This week, I plan to buy a commemorative Atomic Records T-shirt because the indie music shop, which opened in 1985, announced last month that it’s closing. I’ll add this T-shirt to my small but adored stack of classic East Side T-shirts.
My all-time favorite local T is my forest green "I’m Hooked On Oriental Drugs" shirt that I bought the day before the iconic pharmacy went out of business. At the time, I also had a light blue shirt just like it, but bought the extra one to have as a keepsake. I’m glad I did because around 1997, a former roommate snagged the light blue version.
My Fuel Café shirt is at least 13 years old, and it shows. I might have to retire this classic black-with-white-lettering gem because I don’t want to completely trash it. After all, I plan to will it to my grandchildren.
My Koppa’s Farwell Foods shirt is eight or nine years old, and I still love it, even though the capped sleeves are dated now. Finally, I included the OnMilwaukee.com shirt because we’ve created a number of really cool shirts, but this was my first OMC T-shirt and remains my very favorite to this day.
Certainly, there are many other time-honored East Side T-shirts out there, so if you have one or know of one, fill us in via the Talkback feature.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
