Chilton. And for some of you, you can relate because in the old days, driving to Chilton, we planned that for weeks. But anyhow, when I started being involved at the historical research center, one day I thought, I wonder if they have anything on me? So I said, do you have a file for Schwere? And they said, yes, we do. It's over here. And they pulled out the drawer and I pulled out the file. And this would have been, let me think now, nine months ago they pulled the file out, gave me the file and it had Schwere written on it. And I had hoped that Mr. Gurgis back in the corner didn't put any of my high school grades in here before I opened it. But I looked at the file and as I opened the file, this is an example of what the historical research center has. In 1974, my father was killed in an accident in New Holstein. And there was the picture of the tractor my father was killed with and the article in the Sheboygan Press. And I, like I am right now, I was so touched, the one thing I wanted to do was have my children when they come back here, and I have two daughters in Minneapolis and a son in California. When they come back, we have it on the plan next summer for them to come and sit and read the article about where their grandfather went. I want to, that's my story. And if you get the chance and don't get the chance, make the chance. Go to the historical research center, walk in, tell them who you are, and say, hey, you got anything on my family? And you'll find the deepest history available in Sheboygan and currently recognized nationally for the data that is kept here. It's the million documents of the first property sold in the county, the deeds as they've transferred through, pictures of historic things, everything from early races that wrote America and farther back than that. If you get the chance, come out. And then one other way, you can do it to expand what the research center has. If you have historical documents and a history of your family, please call the research center, get a number from at the front desk, call. We are always looking for more material on the history of Sheboygan and Sheboygan County. I want to make a side statement on this. I came back to Sheboygan three and a half years ago after being gone for 36 years. And the one thing that we need to do is keep that history alive because in Sheboygan, one of the things that those of you that live here and live in the county, we take for granted is being a Sheboyganite and what we have. When I got back here after six months, I realized I was sleeping better, living better, smiling more, and enjoying life more. I was in Sheboygan for God's sakes. And that's what Sheboygan is all about. So when you get the chance and you're thinking about what Sheboygan is, look around the room. The people who raise their hands at working at Prangies, those of you sitting here, your children are leading the new generation of Sheboygan. And it's this oneness and the unity and the bonding and the sharing of something like this event that makes that happen. I can go on all night, and some of you probably have heard me speak before and know that I can go on all night. But I want to see, is George Friedley here? George, where are you? There's George. George, would you come on up for a minute? I'm happy to tell you that I had a, I would say close to a miraculous career at the H.C. Prangie Company that started when I was 16. My mother was a widow. She needed help in the family, actually. She said, you're going to get a job somewhere and get to work and start earning your board here and your keep. And Prangies, Mrs. Van Emden, this you ought to know, Mrs. Van Emden lived on the Vowreth Boulevard just a block away from us. And she was what you then called the Personnel Director at the H.C. Prangie Company. And she got me a job driving truck in the delivery department. And that's where I started in 19, let's see, 44. I was 16. And she fairly quickly observed that I was quite a dedicated young man, anxious to work and anxious to earn money to go on to college. And so she began to ask me to do very interesting things. Interesting things, for example, such as opening the store in the summertime before we had air conditioning. And sitting there at the front door, just to be sure that nobody else came in. And that was about 4.30 in the morning, actually. And I worked right straight through till 5.30. And not letting any people come in, but letting the nice, cool, fresh air come in so that the store could benefit from that. And cool off a little bit, because it was hot overnight, because there wasn't air conditioning. Now that's one thing I did. I worked in the Saturday nights in the grocery and cleaned out the rest of the candle open stuff from the freezing areas there. And then scrubbed the floor and did all kinds of wonderful things. And stood night watch if they needed somebody to do that. And it was a great opportunity for me to work at Prangie's. One of the more interesting things that I remember is that when I came home for Easter from my college down in Ohio, they always asked me, Bert Sutter, who was the head of the delivery department, always asked me to deliver the flowers there on Easter, before Easter. Good Friday to Easter. And he said to me one day, he said, you know why I have you deliver the flowers, George? And I said, no, I don't guess I do. He said, well, it's because you know the difference between the flowers. He said, most of the other delivery guys don't. And I don't want him to go to the wrong place. And then he said to me, you don't mind working late, do you, on Saturday? I said, no, I don't. I drove that particular Saturday in number 37, I think was the truck that I used, 135 miles in Sheboygan. Just delivering flowers. Can you imagine that? That tells you a little bit about Prangies. I mean, they sold a wheel of a lot of flowers in those days. So anyway, I was my last year at Heidelberg College. Mrs. Van Emden said to me, have you ever given thought to working as a career at Prangies? And I said, no, I hadn't. Well, do you think you might like to? And I said, well, that sounds pretty nice to me because I don't presently have another job. I did have another interview in Ohio. But one of my good friends got that particular job with Goodyork. So I came home and started to work in the boys' department and be an assistant manager and learn that business. Now, this is a real interesting story that just recently happened. My boss there, the Korean War was going on. And I knew that sooner or later I was probably going to Korea in one way or another. And my boss at the boys' department was a man, a wonderful fellow, who trained me very well for Prangies by the name of Franklin Hart. Do any of you conceivably remember Franklin Hart? Well, I am deeply indebted to Franklin Hart. And believe this or not, in reading the obituaries in the paper of William Press about three weeks ago, I read that Franklin Hart's wife had died at the veterans' home in Western Wisconsin and that he was still living there. And I got the telephone and called Franklin Hart and located him and had a little heart time getting him. But when I finally got him, I said, Frank, do you remember that skinny little Friedley kid? And he said, well, of course I do. And I said, I'm calling you to say hello and to kid you a little bit about those wonderful days at Prangies. And he said, George, I wish I were dead. He's over 90, of course, now. And I said, you do? Well, I said, that's terrible. Well, he said I'm blind. And I just, life is not really much fun anymore. But how nice it is of you to call me and have this visit. And we actually visited for quite a while. And one of the things that he mentioned was my boss at Prangies, well, my bigger boss at Prangies was a man by the name of William Cole. Do any of you remember William Cole, Bill Cole? Of course you do. He later on turned out to be a Rotarian with me. And I called him Bill. But in those days, he was Mr. Cole. And I think his grandfather, Otto Cole, really was one of the founders of the HC Prangie with old HC Prangie himself. So Bill was a big stockholder in the company. And right after, I came to work in the boys' department. But this funny thing happened. He came up to me on the main floor, and he said, George, I think it's about time that you started to wear a hat. And I said, oh, well, why do you think I need a hat? Well, he said, because we sell hats here at Prangies. And he immediately ended that comment with, he said, would you like me to show you what? And I said, it sounds like maybe I would. So I bought my first hat from Bill Cole there in the men's department at Prangies that day. And of course, now I'm glad that I wear them, because I don't have quite as much hair left as I did in those days. And that's another really interesting story about the Prangie company. I'm trying to think of any others. Oh, yes. The most interesting story of all involves a pair of what we used to call in those days in my department, at least, a union suit. It was a full-scale piece of underwear that men and boys wore. And in those days, it was, they were usually 100% wool. And we sold them, and believe it or not, the brand name of those things was Haynes. And you know, Haynes is still a brand that we know today. Well, I had two wonderful ladies working with me in the boys' department. One was Laura Hertziger, and the other one was Mary Roberts. They knew a whole lot more about the boys' department than I ever did, at least. But they were the employees there, and they were very good. And Laura Hertziger called me over one day, and she said, George, I've got a problem here that I can't handle, and that you're gonna have to take over. And I said, oh, well, what is it? And she said, well, I'd like to introduce you to Mrs. Gutrock here. And I said, oh, well, and what is the problem? Well, she said she has this pair of underwear. And she doesn't like it, and she wants to return it. It's fraying. And I looked at this piece of underwear, and when you bought it, it was sort of an ecru color, which most of you know is slightly in the pale yellow. It was not white the way it was when she brought it back. And I said to her, oh, Mrs. Gutrock, I can't, in all honesty, take this pair of underwear back because I said, you've bleached the living daylights out of it. And she said, oh, what makes you think that? And I said, well, it wasn't this color when you bought it. Well, she said, I'll go up and see Karl Prangy. And I said, be my guest. You go up and see Karl Prangy. And I said, I think Mr. Prangy will back me up. So she went up to see Karl Prangy. So the phone rang about 15 minutes later after she'd had her conversation with Karl Prangy. And Karl Prangy called and he said, George. And I said, yes, Mr. Prangy. And he said, Mrs. Gutrock here has this pair of underwear that she says she bought here. And I said, yes, that's right, Mr. Prangy. And I said, she didn't buy it that way, Mr. Prangy. And he said very gently, but very firmly, George, Mrs. Gutrock needs to have her money back. And he said, I understand that you were trying to protect us and that was very nice of you. But he said, you know, the adage is that Prangys, it's not yours, till you like it. Please give her her money back. And then he added in a very interesting tone. He said, I'd rather not call you again about something like this, George. So that tells you a little bit about Prangys and the attitude and the fun that they had. I was sharing with somebody else here, Bob Gurgis. I think maybe it was. That's one other thing you might be interested in knowing and that was that if any of you remember, Prangys sold a lot of eggs. Of course, in that big grocery, they sold all kinds of things. And the eggs were candled by a group of about 25 or 30 women over in the building across the street, which was part of the Prangy garage. And the interesting thing is that the farmers would bring in their eggs as they would bring in their produce and all other things of that sort. And they would get what they called doobills. And instead of getting money, they'd get these doobills. And the doobills said, redeemable, in whatever you wanna buy at Prangys, clothing, whatever, groceries, but and you won't have to pay for it because you'll use the doobills. So it was a really interesting, very positive way of Prangys controlling the lives of people in an interesting way and giving them an opportunity to shop there. And it was another very interesting wrinkle that Prangys had to keep themselves going as long as they did. Now, I think I've said way too much probably, but at least it's a wonderful story and I enjoyed being at Prangys. George, thank you. George, don't go away and I got a question. So how many years was it total that you were at Prangys then? 44 through 52, that would be eight years. And of course I came back, I was going to come back. That's another story after the war. And they wanted me back when I... Move down. When I told Mr. Johnson, who was the general manager, I told him, I said, I think I ought to have a little raise for being in the Navy for two years and giving up two years of my life. And Mr. Johnson said to me, George, at Prangys, we earn our raises. And as it turned out, I took a job with a lever and shoe company and that's where I spent most of the rest of my career. Yeah. Awesome. George, again, thank you so much. George Fridley, one more time, please. I'm Vernon Jayberg. I was a pastor at St. John's in Sheboygan for many years. While I was a student at Mission House, now Lakeland, I worked at Prangys on weekends. I worked in the men's department and sold suits and top coats and overcoats and bathrobes and trousers. We had one suit that I'll never forget. It was for young men. And it had a coat, a vest and two pair of trousers. And one of the trousers was blue gabardine. The other was a tweed and the vest was reversible. So out of that suit, you could make many, many varieties and it was sold at Prangys store. The men's department was an interesting place. The other, the main reason that a lot of people bought suits at Prangys was that we had a wonderful tailor department and Al Klamier, who was from Germany, was the principal tailor and got these suits to fit. Every now and then he would stand behind me when I was selling a suit and shake his head and say, we can't do that one. One weekend, I sold 23 suits and people said some weekends I didn't sell any. But the reason I sold that many suits was that the government passed a rule that they couldn't put cuffs on suits anymore. So people came in and would buy instead of one suit, they would buy two with the cuffs. Well, we sold a lot. But then after a short time, they'd come back with those suits and say, nobody's got cuffs anymore. Take off the cuffs, so that was done. I recall many, many wonderful days working for Prangys. Hi, I'm Mark J. Burke. I worked at Prangys in 1968. First for about eight months, I worked in the young men's shop and a different time substituted in the children's department and in men's clothing. And then that Christmas I was employed for about a month that I worked in the tobacco department of all places. I always enjoyed working there. I graduated from high school. At that time, it was just high school and she was in high school. And very soon after that, I got a job or a position in the Counts Payable at H.C. Prangys Company. And I enjoyed it there. We paid the bills and the people I worked with were very, very nice. And Vi or Viola Zakowski. But at that time I was Viola Stahl. S-T-E-H-L. How many years did you work there? Almost 10. And then I was married and then afterwards I had children. So I quit. Did your children work at Prangys? My daughter Mary sitting there worked at Prangys. This one right there. And what year did you start? 1932. That's a long time ago. Hi there, I'm Mary Pat Gusky and about 1965 I worked at Prangys just at a Christmas vacation because my degree was in fashion and merchandising with the Homex School at UW-Madison. And I worked for two weeks and I spent more with my Prangy discount than I made buying Christmas gifts for my family. So that's my big story of working at Prangys. Prangys is my very first charge account. I don't have a little card anymore but I sure had fun using it. I was two years on team board at Prangys and had lots of fun with all the gals. We did lots of modeling for Prangys. I just shopped and shopped and shopped which is a four letter word you know. And I have lots of fun memories of going to Prangys on Thanksgiving evening to see the windows with my family and it was a lot of good memories. I love the signing annuals that we did at the end of each year. Right on Prangys counters, they just let us do whatever we wanted. And I lived the block away so I spent lots of time there. Denise, you lived the block away too. Yeah, and your mom worked there. Yeah, my mother did work there for many, many years but I remember the decorating the windows at Halloween for UNICEF and signing the annuals. That was always a great time. My mother also worked at Prangys and at that time they didn't use photographs for the advertising. She worked in the advertising department. She was an artist and she hand drew all the fashions every week that went in the Sheboygan press.