I know St. Nicholas Day was the sixth, but many people, like us, do "stockings" at Christmas. We often tease about putting coal in the socks of naughty children, but have you even given or received coal? Real coal?

These days one can buy black-colored fake coal candy or gum. This year we bought chocolate wrapped in black celophane that was supposed to represent coal. But not counting charcoal, where would one purchase real coal in Wisconsin? In an antique store?

Even though coal is still the most common substance used to generate electricity in the U.S., it's been a few years since the coal man made his last visit in this neighborhood. It's been many, many years since my company in Milwaukee quit using coal to fire up the boiler, but the boiler is still there - the coal room beside it. And coal! Clean-burning anthracite coal remains right where it was last dumped into the basement many decades ago.

The basement's wood floor still reveals hoof divots from when horses were stabled there. We often wondered what the building had been in it's previous life. Many thought it was a church because of it's arched windows, but I have my doubts.

I bring this all up because my company closed it's Milwaukee location December 8th. My last day in Milwaukee was Tuesday the 23rd. The end of September I heard that we might be moving to Racine in three year's time. The following week it was official - we'd be moving in three months! 

We've been in business for over 90 years and at that location probably 70 or 80 of those. My grandfather started the company and my father worked there long before I got my 22 years in.

How much stuff do you think there was to clear out of the three-story buildings used by this corporation for most of a century, when even coal from the 50s or 60s was never thrown out? Lets just say Miller Compressing and the moving crew were kept very busy.

So now I have to drive 70 miles per day to work in Racine County, but at least I don't have to look for another job. I leave behind a lot of memories but will have plenty of time to think about them in the two or so hours a day of driving. 

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I hope there will always be somewhere to go where they know your name, and I'm not talking about an automated voice reading it off your frequent shopper card. There are few places left where you can pick up your cup where you left it the day before and share conversation and coffee with the butcher behind the meat counter every day at the small mom and pop grocery like my dad used to do in Mercer. Doesn't really matter how big the place is.

Even though Pick 'N Save takes way too much of our money we still like shopping there. Prices are comparatively low, people know us there and we run into people we know there. It's like the small town post office, where conversation is free-flowing and eventually, it seems, you'll bump into everyone. 

P & S does what it can to cut down on aisle clogging conversation. They make narrow aisles (the most popular ones of course) even narrower with free-standing displays. The end result is there isn't room anywhere to even park a cart out of the way. On busy Saturdays you have to wait for traffic to pass before reaching for some things (if they're going to make aisles that narrow they need to make them one-way or have narrower carts).

Even though P & S has installed some self-serve check outs for smaller orders, it's still nice to talk to live checkers who know you. We've know some of the checkers going back 15 years and more. They want to know how everyone is, where my wife is when she's not with me, and they comment on how big the kids are getting (I blame that on them). When we went shopping there yesterday we didn't go to the shortest line, we went to Linda's line. I love kidding with Linda. When she gave us our whopping total I told her to catch this one and I'll get the next. I love her laugh.

They tell Linda and Sally and others not to talk so much, that their lines are too long. But I say their lines are long because people want to wait for checkers that know their names. We did.

Pick 'N Save is running a promo of a $25.00 gift card if we transfer a prescription to their new pharmacy. Don't want it. Walgreens has usually treated us fairly. Went there Friday and the pharmacist called me by name as I approached. There was no waiting. The order was ready and he was efficient and friendly. He could have been extra nice for the survey I could take for a chance to win $3000.00, but maybe the new competition in town is forcing it. Either way, as long as Walgreens continues to take care of us and acts like they know us we'll continue to do business there. 

There is a dingy little hole in the wall at 6th and National in the Walker's Point area of Milwaukee. It's called Coney Island Hotdogs and it's been there since July 1926. My dad used to take me there as a kid. I'd order burnt hotdogs with nothing on them and Dad would order their chili dog chili served in a bowl.

After working in the area for almost 20 years my curiosity finally got the best of me, so I struck up the courage a few years ago to find out if Coney Island was still in business. It was always dark and dirty on the outside, kind of reflecting the street it's on, and because I pack a lunch, I was in no hurry to try it again. But I found out it's still open, 10:30 to 2:00 Tuesday through Saturday, and THE SAME GUY IS RUNNING THE PLACE! Mike bought it in November of 1949 and is still selling hot dogs and hamburgers there -- 57 years now. My first dog I ordered plain and burnt and he didn't get it right, after 30 years, so now I just order with the "works" and they're delicious.

Coney Island is clean, not tidy - I swear some of the same appliances and furniture were around when my dad first brought me there. The menu is a handwritten piece of paper on the wall. You can have a hotdog, hamburger, cheeseburger, chili dog, fries and soda. They used to have floats but discontinued them. They have ketchup and mustard but no pickles.

There's been a lot of talk lately about a different gentleman still working at the age of 91. Mike turns 87 this month. He doesn't have a golden hotdog on the wall but he's as satisfied in his work as the people he feeds.