MONROE - If you aren't sure whether or not all rivers flow downhill, you weren't in one of Paul Schoenike's junior high school classes. He's even been known to dump a full glass of water in the hallway to prove his point.

"I would tell them, "fasten your seatbelts for the next 180 days,'" he laughed.

The longtime Monroe teacher says it's just one of the quirky things he's famous for during his three decades of teaching.

The teacher, who always knew it would be his lifelong career, says he took a positive attitude into each of his classrooms and enjoyed all of the experiences that went with it. He may no longer have a classroom but still spends his time making students think.

He was born and raised in West Allis, where he was an only child. His parents spoke German and used the language to privately talk amongst themselves.

He attended a parochial school in West Allis until eighth grade. He has fond memories of being able to play with several of his cousins at large family gatherings. He held a paper route and would often take in a day full of baseball shortly after completing odd jobs for his mother. He recalls it as a close-knit neighborhood.

"It was really a great place to grow up," Schoenike said.

During his high school years, Schoenike took street cars into downtown Milwaukee to attend Wisconsin Lutheran High School, a private school. He was a good student and played sports, including baseball.

After his graduation in 1957, Schoenike decided to stay home and commute to UW-Milwaukee to save money. But riding the street cars was getting old, and he decided instead to look elsewhere. He transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Although he planned to major in business, he soon changed and decided to become a teacher.

"From conversations with relatives and my ability to get along with children, I just always felt connected to them," Schoenike said. "I connected with kids a lot. I somehow had a knack for them."

Initially, he thought of teaching social studies, likely because of his father often taking the family to museums and on out-of-the-way trips. Schoenike was often the navigator, and his love for maps and places never ceased.

"Without geography in your life, it would be like going to the finest art museum and having half of the pictures turned to the wall," he said.

He graduated from Oshkosh with a teaching degree in 1962, and jobs were readily available. Just before he graduated, he met his wife, Jean, in a Lutheran Student Group. She was a freshman, and he a senior.

"Meeting Jean was a tremendous blessing," he said.

Jean was from Portage and just between there and West Allis was the city of Marshall. Schoenike thought it would be a great place to start his career. He landed a job teaching seventh-and eighth-grade social studies, including geography and U.S. history.

He says he knew immediately teaching would be his lifelong career.

"I had no interest in administration," Schoenike said. "It was not a stepping stone for me. It was a career. I've never had a job. I've always had a career."

He says his teaching style was wanting his students to learn but to also have fun.

After three years in Marshall, Schoenike looked around, hoping to teach classes in earth science. Land forms were interesting to him, but he wasn't a trained science teacher, and was dismissed for a position in Monroe. However, the superintendent at the time called him back and asked if he would be interested in a job teaching eighth-grade history, and Schoenike agreed.

He didn't know much about the town.

"I came to Monroe after the tornado in 1965," Schoenike laughed. "The sound of chainsaws welcomed me."

Calling Monroe home ever since, Schoenike says it's been the most wonderful place to raise children. By 1970, he earned his master's degree.

The curriculum changed over the years, and Schoenike taught different topics like area studies and included culture in his lessons. He still taught the basics of geography and still loved it.

Around 1970, he says he was blessed when another teacher, Gil Jelinek, joined the staff, and the two just clicked. They would welcome students during different lessons to celebrate special days like Fiesta Day and Japan Day. The teaching duo was together for 30 years, and Schoenike says he feels blessed to have had him by his side.

For 15 summers, the "Classroom Trip to Canada" would take a large group of kids to Toronto with Schoenike and Jelinek. It left both teachers, as well as students, with wonderful memories.

In 1985, Schoenike received the Fullbright Scholarship to travel to Sierra Leone in West Africa for about six weeks with a group of 16 Wisconsin teachers. He still offers presentations on Africa to classrooms and the community and says his experiences went far beyond teaching and students - and they were always at the forefront of his mind.

After 34 years of coming home and sitting on his sun porch to grade papers, retirement approached. He says he was blessed with good health in 1999 and decided to retire that year.

But retirement didn't last long. Schoenike, who is known as the "father of Monroe youth hockey" stayed busy with a sport he loved. He was part of the Monroe Youth Hockey Association Board of Directors for 10 years and coached as well.

"The hockey program in Monroe started out of the trunk of my car," Schoenike said.

Schoenike began skating back in West Allis where he enjoyed pickup games with friends, and he was hooked. His father even flooded the backyard a couple of years and made him a stick in his wood shop. After skating and coaching at outdoor rinks for years, Schoenike was proud when the indoor ice rink went up.

It was the hockey association's fifth home ice. The day they dropped the puck on the indoor facility Dec. 17, 1999, he says was momentous.

"We wanted to bring indoor ice in Monroe to the 20th century," Schoenike said. "It was a big mountain to climb. There was not a lot of support. That kept me busy. I'm still in love with the place."

He spent years coaching, and his son, Doug, played hockey well into his adult years. Schoenike still skated well into his 60s.

But hockey wasn't - and certainly still isn't - Schoenike's only pastime.

He's widely known for his affinity for trains - and that love literally started at birth.

"When I was born the doctor told my parents "if it's a boy, I'll give you a train,'" Schoenike said. That train set is still displayed in his basement.

Once he and Jean moved to their Monroe home in 1966, he expanded his set and built the layout with his father. It takes up most of the basement, and the memories that flow between those walls are vast.

The setting of the scenery on his train set is special, and the memories come in all aspects. There's a pile of wood he watched his father piece together with glue as a child. Several memories of West Allis, a bustling industrial town in the suburbs of Milwaukee with large elm trees, are there. Nothing is newer than the 1957 Chevy parked near the train station.

Running train - as he calls it - is therapeutic.

"Some days, I would come down here and run some train just to get my head above me," Schoenike said.

The scenery and part of his train set are always changing. Recently, he added a new building in memory of Doug, also a train enthusiast, who passed away last year from cancer.

Through the years, Schoenike has shared his love for trains with many and still takes them to share at nursing homes and preschools. He says watching the joy when people run the train is special to him.

Schoenike is also part of the Wisconsin Geographic Alliance and is still teaching - with large maps - in area schools. He serves as an adjunct professor of social studies and geography at Wisconsin Lutheran College and teaches various topics at the Senior Center in Monroe.

Schoenike was involved in the National Geographic Bee and the State Bee in Madison and says he had a great opportunity to be a part of the Wisconsin Geographic Alliance. He went alongside three other teachers to Washington D.C. to study the summer of 1990. The Service Award was presented in 1999. He was also part of the Wisconsin Council for Social Studies as a board member, vice president and president. He then served as the exhibits chair as past president and attended their annual convention. The Robert J. Snavely Service Award was given to WCSS in 2011. He was a member of the Wisconsin Curriculum Review Committee for about 30 years. He was chosen to be on staff for the Geographic Alliance for 15 summers. He was part of the Monroe Jaycees from 1967-1975 and as chairman for a time. He also was a part of several Monroe Theatre Guild productions, which led to him winning a speaking contest for the Jaycees, and he took second place at state one year and first place the next year. He helps judge 4-H speaking contests. The National Council for Geographic Education teaching award was given to him in 1985, and he also received recognition at several state conventions.

Schoenike enjoys spending time with family, including his daughter and his four grandchildren. He and Jean are active members of Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Monroe.

When he and Jean take time to enjoy, they often check out train sites, or travel by train. When their children were younger, they would enjoy a big family camping vacation at the end of summer and many camping trips through the years.

After losing Doug, Schoenike's outlook on life still stays uplifting to others. He has felt comfort with support from his son's family of firefighters and the encouragement they've received from family and friends.

"I am more blessed than what I deserve," he concluded.