Forty Years Ago
There’s a stretch of walkway parallel to the north side of Roosevelt Road from Desplaines Avenue to the Desplaines River. At a 1965 village council meeting commissioner Vernon Reich told of plans to raise money for a long-needed sidewalk. Reich said he would promote assessing “business houses” along the way to do this. The cost then was $11,500. No follow-up to this is on record, and 40 years later the strip is still a “path less traveled.”
Few may recall a less-than-electric Christmas Eve in Forest Park. But editor Walker did. Lights dimmed, then went out at 9 p.m. This unwanted Christmas gift was delivered by an unwanted ice storm. Walker reported that at his household everyone was accusing everyone else of doing something to the lights. (Funny how the closest of family members deal with emergencies with mutual accusation).
Music stopped. Lights were extinguished. And a nine year-old daughter trying out her new electric toothbrush foamed at the mouth with toothpaste, unable to find a way to a water faucet in the dark. Yet, even bad times have an end, and the electricity came on again. Alas, the return of power lasted but seconds. The Walkers”and everyone else in the village”was plunged into darkness until dawn. Most of us have forgotten that Christmas Eve, and rightly so.
From the Dec. 1965 issues of the Forest Park Review.
Thirty Years Ago
Continuing the country’s Bicentennial Celebration, the Heritage Committee of Forest Park noted further historical milestones as they affected our village:
In the 1860 presidential election all 90 voters (even then, so few?) within the inexact political boundaries of Harlem voted for Lincoln. The political district covered a larger area than present-day Forest Park.
The village’s first church, St. John’s Lutheran (Missouri Synod) was founded in 1867. A school was added a few years later.
Every job has its bennies. If they aren’t there, you put ’em there. In the search to fill this column I came upon the following Review list of State Scholars and the name of a close relative of Mrs. Sullivan’s and mine. “Ha!” says I. All parents have pride in their children. Let’s put it in. After all, they didn’t have Proud Parent bumper stickers back in ’76.
From the Dec. 1975 issues of the Forest Park Review.
Twenty Years Ago
Bob Haeger returned from Vegas, predictably, a little light in the pockets, yet averting financial disaster. After four days in what Bob referred to as “Disneyland for Adults,” he recalled a few recommendations; like Seigfried and Roy, the illusionists at the Frontier and the Golden Steer”the one two blocks off the strip on Sahara Avenue. Food critic Haeger gave the place excellent marks with the proviso that one should fast before filling up. Other Haeger asides: “You can take pictures without a flash on Fremont Street … Some say Vegas is a town of fast living and loose morals. Yet there’s a Bible in every hotel room. Mine just happened to have one with three commandments missing.” Then there’s this comment: Q. What’s a sure way to leave Las Vegas with a small fortune? A. Go there with a big one.
From the Nov. 20, 1985 issue of the Forest Park Review.
Ten Years Ago
A 45 year-old woman, evidently tormented and desperate, allegedly jumped from the Harlem Avenue overpass onto the westbound center lane of the Eisenhower Expressway at 9:05 a.m. In spite of her fall, she was not killed; neither was she struck by a rush hour vehicle. A startled driver hit the brakes in time to avoid running over her, and remained stopped, thereby preventing other vehicles from doing so. No one reported seeing her leap, although one witness said he saw the woman standing on the bridge, smoking a cigarette. She was taken to Loyola Hospital with critical head injuries.
From the Dec. 27, l995 issue of the Forest Park Review.
