9MST0202HD_John McGivern's Main Streets 0202 De Pere, Wisconsin_Transcript

- This city in Wisconsin sits on the Fox River, both sides of it.

- Announcer: John McGivern's Main Streets thanks the following underwriters.

- Remember when the American dream was being able to say, "I made that! I built that!" Wouldn't it be great if your kids and grandkids chose a career that provides that kind of pride, with good pay, but without a ton of student loan debt? A four-year degree isn't the only path to success. We need talented people to make and build on Main Streets everywhere. Skilled work isn't a thing of the past. It's a bright future. 
§ I'm on my way § 
§ Oh, it's time to hit the road §
§ I'm on my way § 
§ This is the freedom I live for §

- In southeastern Wisconsin, there's a village... 
§ § 

...with something for everyone. It's everywhere you look. On every street, behind any door you open. And we want to share it with you. You just gotta see Greendale.

- Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Plum Media and the Friends of PBS Wisconsin. Thanks, friends! 
§ 'Cause these are main streets §
§ Something 'bout a hometown speaks to me §
§ There's nowhere else I'd rather be §
§ The heart and soul of community's right here § 
§ On these main streets §

- This is De Pere, Wisconsin on the mighty Fox River. About 25,000 people live in this community, and it's home to St. Norbert College. It is located just south of Green Bay, tucked between Highways 41 and 43, and the Fox River runs right through the middle of town. And, of course, the river was the engine of commerce for this community.

- And the river was the border between two separate cities.

- Hi, Emmy.

- Hi, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

- De Pere was on the east side of the river.

- John: Yeah.

- Emmy: And West De Pere was on the west side.

- John: And then they came together?

- Emmy: No, then West De Pere actually got renamed to the city of Nicolet after Jean Nicolet, the French explorer.

- John: Oh, and then they merged.

- No, one more name change. The city on that west side became the city of West De Pere.

- Come on, Emmy. When did they finally get together?

- Thanks for sticking with us. We made it to that part of the story.

- Oh, good.

- 1890, they merged together to form the De Pere that we know today. So, their fire and their police departments came together.

- John: Came together.

- Their school districts have remained separate. You have the Unified School District of De Pere on the east side, and on the west side, the School District of West De Pere. It's the only city in the state of Wisconsin with two separate school districts.

- John: Is there a rivalry?

- Emmy: Oh, you better believe it.

- John: A good one?

- That story's coming later.

- Go, Redbirds!

- Go, Phantoms!

- Yeah, okay, relax here, Emmy.

- West side!
[gentle music]

- Visitors flock to the river in De Pere, and when I say flock, I mean flock. They're not human; they are pelicans. White American pelicans love the small islands and the sandbars to build nests. And what they really love is to eat. They love to eat fish. And they have figured out that fish love this side of the dam. So what this is, it's like a pelican fast food restaurant. 

And in the winter, they spend their time on the Gulf Coast and in Mexico, and in the summer, they come to De Pere. So, I call them the original snowbirds. Oh, shut up; it was fine.
[upbeat music]

So, you can't stop in De Pere without stopping here.

- I can't.

- No, I know you can't. Can we talk about the history of this place?

- Joe Seroogy: Sure, started in 1899.

- John: Wow.

- My great-grandfather, Richard, started out in the restaurant business. He made a batch of fudge one day, put it out on the counter, sold it for 5 cents apiece, and it sold like crazy. It all started with a batch of fudge, right?
[both laughing]

- John: The product line is huge.

- Joe Seroogy: We have about 243 different varieties of candies that we make.

- Are we gonna make something?

- Oh, yeah.

- And am I gonna make it with you?

- No.
[both laughing]

We keep this area at 62 degrees and 40% humidity year-round.

- What is this?

- This is where we pour our melt-away base. So, it's like pouring cement.

- John: This is one big chocolate bar, mister.

- Joe Seroogy: It sure is.

- John: Do you ever fall in there?

- No, not yet.

- And just go slowly?

- Yep, yep.

- Can I go to the other side now?
[chuckles]

Look at that.

- Our turtles are also very popular.

- Turtles, yeah. Because turtles is a trademark, so you call 'em snappers, but they're the same.

- They are.

- Okay.

- Except they're better.
[both laughing]

- This is Melissa. She is topping the snappers. Do you want me to do it?

- Yes.

- Whoops, ooh, that was a bad one. Melissa!

- What? What is it?

- Not bad, huh?

- No, very good job.

- I'm on a diet, so I'm only gonna have one. Maybe I'll start my diet tomorrow. Toffee?

- That's the oldest recipe we have, 1832 from England. It is the best toffee in the world. Why don't you try one? Go ahead, just...

- Here we have it. This is delicious, yeah.

- There you go.

- I don't think it's so bad for my first tray.

- No, no, no.

- Yeah.

- Wanna do another one or what?

- Are you crazy?
[both laughing]

- Joe Seroogy: I like our maple creams.

- John: When you say it's a cream, what does that mean, really?

- Joe Seroogy: Soft center.

- Soft center.

- Yeah. It's a favorite of people who have difficulty negotiating hard centers, you know. I guess what I'm trying to say is people who have bad teeth, you know.
[John laughing]

- People with bad teeth love the creams. That's hilarious.

- The 25-mile Fox River Recreational Trail is perfect for jogging and biking. Originally, Native Americans made footpaths through the woods to travel between their villages. Then, French explorers built their posts along these trails. In the early 1800s, before Wisconsin was even a state, the trails were used by one mailman, this guy, Alexis Clermont. His job was to pick up the mail in Chicago on foot. He would walk 240 miles. That would take him about a month to get there. And then, he would walk back. I salute you, Mr. Mailman.

- So, you know, there's this beautiful building in downtown De Pere that says C.A. Lawton, which is where I wanted to get into, and this is where they sent me.

- Randall Lawton: Well, you would've been in apartments there now.

- That's what those are, aren't they?

- Yes.

- That is your first home, though, yes? The Lawton Company?

- Randall Lawton: Maybe not the first home, but the first substantial home. The first Lawton that came was, came about 1851.

- John: What's an elevator speech on this company?

- Randall Lawton: We make industrial machinery and components. Components are things like parts for air conditioning systems, parts for rock crushers, parts for paper machines.

- Are you still working full-time for the company?

- No.

- No.

- I retired when Alex came on.

- John: Alex is your son?

- My son, Alex. But now, they don't ask me for much anymore.
[both chuckling]

- This is a multi-generation family business, right? So, I grew up around the business. I went off in, you know, about 20 years ago. But I came home to help briefly, and it stuck. Here in De Pere, we make our own patterns or tooling, and we're in the pattern shop right now.

- John: Size-wise, goes from what to what?

- Alex Lawton: For our foundry, all this tooling or all these patterns support our foundry operation, which makes castings from around 400 or 500 pounds in size.

- John: Okay.

- Alex: Up to 15,000, sometimes 20,000 pound in size. You're gonna take that tool, and it's gonna go over to the foundry, which is very much an assembly operation, right? And you create almost a negative of the part you're trying to make. And then, they're gonna melt metal, looks like lava.
[machinery whirring]

And they're gonna pour that in the cavity and you're gonna create that space.

- John: In this show, we go to all these manufacturers, and it's always my favorite thing to take a walk through. It makes America, these manufacturers.

- I like that play on words. So, I think for a long time, we didn't do a great job supporting businesses like this, and I think there's been a nice turnback in the last 10 or so years. But somebody needs to be making stuff, mining stuff.

- John: Yeah.

- There needs to be something tangible in this economy. And we're trying to be one tiny piece of that pie.

- John: You're terrific.

- The Union Hotel and Restaurant. It's been here a while. It's the oldest continuously running hotel and restaurant in the state of Wisconsin, dating back to the 1860s. 

People lived here. One guest moved in temporarily and wound up staying for 40 years. 

The nightly rate included dinner at the restaurant, which is now a supper club, the very best kind of restaurant. They have amazing relish trays and they still use the recipe from Great-Grandma for their homemade rolls. Of course, you'd stay for 40 years.
[funky music]

- John: How long has it been here?

- This building has been here since 1913, and we've been here since 2000.

- John: When you look back in that, those 20 years, were you naive or did you have pretty well set when you showed up?

- It was a good mix of those.
[both chuckling]

I think you have to be a bit naive to do this. This is the coffee we brought up to roast today. It's the Mexican coffee beans, so, but it doesn't have any of the coffee flavors in it yet. We're gonna bring that out when we roast it.

- John: And how long does a roast take?

- Mark Patel: It'll take about 12 minutes.

- John: Okay.

- And then you can push that and we'll start.

- Go ahead?

- Yep.
[machine whirring]

Now, the heat's off, so we're just letting the beans get to their low temp. You'll see a lot of changes in the color. Now, it's turning brown.

- John: Is it warm?

- It's pretty hot, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Doing this so many years, you don't really feel the end of your fingers as much.
[John laughing]

- Are they all blistered up?

- Mark Patel: And you let 'em out, and that's the finished product. They could be roasted differently, but, essentially, every bean has kind of like a sweet spot that you wanna get to that brings out the best of its characteristics.

- John: Is there a school for coffee roasters?

- It's learn as you go kind of thing.

- It is?

- Yeah. This is a quick version of what's called a cupping.

- John: Cupping.

- Mark Patel: So, we're taking a sample of the two beans that we combine. We're gonna do a coarse grind of these. We're gonna add hot water to the cup. You're gonna see a crust form on top, and then you're gonna be able to move the crust aside, take in the aromas, taste them a little bit.
[Mark slurping]

- Okay, you're serious.

- It's the only way to spread it all the way around your palate and get all those flavors.
[both slurping]

- Completely different. Hit the Road, John McGivern's Main Streets coffee blend. I helped make this, and it is delicious, yeah. Originally, St. Norbert College was located in a few small buildings not too far from here. In its first year, 1898, can you guess how many students attended St. Norbert College?
[playful music]

- The first class at St. Norbert College had four students. A few years later, the college moved into Main Hall. Way more impressive, right? But for a while, this building here was the entire college. Now, St. Norbert has over 1,800 students and sits on 116 acres.
[church organ music]

- We're on the campus of St. Norbert.

- Yes.

- And you're a Norbertine.

- Yes. The Norbertine Order is one of the oldest orders in the world of Catholic priests. We just conclude our 900th Jubilee. So, we were a product from Prémontré, France. And the order grew and grew and grew in Europe.

- And in 1898 is when St. Norbert College opened, yes?

- Exactly.

- John: And not many years after you arrived.

- Fr. James Baraniak: Yes. We arrived in a peninsula in 1893, and then five years later, here, and then, Father Pennings began to teach Latin in what was the rectory. That was the firm foundation, October 10th, 1898.

- And St. Norbert College is the only Norbertine college in--

- Fr. James Baraniak: In the world.

- John: In the world.

- Fr. James Baraniak: In the entire world.

- John: Right here in De Pere, Wisconsin.

- Yes, exactly. This church was literally built by the Kidney Boat Factory here in De Pere.

- John: Is that right?

- Fr. James Baraniak: Where, this is an upside-down boat.

- Oh.

- See this? Here we go.

- John: Yep.

- These windows are all original here.

- John: So, from the original church?

- Fr. James Baraniak: From this original church, yes.

- John: These windows came.

- Fr. James Baraniak: And these windows were. So, these are all priceless windows.

- John: Yeah. At our parish, at Saints Peter and Paul Parish on the east side of Milwaukee.

- Fr. James Baraniak: Yes.

- We face the altar.

- Mm-hmm.

- Take a look.

- Fr. James Baraniak: Yes.

- John: They face each other.

- Yes, you sit here, and John, you sit there. We are eyelash to eyelash.

- Yeah.

- That is reconciliation.

- John: And people do get confused as far as contemplative monk, contemplative priests.

- Fr. James Baraniak: We would say that we are contemplatives in action.

- John: That's, how great is that?

- Fr. James Baraniak: That empowers us to now go out to the hospitals here in the Green Bay area.

- John: Right.

- Fr. James Baraniak: To the other schools, to the parishes, to this college, to our high school.

- John: And you've certainly become fabric of this community. The Norbertines are really important in De Pere.

- Absolutely. The kids that I once taught in high school, I later had their weddings. I baptized their children. I buried their parents. You can't get rid of us.

- Right.

- Fr. James Baraniak: For better or for worse.

- You would expect to see students moving into the dorms. But pro football players? In 1958, the Green Bay Packers started using St. Norbert's dorms as housing for training camp. Vince Lombardi and his epic teams of the '60s walked these sidewalks. The Packers continued to come here for 60 years, the longest such partnership in the NFL.

- The next big thing in De Pere is the Mulva Cultural Center being built right behind me on the river. It'll be the icon of this community. And when it's all said and done, there'll be 75,000 square feet of space for exhibits, classes, performances, and a veterans memorial. Have you ever been inspired by an alley? When we walked in, you were like, "This alley used to be crap."

- Shanna Koltz: It was. So, the city was gonna just improve it, put in some botanicals, things like that. And we saw that they were doing a call for that. And we said, "What about art instead?"

- John: Yeah.

- Naomi Moes: We wanted to gather it into more of an art museum.

- John: Right.

- Like, having art on the walls just like if you're at a café.

- Concept-wise, what did you approach the city with?

- Shanna: This. The businesses had to agree to it. We had to convince them that we could make bees interesting.

- John: Yeah.

- So, this is a combination of photos and paintings. That's actually my husband, okay? And he's not a beekeeper.

- John: And you build and layer these, then?

- I build in layers, lots of layers. And then, the real image is created in Photoshop after I have all the pieces.

- And you need, you had to have one of the queen, didn't you?

- Shanna: Of course. The queen is actually a mannequin.

- Oh, really? Those don't look like mannequin lips, do they?

- No, they don't.

- Naomi Moes: Well, ever since a little girl, I always used to do sculptures and papier-mâché, and then I just like to be big. I don't like to do a tiny thing. So, started working bigger and bigger.

- John: And when this came up and she said bees.

- Naomi: Yep.

- John: Is this what you thought of?

- Naomi: Yeah.

- John: Are they all different or are they all similar?

- Well, so, the bodies that you see are all the same, but the wings and the legs are all different on each one. Flamingo, and so, this part is all mold, and then the head was another mold. Just, it was easier to make a mold than to hand sculpt each one.

- John: Yeah.

- And plus, I can make more if I want, so.

- So, all of these can be, you can make all of these--

- Yes.

- Over again for another alley somewhere else.

- For another alley, right?

- John: Yes.

- Shanna: Just watching the community and their response, that fills us up, you know, and that makes us wanna do more.

- In 1952, De Pere had a moment in the spotlight, a moment to be proud of. And it's because 99% of the population of this community did something. Can you guess what that something was?
[playful music]

- In 1952, the Wisconsin State legislature recognized De Pere as the number one U.S. small city for its voter turnout, 99.7%. Way to go to De Pere! Way to make your voice heard!
[upbeat music]

- We're on the campus of St. Norbert. This is called Ruth's Marketplace.

- I oversee basically all food service on the college. I'm coming outta restaurants and catering, a lot of experience with farm-to-table and local foods and things like that, and we do live cooking. We continue to cook the items as we go. And it's really exciting 'cause the students get really nice, fresh food. To be here and do this and feed this many people, and the quality of food, it's really positive.

- This has been voted number one in college food in the state of Wisconsin.

- Indeed.

- And number four in the country.

- Indeed.

- And the voting public is who?

- Josh Swanson: The students.

- John: The students.

- Josh: So, it's as voted by students. So, that's pretty exciting. You know, we do 2,000-some meals a day between the three meal services. We also feed campus community here and then community from the area can come down here, as well.

- John: And what do you think we should do together today?

- Josh: Wok's really cool 'cause it's really hot, fast cooking.

- John: Oil first?

- You can squirt all around; just get crazy with it. Yep, there we go. That's good.

- And then we got this beef.

- Marinated beef.

- We're gonna go right in the center here. Watch out; it's gonna spit at you a little bit.

- Right?

- Okay, break it up a little bit. Now, you're gonna want to grab 'em and kind of toss it. Oh, yeah, see? Okay, now spread it out to the sides. We're gonna do some broccoli right in there. The students here just love broccoli.

- John: Good. It cooks fast.

- There, we'll get some bamboo in there. And finally, I've got some carrots here. Yeah, get it all mixed together. You want it to have a little crunch. That's got more nutrition for ya.

- Oh, you should have told my mom that.

- And now.

- Oh my, and the smell is terrific. And look how good that looks.

- And that is our Mongolian beef.

- It's delicious. I'm enrolling as a student, just so you know. Many of the communities on the Fox River have a history of paper making, and De Pere is no exception. The Nicolet Paper Mill was founded in 1892, and they make specialty papers, so, papers used in food packaging, in construction, in technical work. But the most specialty paper that I believe that Nicolet Mills makes is this paper that we all know incredibly well. Take a look. It's the paper that houses our Reese's Peanut Butter. This is what they make. It's delicious paper, is what this is.
[upbeat music]

Let's talk about the shop. Let's talk about the mission, how it happened.

- God's Purpose Apparel is an inspirational apparel brand, just motivating people to walk with purpose. So it's educating people in a way, as well, inspiring and educating.

- John: Right.

- Brittany Bell: So, like, even when the pandemic hit, we came out with the Faith over Fear, and it was one of those things like, "Keep going."

- Can we talk about your background? How did it lead you to this?

- So, the background of this really came from my husband. He's a pastor, yep.

- John: He's a pastor?

- And during his childhood, he experienced homelessness.

- John: Yeah.

- And so, he felt like there was inspiration to motivate people through hard times. And so, we started our mission with helping out St. John's Ministries. So, giving back financially by donating 100% of specific apparel items. Love; love is huge. And we often do, like, a collection, and so, trying--

- The love collection.

- Yes. It's love that carries you through.

- John: That's a message that's everlasting right there. Patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

- We can't do 'em all, you know, like, we're striving to get there.

- At least live a few of these today.

- Yeah, right.

- Yeah.

- We actually customize our own shirts as well.

- Oh, that's great.

- So, any saying, they can get.

- So, they walk in and they're like, "Oh, but I'd rather have this, but I don't see it." And you're like, "Come back tomorrow at 2:00."

- Exactly.

- Is that how it works?

- Yeah.

- Oh, that's great.

- Not, maybe not that quick, but.

- No, no, not that quick, okay, not that quick.

- Not that quick. One of the things we pride ourself on is having affordable prices but still quality items, you know?

- John: Nice.

- We want people to be able to get it and spread the message, right?

- John: Yeah.

- Brittany Bell: It's bigger to us; It's more about the impact.

- Emmy Fink: Remember how De Pere has two school districts? So, two high schools, two football teams. Well, in the early '20s, the two teams played each other, and the fans got really out of hand. Fights broke out. The refs had to call the game and send everybody home. They suspended the two schools from any competition for the next 30 years. 

Now, there is a friendly rivalry between east and west, but this definitely is one community. They come together every summer for Celebrate De Pere, a festival commemorating the two sides becoming one.

- Before locks and dams, traveling the Fox River was rough. In fact, French settlers named this Rapids of the Father, Rapides de Pere, which, over time, became De Pere. This is part of a lock system that was built in the mid-1800s and is still in use today. Okay, okay. How many locks are there in the Fox River system, hm?
[playful music]

- There are 17 locks. De Pere is the furthest north, and the system extends down to Lake Winnebago. Thanks to the locks, Wisconsin goods could travel from Lake Winnebago up to Green Bay into the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway and on to anywhere in the world.
[upbeat music]

- John: We're at the most northern lock in the Fox River lock system.

- Bill Vanevenhoven: This treasure is due to the hard work of many historical-minded people who really wanted to keep this preserved.

- John: Yeah, glad they did.

- Bill Vanevenhoven: A lot; we're all glad we did, yeah.

- John: Yeah, so let's talk about these locks. Could you take me through the steps?

- So, we have to fill the chamber, about a turn and a half in a clockwise rotation.

- It's pretty great here on the Fox River, yes?

- It's a very historic system.

- Yes.

- This is the only fully restored, manually operated lock system in the country. So, we're very proud of what we have here, and I'm very anxious to share with others the history here.

- John: Yeah.

- Commerce actually drove the lock system. So, that brings water from this area below the gate into the chamber. This was the Highway 41, you know, of the 1850s and '60s. Just think about it, you know, so this was it. This was your way in then.

- John: Continuous use since the 1800s?

- Bill: Continuous use for this particular lock.

- John: Yeah.

- Bill: Continuous use for the next lock upstream.

- If you're on duty, what do you have to make sure happens?

- If I'm on duty, my first responsibility is to safely get the boats through. And when I see a boat, if I'm having a sandwich in the shack, I have to drop that and--

- John: Wrap it up.

- Bill: The boats are number one, so we gotta get the boat through.

- Lee MAgnuson: After he closed the lower doors, they have to open the valves and let the lock fill up before they open the upstream doors.

- John: Okay; how do you know how to do this?

- Pretty much growing up. Back then, you had to be at least six years old and wear your life jacket all the time before you could take the boat out by yourself, you know.

- John: And were you doing it at six?

- Lee: Oh, yeah.

- John: How's it look so far?

- Lee: Looking good so far.

- John: Does it look?
[both laughing]

- Lee: We haven't hit anything yet.

- John: Do you want me to put my life vest on? Look, Captain, I'm helping.

- Lee: Try not to screw up or we'll have to throw you overboard.

- Bill: So, now we have to lower the water, and the boat is halfway home.

- John: Is there one of these locks along the system that's busier than the other one?

- Bill: This is the busiest one. Yeah, about 60% of our boat traffic comes through this one. That's how we do it.
[upbeat music]

- Emmy, De Pere, it feels like a small town on the verge of really big things. Don't you agree?

- Absolutely. Two downtowns, one city. I love it.

- In unison: De Pere. 
§ There's nowhere else I'd rather be §
§ The heart and soul of community's right here §

- Are you set? Yeah! I used to work the vaudeville circuit. I knew it. I felt the spit.

- I sounded drunk.

- Oh, is that it?

- What else? That was fun.

- Announcer: John McGivern's Main Streets thanks the following underwriters.

- Remember when the American dream was being able to say, "I made that! I built that!" Wouldn't it be great if your kids and grandkids chose a career that provides that kind of pride, with good pay, but without a ton of student loan debt? A four-year degree isn't the only path to success. We need talented people to make and build on Main Streets everywhere. Skilled work isn't a thing of the past. It's a bright future. 
§ I'm on my way § 
§ Oh it's time to hit the road §
§ I'm on my way § 
§ This is the freedom I live for §

- In southeastern Wisconsin, there's a village... 
§ § 
...with something for everyone. It's everywhere you look. On every street, behind any door you open. And we want to share it with you. You just gotta see Greendale.

- Additional funding is provided by the Friends of Plum Media and the Friends of PBS Wisconsin. Thanks, friends!

- There's gotta be a John McGivern's Main Streets candy bar. Don't you think?

- We could name the factory seconds after you.
[both laughing]