Anton Peter (Tony) Milauskas was born 100 years ago today. World War I had ended less than a year earlier. He and his older brother Frank likely saw early signs of prosperity in Chicago as the country recovered from the “war to end all wars”. But their father would tragically die in an elevator accident.
My grandmother remarried and the family moved to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Two new sisters joined the family during the Roaring 20’s, and life, again, must have been idyllic. Until of course, the Great Depression.
Yet life in Sheboygan was not as bad as in the Dust Bowl. The family had a big back yard full of fruit trees, vegetable gardens, chickens, and a smoke house.
Uncles had farms nearby, and lake perch were abundant with only cane poles on the North Pier of Sheboygan’s Harbor on the mighty Lake Michigan.
At the start of World War II, my dad moved to Baltimore, working as a mechanic at the historic Martin Aircraft Company. He then joined the Army and was off to Italy.
He was lucky to survive, came back, got married and had a family. How cool is that? For me, pretty cool, as I am here today.
