Interview

For this project I interviewed my grandparents, John and Kathy Sitkiewitz, who owned the shop.

Audio File:

Transcript

-What years did you own the shop?

We moved up, bought the shop in October of 1978 and we sold the shop in spring of 2001.

-Who owned the shop before you and what did they do?

Chet and Arlie Dumask and they ran it as the same type of business as we did.  

Chet was a trapper.

-What services did you provide to the community?

We were a retail hardware and sporting goods store, sold bait - mostly fishing tack.  Stored boats, fixed Lund and Alumacraft boats and later on Mirrocraft, fixed Evinrude outboards.

-What was the infrastructure like in the area?

There were more businesses when we came up.  There were 2 gas stations both with service bays, two taverns, a grocery store, there were two gift shops, a cafe, a laundromat and a newspaper, the newspaper was the Walleye Street Journal.  There was no bank - that came later.  There were more supper clubs at that time.  Tom Forster ran the newspaper.

-Were there any tourist attractions?

Not really.  Boulder Junction had Aqualand.  Aqualand was like a Jim Peck’s zoo, they had goats and ponds with muskies - small animals.  I don’t think they had anything exotic.  It was out on K, just out from Boulder Junction, headed towards Sayner.  Just the outdoors sporting stuff really.

-What did you do for fun?

We did fishing, camping, mostly we worked.  We had snowmobiles and we did a lot of snowmobiling.  Grandpa worked at the ski lodge.

-Where did you get groceries?

We bought mostly, we had a Red Owl store in town and we bought mostly from there.  But then we went to Ironwood and Minocqua a lot, monthly basis.  Not weekly like we would now.

-How did you get the supplies to sell in your shop?

Well, our hardware stuff came from F.O.K. hardware.  They had the sales people come and take an order and then they’d ship it.  You had a distributor and then the salesman would come.  We ordered and they’d come once in a while to resolve problems.

-Were there more younger families or older people?

Originally it was a better mix than it is now.  I think there were more people with kids, like Andy’s age, and Patsy’s age, than today, but now all those people have gotten old.  North Lakeland was the school because when we first moved up, one of the first things we did was go to Kornstalk Karnival and came home and were met by police because there were walkaways at the Minimum Security Prison 5 miles up the road possibly hiding out on our property.  It’s gone now.  We wondered “what did we move up here for?" (joking) We had walkaways in our yard at least three times. 

-Were there other businesses like yours?

Not at the time.  Boulder Junction was the closest and then in later years Johnny Tech opened his little one across from the cemetery.

-What was the education system like?

The education system is the same as it was then.  Kids went to NLS and then to LUHS.  Before NLS there was a school up the hill in town, across from the current bank.  It was built by the CCC during the depression.  Prior to that it was a joint school in Marenisco or Mercer, like the Weber family (attended).  There was also a CCC built school that was closed when I was a kid in the 1960’s they had dances so we used to go when I was a kid.  The one in town was very big and when it was closed as a school the gym was used, and the upstairs was offices and the Irma Stein Library.  

-What was the health system like?

At one point in about the early 80’s they did open a Marshfield Clinic and they brought a trailer up.  Nils Olson was the doctor.  Maybe it wasn’t Nils - maybe I got that from Little House on the Prairie (laughter).  It didn’t last very long. 

-What was the area like before you bought the shop?

We moved up here because Grandma and Grandpa Judd had their second home here and to be perfectly honest, Grandpa had a big payout from being moved so he had money that he had to invest.  So he asked if we would want to do that because Grandpa (John) was a machinist, but that factory closed.  He didn’t like his job so the opportunity to come up (was appealing).  

-Tell me about the Boy Scouts who went by in the canoes.

K: Well when I was a little girl and we’d come up in the summer there wasn’t a lot of entertainment aside from climbing trees.  But the boy scouts came in their canoes and they would camp on Bill’s Island on Armour Lake.  So when Grandma and Grandpa would see the Boy Scouts coming down the creek they’d send us down to get water.  We met quite a few Boy Scouts.  When we were kids and Grandpa bought his property, that was first sectioned off and it was just a logging road.  We had no electricity so when Grandpa was building we had to camp.  By the Yacht Club, which used to be the PI Pub, they cut ice out of the lakes and they’d put it in there covered with sawdust, so you’d say "I need a block of ice from the cooler."  The Sportsmans was on top of the hill and later moved into the current Yacht Club (present day PI Pub).  So you’d go in and buy your ice, and we’d take milk jugs from Grandpa Judd's farm and we’d go to Horsehead Lake along the side of the road, there was a natural spring and we’d fill up the milk jugs with the water we’d use for camping.  I don’t know if they closed the spring down.  

-Did the Cold War ever affect you?

Not that I’m aware of.  We were pretty sheltered.

--What world events affected your everyday life?

When Mt. St. Helen erupted.  It was really hazy.  When gas prices went up it affected us.  You forget those things because that becomes the norm or it goes back to normal.

-How did you learn the news?

We did have antenna TV, so we had channel 12.  That was the only station we could get for the most part.  Radio.  I don’t think we got a newspaper….The Walleye Street Journal!  I think we used to get a Sunday paper every week.

-What other interesting information do you know about the Presque Isle town history?

The town hall history is pretty cool.  They had to go through all sorts of stuff to tear it down because it was a historical building.  It had to be taken off the register.  Just the fact that there used to be so many gift shops, a cafe, a clinic, a pizza shop, and the town just can’t support anything like that anymore.  There were a lot more business, and I think the main reason it can’t do that anymore - when we first bought the store people would come up for their week or two vacation and they’d come into town and get their license and stuff and go to their cabin.  They had no interest in doing anything else.  In today’s world they have no problem driving to MInocqua and picking up what they need.  It’s a whole different mindset that way.  The DNR and the rearing ponds were also a large operation.