Leader-Telegram from Eau Claire, Wisconsin • 8

Brats had slow start at baseball parte "'ihe horrible part is, I don remember the name of that little German butcher. We gave him a lot of business, but he couldn't handle it" because he had only a small meat market, Sperling said, ux.V The Braves went to big producers, "and they began to mass produce the brat and it became would often stop at the concessions stand and buy brats. Visiting ers began asking if they could buy some to take home. "That's the way they began spreading," Sperling said. "The ballplayers became our apostles and began taking them all over.

We would get calls from concessionaires from all over wanting us to ship some out. "I 425 Water SL 835-7625 544 Broadway Menomonie 235-5503 --IS) Hale Town Board offers reward to catch vandals By Jim Daly Regional editor PLEASANTVILLE The Hale Town Board hopes a $500 reward will deter vandals and thieves of highway and street signs. The town is offering $500 to anyone who can furnish names leading to the conviction of those who take or destroy the signs. The board has run advertisements in recent editions of the Whitehall Times and the Ad-Delite, a Strum-based shopper. "I think this is kind of a first," said Town Chairman Carl Koepke, a rural Whitehall "If we have to pay it, well pay -it." Hale is a large Trempealeau County town whose center is midway between Strum and Whitehall.

It includes the unincorporated villages of Elk Creek and Pleasantville. Hale certainly isn't the only community to have its signs wrecked or stolen, but local officials say the amount of the award is unusual. "I've never seen one that high," Trempealeau County Sheriff Noble Kleven said. "It's almost worth your time to sit on the road and said the town board's attorney, John O. Ward of Osseo.

The ads direct anyone with information to contact Ward. Koepke said Ward has been charged with paying the money, then billing the board. The attorney is to keep the names of informants confidential. said this week that no one has contacted him yet. The town board considered a smaller reward but decided a bigger one might produce results.

"I felt that nobody's going to stick their neck out for 50 Koepke said. Koepke believes the lucrative reward might be enough to scare potential thieves away because they may get worried about people watching for crime. While vandalism is a problem, the biggest headache for the board is the theft of named street signs, he said. The town named its roads 10 to 12 years ago and put up name signs four years ago. think we've lost 16 name signs since Christmas," Koepke said.

"A couple of them have been found i we've replaced some of them three, four times." The cost of a new sign and fittings, along with replacing a damaged pole, can exceed $50, he said. "By the time it's all said and done, you got a lot of Koepke said. The worst problems are in the northern part of the town, he said. Both he and Ward assume the culprits are youths. "It goes in streaks," Kleven said.

"Once it's mailboxes, then it's street signs. It's been worse up in that town of Hale now, but it's been in other places, too." Kleven said the removal of traffic signs can be dangerous, as is the prank of switching curve signs to mislead drivers about which way a road will go. "That's serious business," he said. The thieves and vandals work at night, "and nobody sees them," Ihe sheriff said. Koepke said the board may run an ad again later in the summer if the present one doesn't get results.

ANY PAN PIZZA SLICE 99e When you purchase any medium soft drink. Limit one caupon per s1k pa customer per offer. I Not available with Super Slice Expires 42288 '87 Closeouts Repossessions Scratch-n-Dents Used Camcorders! One-of-a-kind! Used TV's VCR's! exhibit planned By Buz Swerkstrom Leader-Telegram correspondent RIVER FALLS Baseball and bratwursts seem to be as natural a combination as movies and popcorn, particularly at Milwaukee County Stadium. But while major league baseball has been around for more than 100 years, bratwurst has been a part of baseball for fewer than 35 years. The person resonsible for bringing bratwurst to major league ballparks is Bill Sperling, who is currently winding up his career as an assistant to the chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Sperling was the assistant concessions manager for the Milwaukee Braves when he made his historic contribution to baseball in the summer of 1954. Having grown up in Iron Ridge, 40 miles northwest of Milwaukee, Sperling was a fan of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers before the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953. Being a big baseball fan, Sperling managed to be in the right place at the right time specifically in Bradenton, the Braves' spring training base to get a job with the club, which was eager to have some Wisconsin employees. afternoon when Sperling was alone in the concessions office' his boss, Earl Yerxa, was in Chicago watching a Braves-Cubs-fame a little man at least 60 ears old walked in and dropped a box on Sperling's paper-covered desk. Using "some beautiful words" Yerxa had taught him, Sperling requested that the man remove the box from his desk.

"I have this sausage," the visitor said, in a thick German accent, s' Sperling told him they had all the concession items they needed. People were always coming in to pitch new food products, most of which were rejected. Yerxa himself tried to push clam dip, which had been successful in Boston, but flopped abysmally in Milwaukee. "Oh, you must look at this," the man insisted. "It is a bratwurst." never heard the word bratwurst, and I'm as German as they come," Sperling said.

"I doubt whether anybody in Wiscon sin had heard the word bratwurst." When Sperling picked up the box to give it back to the man, he saw no grease spots on either his papers or the box, which softened his mood somewhat. He asked the man to show him what he had. The man opened the box and showed him a bratwurst. Sperling told him the sausage wouldn't work at a ballpark because their cooking grills couldn't handle a lot of grease. "I make mine with very lean pork and veal, so you don't have grease," the man countered.

To prove his point, the sausagemaker insisted on cooking one for Sperling right then. Sperling was amazed that practically no grease was left on the grill. Eau Claire Passenger Service Coverage 5.000 q. Ft. Only 1 0.95 622 YTVC Hours: Mory 7 Frl.

8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sul. 8 a.m. 5 p.m- Sunday 1 1 "a.m.

5 p.m. 1 1 2225 Fairfax St 834-8544 ROCKY ROCOCO PIZZA SLICE I ONE ORDER OF GARLIC BREAD MEDIUM DRINK I $2.40 Ljmtt one coupon per pizza per customer Not I I poos 19 conjurtcttoa wim any oner oner- I Not available with Super Slice Expire 42288 2616 E. Lexington (Across from Randall's South) C. IA1 i tdU sialic, 9-6, Sat. 9-5 aa mmmm mmm 1.

1 a a ie PI Touchdown Sports Trade Secret Vision Express mnrs weak Hal's KG Men's Knights Chamber St. Paul Clothiers JEWELRY The Answer Anthony Jewelers Belden Jewelers Golden Chain Gang Goodman Jewelers Lasker's Pierced Ear Bill Sperling Brought brats and baseball together "I got a hotdog bun, and I put the brat in there, and it was absolutely one of the greatest things I ever tasted in my Sperling says. When Sperling learned the Braves could sell bratwursts for the same, price as hamburgers 35 cents -r, he told the sausagemaker they would try them out for a few days. The following day, when the Braves were back home playing in Milwaukee, Sperling had the gnu person in the concession stand just the main gate cook up six bratwursts. "We had a crowd of over 30,000 that day and we sold one brat," Sperling remembers.

"Or maybe it was stolen; I don't know." The next day game attendance was about 40,000 and again only one bratwurst was sold. Jean Osborne, the grill person at the main gate concessions stand, suggested to Sperling that she needed glass in front of her grill so that people could see what was frying. She also told him they needed a different kind of bun. They were Eutting the bratwursts on hotdog uns, and she thought it would be nearly impossible to convince peole that a bratwurst was worth almost tw-jee as much as a hotdog, which sold for 20 cents, when the same type of bun was used. Sperling had glass installed in front of the grill and got some large rye buns with sesame seeds from a bakery.

Osborne, on her own initiative, also made up a tomato sauce sprinkled with green pepper and onions with which to garnish the bratwursts. The next day the six brats cooked were gone within half an hour. The rest is history. Ballplayers, who entered through the main gate, nsr YotforsJurKORS Brauns Casual Corner The Closet The Dahl House The Deb Shop gigi The id Limited Express Maurices Peck and Peck 16 Plus Ups Downs SHOES Athletics North Footlocker It's 0 iTPCi a ai Ijllllina mm HOME ENTERTAINMENT CENTER ft i BUtsajai lllllllllll! 1 11 1 In 1875. Herman Gebhardt of Black River his mother and a brother hand-picked 500 barrels from Jackson County marshes.

Local advertisements solicited for pickers for 25 cents a bushel. Gebhardt recognized an untapped source of income. He was one of a group of wild-berry pickers who banded together at a meeting in August 1887 at Mather in Juneau County. The outcome of the meeting was the organization of the present Wisconsin Cranberry Grower's Association. There are currently 10,000 to 12,000 acres of cranberry marshes the state with 8,000 to 10,000 in production.

water quality study ground-water quality. In the coming months, meetings be in other towns. For more information about water testing, contact the University of Wisconsin-Cooperative Extension Office at 273-3531. Centennial quilt CRANBERRIES from Page 7 A quilt to exhibit," Van Wychen said. The quilt will portray the association's history, including presidents, members, and logos of past and present companies and organizations instrumental in selling and promoting berries.

Wisconsin's cranberry story re-: portedly began when a New Eng-; lander recognized the wild cranberry crop in 1828 and took eight boatloads of the fruit from Green Bay to Galena, 111. Commercial growing of the wild berry was well-established there by 1865, when there were 1,000 acres of improved marshes. Meetings set to discuss ELLSWORTH Town meetings are scheduled Monday through Wednesday to discuss the results of a Pierce County water-quality study During the past year, Pierce County has initiated a study of ground-water quality in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin-River Falls and the Wisconsin Geo- logic and Natural History Survey. The study involved sampling 600 Pierce County wells to analyze them for eight different items, including chlorides, iron, acidity, and Meetings will be at 8:30 p.m. Monday at River Falls Town Hall, 8 p.m.

Tuesday at Clifton Town Hall, and 8:30 p.m.- Wednesday at Oak Grove Town Hall. The meetings will feature a demonstration model of ground-water movement and a discussion of the effect of land-use practices on Cooperative honors Dunn County farmer COLFAX r- Dunn County farmer Ronald Dietsche was honored for his herd's top butterfat production among 21st Century Genetics members at the cooperative's annual meeting March 26 in Shawano. The Dietsche herd of 41 cows was second among Holstein herds milking twice' each day with a roll-- i on i. uig iieiu avciagc vi ttji, puuiius ui butterfat. In addition, Dietsche's herd averaged 20,467 pounds of milk and 682 pounds of protein.

Dietsche, who has been breeding with 21st Century Genetics for 20 of the 33 years he has been in dairy farming, farms 170 acres. in will Bonus Day this Saturday at OAKWOOD MALL! 20 off regularly-priced merchandise! At all participating stores! Open til 9 p.m.! PREVpJT BEFORE IT GERMINATES! Nows the, tune! Apply ferti-lome CRABGRASS PREVENTER plus LAWN FOOD before the soil temperature gets warm enough to germinate thousands of dormant Ciabgrass Seed. SAFE on all types of grasses, new or old. Feeds your lawn at the same time. PARTICIPATING STORES Next Step Red Cross Shoes Tradehome Shoes SPECIALTY Claire's Boutique Comfortables Cooks Office Supply Country Treasures Fannie May 42nd Street Gifts Games by James Master Cuts Now and Then Oakwood Pharmacy One Hour Photo Regis Sterling Optical ATATT I 11 iVIAJLiaU Eau Lime- 50 bags only 99C with Fertilome Fertilizer Purchase for same area FREE use of Spreader with purchase 1 US Hwv 53 Golf Road Claire.

Wisconsin e3i 1 Srsv'SrU- 723-8572.