» Photo busts truants:
Newspaper archives offer proof of man’s 1970 teenage adventure
Dennis Miliacca and columnist Jim Stingl have never met but have something in common. They both skipped school to attend the Brewers’ very first opening day game at County Stadium on April 7, 1970.
Dennis Miliacca and I never met but we have something in common. We both skipped school to attend the Brewers’ very first opening day game at County Stadium on April 7, 1970.
Only he and his truant classmates got caught, and we can blame that on the predecessor newspaper to the one where I work now.
Dennis, of Bayside, is a father of four, and this has been one of his favorite dad-was-young-once stories to share with the kids.
His eldest, Natalie Miliacca, knows the tale well.
“One by one, each accomplice informed the school secretary at Notre Dame High School that they wouldn’t be in school due to ‘sickness.’ The next day, after each one had made a miraculous recovery, they returned to school,” she said.
A nun at Notre Dame, described as ancient, called each student to the office and confronted him or her with a photo from the front page of that day’s Milwaukee Sentinel.
The large picture looks like it was born to bust Brewers backers who shouldn’t have been at the game. It shows maybe 20 rows of bleacher bums sitting about 15 across. The focus is pretty sharp, making it excellent evidence for suspicious school administrators.
Some things never change. A large banner in the pic says, “We’ll drink to the Brewers.”
This is a photo that Dennis did not save and that Natalie has been wanting to see for a long time. She asked if I could help her find it, which was easy because it’s in our archives under “Opening day 1970.”
“Because this folklore has gone on forever, I’m like I’m getting to the bottom of this flipping picture because of all the stories I’ve heard about it,” she said.
Her plan was to give him the photo on April 21, his 65th birthday, and let me just say I’m sorry I ruined the surprise. You may know a dad like Dennis. “When asked what he would like for birthdays or various other holidays, he responds with ‘peace and quiet’ or ‘I don’t know, get your mother something,’ even if it’s Father’s Day,” Natalie said.
Dennis, who is semi-retired these days except for seasonal work for the Village of Bayside, looked at the blackand-white photo and found the 17-yearold version of himself and his friends near the steps on the right side about halfway up.
I asked Dennis what he remembers about that day 47 years ago, and I read him this line from the same Sentinel of the next morning: “Countless youngsters skipped school. Many of them packed the $1 bleacher seats.” I must have been mister money bags back then because the ticket stub I saved all these years shows I paid $2 to sit in the upper grandstand when I should have been at my desk at Messmer High School.
“Somebody said, geez, let’s go to the opener, and it didn’t take much convincing. There were probably 10 or 15 of us, and by the time the game came around, there were probably more than that, boys and girls from the senior class,” Dennis said.
At first, he thought someone had ratted them out, but then it became clear the photo had revealed their misdeed. “It was kind of hard to talk our way out of it,” he said. “Thanks to the Sentinel, we got nailed cold.” You’re welcome. The penalty was a day or two of detention, he recalls, a high price to see the home team beaten 12-0. Attendance that sunny, springlike day was 37,237, well short of the capacity of 45,768.
Natalie, who was born eight years after that first opening day, attends the Brewers home opener with friends every year, but it’s been decades since Dennis has been to one. He said he gets to a game or two a year.
“I’m at the magical age now where I like sitting at home and watching it. The beer is cheaper and the bathroom lines are shorter.”