40 years ago
The end of 1968 and the start of 1969 saw little that was newsworthy here in Forest Park. Example: Danny Conway, 8, of 1529 Marengo, was taken to the hospital when struck on the head by a storm window. Head cuts. Ted Kotulski reported the theft of a stereo and tapes from his car.
The most notable thing that ever happened to Ted Lee Hoenisch took place Nov. 9. He was born.
We’ve heard and heard about 1968 being a total bummer in our nation, and the world; we recall, or remember being told, about an escalating war in the Far East; head bashings of hippies and non-hippies in Grant Park; habit-forming assassinations – first at a Memphis motel, then only eight weeks later in an L.A. hotel kitchen. First shock, then impending insanity. We hoped for year’s end, not knowing that 65 commercial airliners would be hi-jacked in ’69. On the positive side, it didn’t take place in one day.
From the Nov. 28, 1968, Forest Park Review
30 years ago
Mention the names Glenn Cunningham and Wes Santee and a constellation of question marks might materialize above your head. They were great runners in college and at the professional level from the ’40s to the mid ’60s. Mention their names to some old guy now who might have followed track and field then and there might be a connection. Only one in a thousand now, maybe, might recognize the name, Herb Semper.
He grew up on the 1500 block of Elgin and was a graduate of Proviso high school where he was later to equal and sometimes surpass Cunningham and Santee – and others. He had early shown signs of running endurance at Field-Stevenson school. His specialty became long distance or cross country running. Finishing third in his first statewide high school meet in Urbana, he went on to run for the University of Kansas where his two heroes had had set track records. By the time Semper graduated in 1952, he was regarded as the best two-miler in the Big Eight Conference, having won 11 conference meets in that category.
This barrel-chested, bespectacled red head had lost the sight of one eye, proved that another Illinoisan, Obama, wasn’t the only one who knew how to run.
From the Nov. 15, 1978, Forest Park Review
20 years ago
Once upon a time there lived a family at the south end of Marengo. Their name was Kos. The father was Joseph, the mother was Blanche, their daughter was also Blanche and their son was Ronald. One day Blanche, the daughter, entered a beauty contest – a form of show business? She won. She entered other contests and won more than she lost. Not surprisingly, she grew to be a very attractive woman.
Meanwhile, back to overshadowed younger brother, Ron. Declining to enter beauty contests, he graduated Proviso high school and matriculating at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he married Carol Midgard of Forest Park. Completing his military obligations, he held a variety of television promotion and production positions in Chicago and Minneapolis, rising to V.P. of client marketing for NBC-TV in New York. (Another form of show business).
From the Nov. 9, 1988, Forest Park Review
10 years ago
A couple of Kmart cashiers did a stupid thing. One plucked $1,268 from the register, put it into an envelope and handed it to her co-worker. It was all neatly recorded on security video. When the tape was shown to them the pair confessed.
The sad part really comes afterward – their daily lives in prison. The dreary sameness of a confining environment … the grinding, day-after-day colorless regimentation … the loss of the simplest freedoms … the monotonous passing of meaningless time … the nondescript grayness of everything around them (except your orange jumpsuit) … and, oh yes, that nasty stain that won’t wash out of your rap sheet.
From the Dec. 22, 1998, Forest Park Review
