CALEDONIA, Wis. (AP) - The lines have been getting longer for the Friday fish fry at St. Rita’s Catholic Church, and maybe part of the reason people may be coming is to be served by Mary Scott one last time.
Scott, 91, expects the Lenten fish fry on Friday, April 7, to be her last in the gym at St. Rita’s School. Scott has been a fixture at the fries for the past 15 years.
“I’m just too old,” Scott told The Journal Times (https://bit.ly/2nLfs4L ) with a laugh. “I can keep up really good but we do need some young blood in the kitchen.”
Scott’s willingness to serve others was something her mother instilled into her as a child in Rice Lake.
“We were very poor and if a beggar came to the door, all they wanted was some food,” Scott said, and her mother always would help. “I don’t know where she found that food because I never saw it. But he would always be sitting on our porch, eating a plate of food.”
After getting married in 1946, Scott and her husband, Vernon, lived on a farm.
“There was no money coming in, not even for shaving lotion,” Scott said.
Scott had a brother, who lived in Racine where manufacturing jobs were starting to become available, and so they moved to a 16-foot trailer south of Racine near where the current Hobnob Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge is located on Sheridan Road in Somers.
“We were pitifully poor,” Scott remembers with a smile. “We had no bathroom . we walked a block to go to the bathroom and to do our laundry. And you got one hour to do your laundry.”
Vernon got jobs with Nash Motors in Kenosha and the Case Corporation in Racine. Scott got a job with what is now Master Appliance Corp., building small motors.
The couple was able to move into a house - with indoor plumbing - on Larson Street in Mount Pleasant and had two daughters.
Scott worked at Master Appliance for over 30 years and when you ask her what changes she saw during that time, a few notable historical things come to mind.
“Television came in and of course cell phones,” Scott said. “When we came here none of that was out yet. And the first black president.”
After Vernon died of cancer, Scott volunteered with various hospice care groups, which is when she met her second husband, Robert. The two of them married after a year of dating and moved to the north side of Racine and attended St. Rita’s Church.
Mike Kasperzak, a retired teacher for Racine Unified School District, has been a parish member of St. Rita’s since 1980 and is one of the main cooks for the fish fry.
“He’s my boss,” Scott says with a laugh.
Kasperzak said Scott has been very dedicated and dependable during the Lenten fish fries despite one small thing.
“She hates fish,” Kasperzak said. “She hates fish and we always tease her about it. And there she is serving the baked cod.”
Scott said she’ll still come on Thursdays, when the fish fry volunteers prepare the food, and Kasperzak said that will be a big help.
“You depend on the people that are always here,” he said. “And when they’re not around you wonder where they are . people like Mary are a joy to have around.”
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Information from: The Journal Times, https://www.journaltimes.com
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