Polish Southsider: Stanley Wisialowski

 Guest post by Grant Thomas

I would like you to meet my reenactment character and my Great Grandfather, Stanley “Stash” Wisialowski. Born August 31^st, 1910, in Milwaukee to Josephine, Polish woman, but Wisconsin native, and Jacob Wisialowski, Polish emigrant coming from western Poland around the Pomeranian region. Stanley would be the seventh of nine children to the couple and would become a major aid around the house after the death of his father around May of 1924. While education would not be a major aspiration of Stanley, he would enter vocational education and other small paying jobs. I would say one of the happiest days was marrying in May 1934 to Clementine Maciolek at St. Adelbert. Following marriage, he would gain work at Monarch’s company and with the birth of his two daughters Sandra (Sandy) in 1940 and Carole in 1943. Monarch’s was a popular place to work for the family as a number of his siblings, cousins, and other assorted families would also gain employment. Due in part to Monarch’s creating clothing for the war effort and having two young girls he would not serve in any branch of the military. Sadly, Sandra would pass in 1944 leaving a significant ache in his life and a wish to provide the best for his wife and living daughter. With the economic downturn of manufacturing Stanley would leave Monarch’s in the late 1950s.

Following a term of unemployment, he and his brother Max would create the Wize repair shop with the original set up being at his home, 28^th and Lincoln. Later, for the store fronts, they were first at 1111 16th street and found a more permanent home at 1535 West Lincoln, their specialty being jackets, jeans, and other clothing items. The business would run from the 1960s to the 1970s and a fallout between the brothers over Max, possibly taking money for personal gain. Once the main shop closed Stanley would simply move the working machines back to his home and create the new version of the business in his basement taking subcontracts from local clothing stores or dry cleaners. Through this period, he would interact with multiple police officers and people of color giving the same pleasant service to anyone, as he would often say to my grandmother, “live and let live.” He did have some worries as a devout Catholic over Father James Groppi’s actions, but mostly from worrying about the safety of the young black men and women that the priest was working with through the Civil Rights Movement.

In general, he was described as a typical south side Polish man, able to speak both his ancestral tongue, Polish, and English in equal measures and being a shorter thin man yet getting stocky in his later years. Beloved by his family and keeping close with his siblings, particularly drinking Pabst with his surviving brothers, Max and Eugene and known for a love of dancing, able ability at bowling, and enjoying both flower cultivation and mushroom picking. Finally, his story ends in the same city he was born, at the age of 72 in February of 1982.