Mr. Burke became a Father, 42 years ago

Raymond Burke returned home to La Crosse in the summer of 1975, just after being ordained as a priest in Rome by Pope Paul VI.  Father Burke was 27 years old, and was named associate rector of St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral.  Within 20 years, Burke would become the bishop of the La Crosse Diocese, and later, the archbishop of St. Louis.  Now, he’s a cardinal.

Most people didn’t need to use a wood heater during that August, but Menard’s on the Causeway had them on sale for $209.  A gas range at Menard’s sold for $136.

At the Towne House in La Crescent, you could get ribs or fish on Friday night for only $2.50.  The John Lincoln Trio played country music at the Towne House that August, and the Minnesota Ranch Hands performed at the Red Sails Resort in what an advertisement called “Brices” Prairie.  There were no bands playing at Henry’s Drive-In at 7th and King in La Crosse, now the site of Pizza Doctors.  But Henry’s did sell a half-chicken dinner for $1.59.  Buy a Pepsi with your chicken, and you could keep the Looney Tunes souvenir glass.  That’s all, folks…42 years ago, 1975, yesterday in La Crosse.