One decade wasn’t enough for Mayor Pat, 33 years ago

Around Christmastime of 1984, La Crosse Mayor Pat Zielke launched another re-election campaign.  Zielke was finishing up 10 years in the 6th floor office at City Hall, and sought a new four-year term.  He said he wanted to be remembered for unifying La Crosse, and he was hoping to get a new hotel built downtown…in place of the old Sawyer Auditorium on Vine Street.  
 
Also at City Hall, municipal judge John Perlich was interested in moving next door to the courthouse, as a circuit judge.  La Crosse County was expanding its courts to include a 4th circuit.  Perlich won the April election.
 
Folks in La Crosse couldn’t do their Christmas shopping at Doerflinger’s any more.  The department store at 4th and Main closed its doors in May of ’84 after 103 years in business.  The Doerflinger’s building is still around, and now has a new life as the local home of Duluth Trading Company.  
 
Viterbo hosted a Christmas show featuring popular ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her best-known puppet, Lamb Chop.  And high on the record charts that holiday season was Wham!…with “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go,” 1984, yesterday in La Crosse.