The Boys Of Burleigh

By Scott Eggert

"The Boys Of Burleigh" is a book about a group of kids growing up in a middle class neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They were young, restless, and out of control. The story starts in 1956 to present and beyond. It could be compared to The Outsiders on steroids. They went from hoods to bikers and now old retired wise-guys. I self-published 100 books and signed them. All reviews were 5 stars. This book will make you laugh, cry, and laugh some more. Warning: there is strong language. The names were changed to protect the guilty. There is another book in the works.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Eggert
• Release date: Mar 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463925478

Scott Eggert

I was born in 1956. I lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin most of my life. I started life out as an innocent lad. As I got older, I became half a wise-guy, and then a biker. I am now retired, and enjoy being an artist. I am 64 years old, and a cancer survivor. I still hang out with the guys and girls from back in the day. We will always be wiseguys.

Book preview

The Boys of Burleigh

By: Scott (bigE) Eggert

Copyright 2019

Author: Scott B. Eggert

Copyright 2019 Scott B. Eggert

TXu2-153-485

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including Photocopying, recording, or electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to publisher, addressed Attention: Publisher, at the address below. Acknowledgement- Diggy Pod

Any references to historical events, real people, or groups are used fictitiously. Names and characters are products of the author’s imagination.

First printing edition 2019

This edition: Extended 2021

Publisher Scott B. Eggert

W129N6845 Northfield Drive

Menomonee Falls Wisconsin

[e-mail]

Table of contents

Forward

Prelude

Chapter One…Woodland Place

Chapter Two… 85th Street

Chapter Three… Eagle Springs

Chapter Four… Booth Lake

Chapter Five… Wilbur Wright

Chapter Six… Tenth Grade

Chapter Seven… Florida

Chapter Eight… Milwaukee Revisited

Chapter Nine… Florida Revisited

Chapter Ten… Sweet Home Milwaukee

Chapter Eleven… Incarceration

Chapter Twelve… Free at last, free at last

Chapter Thirteen… The Crib

Chapter Fourteen… Walnut

Chapter Fifteen… The Farm

Chapter Sixteen… Sunset Drive Part One

Chapter Seventeen… Sunset Drive Part Two

Chapter Eighteen… The Outer Limits M.C.

Chapter Nineteen… The Greek Girl

Chapter Twenty… Dee

Chapter Twenty One… Mending Fences

Chapter Twenty Two… 2020

Chapter Twenty Three… Conclusion

Forward

Moving forward in this book you will need to understand that this is not a fancy or flowery worded book. You must decide if this book is fact or fiction. We always said that no one is going to believe our stories. Picture me grabbing you by the throat and telling you, This is real.

My inspiration to write a book I owe to my late uncle Jim Kjelgaard who authored several books.

The names have been changed to protect the guilty. The order in which the events happened may not be correct as the writer is going off of an aging memory.

The book had many challenges for me. I quit writing when I got to the death of my brother as it had open old wounds. It took a few years to get back to writing. I had a few computer failures and had to rewrite a couple of lost chapters. A lot of time and thought went into this and…

I am very proud to present:

The Boys of Burleigh

Prelude

It was a warm and slightly breezy evening. A hint or barbecue was in the air. A throaty sound of a high performance V8 approaches the intersection of eighty- sixth and Burleigh streets here in Milwaukee. An older man exits his classic car. First one foot and then another. In his hand is a large coffee can. He walks halfway across the busy Burleigh Street and stops on the median strip of the four lane road. With his hands trembling, he pours a gray powder out of the coffee can onto the grass. He pauses and weeps, I love you brother. He returns to his car and the car muscles down the road. The passing cars on Burleigh Street kick the powder up into the air like a tornado. The breeze then carries the powder east, then north, and then south and finally west until the powder is no more.

Chapter One

Woodland Place

I was born in May of 1956 at Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I wish I could tell you it was a bright, beautiful day, but I don't remember. I was one of three brothers and one sister. I was told that I was born with dark skin tone and a full head of curly hair. My mother was hemorrhaging before and during birth. A lack of oxygen was probably responsible for the dark skin tone. It seems my mother was doing yard work prior to my birth. My Mom was laying sod at our home in Brookfield, Wisconsin. To save money my parents laid their own sod. I am sure my mother started laying the sod just prior to my dad getting home from work. My dad would get home from work and have to work on the lawn as soon as he got home. I think my mom liked to see my dad keep busy and never have much time to just relax. We lived in a ranch style house with a big yard and a huge field butted up to our back yard. There was a pond at the north end of the field where my brother Lee would fish and torture turtles and such.

One of my first memories was of my mom taking a sledge hammer to a wall to make a breezeway from the house to the garage. I remember this too was done just prior to my dad getting home from work. I can still remember the look on his face when he got home. My dad got right to work on the breezeway though. I don't know how many days he worked on it because at age three, one has no concept of time. I do know that after it was finished my dad agreed it was a good idea. As I look back projects like this were common place in our home.

Around this same age I can remember playing with some young boy down the block. I remember shooting a rock at the young lad and later having to apologize for the huge egg I put on his forehead. I can remember my mother telling the boy's mother that we were both throwing rocks at one another. I am sure that was done to insure that no money would be collected for the incident.

Our parents used to take us to Lac la Belle for an afternoon swim. The play area had one of those round wooden sit and spins that would hold several children at a time. You could spin it around as fast as you could make it go. Of course we would see how fast we could get it spinning and then get off swaying and stumbling around from the dizziness. One time I was standing in the water with my mother and a small wave knocked me down. I can still remember lying under the water with bubbles streaming out of my wide open mouth, as I laughed under the water. Looking up and hearing the muffled sound of splashing and yelling until I was finally noticed. At the end of the day we would all pile into the car and head home.

There was a little girl across the street that I used to play with all the time. I remember the families last name, but for some reason I do not remember the young girls first name. I probably got along with her because I remember getting my older sisters hand me down toys. Such toys as dolls, tea cup sets, and a full set of toy kitchen appliances that were kept in the basement.

I can remember very vividly, hearing a commotion down in the basement between my oldest sister and my mother. From this moment on we will refer to my mother as mommy dearest. Mommy dearest was sitting on my sister’s chest with a butcher knife pressed to my sister’s throat. It turns out that my sister had soiled a pair of underwear and tried to hide it in our toy chest. Note to all parents of young girls: please take the time to explain their first period before the young girls have it.

Besides my sister, I have two brothers. Brother Lee was three years older than me. Brother Chris is two years older than me. I am not sure how much older my sister was than me because I do not remember too much about her. I will venture a guess of about ten years older than me.

I can remember that when my parents left to go shopping, they would put my sister in charge. My sister would send us boys out to play. This was no punishment, as we boys would rather be outside getting into mischief and such. Brother Lee, who was always cooking something up, took the ladder out of the garage and climbed up on the roof. Lee proceeded to stomp around on the roof until my sister came out and told him to get down. My sister then went back in the house. My brother Chris and I hid behind some bushes and snorted and laughed as this went on for about a half an hour. Each time my sister would come out and threaten to tell mom and dad. She really could not tell mom and dad as we would then tell mom and dad that she had locked us out of the house. Each time my sister came out, my brother Chris and I would put our hands over our mouths to try not to laugh out load. With bubbles of snot flowing out of Brother Chris's nose and my stomach aching from holding in the laughter, my sister finally climbed up the ladder to get Brother Lee. Lee took this opportunity to jump off the roof on the other side of the house. Lee than ran around the house and pulled the ladder down. This stranded my sister up on the roof while brother lee taunted her and Brother Chris and I giggled until we were blue. After a promise from my sister, not to tell on us, Brother Lee put the ladder back up and let my sister down. We then ran like hell until we were sure that our sister was not pursuing us. Well our sister locked us out again. Brother Lee came up with plan B. Plan B was for me to knock on the door and tell my sister that I had to go to the bath room. My sister was not buying into that. My sister told me to go in a bush. Brother Lee suggested plan C. Plan C was for me to knock on the door and tell my sister that I had to go poop. After a while of knocking, my sister finally came to the door and I proceeded to tell her I had to go poop. My sister told me to tell my brothers she will not let me in. Now keep in mind, no one really wanted to go

inside. It was all planed to irritate our sister. However at four years old I had it in my mind now that I had a right to be let in to go poop. So I beat on that back door window until the window broke. I don't remember cutting my hand or anything, but I do remember my brothers and I were sent to bed by mom and dad. As it turned dark, I can remember Brother Lee crawling into my bedroom to sneak up on me and scare me. I'm only four years old and I knew he was crawling on the floor in my bedroom to sneak up on me and scare me. So I peek over the bed to bust him he jumps up to scare me and pokes me in the eye. I hear my dad yell, what's going on in there, you are supposed to be in bed. Brother Lee whips back to his bed room and mommy dearest comes to check up on me. Mommy dearest wants to know why I have tears in my eyes. I tell mommy dearest that I poked myself in the eye with my pillow. Mommy dearest is heard telling dad that I poked myself in the eye. Dad was not buying into that and exclaimed, don't let me catch you guys out of bed again. That was a sure telling tale that dad was young once too.

One of the poor and unfortunate neighbors that we lived next door to had grandpa living with them. I can remember on many occasions antagonizing the old guy. Once again Brother Lee had my brother Chris and I involved in a plot to drive this elderly gent absolutely nuts. Our back yards had a long steep hill traveling down to a field. Lee would have us lie on the hill, out of line of sight, and yell things to this elderly man who would nightly water the flowers and plants around their home. Being that this grandpa next door was hard of hearing, we would yell such pleasantries as hey old fart, over here you deaf fucker". Well this old grandpa would look around and around, but could never tell where the voices were coming from. As usual, brother Chris and I would press our mouths into are hands and try not to split a gut laughing. The more that Brother Chris and I tried to maintain our laughter and giggling the more Brother Lee would try to antagonize the old guy. This went on weekly when we were bored.

Brother Lee and Chris and their friends had built a fort in the field behind our subdivision. This fort was about a block east of our house. It was well situated so that it was well out of the view of our parents. It was made of wood and roofing shingles procured from the building of another new home going up in the neighborhood. Being the youngest brother I was only privy to visit the fort but one time. Most of the time when I approached the fort, I was chased off by my older brothers and their friends. It seems to me I remember seeing smoke coming from the fort and that is what caught my curiosity. Well one day I remember the field going up in flames and the fire department called in to put out the fire. I remember the look on my dad's face when he came home from work and saw the fire trucks. He just gave Brother Lee and Chris the evil eye. The police tore it down. I remember the story was on the news and the police thought some vagrant was living there and had started the fire. Our whole family was watching the news. This was the second time I saw my dad give my brothers the evil eye. This was just one of the many times that fires were started by the brothers.

It wasn't much longer after that first fire that we brothers were playing with farmers matches while raking leaves into our garden. We were throwing matches at each other and the dried up weeds started on fire. Yes, we thought it was funny until a wind came up and the fire went out of control. Dad came running out of the house in panic. Unfortunately the fire was out of control and the fire department came out to once again put the fire out in the field. Our dad took the heat for the fire at the time. He told the fire department he was burning leaves and thought the fire was out and it must have started again. After the fire department and neighbors all left, was the third time I saw my dad give my brothers the evil eye. Of course I was too young to be thought of being involved, and my brothers kept their mouths shut because they would have been in more trouble for letting a four year old play with matches. From that point on us brothers never ratted on one another.

One evening my father had fallen down the basement steps and lay there for some time. Now I never quite understood why people find such humor in seeing someone else getting hurt but I do know my brothers and I stood upstairs giggling while my father lay at the bottom of the stairs. To this day I feel bad about that.

Our mother used to give us all haircuts with electric hair clippers. The sound you never wanted to hear was that of the clippers getting stuck in your hair. The other scary thing you did not want to hear was our mother asking our father to cut our hair. Sometimes our dad would wear his most worn