Forty Years Ago

Here’s an “Owie” for you. Nine year-old June Bauer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andy Bauer, was hobbling about on one foot. She had stepped on a needle that embedded into the ball of her foot. Surgery was required. So were five stitches. There … don’t you feel better already? You have so much to be thankful for. You don’t have a needle in the ball of your foot right now, do you?

After that rip-snorter, feel-good start, what else?

This 1965 Memorial Day, leftover tidbit from the Chicago Heart Association who grimly reported that in 1963 the number of Americans who died from cardiovascular diseases (981, 680) was greater than the number of American servicemen and women killed in all this country’s wars”602,339. Of course, the wars in Vietnam, the Gulf War and the current abominations in Iraq and Afghanistan had not yet come around.

From the May/ June 1960 issues of the Forest Park Review.

Thirty Years Ago

Dave Novak was appointed Superintendent of Recreation at the Park District here and he’s still doing a class job. Dave earned his B.S. in Community Recreation at Southern Illinois University in 1973 and stepped up from his post of Recreation Supervisor here. If you look around and notice what a nifty public park we have here, along with rec programs to match, know that Novak had more than a little to do with it.

Editor Larry Karcher opened his column with an anonymous quote: “Written on the walls of time are these words of wisdom”‘Many of us are aptly described as spending our lives doing things we detest, to make money we absolutely must have, to buy things we don’t need, to impress people we don’t like.’ (Author! Author!)

Adds Larry, “all this adds up to why our young people are not subscribing to the establishment or material way of life [remember, this was writ 30 years ago]. Too often, they’ve witnessed fathers or uncles drop with a massive coronary or suffer a severe stroke”all in the quest for Big Bucks. They’ve watched mothers or aunts fall victim to the funny farm with worry over grocery prices, what to wear and trying to cope with a succession of what-ifs, maybes and it-could-happens.”

The point? Maybe that no matter what age we are and what age we live in, we had better get some priorities and get ’em in right order. Two things come to mind”both are conversations; neither is new:

Hillel, a rabbi in the time of Christ, to a crowd: “Who is the rich man?”

Crowd: “??!?”

Hillel, answering his own question: “He who is satisfied with what he has.”

A: “I don’t have time.”

B: “Time is all you have.”

From the May 1975 issues of the Forest Park Review.

Twenty Years Ago

A worthwhile letter to the editor deserves repeating. Its author, a six year-old Grant-White student shows an unorthodox style and syntax, yet her message is clear today. She heard an Earth Day talk by teacher Andrea Allison, went home and typed this letter:

“Do not liter.

My name is Junia Win AnD I’m going to thach you not to litter and insteaD of throw-ing things away you can resicle papers that wer lost beFor. AnD you can resical cans, resical waEtR Botals, and things. You can resical juse boxes to. AnD I have a pasword

Do Not Liter.”

Julia Win sounds like a winner.

From a May 1985 issue of the Forest Park Review.

Ten Years Ago

Forest Park mail carrier Peter Turek helped an elderly resident by delivering a bit of information to his boss”information that led to her being safely hospitalized and treated. Turek was delivering on route in the 1100 block of Dunlop Ave. At one house, he noticed a lot of mail had accumulated in the letter box. He rang the bell”no answer. He walked around back, peering in the kitchen window and saw nothing.

“I knew she was elderly and had some trouble getting around,” said Peter. He called the postmaster who, in turn called the police. The woman was indeed ill and was taken to Loyola where her condition was reported as satisfactory.

Who Remembers? Pearl Mesta … Sal Mineo … falsies … Benjamin Willis … Golda Meire … Sony Tufts … Elsa Lancaster … Mickey Spillane … Marty Faye … Sammy Kaye … Ron Cey … Doris Day … Marvin Gaye … Kenneth Lay … Marilyn May … Curtis LeMay … Justice Sandra Day … Martha Ray … Turhan Bey … Faye Wray … Johnny Ray … Have a nice … Decade.

From the May/June 1995 issues of the Forest Park Review.