40 years ago

This week’s illustration was a classy engraving (below) made into a cartoon for a North American Savings ad. Care to come up with your own caption? How about, “I thought that was a symbolic silver dollar he threw to jump-start the economic stimulus package.” Or … “What did George Washington say when he told his men to get into their boats?” [Answer] “Get into your boats, men.”

Great moments in American history, captured again in the Forest Park Review.

From the Jan. 30, 1969, Forest Park Review

30 years ago

Santo Rizzo. The name has an immigrant ring, though he was born here of Italian parents. He was a good, straight-on human being and a longtime Forest Parker. If you allow a bit of exaggeration, he might even be likened to Harry Truman. Both were short of stature. Both would inherit political offices they didn’t seek – Truman as president when FDR fell in April 1945; and Santo as our village’s mayor when Howard Mohr died suddenly in January of 1977.

When Truman got his momentous news, he said, “When they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars and all the planets had fallen on me.” Santo Rizzo’s comments on Mohr’s death were not recorded, yet three weeks later the village council came to Rizzo. Having served two-and-a-half terms as a commissioner, he still wrestled with the idea of a mayoral appointment, yet reluctantly accepted. A humble man, he may have had a few self doubts, but he needn’t have worried. He was caring and honest enough so that the few times he may have been unsure (about a knotty budgetary problem, for example), he was smart enough to seek help from his fellows.

He left us for a California retirement with his wife in the 1990s. He left us for good at age 86, about five years ago.

From the Jan. 2, 1979, Forest Park Review

20 years ago

Before there was a Jerry Gleason Chevrolet dealership at Desplaines and Roosevelt there was an Amling’s Flowerland. But after the handiwork of a probable arsonist it was a flattened, charred waste of ashes and mud.

At about 4 a.m. security officer Steve Knack left for a cup of coffee. Only minutes later, he returned to see smoke coming from the greenhouse. The first fire department units on the scene saw flames engulfing the whole north section of the roof and rolling across the length of the building. The roof soon collapsed, trapping pockets of fire that rekindled through the afternoon before being extinguished. Evidence of an accelerant was found, along with a section of a broken gas pipe near a partly opened rear overhead door. Police interviews of Amling’s employees were planned.

From the Jan. l1, 1989, Forest Park Review

10 years ago

A pretty good Review columnist said goodbye just before 1998 became 1999. Bill Lichtenberg, a longtime resident and real estate agent, said what he thought needed saying on page 3 every week since 1991 – just what he was hired to do. For the nonce, he was leaving to take part in an upcoming village election. (Bill would do anything for the Nonce.)

In his final column he described his seven-year journalistic odyssey on these pages as something written for the “Body” family – “Every, Some, Any and No.” Bill added, “I’ve taken my turn at this, and now there’s need for someone else to keep us thinking about what’s going on.” He reminded that our newspaper is still the village’s only constant open forum outside the one that takes place at 7 p.m. every second and fourth Monday at the village hall.

Next up, John Rice. He’s been grinding it out for more than 10 years. Seems like everyone’s never been older than we are right now.

From the Dec. 9, 1998, Forest Park Review