Algoma, World War ll & Billie the Brownie

 

WPR’s Larry Meiller hosted Santa on his show today. Kids from Wisconsin, and some from Iowa, got to share their Christmas wish lists and learn something about Rudolph and the other reindeer waiting on the roof of  Vilas Hall. The kids learned Santa loves cookies, although after the first 200 or so, he slows down a bit. And everything was right on schedule at the North Pole.

Santa never ages and was on the radio 80 or so years ago when the world was a vastly different place. It was World War ll.

Our living room seemed so dark when Mom settled me on her lap to listen to Billie the Brownie on WTMJ radio. Our drapes were pulled over the shades that were always lowered at night. Algoma had its first practice World War ll blackout in mid-August 1942, an event mandated in Kewaunee County. Practicing or not, the shades were pulled.

We were far from Milwaukee, but the airwaves traveled up Lake Michigan’s shore to the Peninsula where I, and so many children, waited for Santa and Billie the Brownie. It was the early days of World War ll, a time when I have far more memories of Billie than I do of of my dad. Blind as a bat without his glasses, he was rejected for military service, however he worked long hours, even on Saturday, superintending boat hulls, airplane wings and noses. I was in bed when Dad left for work and sleeping by the time he got home.

The radio cracked as Mom tuned in WTMJ while she put me on her lap, settling into Dad’s Rock ‘n Ez next to the radio. Then Santa! His “ho-ho-ho,” Billie’s high squeaky voice, and the Christmas letters remain with me today. Also remaining with me is the man whose voice scared me and frightened me years later.

We got our TV in 1953. One 1959 summer evening I turned on the black and white set to see a man sitting in what appeared to be a leather chair while smoke was rising from the cigarette in his hand. I heard that voice and froze. It was that voice, the one that said, “This is London.” When I asked Mom about it, she told me the man was Edward Murrow, a news correspondent who broadcast during the war. How did I know that voice? Mom said she listened to the news while she waited for Dad to come home. I thought the man had something to do with Billie the Brownie, but the news was on after.

Several years ago, I was on the highway listening to public radio when I heard the name Gabriel Heatter. What kid forgets a name like that? Billie the Brownie popped into my mind. Mom said Gabriel Heatter was another newsman we heard on WTMJ.

We all have Christmas memories. Some are good. Some are not. In all my memories, Christmas brings warm thoughts of WTMJ, Santa, Billie and a little barking dog. Those memories are right next to those where a voice and a name frightened a little kid snuggled into her anxious mom’s tensed arms during the dark days World War ll.

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A comment: Within recent weeks TMJ4 carried the story of Billie the Brownie being unveiled in the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame. To find out more about Billie, just Google. Be aware - pictures of Billie are not what our minds envisioned during the broadcasts.