Joseph and Pauline Vidich were extremely proud of their children. Living in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the three daughters served as surrogate mothers for young Arthur during his early years. As the youngest son with three older sisters, he developed a sensitivity for the opposite sex that made him a natural conversationalist and a relatively uninhibited socializer. In his later years, he told his oldest son that his sisters played a significant role in his upbringing and he always held them in high regard. The Vidich family was a warm and close knit group that relied on mother Pauline to run the household and manage daily affairs.
Joseph was not able to pursue manual labor after his accident and chose to start a saloon to support his family. The timing of this business decision, comining in the late 1920s, positioned him well to survive the Great Depression when many Americans lost their jobs and were desperate to make ends meet. For the Vidichs, the Great Depression brought an economic boom time as the prohibition on the sale of liquor artificially increased the market for bootleg booze. Joseph ran a "speak easy" and kept the police at bay with the appropriate bribes so he could keep his restaturant/tavern open despite "prohibition."
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