Part Two of the Folks that made Milwaukee Famous for me

 Besides Radio there was another major portion of my life in Milwaukee.   

The Braves of Boston moved to Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Braves.

When we moved to that duplex on Martha Washington Drive I found a great lifelong friend in a close neighbor, two doors away.  Her name was Lois Jean Proulx.  I don't think even the nuns at her all girls Catholic High School, Divine Savior, ever called her anything but Bunkie.  It was an appellation gifted by her brother who couldn't say pumpkin.  Ongoing aside, we are still friends today and she and her husband Bob have been here for a visit.

Anyway, between my house and hers was another duplex.  In the baseball season it was occupied by a couple of Milwaukee Braves pitchers, Lew Burdette and Warren Spahn.  Bunkie'd already been baby sitting for their kids.  The Burdettes moved to a house but the Spahn's remained our neighbor.  To say we became Braves fanatics would be an understatement.  Our landlord had an office up on Milwaukee Avenue and if we mopped all the floors in it we got free baseball tickets.  And if we hurried and were waiting outside when said left hander headed to the ballpark we even got a ride.

Beyond that my folks and the Spahns became friends.  They stopped to visit at the Spahn ranch in Hartshorn Oklahoma on their first trip down to Texas to visit us.

And when Warren played one of his last Old Timers games in the Astrodome I shouted down and invited him to the house for barbecue.  Son Currie and his wife were there along with her folks, George and Jaca McLaren and my baseball kid, Kathy. To say that everyone, but especially the guys were thrilled to be eating with and meeting the Winningest Left Hander in baseball would be an understatement.  I called Mom in Lordsburg and asked if she knew ... winningest left etc. She said yes and I said "say hello." They chatted about old times and current health.

What I neglected to mention was that the Spahn's duplex and ours shared a driveway to two garages.  So when another Brave of note happened to park in "our" driveway and I needed to get out of the garage I would knock on their door and ask Eddie Matthews or Hank Aaron to please move his car!

In the winter most ballplayers went home.  But some stayed for other work, school or reasons.  So the winter next door neighbors were Ernie and Lois Johnson, he was a relief pitcher for the Braves and she was a beautiful friendly mom of two fun little girls, Dawn and Kristie. They really liked living in Milwaukee so after a couple of years they bought a beautiful home and had one more kid,   I babysat the girls for years and eventually the new guy too.  You've seen him on TV, he does sports coverage for various all sports channels, His name is Ernie Johnson, Jr.

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