No serious outbreak of cobblestones then.
The famous and best Waukesha popcorn when I was a grade-schooler in the 1940's came from Hyde's Popcorn Stand at White Rock Ave and W. Main Street across from St. Matthias Episcopal Church and the old court house, now the Waukesha Historical Museum.
Long torn-down for 'progress', it was an unassuming store, as the photos show. Whoever decided to put the "Get Right" road sign pointing to Hyde's was onto something, for the marvelous fresh roughage, cooked in whatever magic oil Mr. Hyde historically used - and by request would pour over the corn once sacked (it wan't butter), set you RIGHT WITH THE WORLD after the first cramming mouthful. Friend Joe thinks it was lard?
I'd like to see someone resurrect a Hyde's popcorn stand downtown today. Lard (Fat) Chance. Times change, and I guess with them their demands. A mere, and askew, lean-to shed like that with a coal stove roughly chimneyed through the roof would run into just a few current building restrictions. And the business improvement image-builders would demand conforming changes in the spartan affect overall.
The earliest anyone I know can remember, Hyde's was in business at least in the 1930s, because friend Joe remembers what a treat it was to go down a half block from his White Rock School and get a snappy white sack of corn, with or w/o a cover, from Mr and Mrs Hyde, who ran the small stand. There wasn't much room TO stand at tiny Hyde's. The history is sketchy if non-existent. No one thusfar has uncovered any augmenting marks on Hyde's in the public records. It is well-remembered by some nonetheless.
photo courtesy of John Schoenknecht
But there is still a place.........John's Root Beer Stand out on Arcadian Ave founded in 1937, that has what an employee termed an original-equipment and owner-beloved popcorn-making machine, ("Don't paint it; just wash it!"), a machine renowned for it's superb popcorn. To that we can and will testify. Also excellent dogs, corn and root beer. Plainer fare. Non-Italian ice-creamed floats. John's, as locals know, is an institution!
You won't find John's Root Beer, a Waukesha landmark, running it's wooden orange stand in the downtown district.
SOMETIMES though boxed, or cubed, or in a lean-to, YOU JUST GOTTA THINK OUTSIDE!
