Rose Machmueller

Where did you live before you came to Weston?

I lived in Milwaukee for about forty years.  I originally came from Gerick, WI, which is north of Antigo.  I was born there but I lived in Milwaukee and I worked there also I got married down there and my husband passed away in 1991, he was my first husband. 

What did you do for a living?

I worked at Milwaukee at a high school in the school lunch program.  I didn’t work until my children were in high school so I stayed home with them.  I was just a home mom.  I enjoyed that and that was about it.  And then when I got married to Vilas I retired there and came here.  Then, I was just a housewife.

How has Weston changed since you lived here?

I don’t know, but its has gotten larger and its got a beautiful Schofield avenue now.  The stores are now updated and a lot more businesses.  It’s gotten more exciting, more things to do, more restaurants to go to and Greenheck wasn’t here when I first came here.  Also, the arts downtown.  Everything is just growing and nicer.  The village has grown it use to be uptown when I was in here and then it turned into a village in two years so in that time things started to really picking up

So, what did your husband do for a living?

All his life he worked at the warehouse paper mill.  He started there right after he got out of service; I think it was forty-eight and a half years since he worked there and started I guess from doing very menial jobs like pitching logs into the paper mill then, he got up to management.   He was maintained superintendent for a long time for the mill.  So we were married one year then he retired. That was nice.

Could you share some background knowledge about your husband such as going to war or something?

He joined the navy when he was seventeen and I don’t know exactly what year that was then he came home after the two year from there then he went back there when the Korean conflict came up.  That was when his first time that he got to a big ship and the second time he got on to one was what they called a minesweeper and they had I don’t know what exactly what its called but they put machinery on to the land and picked up troops back and forth.  It was pretty nasty, so he had a lot of action.  I think it was for a year or a year and half that he was in that.  When he came back he went back to work at the warehouse.

Is there anything unique that happens or happened in Weston that you can think of?

Well, there are a lot of things that happens but the most unique was probably when Weston became a village doing things like that and being able to do more and just being a village.  And of course Vilas is always on different committees and so we went to a lot of conventions that I enjoyed a lot like different cities and towns.  One of the nicest things was when we were on a convention and we went to the airport and went to a lot of them around the country and so that was fun.

Well, what types of things do you like to do in the communities?

Well, im just trying to keep up with him. Actually im’ not really involved with the community or anything really but since he passed away I have the apartment to manage and that keeps me busy. There’s always something happening so, luckily I have very good neighbors I have that help me out and a lot of good friends.  So, I can keep going and I like it here and I don’t want to leave I like it here in Weston otherwise I can go back.  I have one daughter in Petaluma, California; it’s about forty miles out of San Francisco in Wine County. Then I got one daughter in Eau Cancowalk and another in Macanicoles so they’re scattered all over.  I don’t know where I would want to go besides to stay here I think umm otherwise I have no relatives except cousins, which that is nice.

What do you think the most exciting memory your husband has had about being a leader in the community?

Well I think one of the major one, the one where he was most excited about was and it was nice to him too that it happened was that they decided to build a hospital here and that has been one of his major major things, major goals and at first he didn’t believe it and then when they investigated further they figured they definitely needed one and now its been three years that its here and as you can see both hospitals are very busy and they needed it, the population has grown in Weston, so so much the schools and I guess people ought to live here.  It’s a growing community so we got wonderful schools and as far as I hear people are happy that way.

Well, since he built or helped build the hospital did he anything to do with DC Everest also?

Well, when they built the high school.  No, it was actually the jr. high; I think he was involved in that.  They were doing the planning and I knew he always talked about this and how they came along with a plan that would cost a soul humongously, too much anyway a couple of his friends and him got together and they found ways to cut corners and I wish I remember the amount that they saved throughout they went.  They chose the brick for the building and everything so; he was very involved in building this one.  And that use to be the high school here.

Well, what did you guys usually do for like hobbies and such?

Well, we enjoyed dancing, we did.  We liked to polka and old time dance, waltz and we liked to travel. We did a lot of cruising we went to all different, we’d be on a cruise and he’d sign up for the next cruise for the following year or two years.  And we did the South American cruise to the Amazon; we went to Alaska; we went to Europe; we were signed up for Russia, the Russian cruise but then we had to cancel it because he passed away then. Lets see where else did we go?  We went to I think about five cruises, that was my favorite.

I think you said that he went to the Korean War before too, do you think you can explain more about that?

I think he worked down in the engine room in the boiler room; I think and was the maintenance person that kept the ship going. That was major, so it was always hot. In the summer time when it went running he said it was very very hot. And in the wintertime it was cold and so, anyway it was very cold out there.

So, were you guys’ married after or before he left to the Korean War?

Well, no, when he went to the Korean War that was when I knew him when we went out together as teenagers and then that was when he went to the Korean War and I lived north to Antigo. So, then I decided to go to Milwaukee to work and I got a good job at Allen Brably.  So, when he came back I decided I wanted to stay in Milwaukee.  He came back to Wausau and went back to work at the Warehouse, and as time went on he got married and I got married down there and then my husband passed away in 1991 between Christmas and New Years.  His wife passed away the following year in August. So, then when he learned about that he started calling.  So, anyways that’s another story and after a couple years we got married and I sold my house down there and moved up here so, I’ve been very happy.

So, did you ever fear that anything would happen to him when he went to war?

I always wrote to him, oh of course.  Yes, he didn’t write too much of the things that were going on that’s why I didn’t really know what was happening and he was just looking forward to coming home and actually getting back to normal again. What he signed up for he did not get, he thought he was going to get his old shift and it wasn’t that way he went to a minesweeper and that was pretty dangerous. 

Well, did you think your husband was a good leader in Weston?

I was proud of him. Yes.

What was the most the thing that made you most proud?

Gosh, I don’t know if I can choose.  Well I got pictures of him with the swimming pool area, the aquatic center.  We got pictures of him, he was very proud of that. And what else? What else happened here? My goodness they got the skateboard park now, which was just recent.  All the buildings that had gone in and they were planning on a big shopping area and everything on highway twenty-nine but that did not happen.  That fell through they worked on that for two years and it was a big disappointment.

So, was your husband basically like an architecture too then?

No, he was actually a type of engineer person but never went to school for it.  Actually he was a realtor he worked with another person he sold houses and land and then he gave that up. And of course he built these apartments he’s got four apartment buildings and he ran that.  He was on all these communities he was on the hospital border and the airport border.

Well, did you help him with anything? Like with ideas on buildings?

Well, he’d come home brainstorming I guess I was just a listener.   I didn’t help much but I would think that he would talk things over.  I think maybe I was a help, I hope I was.  

Did you support him a lot?

Oh, definitely. I loved to go with him.

So, when you moved to Weston with him did you have another job that you took here?

Oh, no I never went back to work this is enough.  He built the garage onto the earth thank goodness because he has too much things. Right now there’s a house down below the hill that is getting finished and that was what he was working on. It wasn’t finished though; they’re having that done so it’s going to be rented in a month or two.  I would say two months.

So, basically he was like the president of Weston?

Yes.

So, was he the president until now?

Right.

Is anyone replacing him?

Well, then Fred Schuster took his place.  Yes, he was on the board so now he decided to, well he wasn’t going to but he decided to fill the term up and not run but he was talked into it which now I’m glad.

Well do you think Weston might change a little bit because of the new president?

Well, I don’t know.  Things are changing so much now in this computer world.  As long as he was around I guess the computers weren’t in as much because he was not, you know being older, paper was sandy here.  So, anyway, I would hope that things would keep moving and hopefully dean would stay, he’s a…he’s a big part of the village, very big and he’s been wonderful in it. 

Was there anything that happened to you guys when you guys were together?

Hmmm…exciting? Well, everything was always fun.  Well, he always said that we went through it once before so we knew what to stay away from; we didn’t do any arguing.  Well, we worked well together.  We were very happy.

Do you still kind of help around the community or are you just relaxing now?

I don’t right now. If I didn’t have the apartments I would get into something but I’m too involved right now.  I was a guardian for Vilas’s cousin and I had to resign from that. She’s in a nursing home.  I just…I just couldn’t do it.

Are you busy with anything now?

Yes!

Do you mind telling about us what you’re doing?

Well right now, I got through with taxes, which was enough, that they needed.  Very very tight.  So every month comes around and if nobody moves out, hopefully no one moves out but if they move out then we got another apartment to clean, repair and that kind of thing and all this.  There’s always something. 

Well, how do you think your life change from back then to now?

Real much.  Very much yes, working at a school, the schools lunch program; my children were close by then.  So, I saw a lot of them but now I don’t.  Well, my middle daughter got married just about I would say a year after her father passed away.  Then, she moved to California so, that was a biggy for me.  We both loved to go visit her.  That was our yearly trip.  We really enjoyed that, we really enjoyed that. 

How old were you two when you first got married?

When we got married? Oh gosh, figure it out.  It’s been umm…in June it would be fourteen and a half to fifteen.  Fifteen years, figure it out, mathematically, we got married in ninety-four.

Did you guys see each other a lot before those years?

No, I didn’t I didn’t see him a lot, I saw him in one wedding.  No, I didn’t see him at all.

Is there anything else you want to add, or any more stories about Vilas?

Well, he has two children that I get a long real well with one lives in Madison and the other lives in the Appleton area and just one grandchild, Eric, he’s going…well actually this week he’s going to be eleven.  I got seven grandchildren he had one.

Did you two ever live in the time where a big even was happening such as world war two?

Well, yeah, I lived in the Depression even.  So, in WWII I was maybe eight/nine years old.  I remember the neighbors, the sun that had to go to service.  I remember a couple of them had got killed in action and things like that, and we had a rationing, when we had you know? Sugar and stuff like that and we couldn’t get.  Well, anyway that was another story.

Well, did your husband live during that time too?

Yes, he was older than I he was two and a half years older than I. 

Did he ever tell you anything about what happened to him?

He talked about when he worked at a store and they had those stamps where people would get so much rationing down. They had coupons and so, he worked at a grocery store; he talked about that a lot.  He delivered the grocery and he was a teenager then.  So, he always worked.  That’s probably why he was such a hard worker.  Now, you have to start working when you’re young to be a good worker.  Yes, that’s my theory.

So, do you think you lived a good life?

Yes.

Do you think your husband did too?

I think so.  He always thought he should’ve stayed in the navy.  That’s what he always said but I don’t think he would’ve been happy.  Yes, my opinion.  I think he would’ve been tired of it for a while cause it seemed like he always wanted to do different things all the time.  Because he went on, he went on to real estate to…what did he do? He did so many things I should’ve wrote them all down.  Yes, so it was just from one thing to another and one big thing he did, I understand but I didn’t see this was, he’d buy all these old cars and there’d be wrecks and some brand new cars that have been in accidents. Some, of his picture you wouldn’t think I’d be a care but he fixed them up and he’d be driven around a brand new car.  He’d buy them from the junkyard and he liked to fix them, you know, do the bodywork.  His son Jeff worked with him.  You’ll see a lot of signs from it from the garage below.   Half the stuff are still in there, I don’t know what to do with them. 

Did either of you two go to college?

No. He went on to, well actually he didn’t even finish high school when he was seventeen he got his diploma through the school.  I’d never finished high school either.  I lived way out in the country.

Was it normal to not finish high school in those days?

In those days that was not uncommon. Now, you can’t get a job without it.  Well, you just didn’t have buses I mean you live fourteen miles out of the city you wouldn’t be able to go to the high school without any buses.  So, that was many years ago. Well you wanted to know hold old I was right? Well I am seventy-seven in June I would be seventy-eight.

When’s your birthday?

In June 25^th 1931

How old is your husband?

He died when he was seventy-nine. So, he would’ve been eighty in the last November.  So, he’s almost eighty.  Yes, his birthday was in November 12^th.

Do you still have any friends such as classmates that you still know?

Oh yes.

Do you still see them once in a while?

Once in a while, I got someone in Antigo and I drive up to see her about a month ago.  Yes, a lot of my friends are in Milwaukee. Everybody moved to Milwaukee from the Antigo area that time because there were no work around there.  Also, it was right after the war so, there were a lot of work in Milwaukee. So, that’s where everybody was.

What do you think is different from Milwaukee and Weston?

Well, it’s quieter. Yes, lots quieter, the traffic is lesser and course I lived on the outskirt so I didn’t have that.  So, anyway they had nice schools where we went to a brand new school the kids have a brand new high school. It was an out lining area the first time I got married and to find a house.

Do you could explain more about yourself?

Well, I don’t know, I love to bake; I love to cook.  When I have company my special thing, when my children come they like spaghetti.  Of course I like to clean the house but it’s a little harder now.  That’s why I have to have help.

How is it living a lone now?

It’s lonely.

What do you do during the day?

Well, I have enough to do believe it or not.  I have a long list like today I have all these jobs, I mean I have to do everything by myself you know? I’ve been running around and whatever there is to do.  It seems like everything I do I have to do it twice. Like I had to run down to the tax person twice.  For the third time I had to go down there already yes, just everything you know?

Did your husband help you out a lot?

Oh yes! Yes, we worked together.

What do you think was the most special memory to you in life?

In my life? Oh gosh. I guess moving up here was the most dramatic.

Was it hard?

Well, it was different, yeah. It was a big decision.

So, most of your family members are up in Milwaukee?

Yes, I just have cousins here. But, as far as moving up here and selling my house, what is the hardest is doing everything by myself, which I always depended on my husband to do everything.  All of it, book work and finances, this is the challenge that I had never had to put up with. The bills, I help pay the bills, I help balance the checkbooks. Things like that but I never had responsibilities.  Everything takes me a little longer.

What do you think your husband’s most special memory was?

I think he loved the navy.  He never had missed a navy reunion. And we went all over the country and I got to know so many people from his group and they’ll call me and they have one coming up in Pittsburg now they sent me an invitation but I wont get to make it.

Well is there a certain age that you have to stop being in the navy?

I don’t know. That’s a good question; actually I don’t think they go for age as much as I think for years.  Maybe thirty years, I have a brother in law that was an army career man and he was in it for thirty-two years I think.  When the Vietnam War came up, he decided he was retiring. He went to another war, but when he retired he was still a younger man because he had to go through the Second World War.  So, that was the way that was. But, I think that’s what Vilas thought he would like to be, a career navy man and seeing the world that way because he loved to travel. He did his share; he traveled lot.  One year I think they went on vacation somewhere.

So, about how many war events did he go to?

Well, actually the only war he went to was the Korean War but the first time, after the second war he went to something they called the cold war.  They were watching the Russians you know? They were watching whatever was going on, patrolling. They were on a big big ship.  Anyway, I think his love was traveling and I never had traveled that much we had, like my first marriage we had a cottage up north, but we did, we went to the cottage every summer and with Vilas we always took a trip somewhere.

Did he go to a lot of business trips?

Oh yes, I guess years ago he was at the mill he did a lot of that but not since we were married, no. It was more or less conventions and he would travel and stuff like that; he’d go to Madison constantly for he would have a peer between the, I don’t know what they call it, the legislature.  Sometimes they were trying to get something’s into the village, like they wanted to make this into a village.  So, he would go down there and they would fight constantly, so he did that a lot. He had a lot of good friends in Madison through that. 

So, is Weston a village or a town?

No, it’s a village not a town. It’s been a village.  Yes, a town as a chairman and a village has a president. A city has a mayor. So, that’s the difference.

Would you prefer the city or here as a village?

Well, its handy here I got everything really handy. 

Do you like a more peaceful place?

Oh, with the road out here? With thirty-five buses going up the road every morning? Yes, that’s the end of my sleep.   Oh, well that doesn’t bother me. Because in Milwaukee I lived down in the corner where there was a busy street too.  It doesn’t matter to me much so, anyway I can’t think of anything else.

Do you have any advices to the students that are attending to D.C Everest?

Well, I think they have a wonderful school and I hear that the teaching there is, what I hear is doing well.  I think the jr. high is the hardest school. Well, I think that it’s hardest because when they get to the high school there’s not much conflict with the students.  At least, that’s what I hear. My husband was of course the replace chief; he’d always here what was going on. So, there were a lot more troubles here than at the high school but, the student should take advantage of everything you got and learn.  Learn your computers also, because I cant handle it. Yes, I have a computer and I can’t run it. Oh, I have a lot of troubles with it and my kids are trying to teach me. People are sending me email and every time I get on it something goes wrong.

So, where do you think you’ll be going on from here in the future?

I haven’t thought that far. Well, no I don’t know.  I’m hoping I can stay and I’m hoping my health holds up so I can stay because this house has a lot of steps. So, anyway it’s a big house to keep up but it’s a nice house. I have enough room when people come visit. My daughter was here just last weekend from Eau Cancowalk.  She has a daughter going into Conserve have you ever heard of that school?  It was on TV that they were having trouble keeping it going. Its up in Land-o-Lakes and she qualified she took a test and qualified; she took a test and she qualified to be in this private school.  So, now they’re trying to close it.  She’s gone there two years now and she’s got one more year to go.  She’s a junior. So, that’s why they were here last weekend. And they went to land-o-lakes, because they were having a meeting there and I’m hoping they will give her one more year to finish up.  So that she’s got good college prep.  She’s learning a lot of languages up there and everything. Actually she’s got a Korean roommate and now she’s learning Korean.

Do you think that back then, when your husband had thought of what he wanted to change is Weston did you think his visions of that came true?

I think so; a lot of it got destroyed.  There was a time when he wasn’t in office I think there was like ten years that he wasn’t in office. That’s when he built his apartments.  Then, things went sort of, his zoning changed which was not good because he went for industrial building and now they just let anything happen.  And so, it was not good.  So, that was what caused a lot of troubles. Anyway, I cant talk too much of what happened then but I do know that after they got to be a village the problems they had because of these rezoning things that they changed was suppose to be that way.  Years and years and years ago they zoned it.  But, they turned around and were different, but I don’t know my areas that well.

Is there anything else that you think we should know?