Stop by Chapter 52 Bookstore to meet author Tracy Reinhardt, who will be at the store from 10 am to noon.
Reinhardt is author of "A Nostalgic Trip Down Main Street - Fond du Lac, Wisconsin."
The advent of shopping malls often spelled a death knell for downtown. Large merchants followed the trend by moving into the mall, and soon changed shopping habits for many small towns.
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin is one such town. The large department stores disappeared from the downtown leaving behind only memories. But downtowns still survive.
This book contains pictures from Main Street in Fond du Lac, WI taken in 1966-1970, an era of downtown and merchants that now comprise nothing but memories.
Stores with elevators and elevator operators. Stores with pneumatic tubes. Stores with a bubbler out front on the sidewalk. It also lists the city directory listing for those same store addresses for the years 1921, 1940, 1960 and 1980. Included are photos of the time in 1953 when Main Street was rebuilt.
Some buildings might be gone, but this book allows you to take another stroll down Main Street in a time when life seemed simpler.
Author Tracy Reinhardt, a native of Fond du Lac, has been collecting stories of Fond du Lac all of her life. Growing up on Reinhardt Road, the middle child of seven born to Neil and Emma Reinhardt, Tracy is a graduate of St. Joseph grade school, St. Mary Springs, and Moraine Park Technical College.
She attributes her father, the family story-teller, to her interest in history and "things past." She has published several family genealogies as well as local histories, including "The Night The Churches Burned". She is the mother of four children, grandmother of six, and great-grandmother of two. Tracy currently works part time at the Fond du Lac County Historical Society.
