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...  

Fred Daubenspeck

The post on Bob Maeyama brought back memories of waiting at the bus with Bob. He would delight in pushing me to the ground and proceeding to rap on my chest with a knuckle. Oh, the sadistic gleam he had in his eye. 

When I returned to the area, he was a policman and then the chief. Figures!  Lol

Mike Shea

Ray, you already had all of the girls!!!

Seth Eisner

Fred, you shoulda whacked 'im with your clarinet!  (Dave Clayton asked me to apologize to you for the time he knocked you out of bounds and broke your arm in a flag football game.  Flag was supposed to be the non-violent version of football, wasn't it?)  Anyway, very nice to see your name pop up in this intriguing sequence of messages.

Raymond Brindle

This is 18 minutes long but will take you back to a simpler time. Cowboys, white hats and horses. Right and wrong. My hero was Hopalong Cassidy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSYaUoJa5Pg&app=desktop

Barbara Mears

Seth Eisner, forgive me for introducing a new topic to this thread, but as I recall, we were in the same class in either 7th or 8th grade at Westwood Jr. High.  I've often wondered whatever became of Neil Johnson, our Language Arts teacher.  I remember him as being an inspiring and innovative person, but, of course, my memory might be false in this regard.  Any information?

Larry Toy

Barbara, thanks for your post. I also remember Neil Johnson as quite an inspiration. He had an underlying warmth and careing for us, with the right amount of cynicism about the world. I'm guessing he would be between 90 and 100 now.

Larry 

Jean Hahn (Roberts)

Barbara and Larry, my sister (Lynn, class of '68) was friends with Neil's daughter Vicki. Neil was married for awhile to a classmate of ours, Shirley Strothman. I believe he passed some years ago. Bernie Charland, a science teacher and one of my favorites, became principal of Westwood Junior High; he has also passed. And many of us had Al Sandefer at Rich East. He eventually became principal there. Unfortunately, he has also passed.

James Kiley

Back to the Plaza for just a moment. I remember in the late 50's Park Forest was visited be then Vice President Richard Nixon who was running for President against John Kennedy. When Nixon arrived at the Plaza he spoke on top of the portico on the Goldblats building. I don't recall PF as a hot bed of Republican politics but literally thousands of people where there to hear him speak.

Peggy Magnusson

Jim, it must have been about that same time that President Eisenhower drove down Western Ave. in a car caravan. I recall him waving from the back seat of a handsome convertible.  Both sides of the Avenue were packed with enthusiastic citizens, proud to see our President, but probably few planned to vote his VP into office. 

Shelby Smith (Larsen)

Hi all

I remember going back and seeking out Neil Johnson, whom we all liked.  And I don't know why I knew this-- maybe from my mother who kept track of things at Westwood, since I had younger siblings--and he was, for some reason, selling large appliances at Goldblatts.  (Maybe he had too much interest in younger women? I have to say, Jean , that I find the fact that he was married, at whatever the respective ages were, to Shirley Strothman a little creepy) 

I didn't go alone--maybe Amy Star went with me--but I remember venturing into Goldblatts and finding him by washing machines. It was a very awkward encounter.  

Barbara Mears

Thank you all for the information about Mr. Johnson.  Aside from his personal behavior, I do remember him as someone who made me more aware of the realities outside my own rather insular (at that point) life.  Shelby, I remember Mr. Johnson (and possibly Mr. Charland) working at Goldblatt's during summer vacation (and one of my high school English teachers working at a gas station during the summer).  I guess it was hard to support a family on a teacher's pay back then.

Seth Eisner

Barbara, I don't think I can add anything to what our classmates have already said about Neil Johnson, except that he gave me such a bad grade for "citizenship" that my parents -- who were used to being upset only about my oldest brother's behavior in school -- got a chance to be upset with mine.  (In high school, Don Marcotte, who was also my speech coach, once gave me a U for citizenship, but he said okay when I asked him not to do it again because it upset my mother.)

Jimmy K., Park Forest was very Republican, though, like you, I don't recall a lot of political activity.  

Larry Toy

PF was in the heart of the Republican Chicago suburbs. I remember that the Republicans would always be watching the vote out of Cook County to see how much the suburbs had counteracted the overwhelming Democratic votes from Chicago itself and whether the gap was small enough for the rest of state (generally very Republican) to overcome. Kennedy's vote in the 1960 election was a good example, where he won by only 8000 votes (including, it was said, at least a few thousand who were no longer with us!).

However, it was a very different era for the Republican party. Illinois had Chuck Percy as our senator, and Jake Javits was in New York, along with Nelson Rockefeller, while California had Bill Knowland and Earl Warren, and there were many others whom I don't think would be accepted as Republicans today. 

My parents became citizens in time for the 1952 elections. I remember that my mother would always vote Democratic and my father Republican (a precursor of the current politcal gender gap). They continued that way until the 1964 election, when my father wouldn't vote for Goldwater. However, I think their split vote resumed in 1968 and continued at least to 1980.

Larry

PS. Coincident to our discussion of Westwood JH and Neil Johnson, I got a nice surprise email from Harold Morehead (thanks to Facebook and Mike Shea's friends) who taught PE and Health. He just turned 80 last month and taught in PF for 33 years. That means he was just out of college when he was teaching us back in 1957-59. I plan on giving him a call when I get back home later this month.

Jean Hahn (Roberts)

My parents were also split politically, although it was my father who was the democrat and my mother the republican. My mother grew up in a politically active family in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. Her uncle, Walter McCarron, was Cook County coroner from 1952 to 1960, a rare republican in the position. I remember Mom campaigning for Marino Richton in the 1950s for state representative, which race he won. He was also mayor of Chicago Heights at some point. I remember being in 6th grade at Sauk Trail School when Nixon came to PF. We were all outside in front of the school to wave as his motorcade went by. In 2008, a the age of 89, my mother voted for Obama, her first democratic presidential vote ever.

David Clayton

When Nixon ran against Kennedy in the fall of 1960, Nixon drove down Forest Ave in an open convertible. Right where Forest makes a turn towards the Plaza, in front of our unit on Park Rd., I was standing in a black leather coat at the curb hiding a sign that read: Kennedy's the Remedy.  Just as Nixon's car was making the turn, I made eye contract with him by waving my arms frantically. At that moment I whipped up the sign and Nixon immediately turned away. My first political "demonstration".

Dave  Clayton

Raymond Brindle

I remember Richard Nixon coming to PF. I was walking to work at McDonalds on Western and his motorcade came by. He was waving at the crowds lining Western. I certainly wasn't very politically astute in high school but I remember Senator Everette Dirksen (Rep) gave me my appointment to the Air Force Academy and mentioned that PF was a good "Republican community"

Leslie Segool (Spees)

Our  memories of life in Park Forest are so vivid..  Its nice to hear about some favorite teachers....Mr. Charland, Mr. Sandefer, Mr. Morehouse, and also my French and biology teachers at Rich H.S.  I arrived  PF from Mass. when I was 5.  The eleven new elmentary schools were just openning up.  My father helped set up the desks.  I did kindergarten in one of the rental units and managed to break my ankle so I had to drag around my leg in one of those plaster castes.  The Park Forest rental area was heaven for kids.  There were so many kids!! I later moved to a house  near Westwood Jr. High.  

   Speaking of kindergarten...just 2 more weeks of school (yes they have learned to read well, write stories, and add and subtract).  They expect a lot of kids now adays.  A week after school lets out I fly to Australia for 8 weeks and finally get to be with my grandchildren.  Thank goodness for skype. Have a great summer!  Leslie Spees
 

Richard Robey (Robey)

Thinking about speaches from the Goldblatts Portico,  My Family had moved to Park forest in 1949, I was told one of the first 200 to move in.  but I remember Dwight d Eisenhower running for President in 1952 what was I 8 yrs old.  had a "I like Ike" pin and he speaking from that same Goldblatts portico.  Then too the crowds were huge, the entire area from the clock tower to Goldblatts was filled with people anxious to hear him speak. 

Alan Towner

I remember then VP Richard Nixon stopping at Sauk Trail school. Must have been during the 1956 election year. We were all out on the sidewalks watching the hoopla. Also remember the Oscar Meyer Weinerwagon making an appearance the same year.

James Kiley

Alan,  Which one did you like better?

Shelby Smith (Larsen)

I remember Nixon drives past Sauk Trail time? We all stood outside to watch, and it seems tome he was late. I remember us as standing there a long time. I think that was earlier than the Goldblatts speech-the 56 campaign?"

To return briefly to Neil Johnson. Barbara Mears, you may be right and our foray to find him at Goldblatts was during the summer. My memories do blend a bit. I want to say you were right about something else, too. He was a very inspiring teacher. I am pretty sure I had him for both seventh and eighth grade. To this day, he is one of the few if not I he only name that comes to mind when I am asked about my favorite, or most inspiring, or influential teachers. Does anyone else remember the time he had us put out heads on our desks, and then he fired a shot of some sort--blanks, starting pistol?) into a file cabinet, and asked us to write about it?

Mary Ann Cantu (Horchler)

I met Jack Horchler at the Karmelcorn where he was working!  51 years later we are still eating Karmelcorn!