Midweek Bulletin from Kenosha, Wisconsin • 3

The Midweek Bulletin September 15 1992 3 A man of many Diane Giles talents finds his niche of the entire collection wa of the entire collection was $30000 Rennie kept the tavern until 1985 when concerns for his health began to nag him 10 years of smoking four packs of cigarettes a day and inhaling everybody I called it He quit smoking and has been smoke free for eight years tavern business was good but 10 years was He still misses the camaraderie he had with his patrons About four years after he sold the tavern Rennie was watching comedian John Candy guest on Tonight on TV Candy began talking about his many collections was telling Johnny Carson that he came into a nice collection of police patches out of Kenosha said Crucianelli adding that he had sold his collection in pieces and a good chunk of the patches went to a policeman in Milwaukee who in turn may have sold it to Candy Rennie then took a three-year stint as a aide with special education children in the Kenosha Unified School District He worked at McKinley and Lance Junior High Schools and Bradford Senior High really got attached I really enjoyed working with those Rennie said Lack of work during the summer lead to the live-in management of Villa Nova Raising seven boys moonlighting running a tavern working as a aide and managing apartments left little time in the Crucianelli household for leisure activities Last spring though the couple did something they had never done before: they took a vacation They flew across the Atlantic and visited their oldest son David in Amsterdam Speaking of all the went without a vacation Rennie explained they couldn't go out of town when the boy were young with seven kid: where are you gonna By The office at Villa Nova Apartments is deceptively small As often as Rennie Crucianelli changes hats in that tiny space one would think need a little more room In addition to his management duties Rennie is also publisher editor copy boy paste-up technician and ad salesman for the Villa Nova News a limited circulation monthly newsletter produced and distributed from that very same small office The Villa Nova News premiered in December of 1988 a few months after the Crucianellis became the managers of the 103 unit government-subsidized complex for senior citizens first one-page edition seems paltry compared to the September issue of 10 pages look at some of those old issues now and I said Rennie A host of residents write articles each month including Coletta Mink Marie Bemis Virginia Gregorski Elaine Silldorff and Anita Spera Crucianelli scavenges to find other items of interest to seniors to fill the pages and consistently receives correspondence from lawmakers on upcoming legislation pertinent to seniors Finding material takes time he sometimes looks through old (Bradford High School yearbooks) and finds photos of his tenants when they were young and uses them sometimes to their surprise and chagrin After Rennie types up the pages he hands them over to Theresa to be proofed mistake he mimics with a grin I have to do it all over -again I tell you a job I do it all on he said pointing to a new electric typewriter have a The circulation of the Villa Nova News is 150 copies enough to cover the apartments and a large stack more to distribute to regular readers in town lot of people stop me on the street to Rennie Crucianelli wears his hat as he works on another issue of the Villa Nova News (Bulletin photo by Diane Giles) One day a Kenosha deputy gave him a uniform patch from the department and Rennie hung it on the wall guys from the city (police) came in and said my and they brought one in then the guys from Waukegan came in and did the same By the time he was done he had over 4000 patches you see the bar room wall for the brightly colored patches The decor came to eventually include displays of handcuffs billy clubs badges hats photos and even smashed patrol car doors One display case was filled with patches of state patrol officers along with a picture of each officer standing next to their squad car Law enforcement officers from as far away as England Germany and Canada visited Any officer passing within 50 miles of Kenosha came to see the place In time the estimated value Making ends meet in a family of nine (The have seven grown sons: David Steven Rick John Tom Guy and Rennie) was hard so Rennie also moonlighted He did gigs as a musician (he played the bass in various bands for 35 years including his own The Rennie Crucianelli Band) and worked in the Kenosha County Department transporting prisoners on weekends In 1974 Rennie made a major career change he purchased a tavern and went into business for himself figured if putting in all these hours I might as well try my own The friends he made while working at the sheriffs department patronized the place suitably named 52nd Precinct Word spread and soon off duty officers troopers and deputies from all over southeastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois began coming in get said Crucianelli who proceeded to rattle off names that could easily be found listed in a Who in Villa Nova Apartments 2401 18th St which opened in 1977 is one of two such facilities owned by Petretti Enterprises The came to work there in the fall of 1988 An important part of the management job there is surveying the board each morning The board is filled with rows of little red lights that have corresponding switches in each apartment they (the tenants) run on their light by 9 am we call them if no answer we go up Rennie has always been a He married the then Theresa Gentile in 1953 and bought a house on 18th Ave and 28th St when the streets in the subdivision were still mud He worked as a salesman for Phillips Brothers Inc for 17 years.