Susan (Sue) Klinger (Nally)

Didn't we buy popcorn to thow it over the balcony and hit the people in the head that were sitting below us? Loved the Mounds bars. 

Anita "Bonnie" Meyer (Vann)

My first memory of the 'Cry  Room' was when I was, maybe 10, going to the Holiday to watch the film version of Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Carousel" with Shirley Jones (pre-Partridge) and Gordon MacRae.  I can remember sitting there, bawling my eyes out to the extent that an usher (remember them?)  made me sit in that very cry room because I was making too much  noise.  What happened in that cry room later, stayed in that cry room.  ( I hope!)   I remember walking home after school, maybe Westwood, maybe Rich, for Karmelcorn  and then to Shapiro's to x-ray my feet.   Probably not the best  idea, in retrospect...    I still like Dots (the staler, the better) and Good 'n Plenty.   Bad feet and many fillings  later,  I still remember those  warm afternoons walking  home through the Plaza.   Branson's, having a horrible hair disaster quickly rever$ed at their beauty salon, (the  only place open on Mondays...) the Park Forest Grill, vanilla phosphates and Louie the french fry cook,  and yeah, Burney Bros bakery  with the little pink boxes tied with strings.   Our Reunions must have been noisy affairs with all the memories flying around.  

Sorry to have missed them  !

Michael O'Bryant

I think the name of the restaurant with the green rivers was The Grill. Yes? No?

Gloria Lisanti (Brown)

Oh Bonnie, you are so right about Burney Bros. Bakery!  Honestly, I have never had donuts and bear claws that topped the ones my dad would bring home almost every Sunday morning! No, I never met the fries guy at The Grill, but I did go there after every movie!

I always enjoyed the parades through town, especially when my friends and I would decorate our bikes with rolls of red, white, and blue crepe paper and ride right along!

Gail Richardson (Brindle)

You are right, Mike.  It was the Grill, and such a fun hangout!

Joan Dutt (Crocker)

I loved going to the grill for cherry cokes and French fries!

David Clayton

The Plaza was an amazing place for me having just arrived from a small farming town in eastern South Dakota. My first date with Stephanie Rahn. Must have been 6th grade. Went to the movie. Don't recall what was playing. Two rows back, friends egging us on to kiss. The guys giving me step by step instructions on making out.  I wasn't ready. A country hick of sorts. Stephanie and I  walked home (198 Park Rd.) and we sat in my bedroom and both listened to my short wave radio with two pairs of headphones. 

 We were living way ahead of our times, it would appear in retrospect. You could walk or ride your bike anywhere in PF. Toby Roth and I caught painted turtles and raised them in my window well on Park Rd. When it rained I'd find them marching down Park Rd. in single file.

Dave Clayton 

Seth Eisner

I remember losing every Duncan yoyo contest I ever entered.  I'd get through the tricks to the loops but there were always guys (no girls that I recall) who were loopier than I.  My friend and our late classmate Bill Keplinger was real good.  He won stuff just about every week.  One of several classmates I'd looked forward to seeing at the reunion but sadly learned I wouldn't.

Do any of you remember leaving tips at The Grill after we'd occupied a table for half an hour, eating French fries and drinking Coke and making more noise than anyone else in the place could have appreciated?  Perhaps the answers to those questions explain why the servers ("waitresses" -- no guys that I recall) -- were always pretty surly towards the kid customers like us. 

Kaye Smith (Stewart)

What great memories everyone----boy do they jog my mind a little.  Peggy----I don't for the life of me remember going to see Psycho----hummmm, wonder if my Mom knew?  I remember that she put her foot down on Splendor in the Grass and she didn't even know about the making out at the theater!  Anyone remember the bowling alley?

Raymond Brindle

Oh my, the bowling alley. How many countless hours shooting 9 ball. I think my car could have driven itself between the bowling alley and the Clark station on Western. $2 would buy a pack of cigarettes and enough gas to last the entire weekend.

Gerald Deslauriers

Definitely having a hot dog/burger and a REAL foaming root beer at the A&W root beer stand in I believe Richton Park. The stuff they pass off as root beer in the A&W fast food places today just does not taste as good!

Paul Hastings

Gerald,

I remember the A&W well. My brother and I used to play tennis on hot summer afternoons where your tennis shoes would push the asphalt arpound like putty. Afterward, we go to the Richton Park A&W and each get two of those giant, frothy mugs. ARGHHH! I want one now!

Anita "Bonnie" Meyer (Vann)

Ray, you're right: Now when  I tell people  you could buy a pack of cigarettes and fill up your car for 2 bucks, they look at me like I'm nutz.   Dandy's drive in on Friday nights,  here I come!

Michael O'Bryant

How about gas for a quarter a gallon and a quart of oil for a quarter at the Clark gas station. Mcguin and I crusing Dandy's drive in in his '57 chevy, or Billy Paul and I crusing Dandy's in his '54 Ford or my '51 Chrysler?

Dean Osterling

That A&W was my first actually legal (age wise) job.  Yes, they really don't make rootbeer the same any more.

Stephen Goldberg

I like Dave Clayton's description of the Plaza.  But my perspective was different.  For those of you that might remember me, I attended Rich East for only my junior year, having moved to Park Forest when it was the edge of non-farmland civilization from inside the Chicago city limits and then back to where I came after my dad died at the end of the year.  Having grown up in a modest income but truly urban and older neighborhooda where no one had two cars (only the dad's did and took it to work each day), I was overwhelmned by the cleanliness and the newness of Park Forest and, for better or worse, the uniformity of it all.  (I was kind of surprised that I realized soon after I moved that you didn't need to ask people where the bathrooms were in their townhouses or houses because there were only three or four floorplans for each, and were very easy to memorize.....)  But the Plaza was so special to me, never having had easy access to a modern shopping center.  (Old ORchard in Skokie was the closest to me in those years before and after I moved to Park Forest, and, without a car, could have been on the moon.).

But most of all, I remember the kindness of my new classmates at Rich East.  I was "taken in" by so many people, including those from different groups who did not really associate with each other.  I felt welcomed totally, loved the junior-senior prom with Penny Carter (that was the year we went to Bloomington, IN, before I knew could appreciate what a nasty red state Indiana is.......hopefully none of you are living their now who I might be offeending), and enjoyed both living in Park Forest in general and being part of a culture that was so new and exciting to me.    I will say, though, my single year there was the only time in my life that I have lived in any place other than an older urban area or city center.  I am not sure what that means.....

I will never forget my year (61-62) in Park Forest.  And just who was it that was working at McDonald's before they had such total controls over ordering and that could stuff my single order of a hamburger and fries with about 5 cheeseburgers and orders of fries and a milkshake (or two)??   I have a recollection of who it was but do not want to defame anyone, even if the statutue of limitations for petty theft has long passed...

Oh, and I love receiving the emails that come regularly from the site and my thanks to those of you who maintain it.

Patricia Fiandaca (Haze)

The Park Forest Bowling Alley,owned and operated by the Gould family, how manyused to playpool there after school and get something to eat or drink from the snack bar?  Does anyonej remember aa lady who worked there by the namej of Millie?  That was my Mom.  In the warmer weather I used to walk from Rich East to the bowling alley to see her after school.  Recall seeing the Aulinkskis brother there playing pool.  Sooo many good memories of Park Forest back in the day.  Really good times!

Mike Shea

I only went to the movies about every three weeks. Tough to follow Flash Gordon that way!

Caryl Harris (Sewell)

I used to practice for the yo yo contests at the movie theater  In fact, I still can walk the dog and rock the baby in the cradle! But I never got the courage to go up and compete. I wasn't any good at loop the loop. It seemed to be that the kids who won could do it forever!

Bruce Petersen

Ok I guess I have to jump in here. You folks have scratched a lot of nerves.

I also spent a lot of time at the bowling alley shooting pool. Bob Brucker and Bill Porter were my runnin' mates. Eventually we started going to the back room at Tobacco World in the Heights. That's where I really learned to shoot and developed a love for the game. Finally something I could do reasonably well.

I remember coming out of Dandy's with my 40 Ford. I had the Lakers open and jumped on it. Two blocks down the Heights cop stopped me. He wanted me to rev the engine. Of course I barely goosed it. He said, "No, do it like you do for the gilrs at the drive in." A lot of drag races we arranged at Dandy's also. A great place to hang out. If you had a really cool car you would do laps. I worked for a long time at the Clark station on Western. At the time It was owned/leased or whatever by Bill Porter's brother-in-law, Randy. I probably pumped gas in a lot of your cars. 

The Grill was someplace we went either before or after the movies. Chocolate cokes, Green Rivers, French Fries. The the movies. Eventually graduated to going to the Saulk Trail Drive In. I wonder how many babies were conceived there.  

I dated a girl who worked at the A&W in Richton Park. She was a really nice girl. She went to Homewood-Flossmore. I agree A&W was the best. I loved the floats. Daddy, Momma, and Baby burgers. Ha.

Raymond Brindle

Mike, we could only allow you out every 3 weeks. Otherwise you would steal all the girls

Larry McDaniel

So much fun to read everyone's recollections!  Wow, Burny Bros - I had forgotten about that place.  Loved their chocolate eclairs and the jelly donuts - that's way back when they actually FILLED your donut with filling!  And A&W - we used to go there after tennis practice and get the 1 quart root beer in a cardboard container - I remember it was in the shape of a cheerleaders megaphone!  Also, remember tossing popcorn from the balcony, what was it - 10 cents a bag?  Good stuff, keep those memories coming!

Jean Hahn (Roberts)

I, too, have enjoyed reading about everyone's PF memories. The theater, KarmelKorn shop, Grill, and bowling alley loomed large in all our lives. I also have many memories of browsing through Maeyama's bookstore. Some of you probably know that Bob Maeyama was a career PF police officer. In fact, he gave me the only ticket I ever got for speeding. He was chief of police for  many years. I also loved going to Lyon and Healy's, playing the pianos, and buying sheet music. And there was that little record store next to the Grill. That's where I bought my first 45--"Blueberry Hill."

I raised my children in Homewood (husband Tom is an H-F graduate), and spent some years teaching and subbing at H-F. Homewood offered my kids some of the same kinds of experiences we all had. A small town where they could walk almost anywhere. Their memories are of the pizzas at Aurelios and hanging out at the Dairy Queen in the summer. Makes me wonder if our grandchildren will have these kinds of memories. Mine are growing up  in Richmond, VA, where it seems you have to drive everywhere. Aren't even any neighborhood parks; you have to drive to them.

Gloria Lisanti (Brown)

Splish, splash!  

I remember with fondness the long, lazy summer days I spent at the Aquacenter.  What giddy anticipation we all felt when building it was finally underway!  At last, once it opened we enjoyed so many fun times.  Passing the swimming test for the "big" pool was a major accomplishment.  The talent shows and other events that were thought up by the management, were equally amusing!

Anita "Bonnie" Meyer (Vann)

I'm really loving  reading over all the old memories, so many of them are the same for all of us.  I used to go to Lyon & Healy too, to imagine I could play piano... (not!)  My very first pizza ever was from IC Pizza in Richton Park, I don't think I ever had one quite that good again, although Homewood Aurelio's  sure came close.  There's several Aurelios now in LV, but they're just not the same.  They try, but have no frame of reference as to what the real deal was.    Reading back, we all thought we were really tough and grown up once we had cars to drive (always my Mom & Dad's), but reading through all the posts,  I realize we were children,   and for the most part pretty innocent,  compared  to what high school kids experience now, all these years later.  We had it so good, most of us, and never considered it could be otherwise...