Forty Years Ago
Personal portrait of an out-of-time, out-of-step, un-hip Review editor, Claude Walker?from his Personal Observations column: “I over-aged over the weekend when I attended a wedding, the first since my own 15 years ago. There was the routine receiving line, then the roast beef dinner-but as dessert was being served all bedlam broke loose! The band started playing a wild Watusi, the bridesmaids kicked their shoes off, gyrated, swam and convulsed like they had a terminal case of poison ivy all over. Old relics, like me, stood against the wall and gaped. As my ears kept ringing, my wife drove me home where I took my Geritol and went to bed.”
From the Sept. 1966 issues of the Forest Park Review
Thirty Years Ago
Carbon monoxide poisoning was the cause of a young couple’s death at an apartment building parking lot. Their car’s engine was running when the bodies were discovered. Returning home at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning, a tenant of the building found their auto in his assigned spot. Tapping on the widow and receiving no response, he called police.
Officer Nick Maffei responded, gained entry and identified the pair as James Nessi, 21, of Bellwood and Karen O’Toole of Oak Park. One of the windows was open about three inches, but this did not allow sufficient ventilation to prevent the tragedy. The couple had been dead about six hours.
St. John Lutheran Church had an outstanding guest speaker in Martin Marty, professor of church history at the University of Chicago. Well known as a writer, lecturer and frequent reviewer of books, Rev. Marty spoke on the Reformation and the American Revolution. Dr. Marty still makes regular appearances as a speaker, and recently appeared on Milt Rosenberg’s informative discussion program “Extension 720” on WGN-AM radio.
From the October 1976, issues of the Forest Park Review
Twenty Years Ago
State Rep. Jack Kubik urged Governor Thompson to sign a bill he authored, which would require teachers in Illinois universities to (get this) be proficient in speaking the English language. Read these words again and feel properly shamed that the level of English had (still has?) sunk so low. Kubik said “All this bill asks is that teachers in this state speak, write and communicate clearly and correctly.”
The proposed legislation was introduced because of complaints from students at Northern Illinois University that they repeatedly had difficulty understanding some of their teachers. More than 2,000 signed a petition voicing their opinion on the issue.
From the Sept. 10, 1986, Forest Park Review
Ten Years Ago
Hanging up the badge. Two of Forest Park’s finest, Sgt. Albert Tagliola and Lt. Harlie Merritt, put away the uniforms in exchange for retirement. They joined the force within a month of each other, and each put in 30 years. They deserve more space than this column allows.
Twisted ingenuity, junior style. An employee of Blockbuster Video, 109 Harlem Ave., told police that while taking out garbage from the rear of the store a teen-age boy approached with a note apparently intended as a hold-up threat. He said a man with a gun told him to give the note to the video store employee, or he would be shot. The female employee did not see anyone else in the area. End of episode, but give the kid credit for some imagination.
Who Remembers? Polaroid Land Cameras? sock hops? yesterday morning’s breakfast? this morning’s breakfast? ’60s singer Jack Jones? Simonize? Biff Rose? Al Raby (Civil Rights activist)? Hammer, our staunch Rottweiller police mascot of the 1990s. He could smell coke a mile away. He was retired to Wisconsin, and then took up residence in dog heaven? the Wrath of Grapes.
From the Sept./Oct. issues of the Forest Park Review
