Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: Schwarze, Fauser
----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 16 Jul 1964
(Written by Janet Fauser)
All was born her in Greenwood (Clark Co., Wis.) and attended a small county school, the Decker School, which is now non-existent.
I suppose almost everyone in Greenwood has seen or at least heard of Al Schwarze. It seems to be the natural thing if you have some photography or developing to be done, to ask Al to do it. I sometimes wonder if he really considers his work as a job or a hobby. He seems to take such pride and interest in it.
Al is the type of person that enjoys working with things – I suppose that's one reason he likes developing and printing pictures. The other lines of work that he endeavored seem to require work with the hands also. They include such things a mechanic and electrical work. Electric works is now more or less a hobby, but mechanics was one of his previous occupations. He attended the Motor School in Milwaukee for this sole purpose.
Between the years 1942 and 1945, he was employed at Buick Motors at Melrose Park, Ill.
He then returned to his hometown and worked at Jackson's Garage, which has since been closed down. He says he considers this as the most important job he ever held, because it was during the depression and gave him a chance to help farmers who were "hard-up" for money.
Like most people, I wanted to know how he decided to be a photographer, and his reply was, "I started doing it evenings at Jackson's, and then I took a correspondence course. I found I like it because it's a challenge and it's interesting." He says picture taking can be a nice hobby and a lot of fun if you learn to do your own developing. That's what I like about Al Schwarze. He's not interested in getting you merely for a customer, he wants you for a friend. He wants you to enjoy the activity he loves so much!
