Forty Years Ago
As a collector of bite-size news bits and war-size headlines, I thought I found a nugget in the March 29, ’67 issue. It was headlined, “Schmaltz in Vietnam.” Thinking I was onto a timely op-ed piece revealing the rhetoric of war’s contention–if you can’t win a war, try talking it away.
Turns out that this was a story on Forest Park Marine Sgt. Dan Schmaltz and what he did pretty much every day in another war-infested part of the world 40 years ago. He and his maintenance crew mostly monitored gauges mounted on vital areas of jet engines returning from missions. ” We owe Sgt. Schmaltz and his men. If we haven’t learned to stay out of war maybe we’re at least more practiced in rejecting its rhetoric–for “evaluation and correction.”
From the March 29, 1967, Forest Park Review
Thirty Years Ago
Comments were mixed in the wake of the village’s failure to pass the bond issue for a paramedic program. The referendum was defeated by more than a 2:1 margin: 1,475 against and 596 for. Bite-sized bits: Village clerk Bill McKenzie–“People are getting something now for their money, so why pay more?” Comm. Ed Lambke–“The passing of an earlier school referendum spelled defeat for the paramedic program. There’s just so much money per household.”
“Dear Sally: We are very much concerned over our 5-year-old son. He whacks our dog, pulls the tail of the neighbor’s cat, and when we are at my mother-in-law’s he continually pokes sticks into the parakeet’s cage and frightens the little bird. Is this the sign of an inborn streak of cruelty, and will it increase as he grows up?-Worried.”
“Dear Worried: I’m sure it isn’t a streak of cruelty. Many little boys are inconsiderate of animals until they learn that animals have feelings just like people. Patiently try to make him understand this. If this has no effect, whack his little behind every time he gets too rough with the pets.”
From the March 23 and 30, 1977, Forest Park Review
Twenty Years Ago
First there was Forest Park Mall #1. Despite searchlights, jugglers, speeches and fanfare in 1983 it was stillborn and never realized its hoped-for potential. Reasons for this were plenty and varied; and a remedy for its problems never really arrived. Time passed, then Forest Park Mall #2 took hold, and the prognosis looks good.
Twenty years ago, on New Year’s Day, the mall was sold to a Chicago developer. The new owner, Ronald Benach, president of Lexington Development Corp. in Arlington Heights, pledged to bring redevelopment and tenants. Benach said Lexington’s primary business the past 25 years had been residential development, mostly in the northwest suburbs. Plus a shopping center in Hanover Park and the management of the Addison Mall in Chicago, along with several strip malls.
“Looking back,” said Benach, “I saw an opportunity to revitalize a package of real estate that could pay its own way, and be a contributor to the village.”
From the Jan. 14, 1987, Forest Park Review
Ten Years Ago
A big rain came in February. After the rain, rain, rain, came snow. One of the charms of living at our latitude. Seven inches of water covered our park. The cry could’ve been, “Yo, Noah! Can we borrow the Ark?” Actually, it was Dave Novak saying, “In my 23 years at The Park I’ve never seen so much standing water.”
From the March 6 and 29, 1997, Forest Park Review
