Speaking of Monroe alumni, one of those will have a special show at Thune's gallery Saturday, Nov. 4, and Sunday, Nov. 5. Jerry Fearing, retired editorial cartoonist for the Dispatch and Pioneer Press, will show some of his memorable cartoons and will also be available to sign his new book, Christmas on West Seventh Street .

Fearing was born on the Upper Levee; a Pole, he says, surrounded by Italians. He later lived on Wilkins Street and on Armstrong Avenue and was graduated from Monroe prior to serving with the Marines in Korea and becoming a professional artist.

``The book came out of just growing up on the West End,'' says Fearing. ``Pat Johnston, publisher of the Afton Press, told me to put some things together, and I hung some words between the cartoons about life in the neighborhood at Christmastime.

``What a flood of memories that set loose! I think today's free time is so organized for kids. In those days, after you got to be 10 years old, your parents were glad to see you just go outside and do something.''

Fearing's book includes those Christmas trips downtown to roam through the great old stores; Hush Brothers, the Golden Rule and the Emporium. He writes about swinging on ropes dangling from the trees on the bluff below Lexington Avenue -- and I am reminded of how I, as a West Ender, did the same thing on the same bluffs a few years after.

He will be at the Thune gallery Nov. 4 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. and Nov. 5 from 1 to 3 p.m.

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