1 10 21 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/1bf10d2dde1679a7117e83a32fab933a.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=B7sSOgA8x8Uf-11TlMLH48NfGsB4nnlaDRb7wtrt8EHkBkZtGJ2tStTTZ6v4O44XkoMW14hTL-4zPBFIdVuvahQRZ%7ES2yzR-taWBAGxMtOoai9f-sfb499X-VPLB9kCrLVTFA3Q%7Efo848HziihGHsWZJiNl2joZE8WfF3GjVrkjGV8qrux0vwwQVntkapCKY5-o4jUCV7uQppgQZAr4Lw6yLW4Ln%7EXBsSUCWKDJZwuWgPZYBYT54P8yF-pSVscjG00CgU0gUZBBCKVCjkcafUzYWC0wjCO%7E04Au1zkL%7EdKx%7ELFzylTpHoTcaxpcmRGcIIr6tTeOuobWVpeuQCwAtpQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 5113f665010102cc4d1ac980206f8eba Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Adrienne Stern https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/8baa81b6f134a668c531faf9558a3375.mp3?Expires=1781740800&Signature=QsI9exgnpDA3rsnHp8M40Wc7x%7EvNoa2GYqU2X8QXLczk2Lt80mXIkPEyEYamJHii3m0qRfnDzwqPm4ztyYK6dphCU2iJEanbOcDUxiguhPOLVZ6VL9WM4Leu3xFsDRuyXxNbVKzBF6YrvUAlIcQTo9XHYrXvq-XKY-ZuQflSyEEZz5u%7Eusu9o-GG46BVYmXUaCUbcgSUJxJrgnxI8343P3cGmhzkz2o4dpV856sUPu2HSls9rP1LKoRtqWSgwcORe66tyCFu8W4%7EZ5OIIuAqjn-WF1RJiZxMq6qVKyXaHAdp153yCbic7aSSyew%7EjJMlAO5RA5qhoAS7oWKM8Nv8hA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 4241eb594350870910deb165bec76b60 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Adrienne Stern Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story - Adrienne Stern Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“I feel like I’ve had a good life and you have to give back. It’s our obligation as Jews that we must help out other people and do what we must do for other people.”<br /></strong><br />Born in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago, Adrienne Stern moved to Lincolnwood after the birth of her first son in 1961. As a certified aquatic exercise instructor, she has taught Aquanastics every summer at the Lincolnwood Pool since its opening in the 1970s. Ms. Stern talks about growing up in Chicago, meeting her husband, and what has kept her in Lincolnwood even after selling the family home.<br /><br /><em>This interview was recording using Zoom.</em><br /><em> </em><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is October 30th, 2020. And I'm interviewing Adrienne Stern for our oral history project. Adrienne, thank you for joining me. And what is your lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  0:16  <br />I must say we moved in Lincolnwood when my oldest son was six months old. And in May of 1961. This population, of course, then was a lot smaller than it is now. We knew all the policemen by their names. Hamlin Avenue, from Touhy to Lunt, was not paved. We had a tree in the middle of the street, as a matter of fact. My alley, which was next to my kitchen--there was an alley that ran along the house--was used as a street because they couldn't get through on Hamlin. The mail truck would come by there and everything. So that was the only way that people could get down the street there. We had pheasants that came to the edge of the road to eat, where they have [inaudible] in order to digest their food. And if they didn't have a very good fight, they would barely make it over the roof tops of the houses there. We could see all the way to--it was an open field we could see all the way to--Bell &amp; Howell, which is where the Lincolnwood Mall is now. We heard all the noises when they were building Winston Towers. I think it was in the thick of '64. The pile drivers were going till 11 o'clock at night. We were going out of our minds to find out who to contact to take care of it. Anyhow, Lincolnwood was not very diverse at that time. We had a young black man, who my husband worked with, who was coming to fix the shed. And he told us when he got to the house, he parked the car and the police were right there directly behind him. He told me they were following him from McCormick and Devon all the way to our house. We were on Greenleaf and Hamlin. So I got to the window and I waved to the policemen that it was okay. And then they drove away. But I mean it was incredible. I guess it just was such an odd thing to see a black man there, they were very, very cautious. It was kind of weird. Let's see, super snow in '68: all of our neighbors pooled together all the food, and everybody got very, very close to each other. We'd support each other. There was an abandoned milk truck in the middle of Hamlin Avenue, south of Greenleaf, that he couldn't go any further. He was stuck in the snow. So we relieved him of the milk and the butter and whatever else he had in his truck. So we had extra things that we could use. People got very, very friendly. All of our neighbors were friends with each other. We'd all basically moved in around the same time of each other. But when somebody new moved in, we always brought a cake to welcome them to the neighborhood. This doesn't exist any longer, I'm afraid. As I said we could see all the way to Bell &amp; Howell. There were factories. There were no factories at all. We fought to prevent factories. It turned out there was a comprehensive rezoning that was to be going on in Lincolnwood. We had one car at that time. My husband's was at work. So two of us walked with our baby buggies, and we went to Village Hall because they wouldn't tell us what the comprehensive rezoning was about. And they said the book was at the clerk's office and we should come and look at it. So we did, and we found out that you could not have a house of ill repute in Lincolnwood. And you could not have a sauerkraut factory. Those were the two prohibitions of Lincolnwood. And then we said, "Well, what was the comprehensive rezoning? What is that?" So she said, "Look in the back." So in the inside flap of the end of the book was a folded up piece of paper. It was like a map. And we said, "Oh, here's my house. Here's your house." And we said, "What's this M, which was to the east of us?" And she said, "Oh, that means manufacturing." Well we were assured that when we moved in, it was all single family residential. And we saw that M, we got hysterical. We went home. We alerted the entire neighborhood that they are trying to put factories in there. So we start fighting this thing. We hired an attorney and the whole bit. We were getting nowhere very rapidly. And then one day, we found out the mayor owned the property there. And we were in contact with the mayor's attorney. The land was not in the mayor's name, it was in the attorney's name and the attorney's secretary. But we found out that that was not the case that he really did own the land. And we were getting nowhere. And one of my neighbors was a builder in Lincolnwood, and he said, "I'll give you some information. I can't get involved, but maybe this could help you." There was a piece of property on the corner of Lunt and Crawford that he had a bid on, and they called and they said, "Somebody has bid more money. If you want to meet it, you know, you can have it be yours." I think it was he had bid 16,000. Somebody offered 18,000, I believe was the figure. And he said, "No, it's not worth any more than that. I'm not giving you that." So they said, "Okay." And they sold it. They sold the land to Mayor Proesel. And it turned out that's where they put Town Hall, a school there, and we didn't think it would look too good that he had prior knowledge of what was going to be built there. So we decided, well, should we tell the newspapers? We decided to call his attorney. And we told him we didn't think it would look very good in the papers that the mayor had prior knowledge of this and that's why he bought the land. He sold it to the school board for, I think it was $123,000. And then they built Town Hall there. We had a lot of different things with Mayor Proesel. We fought for the library. He said what do you need a library for? You've got Skokie, you can use that. Then we fought for the pool. And I will give you the quote. "What do you people need a pool for? You have the JCC." The "you people" hung there in pregnant quotes. And then we knew we had to do something, that we had to force him with a referendum. And we finally got the people to agree that they would like a pool in Lincolnwood. It opened in 1972. I started teaching "aquanastics" there in 1973. And I taught for 46 years. If it wasn't that the pool didn't open this year, I would have been there teaching again.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:55  <br />Are you still teaching? I mean with the exception of this year of course. <br /><br />Adrienne Stern  8:52  <br />Correct. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:53  <br />Still teaching? Wow.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  8:54  <br />Yeah, and I've got muscles for sure. Let's see. We've seen many changes here in the area. So many different stores and restaurants, and they've changed and gone away and we miss them. Where the bank is. They just closed. Fifth Third had bought out the bank on Touhy and Crawford. And that was a grocery store. It was called Linwoods, and that was our favorite store. It was wonderful. I would send the kids there for just milk or whatever the hell we needed, and you didn't have to worry that it was right there in the neighborhood. We had a butcher shop there. We had a bakery there. We had a local drugstore and the snack shops. It's so different now. It's incredible.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:48  <br />So you said you moved to Lincolnwood, you said 1961. Right?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  9:54  <br />Correct.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:55  <br />So tell me a little bit about where you moved from, and why did you decided to move to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  10:01  <br />Okay, we lived in Logan Square which is where I grew up. It now became a very nice neighborhood. And it was always a great place to live, but now the yuppies have discovered it. When I got married, we didn't even have an apartment. You couldn't get in the apartments and things were really tight. We went on our honeymoon without having a place to come back to. And then my mother's butcher lived in this building on Sawyer Avenue, and he told her there was an apartment for rent there. My mother grabbed it for us. It was a three-and-a-half-room apartment and had just one bedroom. And we had adopted my son after seven years. And we decided because we needed a bigger place, it's time to go into a house. So we'd loved Lincolnwood. I thought it was a great place. By the way, where my building sits now on the corner of Touhy and Lincoln was a very famous, very lovely restaurant called the House of Pierre. My dad used to bring us here. We would travel all the way down Lincoln Avenue to get there. And they had strolling violinists. It was really a very classy place. I remember very distinctly. Anyhow, so we moved into the house, and it was a cute little small house. And then I gave birth to my other son three years later. We had wonderful neighbors and became dear, dear friends through the years. And even when one of them moved to California, we stayed with them when we went out there. I was closer to her than I think to my own sister, frankly. We were dear friends. She passed away 19 years ago. I miss her every single day. So my boys went to, you know, all the schools there: Town Hall, Rutledge, Lincoln Hall, and of course Niles West. They had a wonderful, excellent education all the way through [inaudible]. My older one is an engineer. He's a civil engineer. And my younger one is an entertainment attorney. And they both live in California unfortunately. Anyhow, we didn't really want to leave Lincolnwood. It was just part of our, you know ... My husband couldn't take the stairs anymore in the house. We had to find a building that had an elevator which is the reason we came here. And we're very happy here. We've always been involved in everything here in the village. My husband helped co-found the Lincolnwood Police Foundation and he was the treasurer there. I served on the Madeline Grants 2000 Commission. I forgot what they called it. It was going to be "what were you gonna do in the future? The future's here." I was also the treasurer of Friends of the Park. We were the ones who took over and did the carnival every summer. What else can I tell you? I think that Mayor Proesel is spinning in his grave right now. I'm not saying he was antisemitic, but he would die again if he knew we had a Jewish mayor and a Jewish police chief. It really cracks me up what I know about because he was he was not the most ecumenical guy you ever want to meet in your life. And I don't know what else I can tell you. Things are very, very different now. The diversity of the population here has changed drastically. The building that I live in is the perfect example. At one time. it was I think 95 or 90 to 95 percent Jewish. There are very few of us here now. We have Muslims, we have one Black family, several Asian families, and a lot of Montenegrins. So it's changed really quite a bit. But we still love it here and found that it was a great place to live. It was certainly close to Chicago whenever we wanted to go in. And yet we had the suburban life which was awesome. It was very nice.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:13  <br />After you moved out of your house, what kept you in Lincolnwood, as opposed to, you know, moving somewhere else?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  15:23  <br />Well, we knew everybody. We knew every mayor, I guess, afterwards. The police have changed drastically, but we're still friends with some of them who are now retired. And of course, my husband was on the Family Foundation--you know, the Police Foundation. And you had pools. Even though I have a pool here in my building, I still go to the Lincolnwood pool. Aside from teaching there, I have a lot of friends. We have a whole enclave at the pool that we'll see each other. As matter of fact, we just met for lunch last Wednesday at L. Woods. We keep in touch with each other.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:05  <br />How did you get involved in teaching at the pool?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  16:10  <br />How. Let me think. I was teaching certified. Well, the certification didn't come till afterwards. I started teaching before there was certification with the AEA, which is the Aquatic Education Association--Exercise Association. I taught at the Leaning Tower YMCA for a while. And then when we opened the pool up, the following year is when I started teaching there. And we started out with bleach bottles--I tried milk bottles, but they were too soft--in order to get to be able to work in the water. There was no equipment at that time. They didn't have the buoys, the weights, they didn't have noodles. It just didn't exist. So I had people saving their bleach bottles that were used to push down on the water. Then we started using eight-inch playground balls. But by that time, the AEA started coming out with equipment. And so I had at one time 25 or 26 women in the class. Now we're down to like I think it's nine. I have some of the original people are still in my classes as a matter of fact. They come back every year. We have a wonderful time. We do it to music. Now that there's more equipment, it's easier. We have the noodles that we use and the weights. It's fun; we have a wonderful time doing it. And my class is very, very loyal to me. They come back every year.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:04  <br />So like you said, some of the people have been with you the whole time that you've been teaching?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  18:11  <br />I have one or two that are still. We've gotten old together. Most have passed away already unfortunately, but I got some of them stuck with me all through the years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:24  <br />So I wanted to go back a little bit. So you said you were born in Chicago, correct? And lived in Logan Square. Tell me a bit about your parents.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  18:35  <br />I was a very lucky girl. I had marvelous, marvelous parents and we had a wonderful life growing up. I have a younger sister. And my father was an exceptional man. It's hard to describe. Do you know what the word "Tzaddik" is? In Jewish lore, it is a righteous man. They believe there are 36 at one time in the world at all times. And I believe my dad was one of them. He was an incredible individual. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:12  <br />What made him so incredible in your opinion?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  19:18  <br />We didn't find out a lot of things that he did until his funeral and people were coming up to us and telling us. He paid for one man's honeymoon. That guy was about to leave for service and he paid for him to go to New York on is honeymoon. He paid for a woman to get piano lessons for her child. He'd help her pay for the piano. He was just an incredible guy. Loving. It's very hard. He was so wonderful. I just have trouble with remembering. I was lucky enough to find a man I married who was virtually very much like my dad, and I had a wonderful life with him. He just passed away seven months ago. And I consider myself very, very fortunate that we lived in a middle-class life when I was growing up, and we were never in want of anything. And my parents took very good care of us, taught us well, taught us to be charitable. My maiden name was Erlich. In German, that means honest. And my dad always felt that we should always live up to that. I hope that I have sustained his belief and followed in his footsteps. We've been very charitable. I feel that I've had a good life and you have to give back. It's our obligation. In Jewish it's called "tikkun olam," which really means to repair the world. And that's our obligation as Jews that we must help out other people and do what we must do for other people.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:20  <br />What about your mother?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  21:21  <br />My mother was a wonderful lady. She never worked. She was a wonderful housekeeper. She [inaudible]. She was a great cook and a great baker. And she and my dad lived a wonderful quiet, nice life. We never heard arguing in the house. She was active in Hadassah and the synagogue and the sisterhood. And she did wonderful things for us. Now I look back and I wonder how she even did it. We lived not far from transportation. We had to walk to the L at that time. But she took us to performances down at the Goodman Theatre. I remember seeing Alice in Wonderland and things like that. She always made sure we were exposed to plays and to the theater. And she took me down for my piano lessons Downtown. Originally, I took piano lessons in the house. And then I had to switch to something at Kimball Hall. And we would go for lunch afterwards. And I just have wonderful, wonderful memories. I've had a wonderful, wonderful childhood.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:42  <br />Were they born in Chicago, or did they immigrate?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  22:49  <br />Yeah, they immigrated. My dad was 20 years old. He came from a place called Galicia, which never existed after the First World War. Then it became Austria Hungary. Then it was Russia. Then it was Poland. Today is sits in the Ukraine. So the same place is still there, but it depends who won the war that week. He came when he was 20. My mother came when she was two years old from Minsk, which is Belorussia--White Russia. And she originally went to live in New York, and left New York when she was 10 years old, and they moved to a very small town here in Illinois called Amboy, Illinois. Most people never heard of it. It's near Sycamore and DeKalb and places like that. She had a sister there who was lonely, had married a man from DeKalb, and she drove her crazy. She wanted her to come and be family with her. So they lived in Amboy, Illinois. And then my grandmother couldn't stand that they left. In New York, they had electricity. They had indoor toilets. They got to Amboy, they had outdoor toilets, kerosene lamps, lighting, and they a well. She used to keep the meat down the well to keep cold. And because she was kosher, she never ate meat the entire time she was there, but she would give it to the kids. And finally she couldn't stand it anymore. She sent my grandfather on a Saturday to Chicago to go find some friends or something. And that's how they ended up moving to Chicago, which was my fortune because she met my dad.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:49  <br />And you know how they met?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  24:51  <br />Yeah, my dad's sister. My mother met her at a dance. And they got to be quite friendly and she introduced her to my dad. It was from the JPI. I think it was like Douglas Forward in the West Side. So that's how they met. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:10  <br />What are your own memories of growing up in Chicago? Where did you go to school?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  25:17  <br />I went to Darwin Grammar School, and I was supposed to go to Tuley and I didn't want to go to Tuley. My friends and I also decided we had to get permits, and at that time you had to talk to your alderman. I guess they had to pay off a little bit. And we all went to Roosevelt High School. We rode the Kimball bus all the way to Roosevelt. I used to walk to Kedzie and Logan Boulevard to catch the bus. They had taken the buses off during the Second World War because they had rubber wheels on them and they needed the rubber. So we had to take a streetcar originally when I first went. I think after the first year, we did put the buses back on. And we had a lot of stories with that. I had a mouton fur coat, which is a lamb of some sort. And when it got wet, it smelled terribly. It smelled like tomato herring. Really could describe it. And we had a locker at school. There were three of us that shared the locker, and we all had these heavy big mouton coats, and how we shoved them in and put our boots inside it. And I think of it now and we'd laugh. There's one of us still left besides me. It was fun. It was fun. There was a whole bunch of us who were the bus riders. Some of them came all the way from Division Street. And we were like a halfway mark before they picked us up. And sometimes the buses used to break down in fact quite frequently. And we would get a transfer from the bus driver to show when we came in late to school. We would use the transfer is our admit why were late. We had a lot of nice times and it was a good time. We were the first class after the war was over. And we graduated grammar school in '45 and high school in '49. It was a lovely time. It was a time when things were much simpler then. I remember my dad bringing home the first TV. And we were the only ones in our building, which was a six-flat building, who had a TV. So all the neighbors came to watch TV. Tuesday night was the big night. It was Milton Berle and afterwards was wrestling. And the pattern came on afterwards. My mother was saying let's open a restaurant because we had all these people there she was serving every night. And my landlady once said to my mother, "She shouldn't mind because you're making up [inaudible]." So it was fun. Then other people started getting TVs. And my dad kept bringing back bigger TVs because ours was kind of a little one. And every time they came out with a bigger size, he brought us the bigger one. And then when they came out with color, wow we were really well known in the neighborhood. But people started getting their own TVs, so it became a little easier. But meanwhile, I was in school and studying. I was a sophomore in '47. We had all these people in the house every night. It was kind of tough. But I remember distinctly it was an interesting time. We had chairs set up in the living room like theater style. We had a lot of people there. It was fun though.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:18  <br />How many people would come over on any given night?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  29:22  <br />Let me think. Three, six, nine ... probably a dozen. Yeah. Tuesday night was the big night because it was Milton Berle. Yeah. That was the biggest one. It was fun. There was no air conditioning originally. We had a park that was half a block away from us, south of us, called Palmer Park. And I remember going there with my parents and bringing blankets and our pillows and walking over to the park when it got very, very hot, and we slept in the park. I remember doing that two or three times in as a matter of fact. But that park was our neighborhood park, and all the kids knew everybody. Mostly the boys, I knew all the boys. They used to play baseball there, and it was not allowed. And the Shakespeare Avenue police department would always chase them away all the time. It was a terrible thing.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:21  <br />What were some of your hobbies? Or, what did you enjoy doing, growing up?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  30:26  <br />I'm an artist. So I've always had a pencil in my hand. And in the later years, I sculpted. And it got too heavy for me now, so then I just do watercolor. But I've always been an artist. I had a nack. That was my big hobby. And I play piano. I did play piano. I don't any longer.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:51  <br />How did the interest in art develop for you?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  30:59  <br />I think from school originally. The teacher knows, first of all, I'm terrible at math. And I found out I had a nice excuse that usually--unlike Leonardo da Vinci who could do both--most artists are not good at math. It's the other part of the brain or something. So thank God, I used that as an excuse. I do portraits. So whether in sculpting or in painting, now I like to do portraits. I do people, as opposed to objects. Unfortunately, it doesn't sell too well. Nobody wants somebody else's, you know, face hanging there,  unless it's something really unusual and not necessarily pretty but an interesting face. We used to go to California for the winter months. And I took classes there and we had models. And quite often I would sell the pieces that I was working on to the model. They liked that I got their likeness. So I've sold I think four or five of those which is very nice.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  32:15  <br />Tell me how you and your husband met.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  32:18  <br />Oh, well. Do you know what Bnei Bris is? Bnei Bris is a Jewish organization. And at one time they had the youth boys club called ACA (alef-tzaddik-alef), and the girls were called BBG girls. I was president of my chapter many years ago. And because of it, we used to have meetings and different dances and different things like that. And I dated guys who were all over the city. It wasn't just in my high school, people that I knew. I dated guys who lived on the South Side, on the West Side, on the North Side because of having met them through Bnei Bris. And my husband was in ACA. I dated a couple of his boyfriend's before I got to him. And he called me one day. I remember seeing him at North Avenue Beach where he used to hang out there. And then he called me for a date. Our first date, believe it or not, was at the Chez Paree, which was at the time the most spectacular nightclub in Chicago. And we saw Nat King Cole there. That was 71 years ago. We were married five years later, so we were married 66 years, last January. And I say I lost him in April. Anyhow, we stayed friends with most of the people that we knew from BBG and ACA. And I still see some of them today after so many years. We know each other from high school days, which was really incredible. And then we got after many years later in 1954, the year we got married, I joined a City of Hope group. To make a long story short, my chapter lasted seven years. I was president of the time. And then we joined a couples group, which was called the Bobby [inaudible] Chapter City of Hope. And we remained very, very active with that. As a matter of fact, I ended up being on the National Board of Directors in California. And I was on the board for 22 years. When they changed the board, we were put on something called the Board of Regents--I called the board of rejects. They changed the board drastically by having people serve on there who are like the president of American Airlines and people like that. And they pay $10,000 a year to serve on the board. So it just became a completely different setup, but they wanted their expertise and their money. And we still remained as the Board of Regents as advisory people. And I say after all these years, I'm still president of my chapter. And we raised over $4 million. From the time of its inception in 1961, I believe. We just had a virtual Walk for Hope. We had the walks every year for breast cancer. And I turned in $13,000, almost $14,000. And that's pretty fair. But I've got a cousin in California who gives me $10,000 every year, so that helps. And then his son started giving me $2,000. So I raise, you know, almost $2,000 myself. So the place is incredible. It's 102 acres. There are many discoveries that have come out of our laboratories. If you know anybody that's diabetic, they take something called Humalog that came out of our laboratories. We were getting $36 million a year in royalties from Eli Lilly. Then the patent ran out, so we don't get that anymore. But at one time, City of Hope was a free hospital, and of course it became impossible to do that. But they do accept insurance. And they give out quite a bit of free care regardless. Most hospitals don't give out more than 5%. And we give out something like 40% free care, which is pretty fantastic. And it's just a fabulous place. They're working right now on diabetes very, very strongly. They've got a few cures, but they can't call them cures yet till there are many more people--the type 1 diabetics--who no longer have to take insulin. Ashley Furniture gave us $50 million (five-oh). Their grandson is diabetic, and they promised him within six years they would have a cure. And they're working very hard on it. It looks looks very, very promising. So I'm very proud of them. They're terrific and they do a fabulous thing at cancer. They were one of the first ones to do the Da Vinci machine where they did robotic surgery, mostly originally on prostate cancer. And then it got bigger and bigger, and they use it for many, many things now. They have six operatories, and they have six of the robotic machines in there. Each lab has its own. So they're $6 million at least each. And so they've got one in every one of the operatories. And it's quite a place. The thing is that it is done with love, absolute love. There's no profit in curing the body if in the process we destroy the soul. So it's with a great deal of compassion and love. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  39:17  <br />What drives you to maintain this engagement and activity.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  39:24  <br />One time, I was walking down the hall at City of Hope. We were at convention at that time, we used to take us through the halls during the tours. They don't do that any longer if there's patients there. And there was a lady sitting in a rocking chair, holding her baby and rocking back and forth. And I found out the child had Tay-Sachs disease, which is one of the Jewish diseases. And the child was not expected to live more than two and a half years. And there were times I got very upset with people over petty little things. And I remember that mother's face and the hopelessness and the sadness of when she sat there rocking that baby back and forth. And that's what kept me going for a long, long time. I felt I was doing some good and I was helping, and it's very gratifying. I think I got more out of it than City of Hope.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  40:26  <br />I did want to ask, you mentioned at the very beginning about being involved in getting the library in Lincolnwood up and running. Can you talk to me a little bit about that?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  40:37  <br />Yeah, they had bought this--I think it was a Jewel, if I'm not mistaken, or an A&amp;P. I think it was Jewel.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  40:44  <br />The Jewel, yes.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  40:45  <br />And it was right where the library is now. And they were excited that they had bought this property, and there was a heavy, heavy snow that year and the roof came in. And that was the end. They had to tear the whole thing down and build a whole new library. But we put on a show to raise money. And that was a fun thing. It was really neat. We named Sonia Marshak, who wrote the thing and directed it. It was very, very clever. We all had dual parts. I was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and my other part was Dorothy Parker. The thin man was also the tin man. Noah Coward was the Cowardly Lion. It was so clever. It was absolutely fabulous. I think we had two or three different performances. And we raised money for the library. We started out with that.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  41:43  <br />Where were the performance held for that?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  41:45  <br />At Lincoln Hall? Yeah, I think it was probably Lincoln Hall. Yeah, it was fun. It was fun. I had Toto in a basket. I carried my little dog with me. It wasn't my dog. It was a stuffed dog. But I had braids. I still have my ruby red slippers which I made out of red sequins--sequins all over the shoes to make my red slippers. Yeah, it was a fun thing. We rehearsed at Sonia Marshak's house all the time. And then we did our performances. It was cute. So we were the original ones to support the library before there was Friends of the Library. By the way, I'm putting a bench outside the library in memory of my husband. We're waiting for the plaque to be finished. He was there every day. It was his second home. He said he read every newspaper you had from all over the country. So everybody knew him. He was there all the time. What a fitting thing for me to put that there in his memory.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  43:01  <br />Any other final memories about your life or your life in Lincolnwood as we wrap up?<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  43:10  <br />It was a charmed life. I think it was wonderful. We had a wonderful little house. And we moved into this lovely little [inaudible] building here afterwards. But this was without any disruptions, without any heartaches, any something. I mean I've had a wonderful, wonderful life, and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. It was a very convenient place to live, as I said, because it was so close to the city. And we did use the city. And it was nice. It was always ... you knew everybody. Everybody was friendly and warm. And it was just a wonderful place to raise my children. And I think that they look upon it very family. My younger one is still very much involved with all his friends that he met: some at least from kindergarten, and then kids that he met in Niles West, and then the kids he met at Champagne. And he's kind of a Pied Piper. He melded all these people together. They're all one big group. And no matter where they live, they're all one big happy family. I've never seen kids like that in my life. Some of them were from Morton Grove, some of them from Lincolnwood, some several from other places. And they've all become friends all because of my son. He was the catalyst that pulled them all together, and I'm proud of him too.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  44:59  <br />Well, I want to thank you for taking the time and sharing your story and your Lincolnwood story with me.<br /><br />Adrienne Stern  45:06  <br />Thank you. I appreciate your doing this. I think it's absolutely wonderful. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/06bccf09d049b40aa2c8f7a3195a6b5c.jpeg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=RD-I4ZGDC1q2ePVEgVGD2yOOUTrKj%7EQU6LpEnKo-r6otHMgkCnbKKB9rMbO6J7oJYsiivecQMOr6IggnZxwTQqZ5i1roregWvqf12qyt1ksFGXz8IDp8A7JZgCImecnOcM2Tv8GhpJ8uP7dQ%7EFTQF5QhvhbIWzoHKHHSO6fmWUYx9wNuyplzuxGDCtLm17mq-N2SxcuLBQwU6Cy25ihknwY1AB5vykBFSt4PmGWYEYXCtJywNvxqF9JeDtdnPlJAM3vm-t8fqmmzVtqsOx%7EhP0ueyyCV-ReTl9w3s3S4zDrgAIs6GnD2FS-RLpPqdHkJbkGPfPt2yUqdbTTIXScYIA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9f527b78d64b9f2857f22e8ff254e64e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Barbara M. Gerich-Smith https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/a1fe3cb5d0511d26ea6406925b3dcb7e.mp3?Expires=1781740800&Signature=f4Ks2inZDkPPyE6FOEoFV9wxDCFhE8QcixAf6753GKHxPb5bI8l%7E08WxTiTApSNb99%7EGKmIrOTFi34KbfVVK7ldYwN-cee7h3%7EWLbgioK1gNuvt8TCbrzpUHv-ytzN4c0-cZvIgnjbRYFOI0XcOGEWZ06ncXM8mjzMgxtBqVv2DttSZwUPVU9A0Xs0A3qBZlj0lFgB8HK5rRejfSkqQnBBz6xN1wF81Jfg1AdZBRzpSUaR-n5aeIVtPSWViuWNhP5Ia5dEvmxrOqkDllXBeUi%7E9zPyi7BZSvnvp-WrKRAktpjW8kDopCmlvvyixH50s1IZI0oloEiMMbPDMUhYANzg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f92f28e3353d6d3e3ab556edb052535f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Barbara M. Gerich-Smith https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/d9a61818186ee4bbfe269be9bf4b6e93.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=e1mx6aLK1HcA31OV%7EWW5ZuxM2p7FU%7ESuSKMa9tsUEioO2WhFefWG5aLa1pf3o3eYuDvlGlyaY6CAKLZkNQ2uP%7ESooqsR4418qRJ2Fau1WdwgP4evJEkB8SGojszi1QwqoCbAe-Jms30cmM0gyt5Qjynkn1Fw2%7E8SRCLcIyuyk-CdkKBwxtzgyfkWkUr3cn1UtkeR67zEQIdQbtLClbl81JTciWBTGvyDf4KucQJ8oEl1R6ayKrwKizxjGIbvnp3OL66%7EWcCoscMFEKbxO-tlJIYp4BVGV7pcoo0VFCHnkQ7vqNaBrx3sJOjf3tsKaBpsrPMjh1wfc3uoy4RqmE0SUg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ee63f1da4bc115b9308286efd82b10d3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Barbara M. Gerich Smith, 1950 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/17024f90bd0baa7876c78e97b87a45bf.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=a3BdmxhazTiLFGTxyURNHRr6XUWI2P-AuyTpGC1p6e4ctI1oXhDGtmJEPxnipr9tP6K%7E2lIcJRFDeEu5vB7ukkH4n8nKsF4eDzd-%7EhjZP796rpaS-dElZyowQTcNmPnfpsN76r2OGzQ0UgFpbPWScRwCdylW8XoQZvTfFc-Mh0XuvKys%7EWW0AICLlZ4fFM8%7EeT8kPHXESTmKYoleCmH-r4Q6ksAypo5sAZrnZvEZ0GR1cw4G4DCDUbLWD8yXlBFWAHqlg44pqlc-FFm%7Eg4A9T0kaZTK85ig%7E%7EBU5N8kzs6Sm3CMPSJ97N%7Ei0wdbNqOs5EvwvIOpyOLpc3G0Tvp8Fng__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b791dfe08b9abbe63d18dbf99ea6276e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Barbara M. Gerich-Smith - 3810 W. Fitch Lincolnwood, IL. c.1957/58 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/52fa708b65b8595b35eb465a3d16476d.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=IZTCFBIjYeERDO%7Egt04t4eZw2D-UnkCVECjbNIPr4a%7EQCURlYVpCt98T5kAU0irl6woaLyouwbsxMO09hUDgfA6V8WzT30bB%7EbW3ztssXGt2tVw1KHRPW8IGU-9%7EpZwnUfn4EVPyiRsLO3pdu7299-F%7Elhm9I8zJ3OLj0MjwInqRf5VCyAaFaEftwmPmKuWZSjDJsOI2KT6PaS7X9f2dG1fF%7E-zqPc2gwkG6LTMvwrr%7EQroOBD32lZc7d5zmBRmTuu3f7Ijatrf4Wz4AvvOxI-tyHN67kXLoKq0RYnzIJqnqms4Ss8oFIkN6yQdnQr4FWPSKiIQUPpzY7VPLk9oBiQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM dce31a9081c1b4b55a6ef49dc26993c9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Smith family house at 6904 E. Prarie Rd. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Barbara M. Gerich-Smith Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“It was wonderful growing up in Lincolnwood. I’d do it over again in an instant.” <br /><br /></strong>Barbara Gerich Smith has lived in Lincolnwood her entire life. She spent 35 years working at the Lincolnwood School (now District 74), working her way up from the cafeteria to the administration office. Her sense of humor, vivid memories, and pride in her hometown make her an excellent first participant in My Lincolnwood Story. We hope you enjoy listening to her story as much we’ve enjoyed recording it.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />Today is March 27, 2019. My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library, and this is an interview for the my Lincolnwood story oral history project. Please tell me your name and how long have you lived in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  0:19  <br />Okay, my name is Barbara Gerich-Smith. I've lived in Lincolnwood all my life so far, which is 77 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:26  <br />And how did you- how did your family end up in Lincolnwood, or Tessville, as it was called before?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  0:31  <br />Okay, on my side, my mother- my parents' side, they came to Lincolnwood- because I asked my oldest sister, who is now deceased- when they came, and she said 1935. Which means my sister was five years old. My brothers were probably three and a half, two. Something like that. I didn't come along 'til 1941. But when I did, I came straight from the hospital to a little house, a very old farmhouse at 3810 Fitch Avenue. It's been since torn down, and there's two houses on those two lots now. But they, it was my grandma Reels, my grandma and grandpa Reels, which is my mother's parents' house. But they weren't living there. My parents moved from Chicago to that house, to that old house. And that's how they came. And the other side of the family, my in laws, they came around 1924 from Chicago- of course, it was Tessville, both times- and had a little house in the prairie on the east side of Hamlin. Except Hamlin wasn't there. It was a rut in the road where one of the farmers used to drive his plows down because he had corn growing in those fields. And then they switched lots with Mr. Reinberg. And then my father in law built a Montgomery Ward house at 6910 North Hamlin, which is still there. And that's how we all came to Lincolnwood. [laughs]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:03  <br />What prompted your parents to move from Chicago to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  2:07  <br />Probably economics, I don't know. I never really asked, but, you know, they went through the Depression and everything, and I suppose my grandparents' house was available. Nobody was living in it. So they moved there. It's all I can think of. I never asked, really. So they stayed there until my grandparents, one day, decided to move in. According to my mother, they didn't tell them. So got kind of squishy after that, and my dad found- you know, Lincolnwood was little. Everybody knew somebody then, and they heard that the house on East Prairie and Morris, which was owned by Mayor Proesel, was vacant. So my dad went over and asked if they could rent it, and they said yes. And then we moved a whole five blocks down to 6904 East Prairie. Which was a little red house at the corner of Morris and East Prairie where my parents lived for 25 more years, and I until I got married. And that's how we moved five blocks down, but we didn't go very far. And that's where I went to school from. The school was right there, and my parents both worked at the school. My father for 25 years, my mother for 24. I had an uncle who worked there for 16 years, and then I worked there for 35 years. I retired in 2005. Started out in the kitchen and ended up in the administration building, which was great. Was a great place to work. Great place to work with these people that I knew. The little red house had a cute thing. This is just from memory. I call it a creek, but it was really a drainage ditch. Right at Morris and East Prairie. And the thing about this little drainage ditch, if you will, is it had a little bridge over it, and that's how I would go to school. I'd go through the yard, over through the hedges, over that bridge and through the other hedges and over to school. But in the springtime, when we had a lot of rain, that whole creek would flood and the bridge would be floating. So I had to go through the street and around to go to school. But I always got a kick out of that. And in the winter, if we were lucky and we had rain, it would flood again, and it would turn to ice. And I have a picture somewhere of my girlfriend with her skates on, skating on that overflown creek. I thought it always was cute.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:30  <br />What are some of your earliest memories of living in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  4:35  <br />The earliest memory I can remember, and you're probably going to laugh. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:40  <br />[laughs]<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  4:40  <br />I remember, I was in the little house that my grandparents owned. I was laying on the carpet, and we had the radio on. And there were two windows on the side of the radio, and there was a- it was thunderstorming. And I don't know if something hit, if the lightning hit a branch on the tree or the wind blew it. It knocked the glass so that it broke, and a piece of the glass somehow hit my lip, and I was bleeding. And I'll always remember my mother picked me up from one arm, my sister the other, and they carried me out to the kitchen by the sink to do that. That's about my earliest memory of that house. Kind of traumatic, wasn't it?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:24  <br />A little bit, yeah.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  5:25  <br />And the other one was I was going to, I was going to kindergarten. And I was still in that house at the time. It's the only time I got to ride the school bus, which my father drove for that first year. I really liked driving- riding in the school bus. But my friend and I, we went to kindergarten together, and we had come home. My mother was working at the school at time, my grandma was taking care of me. She was living there then. And there were fields all around. And my friend and I were playing in this field, and there was like a dugout thing where it looked like they took sand or something out. And the two of us, we were just, you know, kids playing, and I jumped into that hole- another traumatic experience. There was a coke bottle sticking out of my leg, and I had to pull it out. And my grandma bundled it all up and and when my mother came home- we didn't go to the doctor! We poured peroxide on it, and she bandaged it all up. For years, I had a scab there, but I guess my memories there are kind of traumatic, I don't know. But other than that, I loved it. I had two friends there that I- they're lifelong friends. Still today, I still see them. And then when I moved five blocks, there was another group of kids. And they were all boys, except for one girl, and she wasn't left off Cherry Lane for a while. And so I became quite, quite a tomboy. I didn't have a choice. [laughs] <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:47  <br />Right. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  6:48  <br />So I played baseball and we built forts. We built a lot of forts. We had one really good one, which we got in trouble for, because we built it right on East Prairie, right on the street, kind of. But it was all field, like I told you. And right across the street, that house is still there, it's now owned by Mrs. Roman, and this older couple lived there. And they resented the fact of looking out their window seeing this hut. Actually, it was a very good hut. [laughs] So they complained to the police, and the police came and it was one of our, my friend's uncles, as a matter of fact, that told us we had to tear it down. And I didn't- we told our parents. And, I don't know, a group of the- including my dad and I think my brothers and his friends- they actually moved that fort, hut, whatever you want to call it. Picked it up. They put boards on the side. They picked it up and they moved it back into the field where they couldn't see it anymore. And then everybody was happy, and we still had our fort. But of course, they tore that all down when they built Todd Hall. Because they just leveled all that land, you know. And again, there was a creek there too, only it was a drainage ditch. I don't know what else to tell you. I went to a brand new school. It was beautiful. Just loved that school. Still do. But what it looked like before, I wish you could have seen it. It was really nice. So I went to Lincolnwood School from kindergarten to eighth grade. Had a lot of good friends. At first, we were all in the same class, because there was only one first grade, second grade, until fourth grade, when Fairview came over and we had more kids. So then we got two classes of, you know... But we still kind of knew all everybody. And I was delighted when they put the gym in, because I loved sports. I don't know where to go from there. Had good friends. Still have some.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:45  <br />What were some of the, you know, fun things that you did with your friends growing up?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  8:50  <br />Oh God, we got into all kinds of trouble. Well, in summertime, we built that fort. But we also played baseball, mostly the boys. Sorry, that's all I had. Was boys. We played baseball. We went through the sprinkler. One of us, who was very brave, would drive over to Devon Avenue. This was a big deal- I know you're going to laugh- and get a thing of Kool Aid and come home, and we thought we were really that was really neat, because we could have Kool Aid. We go to the Skokie Show on Saturdays, which cost a whole quarter. One of the parents would drive us and pick us up. Thankfully. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:29  <br />And where was this?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  9:31  <br />In Skokie, the Skokie Show. That's the only one that was around. And, gosh, what else did we do? We got into some- oh, we did- [sighs]. We used to- when they put the- this is a terrible thing to tell. I think of it and I shudder, how silly kids can be. How stupid. When they built the gymnasium, there was a porch that came out and there were steps going up. And you have to, you'd have to see it to understand. And on top of that porch- which is up there- it's gone now. They enclosed it. We would- and underneath was a cement sidewalk that went into a door, and over on the other side was landscaped and a little hill. And us silly kids would perch on the edge of that porch and we'd shove off with our legs and land on the other side of the landscape. But when I think of it, if when any of us had missed we would have gone down on that sidewalk. See what silly things kids do? Nuts. One kid jumped off the top of the monkey bars. One of my friends. That's the old fashioned monkey bars. He was the only one who did it, though. The rest of us only did it from the next one. But I mean, those were bad things. You know. I don't know if you want to know about it- with all these prairies, we would get prairie fires. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:56  <br />Oh, really?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  10:56  <br />I don't know if someone started them, but I remember many times my dad and other men and my brothers, my teenage brothers, they'd have burlap bags and they'd wet them, and they'd fight these fires, you know. Never did the prairie much harm, I have to tell you. It at all sprouted out very nicely. And my dad always had a garden in that prairie, so. But I mean, it was something different. You know? Those prairie fires. I can remember that. Over by Fitch, all the land east of Hamlin up to Bell and Howell and the railroad tracks. And there was an Illinois Tool Works there. It was all prairie, and a lot of it was in corn. Huffman's had their cornfield-pumpkin field. And like I told you, Hamlin was just a rut. But in that section, believe it or not, sidewalks had been put in because they thought at one time they were going to build houses later. Now it's all, [inaudible]. There is some houses on Hamlin, but behind that's all business, as you know. And my friends and I, my two friends on Fitch that were still there, my two oldest. One day, we decided to go down to the railroad tracks on these sidewalks with our bikes. And you'd go up and down where there was no sidewalk you'd go down and up into the next sidewalk. We got all the way down- which seemed to us a very long way- all the way down to the railroad tracks. And imagine our surprise. We turn around, there was a prairie fire, and we're going, "Oh, this is nice!" because there's a lot of smoke. So we decided we better head back. So we started heading back, and one of us, I don't know which one, whoever was in the lead, fell off the bike. And now he was in the ditch. So we all, two of us joined him, and there was so much smoke. It was like, you know, it was not fun. It was gagging you. So we kind of dragged our bikes while we were in this ditch until we got kind of out of it. We kind of smelled from smoke after that. But that's how I mean about the forest fires. I mean not the forest fires, the prairie fires. All of a sudden they were there. I don't know how they started, or if someone started them, but that was one of our so-called adventures. I don't know if you want to know about a fellow that- his name, I only knew his first name. His name was Frank. And he- the story I heard from my in laws was that he once had a little money, but he was kind of cheated out of it by another neighbor. And the neighbor, sort of in response, gave him a little bit of land to live on. And frankly, he lived in a shack right on- behind what would be Froman's house. Right off East Prairie. And right in front of a house that's also been torn down that the Shays lived in. And he was behind Shays between those two houses in this shack. And his nickname was Prairie Frank. And he wasn't a bad man. He didn't, didn't do- have any harm toward us kids or anything. But he would come and he would ask my parents, could he get water? You know, from the taps or the hoses. And most all the neighbors there knew him, and they were all very good to him. They gave him water, some gave him some food. And unfortunately, he passed away in that shack. And it's been since torn down. And, you know, so he was kind of a character. I don't know what else to talk about, really.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:37  <br />How has Lincolnwood changed over the years? <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  14:40  <br />Oh, jeez. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:41  <br />I mean, you've seen it from the ground up.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  14:43  <br />Let me put it to you this way. When my parents moved out there, my dad's brother said to him, "Why'd you move out to the boondocks?" It was like living in the country. I mean, all of us kids went out and played. We never thought about- our house was never, never locked. Anyone could- we didn't have anything- they could walk in there anytime. And I think a lot of the neighbors' houses, half the time, weren't locked. It was, it was wonderful. I loved it. My sons were very jealous. You know, you got to grow up here when you could do all kinds of things and build forts and, you know, play and have a good time. And it, you know, it's just so changed now. I mean, at East, at Toohey and McCormick, there was an old farmhouse there. And I think it was, you could- we'd rent horses there. What do you- a livery, whatever. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:40  <br />Mhm. A stable. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  15:41  <br />Because I know I have an old, old, very old newspaper clipping that's falling apart with my sister on a horse with a bunch of other people. And they were horseback riding down McCormick Boulevard, I guess. As a matter of fact, if I remember right, my grandfather Gerich, which was my dad's. He was- both my grandparents came over from a little, tiny village in Yugoslavia called [inaudible] around 1911 or so. It's strange, they were both from the same town, and my mother and father got married. And he farmed at first, my grandparent, my grandpa Gerich. And he rented land where Queen of All Saints is now, and also at Touhy and McCormick. And my dad said, when they lived near queen of All Saints, when they plowed, they'd find arrowheads. Because a lot of Indians, Potawatomis, I guess, were there at that time. Not that time, but before that. And as my dad said when he retired and they interviewed him, they just threw them in a cigar box. They didn't think anything of these. But I think it's kind of cool. That there was traces of Indians there, you know. But my grandparents finally ended up in Chicago on Clifton with a three story apartment building. How in the world, both sets of my grandparents saved money- I mean, they were just manual laborers, the guys. You know, to even buy something amazes me. God bless them for coming here, though, because I didn't have to go through the second world war like my poor uncle did, who was left there. But, you know, it's just like everything else. Things change. I mean, I could tell you there was a vacant lot across the street, you know. There were homes that burned down that were there. There was a greenhouse, another greenhouse, between our house, the little red house on East Prairie and Morris and Crawford. There was a greenhouse right behind it. And there was an alley that went all the way from right past our house. Right from East Prairie and then you'd go up a hill, around the greenhouse and out to Crawford Avenue. You could do that. It's, course, it's all gone and there's no alley there. You can't do that anymore. It's all school property. But I used to love to ride- it was, all the alleys were cinder. You'd better not fall down on them. They hurt. And I used to love to go up that hill, but I liked coming down better. It was fun. So there was that greenhouse, and there was a greenhouse on Touhy and East Prairie. That was Myers'. And the only one left, of course, is the one over here, Erhausen's. Which sell flowers in the spring, and they've been here a long time. Unfortunately, the two older brothers are gone. So it's the kids that carry on. And I don't know how much- I mean, they're my son's age- so I don't know how much- unless they were told stories, of course, like I was. So everything's grown just like everything else. I mean, look at the school. Started out with like 285 kids, and at the peak it was over 2,000. Now it's settled down to around 1,200. But it was beautiful school.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  15:42  <br />How did you get started working at the school?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  17:36  <br />Well, as I told you, my mother worked. My dad was the only custodian at the time and drove the school bus. One for the east side, one for the west side, another fellow drove the west side. They were free school busses. Which were- they used to have Lincolnwood days, and whatever profit they made, they bought those two school busses. But remember, it was a small school. Lots of kids walked. So, my mother started working part time in the lunchroom when I went to kindergarten. And I grew up, blah, blah, blah. And I've had my two kids. And I think they ran out of substitute helpers, part time workers, in the lunchroom. So they asked me if I wanted to do it. It was just a part time at first. And the lunchroom is where I stayed for, I think, nine years? And then I went to look for a full time job because I thought I would need it. And something opened up at the administration building, just by chance. And it was on the switchboard, and I went over, and then I started working in the switch- on the switchboard. And then later became secretary to the assistant superintendent, where I remained. That's how I ended up there. And it was nice, because I could walk right to work, you know. Didn't have to do it. I was home. Well, no, by that time the kids were older and I did work through the summer. Of course, when I worked in the lunchroom when they were young then, little, I was home for the summer. So that worked out perfectly. You know, they were old enough later to look after themselves in the summer. And I was close by if they needed me. So that's that story.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:55  <br />Who are some of the people that you met while working at the school district? <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  21:00  <br />Wow. Well, when I started working there, Dr. Garelick, Marvin Garelick, was the superintendent. Ron- Dr. Ron Berwald- was the assistant superintendent. And of course, the gals- I was the youngest one there. I think they just patted me on the head. Anyway, I worked with the gal that was in charge of some of the business stuff, Mrs. Holt. No, she was Miss Holt, sorry. I can't, trying to remember her first name. I can't. There was Marlene Lawson, who was Mr. Moody, Mr. Eugene Moody, who was the business manager. She was his secretary. Edith Binus, who was Dr. Barewall's secretary. And Marian Von Holt, who was Dr. Garelick's secretary. And they were a really good group to work with. Really. I always said I always respected Dr. Garelick and Mr. Moody. Mr. Moody was a lot of fun. He'd have these sayings. We called them Moody-isms. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:00  <br />[laughs]<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  22:01  <br />And it was a pleasure to work with them. But then through time, I worked with other superintendents. And, you know, the staff changes. And they were all pleasant to work with, I have to say. I just enjoyed my time there.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:18  <br />What were some of those Moody-isms? <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  22:20  <br />Oh gosh, I can't even think of them all, but he would come up with some. You'd just have to laugh at him. And I really can't tell you some of them.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:30  <br />[laughs]<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  22:31  <br />So I'm gonna skip that part. But he was from Southern Illinois, as Dr Garelick was, and I think they were- I don't want to say, they understood each other. I think because they came from the same region, same age, you know. And they worked wonderful together, I thought. You know. It was a pleasure to work with them, and I always respected both of them. And the other girls, ladies, too. I don't know what else I could say about that time. It sure went fast. I'll tell you that. You know, 35 years, pfft. It's a long time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:08  <br />Now I saw on- I saw a picture that there is a street named after you. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  23:14  <br />Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:16  <br />Which is just at the corner of-<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  23:17  <br />Morse and East Prairie.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:18  <br />-Morse and East Prairie, correct. So how did that come about?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  23:23  <br />Well, when I retired, they had a party for me. And I was, actually, I was in awe of how many people came. The teachers and people I had worked with that had retired, they came. And Dr. Garelick came, and Mr. Moody, and some of the ladies from my first group came. And it was really wonderful. My sister was there, my husband, my kid, and even my sister in law came. And my friend, one of my oldest friends, one of the guys, came. And they presented me with this big, long thing, which I had no idea what it was. And I opened it up, and it was the street sign at which part I cried because my sister cried, because I was very happy that they put my maiden name in there, Barbara Garrick Smith. And it was put at that corner because I felt that it represented not just me for my 35 years, but my dad for his 20- I'm going to get choked up now- 25 years, my mom for 24 and my uncle for 16. And it was at that corner where the little red house was, and I felt it was an honor to them. Not just to me. And my sister and I just looked at each other, and we both had tears in our eyes. Mainly because I could see my dad smiling down at us for that. You know, it wasn't just for me. I felt it was for my whole family. So I was very- I don't know whose idea it was. Someone told me it was the principal at Lincoln Hall then, but God bless her. And so we had a picture taken. Our family makes homemade sausage. And I said, whoever wants to come, come and we'll take a picture by that sign. So there's a sign. There's one picture with all of us, whoever came underneath that sign. Which I think is cool. So that's how that happened. But really it's for my family, not just for me. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:20  <br />That's really incredible that, you know, you had so many, kind of generations almost, working.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:25  <br />It is. I guess it's nepotism, I'm sorry. But I was a good worker! [laughs]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:25  <br />And what are your- tell me about, a little bit about, your kids growing up in Lincolnwood. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  25:25  <br />Oh, my kids growing up in Lincolnwood. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:30  <br />And how that was maybe a little different from yours.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  25:39  <br />They were lucky in this respect: we lived next to the greenhouse. And of course, the Smith family and their house and family knew each other for years. In fact, John, who was the older of the two boys. I shouldn't call them boys. They were men. Used to tell me- he was, he was four years younger than my husband. Husband was older than me. He was four years older. But he said to me one time, you know, when I get home from school, I used to like to go over to the Smith house, because I always knew Marvin was working on something. And they'd say, "He's in the basement". And he said, "He was always doing something". So I enjoyed it. You know, he'd go to the dump and he'd get, he'd get pieces of bikes and put them together to make a bike. He built a huge, huge glider. It was- I have a picture of it- the size of the door of the garage. That's how big it was. And he has his sister and another neighborhood gal- picture with it. It was amazing. He lost it over Lake Michigan. He got it up in the air, and it went over Lake Michigan. Never saw it again. Uh, Forgot what the question was. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  26:52  <br />I was just- I was asking about how your children's expereince, growing up here.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  26:56  <br />Okay. So they were lucky, because they had the Erhausens. And they they still have that land in back, if you ever go down Hamlin. And so they played a lot with them, and so they had a little bit of room, whatever you want to call it. And they did build a fort on their land. They did do that. And when they were a little bit older, actually, there's a grassy part there. And the neighborhood kids, plus the Erhausen kids, they'd be over there after supper, and the uncle and the dad, they would- one would be the pitcher and one would be the catcher- and all the kids played baseball together on that land. So they were lucky that way. And in the winter, they could actually go inside the greenhouse, from what I understand. And there, you call those things beds. You know, this was before they grew flowers. At that time, they grew tomatoes in the wintertime. Very good tomatoes, I might add. I wish they still did it. So there wasn't- they had some room, and they played with the cars and the dirt and stuff like that. So that way they were lucky, you know. And course, they did have the school yard. But, you know, it was really funny. My friends and I, when we were there, we used that school yard. We played baseball on it, you know, and everything. The kids didn't seem to do that. That was just when the pool was coming in. And really, my kids really didn't even go to the pool much, but they weren't as happy as I was growing up, but they were fairly okay. You know, they went to Lincolnwood School and Niles West at that time. And that's about all I can say. They seemed to enjoy themselves. They had friends. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:45  <br />Do you have grandchildren? <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  28:47  <br />I have- each of my sons has a son. I have step grandchildren. I even have a step great grandchild. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:59  <br />Wow.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  29:00  <br />So yeah. So I only just have two boys carrying on the name. I need one for each boy. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:08  <br />And where are they growing up? <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  29:09  <br />My son, my older son, lives in McHenry. He was a Skokie fireman. Became a lieutenant for 31 years. He just retired in September. He lives there. My other son, my younger son, lives in Minnesota. In a little town. It's like a blink. Don't open your eye too much, cuz you'll go through it. That's where he lives. And he fixes huge, huge copy machines. He has to get a lot of training for it. Did you ever look at, inside one of those? I don't even know what they're looking at, but that's what he does. So they're kind of each a little bit far away from me. But McHenry, at least, is maybe an hour. Depends on the traffic, 15 minutes. So. My son, very much- the older son- very much, takes after his father in that he'll build things. He's very good at what he does. I have to tell you. You know, he knows a little bit about plumbing, electricity, building. He and his wife have a shop in Lake Geneva. That's about almost two years old now. And they bought the building and he's rehabbing the two little apartments upstairs. Beautiful job. Takes after his dad that way. Sure didn't get it from me, but he got his love of history from me. I'll tell you, he did a lot for the Skokie Fire Department and the Skokie Historical Society. He had the Amish build a replica of the first hand-pushed, whatever you want to call it, fire engine. And that's at the Historical Society. And then he managed to get back an old pumper that they sold on Mount Prospect, which was rotting. And he and the other guys fixed it up, and it's in the Historical Society. Then he, before he left, he made three huge dining room tables for each of the stations with their emblems and everything on it. The guys helped, too. And they have fire hydrants for legs. He left his mark. So, anyway, kind of proud of him for that.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:30  <br />Well it sounds like you definitely, I think, you left your mark on Lincolnwood as well.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  31:33  <br />Eh, my family did, I don't know about me.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:36  <br />Your family did.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  31:36  <br />And even my father in law, believe it or not, had a little bitty, dinky, little thing where he ran for trustee of Lincolnwood. Which I get a kick out of. With Nick Huffman. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:37  <br />Mhm.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  31:38  <br />They didn't win of course. Proesel had that all locked up. But yeah, Smith's been here a long time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:57  <br />If you had to sum it up, what has been your favorite part about living in Lincolnwood, over all these years?<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  32:03  <br />Oh, wow. How do you sum up a lifetime? I liked the fact that when I was a kid, I had all that freedom. Along with the other friends of mine, that I still have. My oldest two friends. We still get together. God bless them. And I'm still in touch with a few of the ones from where I moved, you know, to the red house. Still in touch with a few of those and some of my other friends from- we went from kindergarten up together. They have a few of those yet. The fact that it was so free, you know, you could go outside, you could play. You know, you never even thought about someone kidnapping you or anything except- except when that William Heirens supposedly kidnapped that little girl. Then it was a little scary, because he lived right on Touhy Avenue. That wasn't- was it Touhy Avenue and Kendale? Anyway, that's where he lived. So that was a little bit scary. That was pretty close to home. But other than- Oh, would you like to hear an interesting thing? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:15  <br />I would. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  33:15  <br />I think this is interesting. When I was still living on Fitch, I was about four or five years old, down on Fitch and East Prairie. At that time, there was about, oh, it was a pretty nice size lot. More than one lot I'm talking about. Next to it was my friend's house, and then next to his house was my other friend's house. Both torn down. But at that time, it was this nice, big space. And later on, we played baseball there too, at that place. But I was about five years old. It was before we moved. And I remember this, my mother would not let me go out one day because this, I'm going to call it a caravan of about three or four horse drawn trailers. I don't know what you want to call them. I wouldn't call them like, like when you cross the prairie, but they were these little things. And these, and I don't want to call them this. It sounds racist. I'm not trying to be but they were like gypsies. That's what probably my parents called them, and they camped in that area. My mother would not let me go out, because, you know these stories about them kidnapping children. She wouldn't let me go outside until- they only stayed there one night. I think the police came and told them they could only stay there and they had to move the next day, which they did. But I still remember that. That my mom wouldn't let me out because they might kidnap me. But I thought that was interesting. To think that's in 1946, you know. It's kind of crazy. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:00  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  35:02  <br />But aside from that, it was very free. So I don't know what else I can add to that. You know, it was- I enjoyed it. I know sometimes my son, you know, thinks I should move somewhere else. But I think my friends are here, you know. And he's not that far away that I can't, you know, see him. And I, you know, now, with the modern technology and everything you can keep in touch. And so it was wonderful growing up in Lincolnwood. I'd do it over and again in an instant. It was also nice going to Lincolnwood school. It was a beautiful school. And now it's Township High School. The original was also beautiful. I'm sorry they tore it down. So anyway, I don't know what else to say to you.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:53  <br />I would like to thank you for taking the time and talking to me and sharing your Lincolnwood Story with us.<br /><br />Barbara Gerich-Smith  35:59  <br />I hope I hit everything I thought of. <em><br /></em> https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/9e56e7f231610a90db16f42f672a8244.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=ETtSpgYqk2kH2596UejRHOeQZ1Mw8ZemS%7EAO9MZvGwUnGMKKG1UW-Lp3ODwW2l1hqJOlmC-zd8SG0h3oor1l9a3Um6SCjRv0-O8RXfI5HDi%7EmYti-i2eBU6heCeEUYmwoRXvCthwXso50kXdvuo-5CsSdsgbIWdU3EHhlHh9M89tYtGZ7EotxDKOC6JYRzmkCeAzninDBXiFv3eG7Mp8GYvbr0grU0%7EK1GybGcNoDzuWX5l8MFzWN7BEROGp1lOVoREdZcJD26Ufokf%7E6P%7EopQIv9yo9MRmxkDyfL91FNNzJIxAnBAvIyitNwtdM-6EuzIpO0mtAQcPvwMeqDViq8g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c7e688b95017f7fd3970a262542ac0c2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beth Keno https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/bd25fc7c0b4aa43d22e5ea2cb6299a29.mp3?Expires=1781740800&Signature=qOu5IVtfjIAcm2O110pT2x3biWFQEAD3%7Eddur-0pk-gyEXFvTZj5LwGKtRd10BgncsrP9uQnSthK8AmtEgzCvs1s0IEy538E9Q9yAaXcj-EtZKNFtdwQmXKZbCoE8gjt5i7Z15iYM9ozXAflxsw9OY3IJtG-O2iOR3ZqZuRVHrpKyu3V1roNLxTKLks18KXmamVSLSQdfSal48dGh3V39VlM%7E2bozcHN7CWlTbXjZjQ-b1YFOWc0rkyCfSurziWwhOmPi5v13CahZ5AEBDkuBQluuWuSavAmQmpLU7osjaY0d9ofa10K2ukdK2Uq7aZy-u62xMGeNzpcmYXdgc5KuQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ce68e98adeee85b6c50aa34797e7aab6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Beth Keno https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/b7c0257a7cefb0253731b8b344c6c3a7.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=jRy%7EmRbmMwdUZ67MEq3cQBN8ekAlCs9kq34iaT-mf9qHwrQ3-qzJ5ZtG0XuhDgxN02uZ-gCbQuJtLZKUk-t0VxxWhaj7RSwZiFuaTZkYzzPR1AoxrX7Kid8lGETEoUo47GmHJ4iiwT8n16WXHhHHU5%7ETj1OULxmR-W6neXO5Yqx2eE61aX0d%7E5NF12qseGzitI6dstEPfwGryhzkHW6kMg4ZwHFucR74L7FYKgmaLN%7EqIzkmAJCYi171ESY0cJmoMp-0PYzJU6V2iuNUfzUYn6r57G5cTqoNtEBcxUStZDqrGzZvNohGR%7ERUiSVrSJa-8LIXKzwYFAnESGSahBAJkQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9c8b29ec4d906adc1be60f22272b01be Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Halloween 1965. Beth, Maura, and Paul Grant https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/ebd61bb4418ac235ffcb09e7b347158c.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=XCMrF1RRdwiyNtDncfy8iDNGejVXJhvLJNc9dHD-R%7EkwsMXhjZGBN6mfO0cT%7EroHSslmXxUqgra-kvC0lGZ5bEERs%7E60MXEdB9Q8Il40Lk-VS2qaVtiCUaw8olmklPO7x0lOpfVSPGjTQjeGnPW26PUt-8hg43iMl-ep7rkoB7eo49aTM7F0pkXCHop7f1ZeybuikH5emXwR-zGoVyrpr4MhiHn4VWaFV4eVm64WRv7eRnC-wvctMbnenEaIZAX3WW2T2so6kqvFMTh7D2y1vi%7E14yynWgRpfYP9eTZM7dhrjjebdQkBU69Ko8Q4M15g8LxEYr6dNmB2EUsjubbFvw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 98b2e06fbe5bc00352537c30419928a9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beth and Maura. January 1967 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/80818e34fe1a34fb281a362bbcb15b20.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=Nxhp35st4NFB0KpXLvEpqVtDrdYeC0IU1-HDGeEN1eguUoelbroGyZwtF9h4Rg7mSpi0UH8-MN0VV-z-BgewK63tA7w8pMIX-BPLF-xl1dZX9Z6awKj6nUdJV4hyS%7Eqb87Gn8KPTBr99xB03s5ZZc5EVIlLGnKnnUpl5mcP9yVL%7E0Wqi2mEXrXv2I4Ftm6VgS8VjXOqJ0%7E98WjXEZarQUajMUwOs6JFRqvIWMoUh0r-lRy9wnPavybHbVMBpdk654IPK30WcZd3Gv54ah4oyYrv3gJstOtr7slHar8n66Q8OJPyVNZDnVEhcgOPZV0eeCTPgBi4L9uMU-Dww4obHJw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 479626fa773d6fa1afc72a8f500858a2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beth and her twin sister Maura, 1969 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/485c7cb0aaa31d4495cb043bb1f50ab3.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=Fza76zUz0Inbubo5G86hZPJH8fIsOq1zgg5w86-xRFhz8ltHQoNpJeTW2-S7TBRRwIRvwmkgKgdY0AT9lAjgkPzC7u-dtkoIE0c1R7%7EU1nv48oiIQWmapb0z4e2NLCDCVYyeFadS5U9DU1Pw6-l3MyL7Tjmwx7EicdwukoCWiFrUIYn9a%7EPOcI%7EFtlPOE3%7EebbRpWqDiJq-kMOyYMUTnIj9YBDaLYkKapOvajbV9l9lKQOopDeRjqAQLwvQVlwnIM-lZi91KL2Uz1T61Cthnw0KutA7vDZA%7EfAjtdE6LHrH2Sd5fFdCNBb%7Ejdj%7Eru35kAC%7Eo0PJ21ZdEn-G121No%7EA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM edf4ef39ffa78aa5e850e558429e2a56 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1961. Madeline Grant (front row, right), first grade teacher in Salt Creek School https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/dbba17bc0d0a4f013054a204f1293e1a.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=GN-KFIkJFnP0EPoZO629g7gsnUt4hHeNZsdUa3UzY1QGgbt25R7PCx7qw25EpI1ELcAD3FhHeEF4x46mdxBB45aoKEkB1I3CK40NAOanb8Cu0CJrlKnaalCqyCrzeSQlSdn62oJANPrmScXRn0tABioISpHj1QOvTlfAf%7EySHbx%7ECFEutrRJzosd%7EH3KsjJkR6rl1m4RvWWVPw01HAe18yKdd-jR1Ih11vFuyfTaYrA7IK42qeJ4adISRZNhvGM-3B28leOOEOfJy2bnv5-hKZQzQWeofsXfeQeTWKZbVP1g%7EqkUKIp9mB7D1-NG%7EFRV71JCAMRljtZh3pB%7ED6S3Zg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 817e2c1c01a62cef536f58af549c67f9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Madeline Grant with President Bill Clinton at Myron & Phil’s https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/243ae92abc9f681601ba5c3502889ed7.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=KHngTVjAlik6z9ArdaZflWLjQjOugyHJD0UHA91FOVYVeIZ24HQAaIRpbPrSVPNHvSlUHs8stEN2zk4xoNrFpqW0%7E9FaxxW0CZxGQTpornHneyFBUrkRInF60wlQHK2azUvEO-yjRP8vLO0U21IPGZZ5z-1bQSEgo9dBnbSVm3GZjolQ44cKjtuKo00WDBvoFX4BTr%7E7YQoY43zUxItl87ePhNJ6tCCAbdanF%7ECdT1ycwB--qEdyETrQEV-4IoZ6yUSt0KXcUAeW8275LungNkcVGqNO35HpL7GLBmMLbnUNavQE0gjIe3ql-qmO-VZ5OvTC3tDEpY9VwqkBqA0YPQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 6d6be6c787056dd5df3de3c6cef121f3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beth’s father, Paul Grant, on his way to Lincolnwood Fest Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Beth Keno Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“They bought the [library] building and a day or two later there was a big snow storm [of 1979] and the roof caved in.“</strong><br /><br />Beth Keno was only a year old when her parents moved to Lincolnwood from Chicago. In this interview she talks about growing up in Lincolnwood as well as the early days of the Lincolnwood Library. Beth’s mother, Madeleine Grant, was a driving force in establishing the Lincolnwood Library and served as its first board president. Madeleine Grant also served as Lincolnwood mayor from 1993-2000.<br /><br /><em>This interview was recording using Zoom.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library, today's August 17 2020. And today, I'm interviewing Beth Keno for my Lincolnwood story, our oral history project. Beth, thank you for joining me, and what is your Lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Beth Keno  0:19  <br />My gosh, I don't know if I have a single story. I guess I'll start with I lived there since I was about a year old. I think from '63 to probably '86, I think it was about, so I was there for quite a while, over 20 some years. Going back to my earliest memories, that early snow storm back in the, I guess the late 60s, and I found pictures, which I'm going to send to you, and just you're so little and you remember the mounds of snow. But you also realized that everybody there shoveled their own driveway, as you know they didn't have snow plows or trucks with plows on back then. So when you look at the pictures, you really appreciate the amount of snow and the effort it took to clear the driveways and the streets and all that. After I left my mom became mayor so that was pretty exciting, and watching her start her public career there with the Library; which she started the demonstration library with a number of other people and got that passed and built a library after the building roof collapsed a few days after they closed. So that was that was pretty exciting. We went to the Lincolnwood schools, we were across the street for many years on Harding, and as I got older I found it harder and harder to make it to class on time, even though we just had to cross Pratt. So it was a lot of fun. I remember going to some of the teachers, and going through the three different buildings, and all the great people that we met and friends we made. So I guess that's it. My earliest childhood memories of the school was I was an identical twin and so people like to talk to us and we were told as little kids, and I'm reminded sometimes as I run into people even today, they remember that we said we weren't allowed to talk to strangers. So anybody that would talk to us, we would say "we're not allowed to talk to strangers", even though they were other kids in our age or going to school. So it's kind of fun. We moved from Harding and then we went over towards McCormick and Pratt for the last probably 10 years and down from the Milk Pail which I just saw a feed on, on the Facebook group. So reminiscing about the Milk Pail, lots of fond memories, the Jewel there at the corner which is the library now, and being able to buy your chocolate bars with your allowance for that week and then turning into Pier One. Pier One then provided all the holiday gifts for our parents for years and our siblings. So those are some of my instant- and there's the food, then there's the bagels and Biasetti's, gosh that was like a throwback trying to remember what that one was. I worked at McDade for a couple of years. So a lot of fond memories of that and working and meeting lots of different people and ordering out and partying and having a having a good time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:57  <br />Well, let's kind of start at the beginning with your parents. Were they originally, did they already live in Lincolnwood? I mean, they were living here when you were born. But where did they come from to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Beth Keno  4:12  <br />So they didn't live in Lincolnwood when my sister and I were born, they moved there a year, they were from Chicago, outside Chicago, so they moved when we were about a year old. My father's still there, my mother died, 20 years ago now in office when she was the mayor and my dad is still there. He's over at the Lincolnwood Place, just went to Lincolnwood Place about a year ago. But prior to that he was still active in the community, he was on the zoning board and some other committees so they've been active forever.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:51  <br />Do you know why they decided to move to Lincolnwood specifically?<br /><br />Beth Keno  4:54  <br />I don't know specifically why Lincolnwood, I know the church Queen of All Saints was important, so we're not far from the church. We're raised Catholic so we went to church on Sundays. I honestly never asked them, it seemed like a great place to live so I thought it was a good choice.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:17  <br />They have lived in Chicago their whole lives prior to moving here, right?<br /><br />Beth Keno  5:21  <br />Yes, my dad grew up in Oak Park, my mother lived in Chicago.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:28  <br />What did they do? Obviously before your mother became mayor, was she always involved in communities?<br /><br />Beth Keno  5:37  <br />She was never political, she was a teacher before she had the five of us and after she had the five of us, she went back and worked at some point after my youngest brother got old enough to go to school. She worked at the religious ed center at Queens and she would do a lot of volunteering. We always called them "meetings", so she always had meetings all the time. So she did lots of volunteering, my dad worked for Loyola University down on Lake Shore and he also taught one night a week, he taught labor relations. So that's what they did. My mom's kind of activism, I don't know where it came from, she volunteered lots of times. I don't know how she got roped into starting the library, but I know it was a passion of a number of people there in Lincolnwood, and she ended up kind of taking charge of it. She became the president of the library board, Lincolnwood Library Board board after they--<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:44  <br />Right<br /><br />Beth Keno  6:45  <br />After they were successful in the referendum. Then somebody, and my dad'll be a good person to ask, they like convinced her to run for mayor. But she had a long career before that. She was on the library board for many years, then she became the president of the North Suburban Library system. So she was all active and she won, I think there was a couple of winners, of Northshore Volunteer of the Year. Then she was convinced to run for Mayor, surprised all of us, but she had a little stint in real estate there in between all of the activism and all the volunteering. She knows, I don't know if you know, but they put an award in my mom's name, a Volunteer of the Year award, and [inaudbile] she was an avid volunteer and all of that, and you can do a lot just by volunteering.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:45  <br />What are your memories of growing up in Lincolnwood? So you said you went through all the Lincolnwood schools, what are your memories? Who were your childhood friends? What did you guys do?<br /><br />Beth Keno  7:53  <br />Gosh well we had a lot of friends, we did like I mentioned, we literally lived right across the street from the schools. I remember playing girls softball, it was the 16 inch softball, and being Girl Scouts. I remember all that; we would go to the park district in the summer for camp and we'd ride our bikes there. I remember one of my favorite days was watermelon day, because we got watermelon and we had a lot of fun. Then eventually they put the pool in which wasn't there when we first started but a few years into it they added the pool, which was awesome, right? So you'd go swimming and hang out at the pool by the time we were preteens, we were having a lot of fun at the pool. So we had lots of friends, people live right by us, and people that didn't and we were pretty active with everything. Trick or treating oh my gosh, we'd walk for miles trick or treating, we'd spend the whole day going out because, it was safe and was a lot of fun. I just remember all those times when the snow- making forts, but the end of our street, I don't know what was there, I think it was the back of the bank and they always pile the snow there so I remember us making forts there and having kind of big snowball fights. My mother had a bell, so that's how she got us all inside to eat. My dad or my mom would ring the bell and then we knew to come in because we played outside all the time. We just didn't play inside, we didn't watch a lot of TV, we were running around the neighborhood playing over at the park. They had a great camp program there at Proesel Park so a lot of people went to camp there. I remember batons, I can still twirl a baton and I did win one year, won the baton award. I remember that they always had a big at the end of the camp, they always had a big fair or something where you could win gold fish and win all sorts of prizes and that was a lot of fun. A lot of people went and it was put on by the park district and the camp counselors and if you went to camp there, they always helped you win. I remember that, it was a lot of fun.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:37  <br />So what were some of your favorite restaurants or maybe some of your favorite places to order out from?<br /><br />Beth Keno  10:44  <br />We just drove down Touhy Avenue a couple weeks ago and I was so disappointed. I don't know why it left but 31 flavors, I still remember the single column was 25 cents. You know it was like a big treat, we'd get so many different flavors. So that was one of my favorite places. Then when we moved over to the McCormick and Pratt area, a Dairy Queen, the Dairy Queen on Devon and St. Louis. I know there was a question out there on the Facebook page about that but it was St. Louis because we went there every other day or something to eat ice cream and because it was walking distance from our house so it was really easy to do it. It's kind of funny because we were trying to remember the name and it's Biasetti's, Biasetti's Pizza and the Italian food. I remember specifically when I worked at McDade because we always ordered out dinner and that was some of our favorites. New York Bagel, it's so cool that they're still there. That was and still is by far the best bagels. Before it was right there in the corner, what's the place right now that's on the corner of Lincoln? Lettuce Entertain your restaurant? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:01  <br />It's L Woods now.<br /><br />Beth Keno  12:03  <br />L Woods yeah, so it was Bones before that. That I remember and then it was something else before that, I'm not very good at remembering all the old names, but something was always at that corner. Someplace that we all loved going and having dinner there. Then you had your Bunny Hutch and your miniature golf that was right there right behind or right next to Bunny Hutch so had your lunch, and your golf and there used to be a sub sandwich place that was really good. I think that was up on Cicero, I think it was Cicero and Devon somewhere over there was a sub and I can't remember the sub place; I'm terrible at names. Those are some of the best memories I- then there was the one that you threw the peanut shells on the floor, Ground Round. I remember Ground Round is there on Lincoln Avenue, on Devon and kind of Lincoln I think it was it was right over there. That place was you walked in, you're crunching on stuff and it had the free popcorn. So you started with the free popcorn. You had the peanuts and you threw them around and a lot of good times at Ground Round.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:19  <br />Going kind of back to family life, so you said you mentioned you have there's a total of five of you? So you have four siblings? What were some of the family traditions? Or maybe vacations you took together? Not specific to Lincolnwood, but just kind of more so in general.<br /><br />Beth Keno  13:40  <br />So I had an identical twin sister, we were the oldest and we have three younger brothers. So we would always kind of go either to Michigan or to Wisconsin. Wisconsin Dells was a big one for vacations because there were five of us, my youngest brother was, I think five or six years younger, so it took him a while to be able to play at our level. But you know, we had a we had a, you know, small little baseball team, so we would, you know, go over to school, you know, because they had the front lawn and you know, practice our softball skills. I still remember that because, you know, there was that my, my dad and all of us, you know, six of us then going out and and getting a little baseball game going. And playing and going you know, going to the pool was something we all loved doing that and the concession stand was always a favorite at the pool. And in doing those things, you know, we we all like I said we were always outside. So we were on our bikes all the time. We actually when we went to camp, we rode our bikes unless it was raining. So so we rode all the way from you know, cross the street Pratt and Harding all the way over to Proesel, for many years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:56  <br />What are some things that you remember about going to school in Lincolnwood<br /><br />Beth Keno  15:00  <br />I still remember I think it was called Mr. Pollster was the science teacher every year and I don't I don't know if they still do this or not. But, um, you had, it was a science project where you had to take an egg that was not cooked. And you had to create--and I think there are dimensions like you couldn't be any bigger than certain dimensions--and you had to secure this egg so it wouldn't crack when it was thrown off the roof. So the project, what you know, with every year is a date and you had to build your thing and wrap your egg. And then Mr. Pollster would go up to the roof, and he would, you know, throw everybody's project down onto the ground. And then, based on whether or not your egg broke, it's kind of your grade. But it was I know, there was supposedly some science, I don't remember that part of it, I just remember how much fun that was, you know, to come up with some way to help, you know, to create a contraption. So once thrown off the roof of Lincoln Hall, it didn't, it didn't crack. And I still remember and I don't remember what I wrapped it in. But I did not break mine did not break. So I did that new thing I remember, I don't know why I just remember this the other day was, I don't know if it was it was first science class. Again, I don't know what grade it was, it was probably in Lincoln Hall again, where you had to go collect leaves from different trees. And then there were the bonus trees. And you know, you got extra points if you get leaves from these trees, and you had to press the leaves. And it was quite the project. And, you know, again, got graded on how well you pressed the leaves and which leaves you've got and how complete you made your project. So I I still remember those, those big projects, and they were they were a lot of fun. Another one I remember and this was early, this must have been like second grade first or second grade, I remember you had to write a story about your mother. And you had to go through magazines and pick out a picture. And I didn't know it at the time. I didn't, didn't figure it out for a long time. But somehow I managed to pick a picture of Marilyn Monroe. And I don't know if people see my mom, but my mom's not even blonde. And so, so I hopefully she was flattered. Um, you know, because my mom saved that stuff for a long time. And I remember going, "oh, this is Marilyn Monroe" when you had to go pick a picture of your mother, but she was that beautiful to me. Um, so those are some of my, you know, kind of school things that I remember growing up anyway.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:42  <br />Did you remember what you wanted to be?<br /><br />Beth Keno  17:45  <br />I wanted to be a lot of things. I mean, I still remember we did a project on architecture. And we had so I for a while I wanted to be an architect. You know, you know, when you're young, everything is kind of interesting. I knew I didn't want to be a doctor, because I really wasn't into science. I hated dissecting, I still remember the dissected the, frogs. That was really disgusting. And so I don't know, you know, I ended up getting a degree in psychology and moving into, you know, doing consulting work. And I've had a couple of businesses, so I don't really know if there was anything, really my early childhood education that kind of, you know, moved me in that direction. I'm sure my mom's influence of liking to take charge of things helped. helped move me in a direction that was about taking charge of things.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:37  <br />So tell me a little bit about your family now?<br /><br />Beth Keno  18:40  <br />I have one daughter, we grew. She grew up in Highland Park. And she's now she's now back in Chicago. She was in New York. She she she got her Master's in Public Health at the University of Michigan, went to undergrad at University of Michigan and then went out to New York and got started in her career and came back almost two years ago. So she's down in Chicago, and now she's, you know, working from home because everybody's working from home. So she's, uh, she's, she's pretty engaged and really likes doing, you know, in what she does and has a real passion for public health. So it's exciting to see her--<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:19  <br />Have you passed on any of your own childhood traditions onto her?<br /><br />Beth Keno  19:24  <br />Well, that's a good question. I mean, we for years we did we always had our we had certain holidays, you know, and then then, when my mother passed, those holidays had to get shifted over especially Christmas. And so so we still have or I don't know what we'll do this year, but we still had the whole Christmas and for years, we did the Easter egg hunt. And that was, you know, until the kids got too old and now we've got some yeah, maybe not quite. Yeah, they're probably old enough. Some some I have some great nephews now so that we can, you know, go back to that tradition, once we, you know, get back to our old normal.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:08  <br />What do you remember about your mother's involvement in getting the Library off the ground?<br /><br />Beth Keno  20:13  <br />Yeah. So I remember, because we were child labor for the books, we stacked the books and lots of donated books, and we helped the editor in yeah, I remember, you know, I guess my dad will be a good one, because in fact, I was talking about a few months ago, and we kind of reminisced about the fact that when they bought that building, and I think they, you know, they one point they wanted to put a McDonald's there, and my mother was, you know, my mother and a number of other parents were "That is not going to happen on our watch." And, you know, Rita Morton, Rick Kadota, I'm trying to remember I was looking at some of the pictures, I'm trying to remember all their names, um, you know, they were super active, there was a kind of a team of them. And they, they bought the building. And then, just a day or two later, they had that big snowstorm and something. Was at [19]76? I mean, and the roof caved in. My mother didn't really you know had no experience. I mean, what what do you do when a roof caves in? And I don't know, my mom called was a middle of the night because the police call her and tell her the roof caved in. And she didn't know what to do. And they I don't know, who she was talking to, and, you know, someone at the police station, and they said, "Well, you know, there's off duty officers that are, you know, looking for work, they'll help protect the building." And so that and, you know, then they had to demolish, I think they demolished it and rebuilt it. And I just still remember us stacking books, there's a lot of books, and Ladonna was the first library and I don't remember how that you know, how that vetting or how they found her. But she was, you know, you know, became a family friend. And I think a good friend of my mom's and was, you know, we knew her for many years, it was a lot of fun, and we'd go there, and we'd study but I just remember working a lot. I just remember the books, we had to float. We had to carry books all the time, so that people were donating all the time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:22  <br />She put you to work.<br /><br />Beth Keno  22:23  <br />Oh yeah, oh yeah, you got five kids got to do something with them. One of the things I was remembering as I was looking through some of the pictures, which I think I might just drop off for you, um, was that I don't know, if they still do Lincolnwood Library used to host authors. And they used to have, you know, this presentation, and then they would come back to our house. Now, I was, we were young. I mean, we're, you know, I know. I was trying to figure out why maybe 10-12. So those authors weren't necessarily you know, people that I remember, even though I found I found a picture of something so sweet Scott Turow is one of them. So pretty cool to look at that. But I still remember we met. As name first name, Jim Edgar, this was before he was, you know, he was invited because they would invite I don't know, when he wasn't the governor at the time. But I remember, you know, he's in the house and his secret service, or whoever his protection was sitting in the car, we felt bad for them, because they were sitting in the car. So we, we brought them, you know, drinks and some food so that they wouldn't go hungry. And I still remember that. And I just kind of stuck out when I was thinking about and going through the pictures of the library. Library stuff that we have.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:42  <br />She became mayor in was it in the early 90s?<br /><br />Beth Keno  23:46  <br />Yeah, she would have been mayor [19]90, I think would have been had been [19]93. Yeah. Because she had she had won her first term. And then she won her second term, and then she was going to run again. But, you know, her cancer kind of took her, took her out. And yeah, I think we were all--I was surprised. I mean, you know, at that point, I had a young daughter and I had moved to Highland Park and was working. So I was, you know, not as I don't think I knew as much you know what she was doing. You know, and so I was surprised I remember the campaign office that was over there at gosh I think it was where the the second time Kinny's was so Kinny's used to be over where Binny's is now and then I think it moved down kind of where the Fannie Mae is. There's a strip center and then they had her campaign office over there. Both times and you know, helping her a little bit. You know, with that and certainly being there and counting, you know, helping out doing the counts from all the different areas and you know, remembering you know, like, days. So those were always a lot of fun. And I think we would go over a number and I don't know, if we ended up at Monastero's, I know, monasteries was a place we would end up my dad used to run musician, Musicians Association election in Chicago every few years, and we were put to work there as well, because you had to actually count the balance. And then we would always end up at Monastero's. I know technically, that's not Lincolnwood. But it's right across the street. You know, afterwards to to have some dinner and celebrate our era are counting a lot of counting. Bella counting.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:44  <br />So you're saying that your family was kind of surprised that she was, that she was elected?<br /><br />Beth Keno  25:49  <br />I think I know, she was elected my sister probably was,  then I'm sure my dad wasn't because he was, you know, with her every day. But, um, I think when they asked her they suggested she run I think she was, you know, she she might have been a little surprised. I mean, she didn't had never, you know, run for anything before. Volunteerd. But, you know, this was, you know, an effort. I mean, should, you know, been the Library board president and the North Shore Suburban Library. So she, you know, been in that end of, you know, dealing with, you know, small into politics, I guess. In knowing and meeting a lot of people. I do remember, when she was mayor, you know, [Bill] Clinton came here, he came over to Myron and Phil's, and, but they didn't know ahead of time, because, you know, you know, they don't like publish a schedule, and she got this call from I don't know, the police or something, you know, come on over and, you know, meet meet Bill Clinton, you know, President Clinton at the time. And, you know, she, you know, that was a lot of fun. For a long time I think that picture had been up there. And then in the restaurant for a very long time. It was funny, because Myron and Phil's eventually, I don't know whether they're related or not. But it turns out, my sister used to ride down to Loyola, with the owner. And he wasn't the owner at the time, but they ended up taking it over was, you know, two people, two friends, she met and they ended up, they ended up taking for Myron and Phil's. And then we were a little surprised to see they were the owners and my sister remember them? You know, everybody always thinks that I'm her. So they'll always say "Maura!" and I'm like, "No, [I'm] Beth." So it's, you know, sometimes, you know, fun and sometimes going okay, but I don't know you, but cool.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:49  <br />What is something in your life that you are most proud of?<br /><br />Beth Keno  27:52  <br />Oh obviously, you know, my daughter, having my daughter and having her, you know, find success and happiness in her life and being a pretty good parent, I think if she came out as good as she did, oh, pretty proud of that.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:05  <br />[laughs] Any the other memories or anything else that you'd like to share?<br /><br />Beth Keno  28:10  <br />No, I as I said, I was a great you know, I just, you know, I can't remember. And I'm not I don't really focused on a lot of negative things. But I just remember, you know, really enjoying growing up in Lincolnwood. And in all the kids that I went to school with, I don't you know, I don't have any negative memories at all, you know, I only have fun memories and being a Girl Scout was okay, but no, it was fun. Because you're with you know, your other friends. And as I mentioned, the camp was, you know, camp was a lot of fun. And don't know I just remember and our neighbors and everybody was nice back then! I just it was it was friendly, and it was safe, and you didn't worry about your kids going outside. And you know it was fun, you know, growing up and learning to ride your bike outside and then riding everywhere you know, and getting your allowance and going over to first it would be Jewel for your candy bar and then it would be Pier One for you know, they had like sticky candies or something. It was, it was a good time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:22  <br />Well, I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me and share your Lincolnwood story with us. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/3a1fe4bbb7e551640c73e174f1c4e30d.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=AI-7qruCLPo958coMxKpfoO6qqeaKTGigETUec61BnFQWmQAnun-QT8w0GjZ92qcqLdtvyanD3AD5eQtnF-qMMJqP1tk8dnykZl0%7EMXxFt0rkciE16cd9s4h4fL3FtKZMbm964Sm%7ENCnUtH6ZymqyTFUgaIqbFA6hpf-mUQiEhgsQHAHC34SXl0gJodDldgerOCBByKyznVr79Y0E8fg30pm4rrNarXD-CEOnNIm6S50gmspL12IT9JMwVuK48fUrDfwzTFVxjZxnpdWDv43xclcD7KnDAe4DZoA22FELiW-p0BgiC-KxQcVKYlpcbWyNdvXBCEzwu0C8Ht3GYOX1w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d9ac2c7241a4a5110507a88ae1717eb4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Beverly Friend https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/7a9df6836cc0795f6c3095e25b7b4004.m4a?Expires=1781740800&Signature=rt87K5TmO1b%7Ef6sDbRfBBKa8mCmOOF8ViQZ3BtVg6xdQ08Wladqb6Ep-FXq-WADZa8QOhEVif3rOREJy6uHGUyyvu3EI4fPy2QZEXOXJBcFnTV%7Em0y%7Ee%7EQTWwpiKtWW7-ozKQ0xN2Dk4JuBrsx3JLP6CzwKEQ4-XUlNwIKulxrXhBcwDeajr-D-pbFRNLKznCbNmRzy3TwI0McNUYR1mrf0PgTvHNeBqL18RMPKL4YVPB8YGQ7%7E8x-s8wg1E2Qg9JhMMZzzwx-WX7UJDz5wC9dTRdW%7EIcQfVBvMki-qxzSnbONVIM%7EeN38nCtN9YGSJAt-fJTKxro7ekfAG4THcKDA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM cec35a670f16aa04ce42cc71c7c7c52a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Beverly Friend https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/8fb06106362f1bdf928eb7b7a586db3b.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=tvjcfvuLbwQ4IwVEKJpHYxk7brHtvGldunNsDuj6iaPNCSq4noG1Ts%7Ex62dhVdp48l4CDwQ61Bs0Hqubs-zp2aCyvK1TvG-fdAWMUw3hKp5TCnc-UDs1m82bqxl-phJXuS0zzTD4bod-%7E62AkBzPqGQ-pUgqoCNpLhKRc%7Er6zNcp7Y8Ck%7ExfyO05VGgGGIie8-zYzLBTCl1hu2zmvfyqHTZIUylIx76bJ5BlcV0z85aPN4CVpbnKXLicrcQ%7Eo6O-%7E76AGmUlAzpK2LpEZ4xMtj1iKUZNhIwiAaYu4bBwPvOqTuV5j6xyfBzMUP9ESi3fTi1pFPb%7ElGKcrKIqek1bDw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b8478f96bbf61338dd2f570d43f4d6f0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Campaign pin https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/68c13d6a1726d4fd03ceaee315ea5acc.png?Expires=1781740800&Signature=b4zu2%7Eze1vW8ibT1poekgCglbpNC1QiLjD-Rlhnmc6TttAkf19Uw0TFHni6jRMLNGBzRuiHigfibXnqHzjnn1XdCsyEwfIRuG3pegNfQs9UMOTR7QeMOQtq0uN6j0k9bC6AMwv%7EjqcuBhRlHkRvH5wHGp24%7Elsv3i5gr%7EDw05tHsytEo5R4NKjFqZD%7E39TFXjeevdHwrwj72Bv0whG1KopxmyIFQMFyv10zCmxQ9XzEt5Hj3ntW0metlqkMtD8nLrNFtVGb07vR8vXulY2yJ9PZaQuHUOEK81rPIbgegdsOXrpR4Kp80qXoZCwch%7EIw8HM2rn5YQkn7fizIT6uX4Jw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 526046ebe9b392c2df39ccb727086368 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource James Friend https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/a41edbd207495da8a3901a9058ce1d8f.png?Expires=1781740800&Signature=VOHIHqHyiaONqLGXUNh90T-Xt6k5Eab963BT%7EcJvgmml2TT%7E%7EjP%7EcZwpqKcEOu6mQf628mtJQTqYVu9rw9BlwPCVb-Y4IHhC-3lCJrMSO58B1xQsNfLuHfrpmyjeONYvd8YSH7Z5w%7ET1yKNpLTl9-RZb6HVxDO4vA-KC9IZ7c-Ly7Y-vgqgvNQK6ikKk3SKGDjL9LAYz7bVrQrhwhXa-VPxsniamCyKOBNO%7EUJzRHB9pZSY5G2oiq0SpDc%7EKh9QD1OHu48N2w1MZzYlc9e%7Ef3ZJYkneXnQCIaYPWBCIWTwTS249DAj5NCbj4ju1Eib01IQPsSBBw2nrBhrEwlJr0sg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9f2b26c9078f5a1e2f861a459d6e06f1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chicago Tribune obituary of James Friend, 1987 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/bd38349ab3d596d62ff795ea138bcd3a.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=n5inJ1QxvZCO8S2QOKmUkWmIJhlVfQsfr%7EQf79HCN6ZeFIHTwZbLbP9oJC8eL2tzwipbCC-FC4MsYtyFzC5K-nCbgOS1T9rAaYpEq9d3Yg1w3F7OdCVG8tvcixYQ0Aho0QCLYSTsa%7Eyk5bLvc%7EPPdbNTX7lTuv4-QSlbcr%7EqT%7EBndDF7J43hyQjAQbD99xRVuqAogeRJd9GH1b1hU2reWtTqhl-HYzUUGm4-g7wURzImuCChmOa7rD7j7g-54x71jLSfXUbRENLnYwkHCr0oCx4443NmtLCdRIkX78cmcCCFT2GBjNzMtkyILTAX1D3yNLdrm8VSmdZ0deoWd9hw-Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 6579bbc03e8777c353c7d2161276dd96 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Article about Beverly Friend and Xu Xin, 1995 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Beverly Friend Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“When [Lincolnwood] library came, there was a tremendous satisfaction and happiness. The community really pulled together.”</strong><br /><br />Beverly Friend has lived in Lincolnwood since 1964. She met her husband, James Friend, while they were teaching English at the Navy Pier campus of the University of Illinois. She spent the majority of her career as a journalism teacher at Oakton Community College. She maintains a very active lifestyle, writing theater reviews, and drumming as a percussionist with the North Shore New Horizons band.<br /><em></em><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:01  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is July 30, 2019. And I'm talking to Beverly Friend for our oral history project, My Lincolnwood Story. Beverly, thank you for being hear. And what is your Lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  0:20  <br />Well, I'm going to start with the day we found the houses in Lincolnwood. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:24  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  0:25  <br />I'd just come home from Michael Reese Hospital--we lived at Prairie Shores--with my brand new baby. And my husband had gone to pick up my two-year-old from Milwaukee with grandparents. Okay? And the phone rang and my neighbor Raz Haskel said, "Oh my God, you must come right now. I found two townhouses in Lincolnwood. And they are perfect for us." And I said, "I'm sorry, I can't come. I've got a brand new baby here. And I can't leave the house for a week." And she said, "My husband's a doctor. No matter what goes wrong, he will save you. You must come now." So my husband came back with his mother, and we left his mother and aunt with the baby. And I took my three-year-old and we went to Lincolnwood. And we went to Pratt between Kimball and Trumbull and found the two houses, and we bought them. And we lived there happily for many years afterwards. And that was 1964.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  1:18  <br />And where did you come from to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  1:21  <br />We lived in Prairie Shores. We had apartments there. I was originally from Milwaukee, but I'd been teaching. I was married. My husband and I both taught at the University of Illinois at Navy Pier. We were a department romance. And then we wanted a house, and we wanted to be with the Haskels who were extremely close friends. And we bought them, and it was wonderful. We regarded ourselves as one extended family. She would send the children off to school, and I would catch them when we got back, where we worked our lives. We had looked in Evanston. But in Evanston, the children came home for lunch. And in Lincolnwood they didn't. So we could work and do other things. But it was a wonderful decision, the best decision we ever made. And I stayed in Lincolnwood. I'm at the Barclay now.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:08  <br />So you say that you met your husband teaching?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  2:12  <br />Yes, we were a department romance. We were both at Navy Pier.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:15  <br />So what is your background? What did you--<br /><br />Beverly Friend  2:19  <br />[overlapping] We both were English teachers and lovers of literature. But Jim did a lot with literature. He ran the--I'm sure you must have a copy of this--the Lincolnwood Library Literary Festival, and that should be in your archives. And he brought Isaac Singer and Malamed and Fred Pole and Elie Weisel and Harry Patrykus and Gwendolyn Brooks and Scott Turow over many years. In fact, when he died, I offered to sponsor future series, and the library board didn't want to under one person's name. It would have been the James Friend Memorial Lectures, and they didn't want to do that. They wanted to spread it wider, so we never went ahead with it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:02  <br />Yeah, it's interesting because I've been looking to do something along those lines. And I've come across those names that they were here. It's astounding.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  3:14  <br />Yes, yes, we [inaudible] keep the posters. It had been a live show. We had posters of everyone. Jim's idea, which worked very well, was that the library gave an award to each one because if a person is getting an award, they're more likely to come than just to say, "Would you like to give a lecture?" And each person he asked did come. He got the inspiration from Notre Dame University, which had a junior year lecture series. But at Notre Dame, the lecturer stayed for a week. And here, I guess at the beginning, he did several days, but later on, it was just once a week. People didn't want to come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to lectures. It worked out separate but very successful.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:56  <br />So, let's go a little, you know, before you move to Lincolnwood. Tell me about your childhood, your parents--where were they from? <br /><br />Beverly Friend  4:07  <br />Oh, gosh. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:07  <br />What did they do?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  4:08  <br />I thought I had to concentrate on Lincolnwood. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:11  <br />No, not necessarily. <br /><br />Beverly Friend  4:12  <br />All right. My father was a physician in Milwaukee. My mother stayed home. I was brought up in South Milwaukee, which I hated. It was a very anti-Semitic community. And I owe my happiness in my life to the telephone company because when I was 14, Ma Bell made it no more long distance between Milwaukee and South Milkwaukee. And my father, who had been afraid to move because he thought his patients wouldn't call him long distance, was willing to move. So I start my happy life from age 14.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:42  <br />What do you remember about growing up in Milwaukee?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  4:45  <br />In Milwaukee? Just going to high school, finding friends, which I hadn't found in South Milwaukee, being more accepted. I was more comfortable. And then I went to Wisconsin. I went without a thought as if it was compulsory. And then I worked. And I had a job juggling pictures of small chickens and lists of where you could buy chicken dinners to be delivered to your house. And I ran the chickens down the left side of the ad and across the bottom and around the side. And then I thought, if I have to spend juggling these chickens for the rest of my life, I will kill myself. So I thought and I decided I'd go back to graduate school. And my parents said, "Yes, but you must do something practical" because with an English degree from Wisconsin, I was unemployable, just unemployable. So I decided. I had wanted to go to undergraduate school at Northwestern. But my mother said I was not as sophisticated as the Chicago girls. And I'm 84 now, and I'm still not as sophisticated as the Chicago girls. But I went to Northwestern. I went twice. I went for my Master's in '58. And my doctorate in '75. And I met Jim. He'd come up. He'd been at the University of Chicago, and he went to University of Illinois, and then University of Connecticut, [inaudible], and then the University of Chicago, and then we met at Navy Pier.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:17  <br />What was your doctorate in?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  6:19  <br />English. English education, really. And at Navy Pier, I was one involved in a very big lawsuit, where they let 19 of us go priority granting tenure. And four of us didn't have doctorates, and the rest did. And when we weren't rehired, and it was a tremendous lawsuit, I swore I'd never be without the top credential again. So I went back to school and then ended up at Oakton for 25 years very happily.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:43  <br />What was it about English that drew in? What was your dream job growing up?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  6:56  <br />Oh, what a question to ask a woman from my age group. I went to college to get a husband. I had no intention of a career. Everybody did. I wouldn't have gone back to a high school reunion if I hadn't gone back married. I mean, even married 10 times it wouldn't have mattered. I'd be married. I just fell into it. I like stories. I liked reading stories and talking about stories and writing stories and writing essays and giving speeches. And I didn't like the real world as much. As a child, that was an escape. And even now. It was a love of reading. But it was for the fun.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:31  <br />Was reading something that your parents encouraged you with? <br /><br />Beverly Friend  7:34  <br />Oh, yes. They read me stories, and yes, my parents were voracious readers. We had an extensive library.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:40  <br />What was the first book that you remember reading?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  7:47  <br />Oh, my. Well, the most impressive was my mother brought me Golden Books from the dime store in Milwaukee, when she'd go downtown. And there were a story of Lincoln and the story of Pocahontas. And I remember there was the $64 question--not thousand--a $64 question on the radio. And they asked, "What was the name of Pocahontas's father?" And my mother didn't know. And my father didn't know. But I knew, and I said, "Powhatan!" And they were so impressed, I thought there must be something to this reading idea. It's a good deal. But I remember, in fact, I just wrote an essay for something called "story worth," which asked what values you're most proud of. And I wrote about having been influenced by Pollyanna and her search for the golden lining and everything. And that was another influential book. But I read everything. My father had a wonderful book called You Had Heredity, by Amram Scheinfeld. And it had pictures. It had diagrams of two ugly parents who could produce a gorgeous child and two gorgeous parents who could produce an ugly child. And I thought it was fascinating.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:57  <br />So you said that you ended up at Oakton Community College?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  9:01  <br />[overlapping] At Oakton as a journalism teacher, and English teacher, and advisor of the student newspaper. In fact, next Saturday, we're having a reunion of some of the people that worked for the newspaper at the Ram Restaurant, so I'm looking forward.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:04  <br />And you're retired, or are you--?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  9:16  <br />Retired for 20 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:18  <br />But you still give lectures, and you seem like you're still active.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  9:22  <br />Oh, you have no idea. I give lectures here and in Florida, and I'm a percussionist with the New Horizons band, and I'm a theater critic for Chicago online. And I'm Executive Director of the China Judaic Studies Association--I further the study of Judaism in China. And I do lots of things.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:48  <br />How did you fall into, for instance, being a theatre critic?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  9:54  <br />I really don't know. Oh yes, I do know. I went to see a play by Harry Petrakis, who I liked very much, and I liked the play. And I was advising the student newspaper at Oakton. And I came home, and at four o'clock in the morning, I got up and I wrote about the play. I couldn't sleep, and I liked it so much. It was done by the Story Theater. And I didn't know what to do with the review, so I sent it to a paper that Oakton dealt with. We went to the same printer to have our newspapers printed, and they printed it. So I was very happy. I didn't expect money. And then three or four years later, I did another review in a similar way. But this one I sent to the Learner Papers and several others. And the paper I'd sent the first one to had said, "You could have sent it anywhere. We're not paying and we didn't care who else printed it." But Lerner said, "Is it exclusive to us?" And I said, "No." And they took it anyhow. And then they offered me the job. So I went from Learner to Pioneer, to various around the industry. I got paid, then I didn't get paid, then I got paid in tickets, you know. They said, "Don't quit your day job." And they were right. But now I'm online strictly. And you know what's very interesting? When I'm in Florida, I review for the Chicago online outlets. And I thought they wouldn't want a reviewer from Chicago. But it doesn't matter nowadays. Because my review is linked to the website of the theater. So it doesn't matter where I'm from or where the review initially appears because it's everywhere. And so they're very welcoming in Florida for reviewers.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:32  <br />How long have you been writing theatre reviews? Because I was gonna ask what has been the most memorable production?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  11:40  <br />I'll tell you, I've been doing it less now. But I wouldn't say the most memorable production, but the best productions I have always thought were at the Shakespeare Theatre on Navy Pier. I'm always happy to go see them, to see Steppenwolf. Some of the theaters are just up. Chicago is the theatre capital of the world. New York thinks it is. But we have, what did I think, 85 theaters putting on 200 plays a year. I just came back from London and reviewed three plays for Chicago there. And it was just wonderful. They didn't ask me to, but I did Matilda and I did The Play Where Everything Goes Wrong, and I did Book of Mormon. I went with my daughter, and it was just wonderful to be there and reviewing plays too.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:27  <br />So, let's go back. So, you said you moved to Lincolnwood in ... it was 1964. What was the town like back then?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  12:36  <br />Well, there was no library. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:39  <br />True. <br /><br />Beverly Friend  12:40  <br />And so we used Morton Grove and we used Skokie. And then, I remember when they bought the little grocery store that stands where we are sitting right now. And then, I remember the big snowstorm and the roof fell in on the grocery store. And then we all collected money because we wanted for there to be a library in Lincolnwood. So when this library came, it was a tremendous satisfaction and happiness. The community really pulled together. So that was what I thought was really memorable. But I liked it. I like the the suburbs. I like to walk into the parks with the children. I liked it. Well the school system was big. We were in Prairie Shores, and so it was in the South Side of Chicago. And we had a choice: we could go to a private school, or we could go to the suburbs. And for the same money, we had a home and everything else, where the same money would have been for tuition if we stayed in the city. So, my neighbor Haskell's daughter was six. My oldest was only three. But it was time to move. We moved together.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:43  <br />What were some of the restaurants or stores?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  13:48  <br />The Kenilworth restaurant is now, and then there was [inaudible]. [inaudible] and China was in that spot. And every time I would drive by, I would say, "Someday, I'm going to go into [inaudible] China." And finally one day, I did. At that rate, I would never have known what was there. And the Milk Pail for grocery shopping. And oh my god, and the Dairy Queen for ice cream. And Community Discount World. Trying to  think. And of course many stores still exist. And Marshall Field was here, and Sears, which was just gone, is here. There were lots of places that went. It was just a very pleasant community. And oh, what I appreciated the most, and which was wonderful, was what the school district did. The school district ran bridge, and they ran bridge games where you were teamed up. We were all members of the PTA. And we'd play one month at our house, one month in somebody else's house. And that's how you got to know your community with this going back and forth. And then at the end, they would have a big gathering at the school, and they'd give out trophies for the bridge games. And we met the whole community and made friends that were lifetime friends from those bridge games.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:02  <br />So you were active in the PTA?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  15:04  <br />No. My desire and my actuality had no relationship to each other. I did very little with the PTA. I did very little with the religious training. I was never a room mother. I had all these intentions. Nothing happened to any of them. But I did play bridge with them. But I was a working mother, so I was in and out.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:28  <br />What are some of your favorite stories from your work life?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  15:35  <br />Well, I'll tell you a Lincolnwood Library story. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:37  <br />Absolutely.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  15:38  <br />Alright. I had trouble hanging on to a library card. I would get one, and then I would lose it and be very embarrassed. So I was coming for a card. And I said to myself, "I never walk to the library. I'm not going to put the card in my wallet. I'm not going to put it in my purse. I'm going to put the new card in the car, in the rain visor--in the visor over the driver's seat. And therefore, whenever I go to the library, I will know where the card is." So I went in and got the card. And I went back and I went into my car, and I put my hand in to slip it in, and something was there: two more library cards. So three times I had this brilliant, brilliant idea of where to put the card. You see, and I can tell you today I don't know where my card is today either. It didn't work. But I was thinking of writing into "life in these United States" because it was such a great moment when I reached it and found the other cards and thought, I have done this three times now.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:35  <br />But going back to ... from work life, from teaching--<br /><br />Beverly Friend  16:39  <br />From teaching, I suppose the day that Jim and I got engaged. And my first class, somebody noticed the ring. And by the time my fourth class came, the entire class showed up and congratulated me. So that was a lot of fun. And he courted me with this mother's cookies.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:53  <br />What was the most, or what has been the most fulfilling part about teaching for you?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  16:59  <br />Oh, it's all been fulfilling. I teach now in Florida. And the last class I taught had 134 students, and they're all senior citizens. And they all read what you ask them to read, or for seeing films, they are responsive. At the end of a class, they gave me a standing ovation. I feel like a movie star. That is extremely gratifying. But no. I loved advising a student newspaper. My husband had done that at Chicago State. He was Chairman of the Engligh Department of Chicago State. And towards the end, I was getting tired. And sometimes I would find when I signed a story, that I was the only person in the room who actually read the story. So by the time I retired, I was ready to retire. But I liked it, and I like teaching senior citizens a lot because they are responsive. And they do the work. And you see their joy in doing it. And the younger ones were not as much readers and not as much interested. So it was motivation was more difficult.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:00  <br />What institution, or where do you teach at in Florida?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  18:04  <br />I teach in a place called Windmark Country Club. It's paradise. It's sleepaway camp for senior citizens. There are 8,500 people. And I think there are a 1000-seat theater. I mean, it's big. There are 19 different complexes with pools. And then, there are classes and an enormous number of activities. Enormous. And we go for six months.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:33  <br />So you spend half of the year?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  18:35  <br />Yes. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:36  <br />In Florida?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  18:36  <br />In Florida. For the past 15 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:40  <br />And so, throughout your career, your work life, what are some of the biggest lessons that you learned?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  18:47  <br />Well, the biggest thing that happened to us--and this I don't want to forget to tell you--my husband was planning to go on a sabbatical to study Hemingway's reputation 20 years after Hemingway's death. And one of his colleagues had a Fulbright to teach in China. So the man from Nanjing University came, and my husband went out for lunch with them. And I don't know what they said or what they ate, but it must have been a fantastic lunch because when he got home, he invited Jim to come and teach in Nanjing in China. And I came home and Jim told me, and I said, "Well, you got other plans." He said, "Well." I said, "Why don't you go to China the first semester and teach, and then have someone else take over the second year while you go on to Paris and do other things?" which is what he did. And when he was there, he met a professor named Shu Shin, who was teaching a course in Jewish American authors but had never actually met a Jew ever. And Jim was the first. And Jim came out of such a reform background, that at the high holidays on the South Side, they blew a trumpet not a shofer during that religious service. So anyhow, to make a long story short. Shu Shin came and lived with us and taught at Jim's school. And Jim died during that time. And when Shu Shin went back to China, he was very worried. We thought we'd never see him again once he went back to China, he would be gone forever. But when he lived with us, if you said to me, "Come to my house for dinner next week," I would have said to you, "Yes, but we have a Chinese Professor living with us; may we bring him?" So he lived very close with us. So when it came time to go back, he put an article in the Sentinel newspaper, which said, "I've saved a few pennies, but I can use a few dimes," you know. And that he would love to go to Israel. And what turned out was that he was invited by Hebrew Union College to spend three weeks in Israel, and El Al airlines gave him an Air Flight. So when he got back to China, he gave two lectures. One was "my two years in the United States," and he got a nice turnout. And the other one was "my three weeks in Israel," and he got an enormous turnout. Andway, to make a long story short, he has become the leading scholar of Judaic studies in all of China. And this is a cover of Encyclopedia Judaica that he did, and it's been given to scholars and academics and ambassadors who go to Israel. And he's been in Israel and the United States many times. He got an honorary doctorate from Bar Ilan University. So he changed all of our lives. Now, Jim died in 1986. So Jim didn't live to see any of this. He was like a catalyst. They became friends. Jim had written in his diary, that he had a conversation with Shu Shin--the kind of conversation he's always wished he'd had with his own brother and never had, so he's very close. So because of this, I've been in China seven times. I was once honored by the university there. My children have been. My cousin is now working in the China Center at University of Chicago. I mean, everybody's life changed from this man. And in actuality, there were three people who lived with us during these years of Lincolnwood. One was an AFS student from Yugoslavia and a [inaudible]. One was a Chinese student who came after my husband died but had been his student, named Wahlu. And Shu Shin. And each of these made an enormous impact on our lives and on the lives of my children.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:53  <br />Tell me about your family. Is it a close-knit family?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  20:44  <br />[overlapping] Very close. I have two daughters by birth two by extension--the two that came to live with us. And I treat them all the same. And they all live within a 45-minute ride of where I am. I'm very lucky to have the children nearby. And I have one great granddaughter and another great granddaughter on the way.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:35  <br />Wow. Tell me about some family traditions that you have.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  22:41  <br />Alright. Well, the biggest one is Passover. And I always loved it. I just, you know, it's a Jewish Thanksgiving when you get together. And after Jim died, I didn't make it in my house anymore. It's a big chore. I make it in a hotel. I always come back from Florida. And I have up to 50 people or more, sitting in a large square. And my daughter, who went very religious in high school and went to Ida Crown Academy, leads it, and we have this wonderful Seder. I mean, it's not all Jewish people; several are some nuns and people we know from other walks of life. But it's expandable. If you say you'd like to come, I can I can have you because it's infinitely expandable in the ballroom at the Renaissance hotel. And also in terms of highlight experiences, Jim had many authors who were friends and like the ones he had here. Mary Hemingway came to speak at Chicago State University when they dedicated the library at Chicago State to Ernest Hemingway. And Jim wanted me to make dinner for her. And he wanted me to make bouillabaisse, and I am not an elaborate cook. In fact, I had to borrow the bowls from the bakery restaurant. I didn't. But it was during Passover, and you can't have the fish that are in bouillabaisse because it is not kosher particularly not for Passover. And my daughter was going to the Ida Crown Academy and ultra, ultra Orthodox at that point. So it was an experience. I was tempted to put matzah balls in the bouillabaisse. I didn't, but I did serve matzah with it. And Tracy ate in the kitchen so that she wouldn't see us. But it was something that I felt like I could have written up as a wild Seinfeld kind of story, you know, with Mary Hemingway eating bouillabaisse during Passover, that people wouldn't have believed, but it would have been hysterical to write.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:30  <br />Yes, that's something that you could just make up like that.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  24:33  <br />Oh. No, I mean, it was so outrageous. So outrageous. And a matter of fact, Jim had arranged for an actor to do a scene at Chicago State University on the last day of Hemingway's life. A one man show. A man with a beard would be Hemingway. And as I'm sitting there with Elie Wiesel, and with Mary Hemingway, and with my younger daughter, Marla, Marla turned to me and said, "Mommy, isn't Hemingway going to commit suicide? And we're sitting with Mary Hemingway. How are we going to sit next to her and have him commit suicide?" And of course he does. And afterwards, I yelled at my husband, "How could you? How could you have had this play put on with the wife there?" And he said, "No, I asked her before, and she said it was perfectly fine." So I said, "Well, maybe she killed him." And he got so offended, so offended that I said that. But when Marla looked at me and said that. And she was a kid, you know, a youngster, but she knew how could we sit next to this lady and have her husband--. If a stranger committed suicide, would you want to sit through a play, let alone your husband? That was a memorable moment. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:38  <br />What was her reaction?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  25:40  <br />Calm. Calm. Very calm. My husband in his college days, he had written a musical, To For Whom the Bell Tolls. And they had Anne Bancroft singing a demo on it. But Mary Hemingway never gave permission for them to put on the play. But my husband wrote wonderful music. And Tracy now writes liturgy. She has three CDs out of her music, mostly in Hebrew, but changing the melodies of the prayers that you ordinarily hear, which she's very active with. Both of my daughters are very accomplished. Tracy is ... I'm not quite sure what she does, but she travels to London frequently and to New York, and she's a principal with a firm that does mergers and acquisitions, so she's a financial officer with that firm. And Marla is head of the psychiatric residency program at Lutheran General. So they both are very capable women. I wanted my children to grow up to be capable, self-sufficient women. And my extended family is too. They are nurses and teachers, etc.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  26:48  <br />What are some, you know, projects or things in your life right now that you're most excited about?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  26:54  <br />I got a whole kitchen table that is filled with projects. Well, you were one, that was coming here. And Tracy gave me for my birthday, something called Story Worth. This I hope your readers would be interested in. It was a birthday present. Every Monday morning, I get a note from Story Worth with an idea for an essay. Who would you most like to have dinner with, living or dead? All kinds of provocative things. Who was the most important influence in your life? Every Monday I get a question. And I answer it and send it back. And at the end of the year, we printed it in a book for the family that I myself have written. I wrote an autobiography, self printed. I did my husband's diary. He had 11 handwritten diaries of his time teaching in China. So I did that and had that published for the family. I paint, and I put out some books of my paintings for my children. What else do I do? Oh, my God. Well, I play in the band. Lots and lots of things.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:57  <br />Well, that's actually a great question. Who would you say has had the greatest influence on your life?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  28:05  <br />My father. My father would come home from work. And tell me about the day at the office. And it was like a warrior coming home and telling about the dragons that he slayed. I saved this guy; he came here with 106 temperature. You know? Or, oh my God, I'll never forget when I was just a child: "Beverly, Beverly, come in. Feel this guy's stomach. You feel how hard it is? It's peritonitis." I mean, he shared his world. I wanted to be a doctor. He loved medicine. Every Wednesday, he came from Milwaukee to Chicago to Cook County Hospital to take a class. A devotee of education. He loved medicine and baseball and new cars, about in that order. He was an enthusiast. And he also would tell you how to run your business, whether you wanted to know it or not. But he was a terrific doctor, a terrific diagnostician. I didn't respect my mother. I came to respect her when I was older. But I thought her life was wasted. She could have done much more, but women didn't. She would have liked to work in his office. She was very good at math. He said he couldn't; it was an embarrassment. How could a doctor have his wife work in the office? So he didn't do it. So she was not happy. And whatever he did, he did with gusto and with positive attitude. So I thought he was by far and away the most important influence in my life. I still think he was wonderful.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:37  <br />You mentioned that you wanted to go into medicine.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  29:38  <br />Yes, absolutely. He discouraged it. And I wasn't good at math, and I wasn't as good at science, and I was very good at English. Again, he wanted me to be married. He didn't think it was a life for a woman. And my daughter on the other hand, Marla,became a doctor because she said grandpa knew all the answers, and when she grew up, she wanted to know all the answers. And then she became a psychiatrist, and she was afraid to tell him. She thought he didn't think a psychiatrist was a real doctor. But he did. He was very proud of her. They shared a lot.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:10  <br />What has been a regret in your life?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  30:15  <br />Okay. That I didn't plan it out. When I got my job at Oakton--and jobs were hard to get--I had gotten the job and I was talking to a dean, named Dean Krukke. And he said, "Well, what are your goals?" And I said, "Well, I just got this job. I fulfilled my goal." I said, "What are your goals?" He said, "Oh, well, I'm a dean here at Oakton. And then I plan to be a vice president at a school a little larger. And ultimately, to be a college president." And he was. He went zoom, zoom, zoom zoom. And it never crossed my mind. My regrets are the things I couldn't think. Another one was I was first chair of the high school drum section. I went to the University of Wisconsin. I stood in line to sign up for the band. And the director said, with a voice like the voice of God, "No girls in the marching band." And my career was over. And it never crossed my mind that I could have said, "That's not fair. I'll sue you." But I mean, the thoughts I couldn't think. I regret the thoughts I was not able to think, so I couldn't act on them. As a feminist, that's my biggest regret. That I didn't go further or even think I could have gone further.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:16  <br />To what extent do you think life has to be planned out? You mentioned that you didn't plan it out.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  30:20  <br />I think that I just drifted. And I think many women drifted. I didn't have a goal. I wouldn't have wanted to say at age five, I want to be this and never veer from that course. But the men planned. When he said, "I'm going to do this for five years ..." It never occurred to me that I could make a plan. I was so happy I had the job, I did the student newspaper. My husband had large dreams and got smaller portion of them. I had smaller dreams and got more of them. But they were small. I write, but I don't aim for major markets. I sold the "life in these United States" to the Reader's Digest 36 years after I sent it to them, they bought it. But every 10 years, I would send them the story again. And finally they bought it. Should I tell you the story?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  32:26  <br />Of course.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  32:27  <br />This was so hilarious. When my I came home from the hospital with baby Marla, I was sitting in the living room, and she was nursing. And Tracy was three and walked into the room and looked at me feeding the baby with wide eyes. And I saw that she didn't understand it. So I went into like a five-paragraph explanation. This is how mothers feed their babies. This is like kittens and puppies and on and on. And she said and staring at me, "She's drinking milk in the living room?!" And that was the shock of the story. It wasn't the nursing, it was she wasn't allowed to drink milk in the living room, and the baby was drinking milk in the living room. And I thought it was a wonderful story. And when I was teaching, I would say it to my classes, you want to try to send a story. So the Reader's Digest they pay $100. And so every five or six years, I would send it. And one year, I was in China at the time, I got a thing saying they bought it: "Was it a true story?" I said, "Yes, it's a true story." And they printed it. And when I tell my class I sold it, "Don't give up your day job. You make $100 with 36 years after it happened.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:35  <br />So looking back on everything that you've done in your life now, would you say that you are happy with the decisions you've made?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  33:46  <br />I've been very blessed. I have wonderful children. My husband died very young, at 55, and I was 53. And since then, I've had two significant relationships. One with a man that I dated in my single days. In fact, the joke is, I promised my mother I wouldn't marry him when I was 20, and I promised my mother I wouldn't marry him when I was 65. But he was a good playmate. And then he died of Alzheimer complications. And now for 15 years, I've been with somebody else who's very nurturing and kind. So I've had three really wonderful companions, who were right for me at the different times in my life. I didn't need them. I could manage. I said at one point, a husband should be dessert; he shouldn't be the whole meal. And you know, I've been very blessed with health, with travel, with enough money to potentially do what I want to do. Very blessed. Very grateful.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:38  <br />Is there anything else that you would like to add?<br /><br />Beverly Friend  34:42  <br />Who knows, I have this whole piece of paper. I think I've covered everything.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:45  <br />Whether it's about your life in Lincolnwood--<br /><br />Beverly Friend  34:47  <br />Well with the school board, when Jim ran the first time, he didn't get in. And Marla was there. And she cried and cried and cried because he didn't make it. And I had explained to her he still has a job. We still have a home. And then he did make it, and she was very, very pleased.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:02  <br />Yeah, you did wear the button that says "put a Friend on the school board."<br /><br />Beverly Friend  35:06  <br />Yes. He was on the school board from 1980. He lived a schizohrenic moment. He was president of the school board when the school teachers were thinking of striking, so he was in administration. And then at Chicago State, he was a faculty, and he was on the part that wanted to strike. So he was on "let's strike" and "you can't strike" at the same moment in his life. So that was very, very chaotic. Jim was very happy. We put on his grave the thing he'd always said: "don't mourn my death; celebrating my life." He led a very good life. He died way too young and didn't see a lot, but it was a good life. And every year, and I just came from this. Every year in the summer, we have a family picnic at Rosedale Cemetery. We bring in chicken, and everybody brings in food, and we sit on blankets, and we talk about him. And my parents are buried there now tooThat's a good note to end on.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:57  <br />That's a wonderful note. Well, I want to thank you for coming down to--<br /><br />Beverly Friend  36:00  <br />Did we do 40 minutes? Did we do more?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  36:01  <br />Well, we're close. I want to thank you for coming down to the library and sharing your lincolnwood story with us.<br /><br />Beverly Friend  36:08  <br />Well, I gave you a lot, didn't I?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  36:10  <br />Thank you so much. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/bd73c2be5e3896e13fa6f5cfaccb47bb.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=ILbxIyI%7EirGmq1rs04YJh0BzmSi97WF5nftj6Y-gDLW9J926BQrAq0HdKjI7QNylENAn7rmWEQ5uw-i7vfvsOmUsArarR6%7E2dN1VrKLcXt76eoCUU9-%7EC4-1JqhXJixwvf23bZ%7E8zyKLtUrhuk2tpbEA3IwEnC%7EFe7n52q-XQq%7EAVM%7Ek%7ESOy9ttj1UEEpkDUbWdmK7AVwSRgliB86q3U9vVXplW-O67AmbV-i8nLTHwQLYDlwbYNCgi8Ah%7E8nmUsh1A9KY8wi4N%7Ezs3hNIrpKkqGs0r5z%7Evtznx4RLDWHVdMh2gUP8UZNcTO-YAIVA4dGBPZzIxJLpbac-17ingNWw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8c5e528323ce7ca070113dca37b80ae4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Bob Levy https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/aecb80b2e92e6ba5b19e3c91a02cc006.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=eBgOxyxBcPPkaGxzEbxaym3eR-YxYa-Mx3nR4uU8SSq9I40nsOcq8dhPwPLa7NfBAMTzQbBPgTM2tKLn8zbnL3HDXSDvXJFo8rsMON34-l-Jjwj2Mv31wfv5v8q7c7wXH9mOCNsyw1P1fYq-BpvBOPZbug8cPJBd%7E-Ioo3TTcWaQEcwHXJGKshkcYaraSr-pomvDewOpBrmxEx4XIiNQiTSe1fPZ4%7EMSeuPt9qW8TTPna7478xO2nvJem1QXNqDGKo16dV1wY2kvQgzAudbTrx02fYXoTB90wJUPxYa2NsekwLlsv-zrS8AqiTxVdEHuXptS%7EF7WFoLkHY1dowE6LQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM cf571b4adaed889558fc74c8803281c2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bob’s mother, Charlotte Levy holding his brother, Michael, in front of their first house at 6841 N. Keating, 1957 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/f3380595926cea44f79479350a581fa3.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=d8-DkrkHLwNXZBYzhDsKa8QAyoAC0v5fTTBl-IkuO0so720rHs-itmBVz8rQkl18BZRvGa6D2teWA4tznskg07a2Nc12tc3jdU32adq33j3twEeeSyeTQy4gIN0t-3HR1JmlSM9bqLzGW7YN1eMxbD3FBd2%7E9wYiV79VAhyP3P7r-j9EOAcuJq55zYXhneyQgzmdQ5rOT8Lv3yaLb8U3I1QnDhJDb-Iel7XOIdcJLSohag%7Ezg0u6PDF-HKfH78E1ZyX0DHfDwNA-XaIG2kPPuJQvtHfylgI3X7-xCwsgXa2F4ROJNk%7Ew5PfHl8u3etnn-eAhjiP0a843dQIxyoaS4A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3b06fe54c73470d51769ad64494f0fb6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The 1967 listing of the Levy’s first house on Keating https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/753884503758de7f5b1884b2b4275bc4.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=L7zPvJxU%7EjCoC8SY8T6ehthJTs6C6w6EFi%7E4ZKnIY43lcLGYTPHww6gVga9X8MgZPQUATkGZEZL55SleKM3CzLlbV4mMyT-l%7EDIhfSvjOZG6hihCC111PHHjRD5s45CXXUwpfWOWRXkRijPso1hnzEBc3cIbe1lA8Nwdi%7EejIkWqG1BZjrIrt4-z5kYKAnMqCQBpO2WQUjuyGyNdiatgPQN1VerIaGh4HUi52ccVt4pJF3x0D2OIvGZ0fUY6liHJJZd2%7EsFWeXADTq-7FWOJv7LID9Li0a6aEvrlFbBz47ivHaj%7Etu3UVufvR-RdFDDdQSKt8Gt54Em8ZRkh-201zA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d6f9aa0a5a34ee0678f2ee80d423015e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A 1977 listing of the house at 6705 N Kostner https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/72155bb5e5b3239cfeebf5201d6957d8.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=TAoU1lhx%7E4COX-doAR-CmD07lO2qtEnQamV-3zUomXrYlBFcOtgavCKb16gLWys5BNMzqpOom4nn3DSdks2ZizhZQC5M-T3VyMwUAZm3Rkt8g%7EmLWl19Gb6vzM1ott-Y9kFsB0%7Emm%7EN3jF9cfCXiATcE6HBJWROL4jPaggO6WeJ9TPB0835o9-3V7YLjxTerK8JOI2PSfeFqoqNGAlI0-Y%7ECU9o3jsBMn-2DUbKKDOWfD9MWGvC8X-kNrKtg4dnLoGRLQtE111jRHtEh342m-LwVdldP%7EGIEwxxgFC1Ww6guEZ8fUoN%7EG3rlSpEyTjuC4axS38DDRhXFfrNowf1bDA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM bbb241d55d68f4989ab5f652f87f28e4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource “Barefoot in the Park” with Sandi Luckenbach as Corie Bratter and Risa Brainin as Corie’s mother, Ethel Banks. Spring 1977 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/31db2f35ceedf0908a920aea5e9f4672.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=C44hHmLBvY1sW9tBoQUM9OI9WtDTFBhufYjbCNNKLMy6y2QyQdmNw-X7G-Nra3Vyx0sVhb-4t81OUwRKZoFCmo3XVDrukGuqpqOu2N-p2i38r8h0jv7mL3ekPBJjozVfaphf0KCuk602jvAWKdTQmbkw9DRXj1LLuX47R62yzBTyVTvjrvzd88URa1dwRApqHIJQ77PkUDJeBq6eC8wMrUYsUQ-c1bWKtJj-bP1670otOIQj3N-KON5ZMmqytKjILOu2jAxEclPBm3ok0yI7BotY5kuCZMv%7EvIfXk5159kTjaZPjaeaNWFWaPVfI5iK0nkmKz-yPIC3kmuwRhx7lrQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM e794aae4b25c0e967630ff91e9ab54db Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A stage kiss with Sandi Luckenbach in “Barefoot in the Park,” spring 1977 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/31aa35ff7be0e3a225beaa2e5cf74d84.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=GyWOQ8Rswip0CMHSg-9mjLJe6xmBl1ND66YqAB73QI7b4iBoPicucG0ewT1mU6kEg8uC0kGvIKFPKDkPNaO4nAki3uvdOSOFJbW%7Etn17wJfZLNwkLwC3gLr9UPOy7CQHftTRRzvqsLDKdUFSvccqkd8PGxMAb3UWJFD-XWC57CmmAhBXi6r3k-sdFIeW3%7ETvp5sy4TFbHfUSHFVzOdxAfJ0S9djGx7PBc00eMvtwvazhOW47U8e71NonyPttyQdX1ABbq0aE5KPYSttsYt9jlLttAm-TBKPTG48uM5-lc7SVPBf9pBtdhLSJTkfcLKLNnO-KGs5ccJvNe-iQx4C7Pg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ec00252375c13cad5a58c9b6757bae67 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bob Levy as King Charlemagne in “Pippin,” Niles West, 1979. Robyn Grobman (Niles West class of ’81), who played Pippin’s grandmother, is on the left https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/d6b02116d7dfec70fd964485c288e1f7.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=YrqOXh0Xbjjicvajcp6ViWXejJpM5T8tRNUg%7Eni-TIDDxiVavn8OR72sklPiMVsxK%7EZJHr9fk44O8ahXXhoaIifX6o-16TQRoDzEBp2S4DFcyuv8RaKqO-nvXwn3E3cwZuRhgg5rjRTIO-Hi7sXZOr0xpXDRT9yNF-Ujscd14Rnj8-CQfoh-h6QBi7y302RxExRNr46JtKxb9L7rMsYteVoQWW-apHDb7PZDzo9sLx4Th8iee9osdB4R3vMFEB7pTpkBfwRuFk95x0MuYPoQRkMhdxevjhEt5uqeW2-1cS76W43agWWJfI5dtwUv0EnCDTzJ2nqC3%7EDTitTf4yf9Og__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 4032dd037806f8ca3b9ec42d6e021da3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bob Levy (lower left) with the cast of “The Crucible” at Niles West in the spring of 1976. Cheryl Rich (not her younger sister Debra as was mistakenly referenced in the interview) played Abigail, in the center of the row of girls Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Bob Levy Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“My childhood in Lincolnwood has completely informed and inspired everything I’ve done as an adult and stays with me in the most wonderful, positive, warm ways."</strong><br /><br />Bob Levy was born in 1961, and lived in Lincolnwood until 1977. In this interview Bob shares his memories of growing up, attending high school at Niles West, where he did theater, and discusses his career in Hollywood.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian here at the Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is July 12, 2019, and I am interviewing Bob Levy for My Lincolnwood Story, our oral history project. Bob, welcome. What is your Lincolnwood Story?<br /><br />Bob Levy  0:17  <br />Lev, I don't know what that question means. I have a Lincolnwood life. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:21  <br />Ok, what is your Lincolnwood life?<br /><br />Bob Levy  0:25  <br />My instinct is to answer that factually, and we'll start with some of the facts. I was born in 1961, and I was brought home from Michael Reese Hospital to Lincolnwood. My family lived at 6841 North Keating, and my parents had bought the house in 1957, a couple months after my brother Michael was born. We lived in Lincolnwood and I lived in Lincolnwood from birth until the family moved in 1977. We moved down the road to Skokie. For my first 16 years I lived in Lincolnwood, and it's an incredibly fond, warm, wonderful, free childhood in Lincolnwood that I remember.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  1:10  <br />What is your family's history? Where did they come from, to Lincolnwood.<br /><br />Bob Levy  1:14  <br />That's an interesting question. Specifically, my parents had lived in an apartment, their marriage apartment. My parents were married in 1955, and moved into an apartment in a neighborhood of the north side of Chicago called Budlong Woods. You're nodding your head, which means you've heard of Budlong Woods.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  1:30  <br />[Overlapping] Yes.<br /><br />Bob Levy  1:30  <br />I had never heard of Budlong Woods until I asked my mother where they lived before they bought the house in Lincolnwood. That was my parents first home together. My father was a born Chicagoan, grew up on the West Side, the JVC, the Jewish 'Vest Side,' the JVS. Then when he was a teenager, the family discovered that it wasn't cool for the Jews to live on the West Side, that the cool Jews lived on the North Side. So I think they moved to Albany Park. He lived there until his 30s when he met my mom, and they moved to Budlong Woods, and after a year and a half, and my brother was born, they moved to Lincolnwood. My mother had grown up in Milwaukee, and moved to Chicago in the early 1950s, primarily because she had lost hope of meeting an eligible husband in Milwaukee, and hoped that Chicago was fresh territory. She succeeded and met my dad and they got married in 1955.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:34  <br />What are your parents? What were their professions? What did they do?<br /><br />Bob Levy  2:38  <br />My mom really didn't work until I was a teenager, probably when we moved to Skokie, and she began working for the Council for Jewish Elderly. She worked for the Council for Jewish Elderly for 17 years primarily at the Lieberman Center in Skokie in the accounting department. She was the accounts payable person for Council for Jewish Elderly for 17 years. My father did a bunch of different things. I guess he sort of had a peripatetic career path. When I was a little kid, he owned kiddie rides. You're too young to really remember what kiddie rides are. Kiddie rides were you put a nickel into the mechanical horse outside the drugstore. And your kid got a horsey ride on the kiddie ride for 30 seconds or a minute.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:33  <br />I remember those. <br /><br />Bob Levy  3:35  <br />My dad owned kiddie rides all over the city. I remember him coming home at night with sacks of coins, and running the coins through a coin counting machine. Recently, somebody told me that the people who ran the kiddie rides in Chicago in the 50s and 60s had to have been Jewish mob. I find it impossible to contemplate the scenario that my father was somehow involved in the Jewish mob. I don't think he was, and I've had no evidence that he was. My father was born in 1918 and died in 1991. He did kiddie rides, then he sold that business. Then he had a business called Door Popcorn Company, and they sold restaurant supplies. He did a lot of that kind of stuff for many years. Eventually, he owned and operated hot dog restaurants in Chicago. He had a hot dog restaurant near Comiskey Park on 35th Street that he and my older brother Michael would drive down to every morning and sell hotdogs. That's it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:52  <br />What are some of your earliest memories of growing up in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Bob Levy  4:56  <br />It just feels like an incredibly free place for a kid to have lived in during that period. Kids had so much more independence in that era than kids do today. I remember my dad -- I remember riding a two wheeler with my dad for the first time. I'd been in my tricycle, riding up and down the sidewalks of Keating for several years. And he took me to the church on Pratt. Do you know what that church was? I don't know. We were a Jewish family. We never went to church. It was, I don't know, Pratt. It was on the south side of Pratt, near Keating, Kilpatrick, that area. I believe it's still standing. I believe it's a Korean church. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:02  <br />Yes, that's exactly. That's the only one that I can...<br /><br />Bob Levy  5:08  <br />[Overlapping] I think it was...<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:17  <br />[Overlapping]...right next to the restaurant.<br /><br />Bob Levy  5:21  <br />I don't know; the restaurant wasn't there. People will know what the church was in the 60s on the Lincolnwood Memories [Lincolnwood Time Machine] Facebook page. There was a great section about memories of that church. As a Jewish kid, my one memory of that church was my dad walking me over with my first two wheeler. I don't know if it was a Saturday afternoon or a Sunday afternoon; the parking lot was completely empty. He put me in the seat of the two wheeler, and he walked me around. Suddenly, I realized he wasn't holding on to the bike, and I was riding the bike. That was the first time I ever rode a two wheeler. My memory of Lincolnwood as a kid is riding my bike everywhere around Lincolnwood, and just feeling the incredible freedom of riding your bike around Lincolnwood. Ranging outside of Lincolnwood, as I got older, was always a new adventure. But, basically childhood in Lincolnwood was riding your bike through the streets of Lincolnwood to what was then known as the big park. You know, years before it was Prosel Park, it was the big park. We would ride to the big park, and meet and do stuff, and play Little League, and go to the summer camp, which I went to for years, and loved; the big park summer camp, the Lincolnwood Rec summer camp, and that was life.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:24  <br />Do you remember who your friends were, and what type of stuff would you guys do besides riding your bikes around Lincolnwood? <br /><br />Bob Levy  7:32  <br />One of my good friends lived a block and a half away on Pratt, Dan O'Brotman. His mom still lives in that house. His mom is a Holocaust survivor. She was a substitute teacher in the Lincolnwood schools when I was a kid, and then eventually I remember her also substituting at Niles West. Dan O'Brotman's family lived on Pratt. One of my best friends from childhood was another kid, Steve Brown, who's now a lawyer in Phoenix. Dan is a tech guy in Silicon Valley now. Steve Brown -- God, I can't remember where he lived; I can't remember the name of the street he lived on. What did little kids do? We would hang out in my basement. I grew up on Keating. In 1968, when I was seven years old, the family moved to 6705 Kostner. We moved a few blocks east, and we went on the other side of Pratt. We were on the north side of Pratt; now we're on the south side of Pratt. The great thing about being on Kostner was it was even closer to the big park. Riding my bike or walking to the big park was even closer. Dan and Steve would come over. We would hang out in my basement and do dumb little boy stuff, which inevitably involved some kind of like wrestling, fighting with pillows. That's my memory. As I got older, it was going to camp at the Lincolnwood Rec. It was playing Little League, B League, A League, then national league, then American League, then Senior League. I played all through Senior League. I was good as a little kid and then I was terrible once I hit puberty, and started becoming neurotic and wearing glasses. That pretty much killed any hopes I had of baseball, but I still loved playing in Lincolnwood baseball.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:19  <br />Yeah, it's interesting. I've heard a lot from just talking to people that a lot of people grew up playing baseball in Lincolnwood. I didn't realize it had such a big presence here.<br /><br />Bob Levy  9:29  <br />I mean, for me, it was the centerpiece of my summers. The school year was school: Todd Hall, Rutlidge Hall, Lincoln Hall. Summers was baseball and the Lincolnwood Rec park during the day -- the Lincolnwood Rec camp during the day. Lincolnwood between Little League and camp provided great opportunities, particularly for boys in that era. I don't think there was girls' softball. This was before the pool. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:59  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Bob Levy  10:00  <br />There had been a political movement for years to try to get a pool built at the big park. The pool came at the perfect time. Do you know what year the pool came?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:11  <br />I don't know, actually.<br /><br />Bob Levy  10:12  <br />We could look it up. It must have been when I was around 11, 12. It was right on the cusp of puberty, which for me in my life, was the perfect time to to be hanging out at the pool. Once the pool was in Lincolnwood, I think I probably was done with the day camp. The pool days were hanging out at the pool with all the friends from school, and Little League in the evenings.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:39  <br />That must have been in the early 70s?<br /><br />Bob Levy  10:43  <br />Yeah, so I was born '61, right. So, it would have been '72, '73, '74 is my guess. We were so happy to have the pool. The pool felt like it was the answer to all of our hormonal needs. And everybody from my class of Lincoln Hall was hanging out at the pool.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:11  <br />Even though you moved to Skokie, you still went to Niles West, right?<br /><br />Bob Levy  11:14  <br />Yes. Which was an issue. We moved, I think, after my sophomore year at Niles West, and theoretically, I should have moved to Niles East. We moved out of the Niles West school district, but I begged and pleaded with everybody at Niles West with the faculty and staff and administration at Niles West to let me continue going to Niles West because all of my friends were there. I was very active at Niles West, working on the school paper, acting in school plays. I was the PA announcer and it would have been a horrible situation for me to have to move to Niles East. I had terrible fears of mean people and bad, tough guys at Niles East. Fortunately, the Niles West administration grandfathered me. They found some loophole to quote unquote grandfather me into remaining at Niles West. Even though I lived in Skokie, outside the Niles West school district for my last two years, I graduated from Niles West.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:17  <br />Niles East closed in....?<br /><br />Bob Levy  12:20  <br />I think the year after I graduated. I think was '89. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:23  <br />Late 70s. <br /><br />Bob Levy  12:24  <br />Yeah. I think Niles East still existed when we graduated in June of '79. I think it was the next year.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:34  <br />You did theater at Niles West. <br /><br />Bob Levy  12:36  <br />I did theater at Niles West.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:37  <br />Because I did theater at Niles West. I'm a little a little bit younger. <br /><br />Bob Levy  12:40  <br />[Overlapping] A little bit younger, yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:41  <br />What are your memories of that? I believe the teacher was Robert Johnson, right?<br /><br />Bob Levy  12:46  <br />Robert Johnson directed the musical, which was the biggest show of the year. I had been acting in the spring plays with Jim Batts. James Batts, was he not around? Does that name ring a bell to you? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:01  <br />Not at all. No. <br /><br />Bob Levy  13:03  <br />There were three shows in my era. The Fall show was Pow Wow. Did Pow Wow exist when you were there?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:09  <br />No. <br /><br />Bob Levy  13:09  <br />That's right. You guys weren't the Niles West Indians.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:11  <br />Yeah. I mean, I was in there in the early 2000s.<br /><br />Bob Levy  13:13  <br />We were still the Niles West Indians. The fall show, Pow Wow, was the student written play. It was the Niles West equivalent of Northwestern's WaMU show, right? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:24  <br />Right, right. <br /><br />Bob Levy  13:25  <br />I think my senior year I wrote the Pow Wow show. The winter show was the big musical directed by Robert Johnson. In the spring was a straight play; drama or comedy directed by the English teacher, James Batts, Jim Batts. My freshman year, I didn't believe that I could sing, and no one believed that I could sing. My friends believed that I was inherently non-musical. So I was -- it was inconceivable for me to audition for the big Robert Johnson musical, so I auditioned for the Jim Batts drama in the spring of my freshman year, and I was cast in the lead. It seemed like an unheard-of, kind of big deal for a freshman to be cast as the lead. It was The Crucible. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:20  <br />Oh, okay. <br /><br />Bob Levy  14:21  <br />So I was, who's the... <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:23  <br />[Overlapping] John Proctor. <br /><br />Bob Levy  14:23  <br />I was John Proctor. A senior woman...Deborah Rich ? No, I think that might be her little sister's name. Something Rich. She was so much older than I was, and so much more confident and mature. She was the female lead.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:32  <br />She was Abigail?<br /><br />Bob Levy  14:41  <br />She was Abigail.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:42  <br />We did The Crucible in 2003 or 2004.<br /><br />Bob Levy  14:52  <br />Honestly, I didn't even understand The Crucible; I didn't even understand what I was playing. But we pulled it off, and people seemed to think I did a good job. The second year, my sophomore year, James Batts did Barefoot in the Park. Again, I was cast as the lead. I was the Robert Redford role. And I can't remember her name. Oh, I do remember her name. Should I mention her name? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:15  <br />Sure. <br /><br />Bob Levy  15:15  <br />Opposite me was another senior this time. I was a sophomore. She was a senior. Sandi Lucanbach was Miss Morton Grove. The play, as you may know, involves kissing. I was this dorky sophomore. I think at that point, I probably had never kissed a girl. Here I was kissing Miss Morton Grove onstage in Barefoot in the Park. I don't know if you know who Risa Brannon is? Risa Brannon was the queen of theatre. She was the Meryl Streep of Niles West theatre in my era. She played my mother in law, the Sandy Luchanbach character's mother, and it was an amazing experience to get to work with Risa. Risa is now I think the chairman of the theater department at UC Santa Barbara. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:04  <br />Oh, wow.<br /><br />Bob Levy  16:06  <br />She directs plays around the world, and is brilliant and successful theater director today. My junior year I had achieved enough in Niles West theater to have the standing to audition for the winter musical. I was cast in the one non-singing lead role in that year's winter musical, which was Mame. Risa, the Meryl Streep of Niles West theater in that era, played Mame, of course. And I played... oh God, the name of the character escapes me. It was her lawyer.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:51  <br />I'm not familiar with it.<br /><br />Bob Levy  16:53  <br />My senior year, I sang for the first time. We did Pippin. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:58  <br />Okay. <br /><br />Bob Levy  16:59  <br />Daniel Blackman, who I've recently reconnected with, who lives in New Jersey and works in New York, and is incredibly bright and talented, and has wonderful children, played Pippin. He was a sophomore. It was unheard of for a sophomore to get the lead, the titular lead, in a Niles West winter musical. But Daniel was awesome. What's her name? It's escaping me. A woman was cast as the emcee; isn't that the name of the role?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:31  <br />The Lead Player, I think.<br /><br />Bob Levy  17:32  <br />The Lead Player, thank you so much. I can't think of her name. The woman who played the Lead Player eventually moved to L.A. and is now a successful character actress in Los Angeles. I'll think of her name, hopefully, before this is over. And I sang. What's bizarre is Daniel Blackman, who at the time was known as Danny Blackman, his family videotaped on one night of the production of Pippin, and it's posted on Vimeo. I go back and I listen to it now. I watched the video of the performance of Pippin now, and I'm the only one singing on key. I'm the only one singing in tune in the show. The notion that like I was the non-singer, turns out with with the hindsight of Vimeo, to be completely incorrect. I wore a fake beard. The following year, I was a freshman in college after I graduated from Niles West. I grew my own actual beard, which I pretty much still have today.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:36  <br />Maybe we can post that link --<br /><br />Bob Levy  18:43  <br />It is password protected. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:44  <br />Oh, it's password protected, so maybe not.<br /><br />Bob Levy  18:46  <br />Maybe not. But we can post photos of some of the shows. I've great photos of me and Risa and Miss Morton Grove from the Spectrum yearbook. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:58  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Bob Levy  18:59  <br />From what would have been like 1977.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:02  <br />Yeah. We can probably find that.<br /><br />Bob Levy  19:04  <br />And some photos from Pippin. I'll send you those.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:08  <br />So I understand that you live in Los Angeles, right?<br /><br />Bob Levy  19:12  <br />I live in Los Angeles. I've lived in Los Angeles for 30 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:14  <br />So did you go to college here in Chicago?<br /><br />Bob Levy  19:18  <br />I wanted to get as far away. It seemed in my era that smart kids in high school from Niles West went to Northwestern. The summer between my junior and senior year in high school, I did the Northwestern Summer Program, the Cherubs program in radio/tv/film, and had a wonderful experience. I'd never gone to sleepaway camp because I went to the Lincolnwood Rec Camp --<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:39  <br /> [Overlapping] Right.<br /><br />Bob Levy  19:39  <br />-- at the big park. It was my first time away from home, and it was an amazing experience. I kind of assumed that I would go to Northwestern where smart kids from Niles West went. I met a kid that summer whose sister was going to Brown University. I never heard of Brown University. I had heard of the Ivy Leagues -- of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, of course -- but I'd never heard of Brown. When it came time for me to apply to college, I applied to Northwestern, of course. I applied to some fallback schools like the University of Illinois. But my goal was to go as far away from Lincolnwood as I possibly could. Amazingly, I got into Brown University, and so I went to Brown University.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:19  <br />Why did you want to get as far away from Lincolnwood, and what were you looking to study: theater or radio, film?<br /><br />Bob Levy  20:27  <br />My dream was to spend my life working in television and movies; to work in entertainment. But I sort of felt like, okay, these are the last four years of academics that I have. I kind of wanted to not spend the last four years of academic opportunity studying what I would spend the rest of my life doing. That seemed like a waste of an opportunity. Even though Brown offers what was then called semiotics, I didn't do any of those courses. I did straight liberal arts. I double majored in English and history. And the answer to your earlier question: as much as I loved my childhood in Chicago, my childhood in Lincolnwood and growing up as part of the Chicago area, it seemed like there was a bigger world out there. It felt time for me to discover some part of the bigger world. I really believe that young people should spread their wings when they can; when they have the opportunity; when they can afford to move away from home and spend their college years living in a different part of the country; and experiencing a different cultural part of the country. That was a great experience for me. It was an incredibly challenging experience for me. Literally my first or second day at Brown, which as listeners probably know, is in Providence, Rhode Island in New England, I was walking across the campus green, and I met some young woman. We began talking and 10 or 15 seconds into the conversation she said, "Oh, what part of the Midwest do you come from, Bob?" And I said, "How do you...?" She said, "Well, you kind of have an accent." I found that so embarrassing that I spent the next two months at Brown working extremely hard to lose my Lincolnwood accent. When I come back here and hang out with my old friends who never moved away, which also includes my mother, I'm surrounded by the SkokiWood Twang, is how Robert Johnson actually used to refer to it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:45  <br />How would you define that?<br /><br />Bob Levy  22:48  <br />I don't know how to define it, and I'm not going to try to imitate it. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:53  <br />[overlapping] I won't ask you to imitate it.<br /><br />Bob Levy  22:56  <br />Suffice it to say, as someone who has lived in other places of the country, it's not good. There are some charming regional accents in our country. I wouldn't say that the SkokieWood Twang is one of them, unfortunately,<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:13  <br />Is that the Midwest Chicago accent, or is a little bit different from that?<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:18  <br />It's a cousin of the Chicago accent. But it's definitely a North Shore, northern suburban accent onto its own. And it's not good.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:30  <br />I mean., talking to you, you sound --<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:35  <br />You don't have it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:36  <br />I don't know.<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:38  <br />You're a theater guy. You were a theater nerd. Yeah, you don't you don't have it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:44  <br />Even though I've lived in this area for most of my life, I'm not originally from here. So maybe that's why.<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:48  <br />That's probably why.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:50  <br />Yeah.<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:52  <br />It's something that occurs in early formative years. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:55  <br />Interesting.<br /><br />Bob Levy  23:56  <br />It's is very hard to lose. Most of those people who were born here in Lincolnwood, in Skokie and the northern suburbs, have it and never lose it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:09  <br />Hmmm. I'll have to listen for it next time. <br /><br />Bob Levy  24:10  <br />Yeah. Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:10  <br />Yeah, talk to folks around here. So you moved to LA in the late 80s, early 90s?<br /><br />Bob Levy  24:17  <br />I came home to Chicago after Brown, and worked for Channel 11. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:20  <br />Right.<br /><br />Bob Levy  24:21  <br />I got an amazing internship, the Irving B. Harris Internship in Public Television, which I was lucky to get. It was a year long paying internship that Channel 11 offered at that time. I was one of two interns that year, in the fall of 1983. I stayed at Channel 11 for six years. I was one of the three founding producers of Chicago Tonight, which is on the air many, many many years later. Six years after I came home, when I was 28 years old, I realized that as much as I enjoyed working at Channel 11, my real dream was always Hollywood. On the cusp of 30, if I didn't do it then I was never going to do it. I met my parents for dinner at the old Bagel Restaurant on Devon Street. I sat them down, and I said, "Mom, Dad, I want to move to Hollywood." My parents were amazing and said, "We knew that was your dream. We support it entirely. We'll help you however we can." That fall, in the fall of 1989, I moved to Los Angeles.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:32  <br />What was it like when you first moved?<br /><br />Bob Levy  25:35  <br />To L.A.?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:36  <br />To L.A. Yeah.<br /><br />Bob Levy  25:37  <br />I think I had six months of savings. I didn't make a lot of money at Channel 11, I can assure you. But I had money. I had savings that would sustain me -- rent, car, food -- for six months. Within three months I got my first job, which was a two-week freelance vacation relief gig at NBC. It was the Christmas vacation relief. It was Christmas 1989, three months after I got to L.A., and I wound up working at NBC for 10 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  26:17  <br />Usually you hear moving out to L.A., there's -- I mean, maybe it's more so for actors -- the struggle, getting eaten by the whole Hollywood system. Did you? It doesn't sound like you experienced that.<br /><br />Bob Levy  26:37  <br />No, I can't say that I did. The first few months, it was a struggle to find my first job. As someone who after 10 years at NBC has now spent 30 years in working in entertainment in L.A., I'm a huge Hollywood booster. I think the entertainment industry is a great and amazing industry. The entertainment industry in Los Angeles is a wonderful life for people to choose. As much as it can be competitive and difficult to get your first toeholds in Hollywood, because it is a dream for so many people, it is competitive. But it's an amazing, successful, flourishing industry. L.A. is the world's capital of popular culture. There is so much activity and so much productivity. I always encourage young people who have a Hollywood dream to go for it, to pursue their Hollywood dream. As I say to young people when I talk about it, because I teach and I lecture and I'm actually lecturing to this year's class of Northwestern University Cherubs in two days, the film and video cherubs; I explain that I moved to Hollywood with a great Hollywood dream, and I completely failed at my Hollywood dream. The reason that I can stand in front of a roomful of 17 year olds, and proudly proclaim that I failed at my Hollywood dream is because you know what happened when I failed? I found a different Hollywood dream. And I managed to succeed at that different Hollywood dream. It turned into an incredibly awesome, fun, lucrative, wonderful career. There is so much activity, that if you arrive with one dream, and stumble into another dream it's the living example of John Lennon's great line, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans" because there is so much happening in the entertainment industry, in Los Angeles. There are so many different kinds of opportunities, and opportunities that we don't even know exist until we're there and they happen to befall us.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:00  <br />Why do you say that you failed at your original Hollywood dream?<br /><br />Bob Levy  29:03  <br />I moved to Hollywood to become a screenwriter. Unfortunately, I happen to suck. I happen to be a terrible screenwriter. I wrote really bad screenplays that nobody liked. I was lucky to be working at NBC while I was pursuing that dream. Working as a writer/producer of promos -- the 10 to 30 second commercials for NBC shows -- was my day job while I was working on my Hollywood dream of being a screenwriter. So I had a backup. I had a day job that was covering my rent and my expenses, and allowing me to save money for the first time. Ironically, the day job led me to my big break, which was an opportunity that I was offered to transition out of the NBC on-air promotion department, and into NBC's programming department where I became a program executive and eventually a development executive working with writers and producers and studio executives to oversee the development of new TV series at NBC, which, in retrospect, turned out to be my big break in Hollywood. So, I failed at being a screenwriter and became what's known in Hollywood as a suit, a network suit, who tells writers how to write their scripts. Becoming a network suit at NBC in 1993, four years after I moved to Hollywood having sufficiently failed at my dream of becoming a screenwriter turned into a new career of being a network suit, which ultimately led to the career that I've been doing for the last 20 years, which is working as a TV producer.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:51  <br />Would you say that you ultimately did reach your dream?<br /><br />Bob Levy  30:57  <br />In a general sense, yeah. The dream of moving to Hollywood, the goal of moving to Hollywood, was to work and succeed in some capacity in Hollywood. Early on, that took the specific shape of being a screenwriter. But, you're absolutely right, the overall dream was to become a working, thriving, successful, functioning member of the Hollywood entertainment industry, which I succeeded at doing.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:27  <br />What would you say were some of the biggest lessons that you've learned throughout, transitioning from one dream to the next?<br /><br />Bob Levy  31:37  <br />Hollywood is such a personal, people industry. It's about building relationships. I happen not to be very good at that. Learning either intuitively being good at that and maxing out your skills at building relationships with people, building professional and quasi-personal relationships with people. And if you're not good at it, working hard to become good at it. Spending a lot of time and energy focusing on making the most of the relationships that you happen to be in proximity to; and making the most positive relationships you can. Because it's those relationships that are going to create new opportunities for you down the road, or allow you to achieve your best career goals. I mean my first and primary lesson in response to your question: is to work very hard at the relationship side of your job.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  32:50  <br />What would you say you're most proud of, whether it's professionally or personally?<br /><br />Bob Levy  32:59  <br />Those are two separate areas that overlap because professional is personal so much in Hollywood. I was lucky to be a producer of three successful shows. I was the executive producer of Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Pretty Little Liars. Shows primarily aimed at young females, at teen girls and young women, which was the mandate of the company that I worked for at the time. Some people have problems with those shows, but being a part of projects like those that really had an impact on our culture, had an impact on American popular culture, that somehow touched a nerve with a lot of viewers; not viewers of all demographic ranges. Men, my own age, many of them who never heard of those shows - but for the demographics that we were targeting, all three of those shows really seemed to strike a deep nerve, and engender a very avid fan base. To be part of something like that, that did strike a nerve, that will last a long time, those episodes are still very popular, and those TV series will last a long time in our culture. Having been a part of the process of creating those shows was a great life experience, and it's something that I look back on very fondly. Frankly, some of the relationships that I formed on those shows, the creator of Pretty Little Liars, Marlene King, is an amazing person. The intensity of the experience of creating a show like that or birthing a show like that is so powerful, is so strong, that either you will never work with a person again after an experience like that, or you are friends for life. That's how I feel about Marlene King, the creator and Lesli Linka Glatter, the director of the pilot of Pretty Little Liars, and many of the other relationships that I made during the process of creating those shows. I'm going to the wedding of one of the actors from the Vampire Diaries, who remains one of my closest friends. Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, the co-creators of the Vampire Diaries, are still very close friends and colleagues in Los Angeles. Those are those are some of my highlights.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:27  <br />What are some projects that you're most excited about right now?<br /><br />Bob Levy  35:32  <br />I'm mostly semi-retired. My last producing partner and I agreed in the most amicable way to go our separate ways. He's 20 years younger than I am, and he found a new deal to continue producing. I'm pretty much sort of heading in the opposite direction into semi-retirement. I teach part-time at the UCLA film school. I just wrote and published my first book, which is the first textbook on TV development, the process of creating new TV series. But interestingly, one of my former partner and my project is sort of getting a second wind, and all of a sudden, appears to be poised to potentially be a thing again. It's an amazing project. While I'm heading towards retirement, I feel like a little bit like Michael Corleone in Godfather III; they keep pulling me back in. If this project does move forward to pilot, or hopefully better yet series, it would be an incredible experience to have one last series. I promise it would be my last series, and then I would retire.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  36:47  <br />Bob, I want to thank you for coming down to the library and sharing your Lincolnwood Story with us.<br /><br />Bob Levy  36:53  <br />Lev, we talked more about my years after Lincolnwood. But honestly, my childhood in Lincolnwood, going to the Lincolnwood Rec Park, hanging out at the pool, going to Niles West, doing theater at Niles West has completely informed and inspired everything I've done as an adult, and stays with me in the most wonderful, positive, warm ways.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  37:23  <br />Thank you.<br /><br />Bob Levy  37:24  <br />Thank you. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/26afc3c2e237e3a9b723e16bf73accb3.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=kN-L4XqTRjbRwsSNI1v1Aa049-DYoBBPdCHPHIhiR%7EdKULMXPqVOEK6KFHhRczJ65bB9WjaQ5tYLVIlKjunddAclMytF5LkJ4wzZfbxKQhLDYGFO71CEUXhPw08qJjhho%7EyvtTf9M%7E8zHqsIWajPxTj28mhAbxeAHWBf4xoTUMGeHxfyt6K5%7EtGP3ZILxiBe87MbhYxd9TAvXwfYIKmD2VZXz%7E34DJ0%7Eb1VMJYzTLoqVSdT67e%7EeM4FJOYFvs3JrSZ0yXxGK1DYkUfPyyNGgZw-0jLbmjywTMXgxh1opp7Sad2Hgx58LRdlrHc9SyTZcpM9bvMIA3YX5ipDRn6%7EMHg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8e39d1a54497a974a3e4a0f9e33b3633 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. 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Title A name given to the resource New York Times, September 1963 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/5f6461b44214ea57fcc55e0f8dd7a837.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=WR2lOfRqaFoteo5ABNArSAhLOlPIgpM0yqs3iiK2z%7EXeoBK89%7E3Cbsn1WPvjNuzxM3joKbOG%7EpR6ALKxP4bdP2NzF1GXx-UBH7S9BrK-aLCmA1fclCsSLPz2DYNXZEJ3xPfnC7EY5HGaGOFaiFhvWc51f6zh3u9OepUGVLxzy56WB9l4wiK-82xRD4JO4py%7EnA2mZQemUWoDPpDwzuaBa3hM4wOjZy0cgl-h%7EbtflKv21h%7EI3qX8sPT%7EVJI-ry%7EWFNmYu3yQ9BKV3gdu0bkMPb9pny4dR2ikfQ2tBBjD2MV-v6HddTknR3eC0FXKXyVu1%7EwTLnYV1xlubThFhF1ncw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c6c0742a45245e66417fb841bbea396b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ms. Fischer Monastero, 1960s https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/1b65503b3838d067c80428bc31eda31b.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=rd9nEuHR%7EVbRNN1d4Phz12WrBL2imsjMaRhGRaE0ppeQxKLAmWGLmnX16sIPbPsyIGl6AzXTA8cP%7E9esgeBhPyRRiM1GF1l4iXXOrJ3J8-DIlCTs3yRgcPL8xMS3yZze%7EvwdRL%7EjHzZqq7zLO4BH0599tw53e2G9tiugupNWqdwB7m7aAX%7En4feZxWeA-hWh3GIIYRGZOvjMzAUsv3J318LFl-raiyFNoEHgJQWY34084DpUU%7EWzli6VlMV2I5IR59WAWuLchaJl5L4pX32dQTyOp%7ETb0zm6Dtn9ny-iCQcHrvY4dLsF-wSHEX%7EzNpmuNjxT7dLc%7ER21hXRkB%7EcFBA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 187afe93e620db4555ed2c0126cf7701 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ms. Fischer Monastero, 1998 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/1d6a31e93e053024f2f70bd1aef0f028.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=JUohecCVCNeFothA43514aTaNeEJgvMoEs1nGJA7Re38l-VeNjCirunkgY1NtlHqBcOIAax4U1b4vG8xLuJYhDf5yBhfMKK3Yr6-3G5VrdL8SntJ7%7EKzBkXUBS3eKxKDQDgH-1hx4X980wotkCRg%7EymxhDntoVl7O60eN%7EDIHgrClWWxZbY2BmyzETBn7lvrXQhs20ZTs8ov5BA77GQ30kEZspAPhx2OgDUz6yc-MM1HnlOvktAXI%7E6atkPWcN8XqyiTp2TAOWHmrbYKKFznATNuQys9aj-Xp5Qvcg2mIVIK%7EnMdIqE63OcCzjtk0MNCyCwEXcB8Hh-T0XQojwq99Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c53cf6ca5fd4ca95fcc83c7241590026 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Salvy Monastero https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/a16cc5097943386e8392b40192ed68a3.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=rHxuh8nObJHrk1t-0EBjsxTwunl9k7MbNAijokkZJ3%7E7BBjnqiHpb6c-5VVU8paPgVeGkbwar-BPPjWZ-fOAkgbPQYMMXL4BsN0hT2dOLucRfJaXrgeojDZknz1N4dcPKYNnBlaWnXQB6QKrlZl2dTrYH238usnaTpXmSn6VdUDhUINrjbzfl7zoTJUpPn7m80k1VJ%7EoMf0IPknifC4%7EHjSW%7Ea6-4kMjUW%7EA58X49%7EI5GLib6QkVTf4j-HJqLf-NWLqZEdrxUB6a6uZqB7pg8Pl3co74vi8QtuNIbHkbvY6D7nkEsFojTcxz2Z569kp9dQH5fw-IusxJZuWQBrmd2w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b31850abd93d785136ace40fbdd91b88 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ms. Fischer Monastero surrounded by her grandchildren https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/b0525cd7d87acf5d637b0ddc70139bc9.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=PiFyG1nOT9IG1et27IiQ53k7htt7VZwXtBRPn8BuhMt9KAuhr1i3BA4vp%7E1X6GpzrTWTN9OWDPzzCCdwuMdP2lR1zRx2R%7EYYt-mUOMTQhK9b44HZttQqcAjcYMHXJgBMIkDlFKjsg3Ktn4wS0T0DoG3D1JFkbXPC03qBnM1GQDfOkKNT2OkJAGSe8%7EVCA6Wh6sf3Tn1ornAgHPL60-pkbV6YjL2ccOsZkC0PFJ96dReXBiytDQw3d4u9Ik3VqYXmEVmBtTAgU43mPnw6c962WKAOXIC-DlA1bEHDtC1nSxx3Wx4XXR4mlWmOxaiShUnpVJutko-ze2d%7E63jA2saJgQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3aab5663a96d15f6c9067a5bb48b78db Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ms. Fischer Monastero teaching music Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Elizabeth Fischer Monastero Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“Life can be short, but you can extend it.”</strong><br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero, originally from Dubuque, Iowa, has lived in Lincolnwood since 1971. Ms. Fischer Monastero has performed with the Lyric Opera, and sang for President Kennedy in 1963. She taught voice and opera at Northwestern University for 36 years, retiring in 2009. In this interview she talks about her impressive career in music, what she loves about teaching, and her close-knit family.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmans. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library, and this is an interview with Elizabeth Fischer Monastero for My Lincolnwood Story. Elizabeth, welcome.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  0:12  <br />Thank you very much.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:13  <br />And what is your Lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  0:16  <br />Well, I've been in Lincolnwood since 1971. I live here, and I'm in still in my own house. I'm retired, sort of. What else could I say? That I like coming to the library because it has become like a second home for me. And I know everybody here, I think they're very friendly. I have to be quiet, and that's hard, because I'm used to dealing with people in many different ways. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:51  <br />So you said you moved to Lincolnwood in 1971 ...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  0:53  <br />Yes. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:53  <br />How did you end up in Lincolnwood? And where did you come from?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  0:57  <br />I was born in Dubuque, Iowa. I am of German background. That's the Fischer side of me. When I came to Chicago in 1962 I came to sing with the Lyric Opera as a performer from my debut in Italy in Milan and Florence. Somehow I became Italianized. And I'm at the first party of the Lyric Opera in Chicago, I met a man sitting next to me whose name was Salvatore Monastero. And Salvatore said to me, "I'm going to take you away from all this." I said, "You are pazzo" You are crazy because and he said, "Ma come che parli italiano?" Why is it that you speak Italian? I said, "I just got back from Italy, and I lived in Italy, and I got my master's degree in Italy, and a lot of long story." He said, "Well, really, well, can I take you out?" I said, "No, I don't date anybody." So that's why I'm here, because I married the next year. Eleven dates later, I got a ring on my finger on Mother's Day of 1963 and in September, two weeks after singing at the White House for President Kennedy, which my husband-to-be, would not go because he was running a new restaurant called Monasteros Ristorante at 3935 West Devon Avenue. But it was really called La Canopy Ristorante. Many people might remember that. It ... the building is still there. The tiny 44 seat restaurant is still there, but that became the focus of my life with this man, until I started to have three children in about the next five years, and I kept singing at the Lyric Opera in the fall. I did a lot of cover roles. It was not always leading roles, although I had done some leading roles in other places, throughout Italy and here in America. Then what else? What could be the next?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:50  <br />So let's go back. How did you first start singing? Where did that passion for opera come from? For you?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  2:59  <br />It wasn't even opera. It was church singing in Dubuque, Iowa. My father had a very strong musical talent, but never got a chance to develop that himself. He could play the harmonica, but he was a bricklayer who met my mom in Chicago, and they moved to Dubuque in the Depression, before the Depression, because my father and mother were here in the 20s. They were married in '29 and went to Dubuque because he lost everything in the banks crashing, and he had already lived in Dubuque, Iowa before, where there was work. And having been in the First World War, and coming from Indiana, from a large family, and my mother came from a large family in Kentucky, that sort of a family thing was very strong, and it attracted them. Besides, my mother was a good dancer. My father liked the fact that she liked to dance. Then they moved to Dubuque. We had, it's all written on my little outline that I gave to you, and had a family there. I grew up there. My father could play the harmonica, as I say, he could sing, he could play baseball. But he didn't do any of those things because he was a bricklayer and he had to support the family. So he built two different houses in Dubuque and many other beautiful stone and brick houses that Bob Fischer could do. My older brother Bob Fischer, not Junior. He has also learned how to become a bricklayer before he went and got his education. We all got our education, pretty much in Dubuque, always working. Our kids worked in different ways in our family. I had a sister after Bob Fischer. I had Darlene Fischer, then I came in, then my younger sister came, and 10 years later, the last brother came. The two brothers now live in Denver. The older brother has just written his sixth book. My younger brother is a police retired officer in Denver. The two of them somehow got to beautiful Denver. My sister, younger sister, lives in California. My older sister has passed away. She was an artist, and she could do a lot of things. She was very talented, but she passed away when she was 80. My younger sister is 83 and I am 85 and my younger brother is 73 so that's about where I am. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:00  <br />It's a big family. <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  3:07  <br />Well, both my parents, as I say, came from large families, but that was what was necessary in the days that my father grew up in Jasper, Indiana, and then had to leave the family because they couldn't sustain 11 kids. So he was, he had to go to work right away, and learned came somehow got to Chicago after the First World War. I know that whole history because I've been researching that at the Lincolnwood Library, which is becoming my second home. Let's see - my sister is a nurse in California, and she's retired, married to a doctor who is also retired. I love traveling. I love traveling with her. She and I do a lot together. We go to visit our brothers in Denver. We take cruises; we have in the past. She's not as well anymore, and neither is her husband. And my older brother, as I say, just finished his sixth book, and I brought that along to show to you, if you'd like to see it. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:16  <br />Of course.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  6:16  <br />He's a Marine retired colonel who served in Vietnam.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:22  <br />So how did - so you said your origins of singing came from, started with church singing...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  6:27  <br />It did, because in the Nativity School, which was across the street from our second home that my father had built, a brick house, with gardens, vegetable gardens, all around. Corn. We raised sweet corn, raspberries, tomatoes, carrots, all kinds of things, because in those days during the second world war time, that's when I kind of grew up, right there, across from nativity school. In second grade, my teacher was the organist in the Catholic Church, and every time there'd be a funeral, she'd call me and my older sister, and we'd have to go and sing the funeral mass in Latin, and that's how music - well, then, of course, I had to take piano lessons. My father was able to buy an old, used piano, and he could sing beautifully and he could play the harmonica. My older brother was more of a writer and artist. He could draw airplanes. I knew how to draw airplanes and brides. From when I was three, my father would sit us around the dining room table, and my mom would cook the dinner in the kitchen. And we were poor people. We were. And I learned how to be a working child of a family that always, we always had to do some kind of work, which people did during that second world war. And I remember a lot of things. My memory is pretty active, I would say now. I haven't really forgotten too much. That's why I'm writing the story of my whole life.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:27  <br />So did your - would your father sing to you? Do you remember him singing to you? <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  7:54  <br />He liked hearing me and my sister sing as a duet, and the two little Fischer girls would sing, sometimes on KDDH radio, we'd go and sing for the Catholic Daughters, meetings that my mother belonged to. We were raised very religiously, I would say. In fact, my mother, having three daughters, thought that one of us would have to be a nun in the convent, and because she had three sisters who were nuns, and she was from a family of 11 or 12, my father also, but his was not in the same way. They were religious in Jasper, Indiana. My mother was from Kentucky, so family was always very close, and piano was something that I had to do, my sister had to do. Rita, my younger sister became a nurse after a while, but we all went away to school and continued language and continued music. I was a pianist as a child and did some kind of recitals at the visitation academy across the street from nativity school with the visitation sisters. I know my husband thought, well, you've got to be Mother Superior. I said, "No, I'm just the mother of your children." [Chuckles]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:01  <br />So, so at what point did you decide that music was going to be something you were going to pursue on a professional level?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  9:08  <br />Well, it happened to me. I didn't really happen to it. I went to Mount Sinclair Academy and Junior College in Clinton, Iowa, where my mother had gone to school with her younger sister.And I studied there - piano first. And then as a senior in high school, I started taking voice lessons because the sisters said, "Well, we have to have you singing in our chorus." So that happened, and all of a sudden my voice started to be recognized as something nice.  And I would do, I did a recital as a C, as a second year college, Junior College person. And at the end of that time, my voice teacher, who was a nun, she said, "I'm going to send you to Interlochen," the national music camp, because I didn't know where I'd finish college, the other two years. My parents could afford to send me to that boarding school where my mom had gone. So I went to Interlochen, Michigan, and took credit courses in music. I said, "But I know that already." And all of a sudden it seemed like I was getting selected to do small roles in opera and choral solos with, and then I finally, several summers, I went there and got credit at the University of Michigan, and what happened? The director of admissions one time heard me sing, and he said, "We know that you're a pretty good musician, but we'd like to have you come down to Michigan. Would you like me to take your application personally?" I said, "Yes." [chuckles] Went to Michigan. Never saw the campus. Had no money. Applied for every scholarship I could get. Worked at every kind of a job, because my parents couldn't afford to send me to Michigan. But I managed to spend the next two years, and I decided to stay a third year. Because in the summers, I'd go back to Interlochen, which was where I would work. I was editor of the camp newspaper. One summer, got to sing with orchestras and choirs. At Michigan I took tours with the Michigan singers and sang in many different places. Not ever as a really, as a soloist. But all of a sudden, Rosemary College, which is now Dominican University, heard that I would be a candidate for study in Italy. I wanted to go to Germany with a name like Fischer. I said, "Well, you know." And the teachers would say that I minored in French, of course. So I had, you know, music education as a major at Michigan, and minor was French. And the way I got the grade for the French was to sing a recital in French, because I'd learned two years in college at Mount St Clair in Clinton, Iowa, and then I took one more year in Michigan, and I had to do a recital in French. And the teacher said, "Ah, très bien!" I'm fairly good in French but better in Italian, because I ended up going to Italy all by myself, taking a boat across the ocean. Traveling all by myself down through Europe, and it just turned out fine. I got to Florence. As I went into Italy on the train, I said, I've been here before. I had that strange feeling that I was in Italy before. There was something so beautiful. And I still feel that way. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:17  <br />So it sounds like everything kind of happened organically.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  12:21  <br />If that's the word you want to use. <br /><br />Both  12:25  <br />[Both laugh.]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:23  <br />Was there . . . when you were growing up, what did you see, you know, yourself doing professionally? What did you see yourself <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:28  <br />[unintelligible, as Elizabeth starts to answer question]<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  12:30  <br />Being a teacher of music. Getting a job. The job was always the important thing in our family, being practical and being religious, as close to our religion as we could be. And I have maintained that pretty much - raised my children at Queen of All Saints here. We didn't get to go to Queen of All Saints because they were overcrowded when we moved. First of all, I had to get married to my dear husband, and I mentioned took me away from all that. We got married in 1963 when I came to sing in Chicago after my career developed quickly. As soon as I finished coming home from Italy, getting my masters, I got a job teaching music in Milwaukee. I became Milwaukee's mezzo soprano. Taught three years of music in the grade schools of Glendale. I did a lot of solo with choirs. I wanted to sing in choirs again, because it was just a part of me. And I taught music in grade schools - three, three schools. And at the end of the third year, the principal said, "No, Miss Fischer, we think, my children are, our children are seeing you on TV." There was a Woman's World program that wanted to use all the languages that I could sing in different songs and wearing a costume. And this is a TV show. And every once in a while, she'd call me and this lady named Beulah Donahue on Woman's  World, and she'd say, "You have any song in this and this and this?" I said, "Oh, okay, I got one of those." So I ended up entering competitions. But I met a wonderful voice teacher in Milwaukee who spoke nine languages and was a pianist and retired and living at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. So I studied with her and entered a lot of national competitions, and I started winning everything. I'm very surprised, because I think our whole attitude was, you let things happen and you do the best you can with what you've got.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:30  <br />You mentioned that you sang for. . .you sang in the White House for President Kennedy? <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  14:21  <br />Well, one of the competitions that I won was the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artists Competition. My competition was Shirley Verrett, who was a famous mezzo soprano. I met her in Kansas City at the finals, and her accompanist was Charles Wadsworth from Californ. . . from New York City. And Shirley brought him along, and I said to the accompanist that they gave me, I'm sorry, but you can't play any of the music that my teacher and I have gotten together in this competition. And in and out I was coming to Chicago to do finals and this and various other competitions. And during that time, Carol Fox from Lyric Opera, heard me singing in something and she said, we should get that girl to come and sing at the Lyric Opera. So between all those different kinds of performances, I was able to go to New York. The man who played for me in Kansas City for the finals of that competition, he says, I'm not going to rehearse with you, I'll meet you at the fermata. You know what a fermata is? The hold sign. We went on and did the audition, and they created a prize of $500. In those days that was a lot. Shirley Verrett won 1,000 and was already a professional singer, and we got to be friends. After that, Shirley and I would meet every once in a while. She went and taught at the University of Michigan much later, and I had her come to visit here, and came to Chicago. Anyway, I went on, and one of the competition prizes was to sing at the White House in 1963 September. And I was married September 28. My husband would not go because he was running a new restaurant.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:03  <br />What do you remember about that?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  16:05  <br />I did see President Kennedy walk through with the Shah of Afghanistan. And there was a violinist who I was still very good friends with, Elaine Skorodin from Chicago, who's been wonderful friend. She was the violin winner in this national competition. There was a tenor from Chicago. Also Alan Rogers was a winner. And there was another singer from Milwaukee who won another area. It was a national competition, $1,000 prize. You don't turn those things down in those years. So I had money in the bank for a change, and I could buy nice clothes, and I was being contacted to sing solos with orchestras throughout the United States. I didn't sing as much with, well, I did a couple concerts in Italy with orchestra, but I didn't have a manager. I never wanted a manager. They wanted me to audition for the Lawrence Welk Show. [laughs] One time somebody said, "Oh, Elizabeth, you should be his dancing, champagne lady or something." And I said, "No, I don't think that's going to be," I'm not a good dancer like my mom, she was a good dancer. So no, life went on. And when my husband would not, he said, "Well, we're getting married September 28." I said, "Oh, okay." He planned the whole wedding, and that's it. And then I moved to Chicago after that, and I've been here ever since.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:26  <br />So what was your . . . Did you have any role in the in the restaurant? Part of the family business? <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  17:33  <br />I brought music. I brought music to the restaurant. Because my husband's older brother, Joe, who's still living in Lincolnwood, Joseph Monastero, Sr., and I actually was a very - I gave him a special gift. I introduced him to a girl that was a student of mine, when later, a few years later, after I had three children, I was invited to come and teach at Northwestern University, which I ended up teaching there for 36 years. They said, "Well, we'll have you fill in for a year." I had the three kids at home, and they were just going into school in Lincolnwood. They went all through the Lincolnwood schools because there was no room in Queen of All Saints. Well, I ended up teaching music in the CCD program. That's the Saturday and Sunday programs that they have for children that are not in the school. And that's how that sort of happened. And I went to teach at Northwestern, and about the second or third year, I said, "They don't know how to sing in Italian." And I, Miss Fischer, teaching at Northwestern for one year, ended up being 36, so I must have done something right. And a girl came in to me, and she, her accompanist friend of hers brought her, and said, "You need to study with Miss Fischer. She'll have you singing the way"-  she, because she this girl was playing piano for my students and me at my lessons. And who came in? A young lady I introduced in our competition, which we started for Northwestern students, which was called the Bel Canto Foundation. Bel Canto means beautiful singing bel canto and that started, and we lasted with that for about 40 years through our restaurant, which was devoted strictly to Italian and Sicilian, Siciliano, food. And people who live in Lincolnwood probably will remember Monastero's. It is no longer there, because we sold about two years ago. And I never really worked there, but I would sing sometimes with my husband, because he liked to sing. And who came along my second year at Northwestern? My younger child, Roberto Monastero, so I have Sebastiano, I have prima. I have Maria, then I have Sebastian, then I have Alicia. Alicia sings with Symphony Chorus under Riccardo Muti, whom I'm crazy about. He's a wonderful Italian conductor. Alicia teaches at Deerfield High School. Her final concert is tonight. I'm going to that. She's almost 30 years at Deerfield High School. Beautiful voice. Maria also could sing, but she ran the restaurant and helped my husband a lot. Sebastian lives in Glenview. He has two children. He has an outstanding second child named Salvatore Monastero, after my husband. And he plays clarinet beautifully. So now you hear practically the whole story. Roberto became Chicago's best DJ, and he lives in Skokie. Maria lives in Skokie. She's the first. Sebastian lives in Glenview. Alicia lives in Libertyville, and Roberta lives in Skokie. So they're all very active. They grew up in Lincolnwood, went to the schools, did some things in music. Alicia, more than anyone. So that's that's about where I am right now. I'm going to her concert tonight.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:42  <br />So it sounds like you're, you're, you're, you have a close knit family and they live nearby... <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  20:45  <br />And that is what is so attractive about the Italian culture and the Sicilian culture. That seemed to me an answer to something in me. Although I'm really of German background, and my mother's name was Cash and my father's name was Fischer. My mother is on the branch of Cashes that Johnny Cash sort of came from, and James Cash Penny. That's Cash. That's the name. And so I've done genealogy club here at the library. I'm starting that, to do a lot of that, and I'm finding out about that, which is very interesting.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:20  <br />So. Hold on one minute. So, <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  21:22  <br />yes<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:22  <br />So are you saying that your mother's side of the family? So the whole the Cash family <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  21:28  <br />Came from Scotland and England. My father's family came from Frankfurt, Germany, Fischer, and settled in, eventually, Indiana. My mother's family settled. My grandfather was born in 1864. I've been doing all this research because it's interesting.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:43  <br />Absolutely. Well, you mentioned Johnny Cash. I just wanted to...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  21:46  <br />Oh, yeah. Mother met Johnny Cash on when he was on a tour.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:49  <br />Oh,  so, but so was it, was there...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  21:51  <br />No, We don't think, <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:52  <br />Okay<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  21:53  <br />There were two Cash brothers that came from Maryland and settled in Kentucky, and then we lost track of one in the genealogy study. But my grandfather settled in Fancy Farm, Kentucky, and raised 12, 11 or 12, children, and I'm still very close with a lot of them. So family, in that case, was very close, both sides. My father's family, not as much - they were very poor. But my father had the work ethic, which is strong in all of us. Mother, Mother will always work too. So work and music and God in heaven.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:24  <br />So tell me about your, So you, you were at Northwestern you said for 36 years. What were...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  22:32  <br />I was a professor of voice and opera.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:34  <br />What, what were some of the highlights of your career there?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  22:39  <br />Well, other than bringing the Italian repertoire more into the school and being recognized as someone who could teach that a lot. And we started the foundation, Bel Canto Foundation. Started as the Monastero Award at Northwestern. And all of a sudden, five other universities in Chicago said, "What's wrong with us? Don't we get to have a prize?" Oh!  So we happen to have banquet facilities by that time, and we could have a place <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:06  <br />At the restaurant<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  23:06  <br />At the restaurant. We, even though I never really worked there, I would help audition singers from these different schools. But I never really judged, because it wouldn't be fair. I was teaching at Northwestern. So that's how that kind of developed. And then Martha Monastero married my brother-in-law. The young girl married, and I gave him a wife. You know, I'm just doing my duty in family. And she's very proficient in Italian, Sicilian, raising her children, who are musical as well. And everybody worked at the restaurant at different times, my children and their children too, and so we see each other quite frequently. We have a club called the Sicilian American Cultural Association. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:50  <br />What are your memories of Lincolnwood? And you know you you said you moved to Lincolnwood in 1971...<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  23:56  <br />We lived in Rogers Park, in the family building, a three apartment building. We was on the third floor, and I had three babies up on the third floor, and the laundry, in the basement. And out of the opera career. I still would sometimes go to sing support roles and rehearsals and things downtown. I didn't have a car by that time, and I had already had owned a few cars in Milwaukee growing up and being a singer, but love came into my life, and love took over. So that's what happened. We moved to Lincolnwood because I said the third floor is too high and the laundry is too low, and I want to get into a house with a yard, a bigger yard, for my children. So I started looking around, and I surveyed about 150 houses. I found one for my daughter, Maria, which she still lives in. Where else? Then I looked in Lincolnwood, and we found the house that I still am in.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:49  <br />What was, what was it about Lincolnwood that attracted you?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  24:51  <br />It was that, well, Lincolnwood Terrace area. It was a brick house like my father would build and did build in Iowa. And he actually, before I moved into Lincolnwood, my father passed away, and I was sad about that, because he would have enjoyed the house that I'm in, and I'm still in brick and stone, and it's the right place to live and to raise a family. That's what attracted us. And the restaurant was close <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:21  <br />Right, right.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  25:22  <br />Across the street on Devon. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:25  <br />What have you been doing since your retirement from from Northwestern? I know you teach . . . You still teach children?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  25:32  <br />I teach preschool. I taught preschool when my Maria, my oldest daughter, had two little boys, and she said, "Mom, sister Hillary doesn't have anybody to play the piano for her preschool, three, four and five year old children, you've got to go there on your way to Northwestern." Oh, okay, and I did that. Then I met another nice lady named Bonnie Shanahan, who probably lives in Chicago area, and she was teaching at Tiny Tot preschool. My son Roberto, had to be taken to a preschool, so I didn't take him to where I was already playing. I took him to Tiny Tot and the director there said, "Oh no, no, no, he's going into the four year olds" because he was born after I went to Northwestern and he could get up and sing. He was eight years younger than my third child, Alicia, and he'd get up at the restaurant and sing when he was three. She said, "No, he's going to go in the four year olds." So about 14 years after that, I would teach on Tuesday and Thursday at Bonnie's school. I loved teaching little children all the time. And I taught at Queens, and I taught at Tiny Tot preschool. And now I'm still teaching with Sister Hilary at her school in, where she uses a kindergarten room in Skokie.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  26:45  <br />What is it about teaching?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  26:47  <br />Music makes children happy. Languages. A friendly personality who shows love for them and teaches them. And I support Sister Hilary, who is the teacher of the class. I do the music time, an hour, two different classes. She has about 24 children. But at Tiny Tot, the earlier one, I can't go there anymore because they have little babies who have more germs. [laughs] Oh, I don't know. I would spend more time at the Tiny Tot preschool with touching the children and carrying a piano keyboard around so . . .<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:22  <br />And as far as just you know, you know,<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  27:24  <br /> I loved<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:25  <br /> Teaching for 36 years at Northwestern . . .What? What about that kept you going for so many years?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  27:31  <br />Well, I have a lot of successful students. One became a professor at India- at Illinois. Another one was teaching. I've got several who are still performing in Europe and throughout the world. I had the young lady who did "Porgy and Bess" when they did the reproduction of it in London and Glyndebourne in England. That's Cynthia Hayman. Now she has just decided to quit teaching at University of Illinois. I have a man Victor Benedetti, a good Italian boy from California, who is, has his own musical theater school. After making his debut in New York City as Don Giovanni and singing at the Lyric school and Lyrics performing various things, he went off to France, and he's got his own school in France, and has two grown sons. I have a lot of contact with my former students. I would, was going off doing master classes and teaching voice lessons at some of these various universities, University of  South Carolina, Florida, Ave Maria University. I can't even remember all the places, but it's all in the book that I am trying to write at the Lincolnwood library. [laughs]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:41  <br />What have been some of your favorite operatic roles to play?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:48  <br />Well, I did "The Medium," and I'll show you my picture of that one of these years. It looks like a drunken seance conductor, and that's what I learned at the National Music Camp. When I went to Michigan, the first summers I went there, they picked me out and they said, "We think you can do this role. We'll give you a pianist to help you learn the role." So in 11 sessions with that man, who was a wonderful pianist, I memorized "The Medium." And I scared those people. She really scared them. Then I also did something, which, by Leonard Bernstein called Trouble in Tahiti. If you look at the Ravinia summer programs dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, whom I also met in New York at one time, I found out that they're doing Trouble in  Tahiti this summer at Ravinia. I premiered it. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:40  <br />Wow.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  29:40  <br /> In Interlochen, when it was first written. What a movie! What a terrible, awful movie! And I'm gonna go and see this and sing the whole darn thing in choir<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:50  <br />In the audience<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  29:51  <br />At the Murray Theater. So that, Ravinia, I was the first singer under the new roof of the big theater. I sang there, winning the, one of the prizes, in the Michaels Award of the summer of 1962 before I went back to make my debut in Italy, and I sang there having won that prize. Ah, you know, there's, it was just one thing after another. It just all started to happen. One thing really led to another. And the competitions, people would say, I never went under management, though. I did not want to have someone else telling me where to go, because I was getting a lot of performing experience, and I just really liked going back to Italy. Eventually we had a home over there, the Monastero family. We bought a home, farm home, outside of Florence. Florence is my heart. My granddaughter, Alicia's daughter, is going to study one semester in Italy, but she has to go to Perugia. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:46  <br />Mmhm<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  30:46  <br />And I said, "no, devi andare a Firenze," you have to go to Florence, because that's - she's, "Oh, Nonna, I know that." They all call me Nonna, which means grandma, <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:54  <br />Right. <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  30:54  <br />So, yes. So she's going next year. She's a sophomore at University of Minnesota. Her older brother just graduated from Indiana. My Maria's oldest son graduated from Bloomington, Illinois, university, Illinois there. And he's a teacher in the school where my two youngest granddaughters are going to school in Skokie. Would you believe it? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:18  <br />Oh<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  31:19  <br />Yeah. So I have nine grandchildren, and I brought their picture to show you, and they're very sweet kids. We get together, we love -  this is what I like about the Italian culture. The family is very important. And that became very obvious when I met my husband, Salvy, and I met his parents, and they said, this girl, "Questa Signorina, parla Italiano," she speaks Italian, but she's German. I said, "Well, yeah, I kind of lived in Italy, you know," because I spent a year getting my master's there. And that was really, that's what did it - God took me there. I met Pius XII in a private audience, because the school I went to was a Dominican college called Pius XII Institute, and we got to go down to Rome. I was in his office with the people that were the students at this school in Florence on December 8 of 1956, the year I got there. That's a long time ago, so you can tell how old I am. And I met Pius XII and he said, "Well, where are you from?" I said, "I'm from Dubuque, Iowa." "Oh," he said, "I know. I was, I've been to Chicago." Oh, my God. And he was a wonderful, saintly priest, very tall. So I'm very devoted to a lovely saint called Pater de Pio. That's the saint who has the stigmata of Jesus Christ. So I'm quite religious, and it's too bad sometimes people think that can get in the way. No, no, no, it guides the way. So shall I give you a sermon? [laughs] So that's about where we are. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  32:50  <br />What are some life lessons that you've learned throughout your life?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  32:53  <br />Haven't I told you enough yet? Oh, my goodness. Life can be short, but you can extend it, and I am lucky that I have the health, although, you know, I have normal health problems. For an old lady. I'm not - I don't feel like I'm that old, because my memory is quite good. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:11  <br />It certainly seems like it.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  33:12  <br /> I think so, because I am writing my memoirs, and it's called "A Life of Love and Music." And it used to be a life of music and love, but when love came into my life, I had to turn that around. <br /><br />Both  33:25  <br />[Chuckling] <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  33:26  <br />So that's exactly what's happening now. And there are many lessons that you learn as you're going along. I hope I've transferred them to my children. I'm very proud of all of them.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:37  <br />Well, that was gonna be my next question is, what are you most proud of?<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  33:40  <br />My children. I think, my children. And my grandchildren, nine grandchildren. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:45  <br />Wow,<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  33:45  <br />Yeah, each of them have two, except Alicia has three. She has an Italian husband too, you know. And so she has this girl that's at Minnesota, and one that just graduated from Indiana, and a young one who is a top volleyball player. And other, he's 15, like the 15 year old of my son, who is the clarinet player and can jump higher in all kinds of things. He's, he's a gymnast as well as a clarinet player. So, music is going along through the family. The two little ones, my young, young son, Roberto, is married to a Filipino girl, and as I say, she, the two younger grandchildren are in the school where my oldest grandson teaches.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:25  <br />Has the kind of, the commitment to music in your family? Can that be mostly attributed to you? <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  34:32  <br />Oh, well, my husband thought he was a good musician too. He couldn't really do as much, but I let him think. you know. [laughs] His brother was more musical, actually, Joe, his older brother was more musical. Who was a good accordion player, but he also was a good cook. So between music and food, you know, and religion, we've managed to pull it all together.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:57  <br />Those are both very beautiful things, to dedicate your life to.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  35:01  <br />I think so. My husband thought I was Mother Superior, as I probably told you. [Laughing] not really, no. But my husband passed away in 2003 but he's with me all the time. Me with my dear friend, Padre Pio. I think they look down upon me and I am guided to do a lot of things. It just happens that way. It happens.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:24  <br />Well, I want to thank you for <br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  35:26  <br />Is that enough?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:27  <br />coming <br /><br />Both  35:27  <br />[laugh]<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  35:28  <br />You want to see my book? I brought all my pictures.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:31  <br />Yeah, well I will include your pictures on our website, but I would like to thank you for coming down to the library and sharing<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  35:35  <br />I'm here almost every day except Sunday. It's too busy. I can't get to the computer.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:40  <br />But thank you for sharing your Lincolnwood story with us.<br /><br />Elizabeth Fischer Monastero  35:43  <br />Oh, no problem. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/64e132ad12689df6847599b34b19a40b.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=tYKYvdu4Nv2mAhq4JMzhPDlGgzx7YVgltVBmijEnZDdv%7EPVyw7bZ8bO3yy8KosXQ2JLak%7EpkZ3sM%7EAoLPTERbrCetQ4IVcRpAJRmltJyFf8Ol1uwvv7-BAa8F7viJST948H8cLvprRIfqOL4tFu5uiLlmIkNKxEAnoEAzZb57ogCtiLnlXowuJo6OgQHvVzbRnqTRQeKtKOBM4RLIhNpcysRA7wJsM30eh-1-QccuSVMqlvXKWm%7EfHS9uoHyyll9i68nMrVpXr%7Eq-6-KS%7EnJSkduaXsFFD3fJuk8VRh%7E%7EF2UVTby938MnbEA1wclsUnvHvjAM-VLOXcXBaRXrtfnNg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 494413bfa80569586adee4cf72bb78e5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Felicia Sue Kaplan https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/5f50a2db52bdabe65704d4919eee710e.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=oSNVmNai74mieqMn1SLMPLwWIYPzHHboA9MuuvqZ2XvUITbAikmR2tft9ypsRgz9UEgtT43yJKFwNo%7E9H0DbI9dS94quADD0FVNDbyKpJnNHDorB5bXStBBEP0NpGZdSyK4LTJ44lJo3cKgqO27ZWezaoHMbtIO0bQ5rsD1OoA1P4HD6yMHk-cvkrxRHWMPprqYpQpHQyGOwy5O19cYysS--0zao-BvBK2fyFFXtwa3UYYhFByRsIw9KkD4eg3SUjRG%7ESEd-Qgk4dL6FzKKSeYaXy2K%7EJtsoaOHqnoOgm1dLQD%7Er2fV8%7ECLmXrabfvmZwhGhijekqD02MvYGCX3Pgg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c77fb354403e01cfd0dfdb784d164966 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. 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Title A name given to the resource Felicia’s Niles West High School ID card https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/be3427f6782b009ba5f5e287ae88cf37.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=dREnFr1aSNqJ5F1LMXhIsCToFt-cjm6j5CO98NHx8uSraGfTMlBWrpSpIUjyrMkq2pnsiM3GfNRX0u0jMwK7UQSkt8ZA0EW206VVjpN4MAkZSvXG821coXE0q%7EYTusMRy15hJqzB15rOykW1BlBABc1EhpESaXw2nppkuii9W3wpnYo486m1ZBGEaLEkt9edo4fqnXrHhhrzY4PqqMflBbEGtMhtyNxbWsCnx5YUc9soh2ye6ce4k4OkLD%7E7g%7EMUwX5g1beCp3%7EBHr3IfwtG5e3sjJRrQIWcJ0CRyCBtvhHutg30UCeJMr-YqgUjfQpvS-uxprCPXRCLJCTvss3gPw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM e260767a8531552c3ec7957cd8eff84c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Felicia, at home in Lincolnwood, August 1966 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/b0e6df11e8b7ed1a9ed7416a96528309.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=guDNyjAPaVQ-pgiStRn6eX0Y%7E5h6kqdAhAUSRVi3yqhPULRycESQSofSS5tKvbZN9XlqKuWOeuJNdYjmXQULgRhqBOjSKtNPldgU5PDr1btqy3I2qOIN1OlBGSe9cHORhl3FdE0BLkXfqM6qPdfQ-GDpkfHS-Ek15uKeeDo66tq%7E4tocO5UwNrUcssKeY6V%7EdM%7EOrjJhHxhOUtcfooPd9XPXtVb5fQwdExMzoI3bVvQc7FViAdVm8ZWagrEA1iNpAIMocuQ1VKqKCQ6%7Eu67rDxen7pqT5E8YkmY-BWvXSYQilty9Do02n4vYwDLxkA2EfiecnBj-XU2tdqEkjSZs-Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8d9270558c01946a4c9edd56066f5c71 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Felicia’s father at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada, 1967 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/30f9d497a869b01995c154d6a1fad804.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=HwRBcxcyqQnD0BTQwAWteO0oaLwyUa5UizLqw8AeGRKTG-xC48LMUy9QYki4yTfZloo6eop4O3crMjohnH1kkD-pkKmZO9ks1Xx8zWzqLCnBSOWjYNZAmsw1wFRd02ahIE4dd9XwSYomHYI08PJcv-pTbW56Vk56sPfQAtujzT-6X7Mv3AR9Tvzd24plJ6n4WJHQekJ2jW6uIYRgBwC7m78PftSw2zagzQSOzjBb3laxBnb3hem3Y0R8Sw9HerglcA3PkhD5r-D2SEzze3FlwIUCZFWN82oBjpu8m3j1AAe3b%7EIK9MBOHBkpm04-zWTyyis3E90a-DkVP%7EdHj3xZOg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM b2674c187e8f1836e7f6008803c42dc1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource At home, 1971 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/41c9f448a58191b1c326319f246a2353.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=NyZ77ybUay7%7E8W4HGv0MopHriUm-dcYAzxPDHfr3rLGxgJiXvEVLiJSZ1t4iyzXFn1tSuHJZO4Mx0jt3cxHeIXXJDReb9crlTcPuQCJVCsNWPSs6IrAaKYRgCTyVtHv0%7EYZzJ-SX7GFprATejc6o3oEpwc7kkQoyFG0lStJ11xMwIvpnyLQq8%7ED%7EU3-N0gc3STYm8ZkdW0RdwLefiG5OoJE06H5ucUIk9b50yTRVrsWdqasNaImZLeZEUFzEChQ3evyNFBvw0SFhm-PJ1dii1Q6y7qY0ZCmOp%7EMFN2iw1G-aH0vknjb-PosREwx7Qi-3UrH30r-vqSD5dLeETRyGTg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9bac0fc0fc15dad31fb1e5a583b7f452 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Felicia at Expo67 in Montreal, Canada. August 1967 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/d22666855aa842c1033842904066e3cc.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=R2376VvaHkyRsABSbNgtyZT0vTEhIDmndJNljUxHzsi4K6E5Q6IQhpEFL3nk9iBh6fVaH70L1N0WuUN7Cl4LZcRpxtgyYjcZzWKuENnKILD92TCAvA65xu8yhxbzh8Sds9tEAV1z%7EvKQgzv%7EE405Zo16QnNbMphl02NrfPG6dCrBS0zEQARzfjwguLqLP31Er2OoNprwRDiB1mgrNUr8EPCsXjaMBnaZghdwYNxENyaMOKPL5CZJbht5RJu3u-QnNBys4bTF-HtMGrHinDAmAnJQMCtYd68PuNOfmyN8aUYq2QKstPjqOAfE1nPTIecrxnDxGEzTAg%7EsuNn8wDBS8Q__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 155830df1cee1d3d19c1118cabc0667f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Kaplan’s house at 4355 W. Jarvis in Lincolnwood, 1969 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Felicia Sue Kaplan Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“[Lincolnwood in the early 60s] was a lot quieter, a lot cleaner, not as many people around.”</strong> <br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan talks about her life growing up in Rogers Park, moving to Lincolnwood in 1960, attending Lincolnwood schools, the different jobs she has held as well as her passion for creative writing, and storytelling.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library. And today I'm interviewing Felicia Sue Kaplan for My Lincolnwood Story, our oral history project here. Felicia, welcome. And what is your Lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  0:18  <br />Well, we were a happy little family living in East Rogers Park in a big beautiful house when I was little. And with my parents and two older brothers, never any pets. Except a little bit later, I had a parakeet. One day, the teachers asked my parents to come in and suggested that we move to the suburbs. I don't think they had any particular suburb in mind. But it was a requirement to my parents and my mother's sister and brother that all of my grandmother's three children live within 30 minutes of her house, so they could be on call and available to her at any given time. She was very authoritative, bossy, survivor type, actually lived longer than anyone in the family to be 100. But it was required that her kids live within a close proximity, and they were not all allowed to be out of town at the same time. So my parents started looking at homes in Lincolnwood, which is very close to the city. And Bubby lived in Albany Park at the time. She actually lived there until her late 90s. And then she was in a retirement center. So they started looking at homes, and Dad purchased a home at--Do you want me to give him a specific address?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:41  <br />If you're comfortable with that, sure.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  2:42  <br />Yeah. The house is still there. It's 4355 West Jarvis. It's on the corner of Jarvis and Lowell, and it was very nice: spacious home, no basement--but it was called a bi-level--and two-car garage, and each of us had our own bedroom. But, for me, it was very, very difficult to move from our little local neighborhood to the suburbs. So at age 10, I was in a new house in a new suburb with all new friends, a new school, and the school was definitely much more accelerated than public school in Chicago. I went to Hayt Elementary School at Granville and Clark, and it is still there also, but they have enlarged. And it was a little neighborhood school and everything was fine. And then I'm thrust into Lincolnwood, and it was very traumatic for me. It was very, very difficult. And fortunately, my brothers were very helpful in terms of tutoring me and helping me to get my grades up.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:37  <br />What year did your family move to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  4:41  <br />It was 1960.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:48  <br />What were your earliest memories of Lincolnwood.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  4:56  <br />It was a lot quieter. A lot cleaner. Not as many people around. It was these houses that were lined up on the street. And, little by little, I got to know our neighbors. Fifth grade, I was very fortunate to have a teacher by the name of Valentina Furlett. And it was somewhat similar to a special needs classroom. Just about everybody in the class had some kind of issue or problem, and I guess they realized that I was having a lot of trouble settling in. And I'm very grateful to her. One of the biggest, most memorable events of my entire elementary education is that I was elected class president in fifth grade. It was a really big deal for me. I tried not to let it go to my head. But, considering how difficult fourth grade was, it was a major achievement for me to to get that honor. And I tried to help as much as I could. Slowly things were falling into place; my grades got about a lot better. I have a lot of memorabilia with me, including my fifth grade report card. And because this teacher was so special and helpful and important to me, we kept in touch with each other, definitely in a writing form for about 30 years. And I visited her current fifth grade classroom a couple of times, and she let me interact with the students. I did not go to Todd Hall, that was K through three. Rutledge Hall was four, five, and six, or four and five--I'm not sure. So I was at Rutledge Hall for definitely four and five and then Lincoln Hall, which was actually built first. I don't remember if I was there for six, seven, and eight, or seven and eight. But by seventh grade, I was definitely developing some good friendships and getting to know my my classmates a lot better. Another highlight of eighth grade is I won the Midwestern Spelling Championship, and the tiebreaker word was a South American country by the name of Uruguay. Capital U-R-U-G-U-A-Y. And many, many years later, we just happened to hire a babysitter who was from Montevideo in Uruguay. U-R-U-G-U-A-Y. I was a really good speller, pretty decent writer, good in math, not so interested in science and social studies.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:09  <br />Why was the transition from moving into Lincolnwood, going to the school such a hard transition for you?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  9:23  <br />Everything was new, different. I didn't know anybody. It was all new. And to this day, I think I mourn the death of the house that we lived in, in Rogers Park. It was three stories. It was huge, with an attic and a basement, a full furnished basement. And Dad was having trouble selling it, so they knocked it down and built a 12-flat, which was the bane of his existence for many, many years. For eight years he rented to crazy people in that apartment building, until my mother finally said, "You're either gonna sell that building or we're getting divorced." And so he sold the building. But in my subconscious, and I didn't realize this until many years later, I got jobs that were in former homes. I lived in a converted house in East Rogers Park many years later. I just was constantly trying to recreate that feeling of the big old house at 6315 North Hermitage in Chicago. And I still miss it, don't have too many pictures of it or of me at that time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:19  <br />Tell me about your parents. Who were they? What did they do? Where were they from? Were they originally from Chicago?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  11:28  <br />My mother's parents were from Lithuania. And when my mother's mother was 10--and I've shared this story with a lot of children who were pretty fascinated to learn that my Bubby Esther came to America at age 10 with the clothes on her back and a $20 bill, and eventually got off in Ellis Island (as did a lot of other people) and was received by different relatives. Fast forward many years, they moved to Benton Harbor. It's not clear to me if she met her husband in America or in Lithuania, but she got married at age 18. In the photograph of me playing the piano, there's a photograph above the piano which is her wedding picture. Unfortunately, they weren't married very long. He was killed in an accident when she was 32 years old, I think he was possibly 34. And they had three children. So my mother at age nine became the primary caregiver of the family: cooking, cleaning, shopping. And my grandmother just made do. My father's parents were born in Chernigov, in Russia, pretty close to Kiev. You might be familiar with that. My older brother, Ed, has been to the little town that they were from, and there's very little there to recognize. But I think he took some pictures at the time. And they didn't keep a whole lot of records in the late 1800s,  so there's not a lot to go on. But I just was told that it was fairly close to Kiev. I never met my father's mother. She was already passed by the time I was born. And in the Jewish religion, the children are typically named after someone who was deceased. And my father's mother was named Fanny. And I said no way am I going through life with a name like Fanny. But that name was very popular in the generation that she was born in. I don't have the exact year off the top of my head, but I have it at home, being the family historian. And I do have a lot of pictures of them. My father's father was still alive, but I was a baby and I really have no memories of him.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:25  <br />Before we started talking, you showed me a lot of photos and a lot of memorabilia that you've collected over the years. What were you like as a child? What were your hobbies? What did you enjoy doing with your time? Aside from school.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  15:45  <br />I had a lot of trouble with my eyes as a very young child. My mother told me that I was already wearing eyeglasses. By the time I was 11 months old. They didn't really have glasses for kids that little. So she said that they took two lenses and hooked them together with a ribbon that they tied behind my head. When I was three, I had my first surgery. And then I had another corrective surgery when I was 16. But I've worn glasses ever since I'm a child, I wear them full time. So it was suggested to my parents that perhaps learning a musical instrument would help my vision. So I started taking piano lessons when I was six at a at a local school that was actually down the block. And I took to it really well. I didn't fight the lessons. I didn't fight practicing. And if you also look at the picture of me playing piano, you might notice quite a few statues of composers on top of the piano, and those were awards that I received for solo concerts between the age of maybe seven and nine. I still play the piano when I can, although I don't have one in my house right now. My brothers had a record player to play 33 RPM records which some people may or may not have seen, so there was a lot of music in the house, and so I listened to the stereo and then I started buying 45 RPM records and started playing those myself. According to my journals, I watched way too much television. The Ed Sullivan Show was interesting to me on Sunday nights because there tended to be diversified talent on that. Did a lot of writing. I think I started journaling maybe 10/12, something like that. And I actually have quite a few of my journals with me from seventh and eighth grade forward. Did a lot of writing in school. Other interests: It's hard for me to believe that I was as athletic as I was at the time. I played baseball and tennis and badminton. In Lincolnwood we had a billiards table set up in the family room, and I considered myself a pool shark at the time because I beat my brothers frequently. And so I liked the crack of the balls, listening to the balls hit each other and dropping into the pocket. We had a really nice table. We did badminton out in the yard and ping pong in the garage when cars were not in there. But I was pretty active in sports in grade school and particularly in high school. Well, I think we're still back in eighth grade, so I'll hold that for a few minutes.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:34  <br />You mentioned that you went to Niles West, right?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  20:37  <br />Yes, I did.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:39  <br />What are your memories of your time as a student in Niles West?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  20:45  <br />Well, as I mentioned, the suburbs were quite challenging for me. And I was very pleased with the friendships that I had developed in seventh and eighth grade. I spent a lot of time in Hebrew school and eventually had my Bas Mitzvah, and I have a lot of photographs of friends that attended my Bas Mitzvah. However, the transition from eighth grade to Niles West was another rocky one for me because all of the friendships that I had developed, none of those kids were in any of my classes in the four years. It was like I was starting over again. I never saw any of my friends. They weren't in my homeroom. They weren't in my classes. The school was considerably larger than Lincoln Hall. There was 3000 students at Niles West at the time. Do you recall how many were there when you were there, Lev?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:15  <br />I want to say approximately, I think my graduating--<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  22:18  <br />[overlapping] Lev went to Niles West too.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:21  <br />I think my graduating class had roughly 600, so times four. Between 600 and 650. So multiply that times four. So was it 2400?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  22:36  <br />Well, I distinctly remember 3000 kids running around. And I started out in many honors classes, so I became the ambitious diligent student and did okay. But by my junior year, I was like really stressed out again. And my health declined quite a bit. I was sick frequently. I walked around with a box of Kleenex all the time. I missed a lot of school. I had walking pneumonia for a while. I had mono, I had pneumonia--a lot of respiratory stuff. So I missed a lot of time at Niles West, which actually was okay with me but not so good for my education. So being that I had missed three months continuously in my junior year, it was very difficult to come back. I was able to get through my junior year. Had a fun summer. And then senior year, I came back for two weeks. And I just couldn't do it anymore. It just was too hard. Too much. Too many kids, just everything was just overwhelming. So I came home one day and announced that I quit High School. And it was one of the first times in my life that my parents actually listened and took me seriously and realized that I wasn't joking, that I just couldn't do it anymore. So they started looking for a private school for me. And I didn't know this until fairly recently, actually, that when we moved out of Chicago and were going to Lincolnwood, it was suggested--highly recommended--that Felicia go to a private school at that time. My parents did not listen at the time and never pursued that. So I struggled and struggled, and there I was 15/16 years old and flunking out of high school and very distraught and embarrassed and overwhelmed. Okay, so anyway, they finally found a private school for me here in Chicago. We were still living in Lincolnwood. Another thing that was problematic is that both of my brothers were out of the house already. My older brother Ed got married when he was 22. And Mark was away at college. So it was just me and the parents. And we didn't have a whole lot to talk about. But anyway, they did find me a private school. Latin School and Francis Parker would not accept me because my grades had gone down so much and they didn't want that kind of representation in their schools in Lincoln Park or the Gold Coast. So we found another school, or I think a relative suggested another private school called Bateman, which was in the Gold Coast and it was at the intersection of Burton Place and Aster. What happened is they took a very old, very large--here I go with another house. It was a McCormick mansion. And the Craig family purchased the property and converted it into a private school. And to give you an idea how different it was from Niles West: instead of 3000 students, there was 300 students from kindergarten through 12th grade.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:33  <br />This is across the street from Walter Payton now?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  27:37  <br />No.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:37  <br />No?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  27:38  <br />There's another Bateman private school.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:41  <br />Because I'm thinking of when describing the mansion, I for some reason ...<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  27:45  <br />No, no, it's a very residential, very ritzy, fancy area. So, praise God, I was able to graduate from high school. And instead of 700 people in our graduating class, there was 25. And I made it through. I graduated high school. I have my eighth grade diploma. I have my Hebrew school diploma. I have my Hebrew high school diploma, pictures from my Bas Mitzvah. My diploma from Bateman. I graduated from high school, didn't really want to go to college, but I did do some of that afterwards. So Bateman was kind of a saving grace for me because a lot of the kids there had various problems going on, and I just made a whole lot of new friends and we had recess in the park. One of the Cardinals had a very large home around the block, and I knocked on the door one day and I asked if they could show me around. I thought that was kind of cute. And they very politely said no, so I went back to gym class. The school was a bit of a playground, to be honest. I spent a lot more time out of the school than in the classroom. But, I graduated high school, and the teachers didn't care about who you were, where you came from. The administration didn't care about your grades. If you had the money for tuition that was pretty much all they focused on, which was good for me. So I stayed in contact with a lot of the kids from Bateman for many years afterwards. Still living in Lincolnwood. My dad's business was fairly close to Bateman, so he would drop me off in the morning and then I would walk over to his factory after school, and he would take me back home. Sometimes I got a ride, or sometimes I took public. But yeah, Bateman was a lot of fun. And I was also fortunate to have some very caring, sensitive teachers. One in particular, her name is Beth Jaffe. And I had her for English and writing. And I didn't know until fairly recently it was the first class that she ever taught right out of school. She was quite young herself and a very good teacher. So she thought I had a lot of potential as a writer. And I probably still have some of the papers that I did in her class. I have a lovely inscription from her in my autograph album. And many of my other teachers at Bateman were very caring, very helpful, almost like special education teachers. And at Bateman, they also let me do some student teaching. I worked with the kindergarten class when I could and third grade and fifth grade, sometimes after school, sometimes during. I was more like an assistant to the teacher, but the kindergarteners I had all to myself, and that was a lot of fun. I always enjoyed those little ones. And put together a talent show when we were at Bateman. I remember auditioning some of my classmates in the library to see what they could do. And we put together a show. I was in the choir at Bateman. I also was in the choir at Niles West. And hopefully by the time you you hear this tape, you'll be able to look at the record albums that we made, that we cut and produced under the tutelage of Mr. Magee. So we made two record albums from festivals. Lev said that he might be able to put some of the songs for you to hear.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  33:18  <br />Yeah, we should be able to do that.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  33:20  <br />Yeah, that sounds like fun. Back at Niles West, I believe I auditioned for many of the plays and the festivals and the events, and never got the part. So I was in a couple of different clubs: Future Teachers of America and Adult Education--I think I helped in that office. We also did a magazine at Niles West called Apotheosis, and I have a couple copies of that for you to view, to look at. None of my stories are in there, but many of my classmates' are. So I guess Bateman was a lot more enjoyable and memorable than Niles West. But we did have an eighth grade reunion and a high school reunion many years later, and I have some memorabilia from that show and tell.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:41  <br />After you graduated high school, you said you went to college, and where did life take you after that?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  34:52  <br />Still living in Lincolnwood, not really wanting to go to college after so much trauma in high school, I took a couple classes at Columbia College in Chicago. It was kind of unique at that time--this was like 1969. The school rented a couple of floors in an old office building on Lakeshore Drive. And the ratio of boys to girls was 10 to one. So I was terrified, but I also was very excited because those numbers were good, and I got to meet a lot of people. So I studied creative writing. One of my favorite teachers, Dan Michalski, helped me do some really good writing in that class. I took a poetry class, and eventually started up a poetry group in the 80s in Chicago, which I ran for seven years. And so did some good stuff with our writing. So I dabbled a little bit at Columbia. And while I was going to Columbia, I worked part time. I used to walk Downtown after school, and I worked part time in the toy department of Wieboldt on State Street, which was an absolutely perfect fit for someone like me, with all these toys, and puzzles, and stuffed animals, and dolls, and games, and things that made noise, and things that moved. It was the biggest toy department I've ever been in. And it was a lot of fun. And then I think I worked in a diploma factory in Desplaines, or something. So I was typically combining school with starting to work part time. Education-wise, I changed my major maybe three or four times After Columbia, I studied voice and piano at Roosevelt University, Downtown. The commute got to be too difficult. And then, my dad had two businesses going at the time, and one of them was making custom upholstered furniture. So he helped me get a job with an interior designer in Chicago. And I thought: Oh, this is great; I'll work for her part time, and I'll go to design school part time. So I transferred to Harrington Institute of Interior Design, which was in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue at the time. A it was really, really hard. I worked for Jane Derek by day, and I went to Harrington maybe two nights a week. So they condensed the day school into six or eight hours of classroom in the evening. It was very intense. A lot of homework, did a lot of cool projects there. Oh, I just remembered I have some show and tell from design school, Lev. I'm holding out on you here. I have some drawings and floor plans and projects. Oh my God, that's in another binder. <br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  39:20  <br />So then I met a man when I was in my early 20s. Alan. And he was working as a transit planning engineer for the Chicago Transit Authority, for the CTA in Chicago, and he wanted to change jobs. He was offered some wonderful positions in a couple of major cities. He asked me to pick one, and I chose Atlanta, Georgia, and so I transferred design schools to the Art Institute of Atlanta. They didn't have subways or the L or anything in Atlanta in the early 70s, and so he was, again, helping with the bus routes there. And for the first time in my life, I had roommates. It really wasn't a problem. I'm kind of surprised, considering that I never shared my space with anybody but my family. And all of a sudden, I had three female roommates in a fairly small apartment. But I liked Atlanta a lot. There's a lot of things I liked about the city, and I was going to school full time. It was a lot more manageable. And I did some great work there. And so you're wondering, well, did I become a well-paid, famous interior designer? No, I didn't. I eventually moved back to Chicago, and back in Lincolnwood with the parents. And I got a wonderful job at Marshall Field's, that was on the fifth floor of Water Tower Place. Loved the job, made no money. But I loved what I was doing. I eventually managed the china and crystal department there. And they let me do displays. And I had some very wealthy clients that I worked with really closely, and had some very exciting experience with customers there. Some pretty famous people actually. So that was a good time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  42:26  <br />What have you been doing? What takes up your time today?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  42:36  <br />It's pretty interesting to be in the Lincolnwood Library at this time and reminiscing about my life growing up here. Particularly because when I went to school down the block, as I mentioned earlier, to Rutledge and Lincoln Hall, this library was not here at the time, right? What year did you open here?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  43:05  <br />'78. <br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  43:06  <br />Okay. So this library didn't exist for a long time. And when I was at Niles West, we had a pretty handsome library there. But I remember--sorry--spending a lot of time at Skokie Library to do research and writing and sorting and things like that. And I became very fond of the Skokie Library, spent a lot of time there. So it's really exciting now, especially since the Lincolnwood Library has remodeled and it's very modern in here. If you haven't been in here in a long time, you really must. So several months ago, I was in this library for a storytelling workshop. And I noticed the flyers called "My Story." And I was with a friend in the storytelling workshop, who currently lives in Lincolnwood, and she says, "Oh, no, that's not for me." And I says, "Wait a second." I said, "I lived in Lincolnwood once upon a time. Let me tell my stuff." And speaking of stuff, I realized I had an awful lot of memorabilia and ephemera and photos, and Lev will tell you I got a lot of stuff to show and tell here, and I'm very happy to show it. So speaking of stories, I do share them around town from time to time. And I'm writing children's stories for little ones, usually age five to about age 10 or 11. And while I'm waiting for my checks from the magazine, I do homeschooling for the same group of children, kindergarten through four. And I decided, since I had some difficult times in education that I had a passion for working with children. Some who have gone or are in a public school and just need some extra help Some who are being totally homeschooled by their parents. Sometimes the parents are not a good fit to teach their own children, sometimes they travel too much. So then that's where I come in and work with kids either on one subject or multiple subjects. It's kind of a custom-made, tailored program for the children, depending upon what they they need. And of course, I have lots of show and tell for them in my dwelling, or I take it on the road. I really love teaching. I love telling stories and helping a child get through a tough time. I typically teach one-to-one, sometimes I have a small group. Whatever it is that they need, we work it out.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  46:55  <br />It sounds like you're giving back after having some difficult times yourself, growing up in education.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  47:06  <br />[overlapping] I'm trying.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  47:06  <br />I worked with a little girl at Niles Library last year. Her parents asked me to help her with her reading. Without divulging too much about the family or the child or myself, I think it turned out to be that she was a very active, athletic child and just didn't want to sit still long enough to hold a book and sit in her room and read. But I discovered that she was fine reading the same books online because she could move her arms and legs up and down. She could move around. She could put pause on the computer and come back. She didn't have to hold anything. She would just take her eyes on and off the screen. And it worked so much better for her. And she could take a break and do cartwheels or flips or something in the room that we were working in. If I saw that she was getting tired, I would take her through the library and introduce her to some more staff or some other kids and show her what she could do when she got a little bit older. I identified her strengths and her weaknesses. I mean, I don't think she really had a problem reading. She just didn't want to sit and do it. So I found something that she could incorporate her body and her eyes at the same time. And it seemed to work rather well. Her little brother was a student there also but somebody else worked with him. Really, really lovely family.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  47:16  <br />And the type of work sounds like it's fulfilling for you.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  49:25  <br />Yeah, as a teacher, when you can see that a child understands, when they get it. I did all sorts of extra fun projects with this little girl. During the time that we were working together, the family went to Poland for a week or two. So when she came back, I asked her if she had written a journal or taken notes or anything on her trip. And she didn't really know what a diary was. And I says, "Well, how about if you write a book? How about if you write a short book about your travels in Poland?" And she said, "What?" And so we sat down with a stack of construction paper and cut it to the right size. And she did the drawings and the writing of "My Week in Poland," and then she put her name on there, and I think her parents were mighty surprised.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  50:43  <br />Is there anything else that you want to sum up about your experience living in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  50:51  <br />In my late 20s--I think I was 27/28--I met somebody that had a sublet apartment available in Evanston. And I grabbed it. And so I didn't have a whole lot of things to put in it. But people pitched in, and I eventually set up. It was a very large studio apartment at almost the corner of Main and Ridge in Evanson, with a great view. And got situated there and started volunteering in a lot of neighborhood organizations in Evanston. It was a good first apartment for me. And I was in walking distance to the Jewel and started discovering all these foods that I didn't know existed. I grew up with a salad being iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumbers, and tomatoes. That was about it. And all of a sudden, I discovered all these different kinds of lettuce and all these cool vegetables and different things you could put on top of the salad, in the salad, make your own dressings. And I joined an ethnic dinner club and started trying all sorts of different cuisines. There's only 11,000 restaurants in Chicago at the present time. And one by one, I started checking them out. My parents were not particularly explorational, and I think that I went to the other spectrum and I wanted to try everything and do everything. So I'm very experimental, big explorer, and I was out there checking out these things. And then, eventually got more situated in the job market. I had a terrific job at Channel 11 WTTW, wonderful place to work. Unfortunately, I had three bosses at the same time, who really didn't want to share me equitably. They all were involved in different aspects of fundraising, which they all did really well. And once again, I was overworked and underpaid. At least I was out of the house, away from the parents. In my own place, I was starting to entertain and have parties. Had a bridal shower for my cousin. So life went forward.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  54:35  <br />Well, I'm excited to share a lot of the stuff that you brought on our website to show folks and to kind of put some of the things in context. And I do want to thank you for coming to the Lincolnwood Library and sharing your Lincolnwood story with us.<br /><br />Felicia Sue Kaplan  54:53  <br />Well, thank you so much, Lev, for dreaming up this project in the first place. And it gives little chatterboxes like myself a forum to kvetch and share and hopefully convey that, finally, things are much brighter than they were when I was a teenager. And I drive past the house in Lincolnwood from time to time and was rather shocked to see a Christmas tree in the window last year when there never was before, and they've done some great updating and remodeling to the exterior. I've pondered ringing their doorbell and introducing myself just to see how things look. Now, I haven't quite gotten up the courage, but I certainly have a lot of cool photographs to show them.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  55:59  <br />And we'll share some of those with our audience. Once again, thank you so much. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/cae0604bbc78d0562b67b49a40a67c6f.jpeg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=b9WpBGl%7EYT4uxWU5kOqvOU3HOqRfd6pggvhKEDGwwSVSr9qLU1wMUzHvClzbtXGhoH2vfXE5Xi%7E95uTenLiaOUVImnq7344fX3mNf5pyIieINlsRjktYBi-LuC5raUnNKO7RoRq4r0nehDLy1yE7TEza462GS8fvjLt0aqwF12LOeBIrBk02Mi5sftBctbV%7Er-PX1KA9Di8urPeC8Rdn-tZDFMeMR-8GhDp%7EhbRb4Hi1UCGn7W0oFHaFdoFy8MYBRqkul7GAJfr3yFLsC-KT44viUstaVkpLW7L%7E1LSQnIrN0Mulsei4RaWs7eVSYzYX5Hyi5h9bcWSAiMWw6IJe8g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9556527d3efb7a08c6e4ae3399c82c46 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Frances Salvi https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/43edd3a6a18d3c9d06590b54da8b523d.mp3?Expires=1781740800&Signature=WutqWtRhlrdMcmftobdp-jxcXEhbCgYs8ynjNB0BSZJildU2XgY74dxO5E5Iqvt0GEL2IPHgCmiWPQHaKNG4AY6aOrbAJOrJndt%7EHSGK82VBPPReSFQcDV-pcSY4QI2EuMSsFi0PiCj34D2vRasJ5H4ZFcZMebjfIYW-yNsVy4KmCVcQSGX8YC3-nZS3h5oMW7musEBuObgr5v7LdoDYDeHXHXBUshb-G4jQ0DOvgK9QcuAUUidu0Kd2qDHRN18MaeS8DBwOzKFPfl4QeuBQ7t809D8TWPqyf41KbFZ1GwfwNcSI5qR5Dui4TdUj9%7EU0cuDuKbh-YgJ65TPwGO8cMA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3a09b50b16671c23db025efe3b40ef86 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story - Frances Salvi https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/138e92c94cad2f19e50f26a2571e6791.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=d-hvEQfgCgl5rX57W%7E8pGciZARBNVhFxTC3BovMAVM7VT4%7EWXUtlnlTz7-NvNMg4s43N%7EiDauxCXEvgSQusItNTwDj8bCSxkNgwgPUUUQiaDVhCplX3GHElSrRxo4Hbq6EheCuekLQmI2XuiLTwHZyIB0hdOcMN7rvSFFsrahofrzGHPNjSG4OmksQcHq0I8FhX-voBKP8BdlcIlyIjq8s2leizs65IR4Grde2w01%7EPYvutVxYdsYWSSSqw5uclMVnAVs6cDz1zcnKuA9qJO40iYeuT18aqspnCFDuuSwYG3yWUD-tjIP8WpOs1PZ4Jni%7EKfM1CtGHaJQhDl9rB0OQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 2b019996befc76b8963c80aac5f85a20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sam and Emilio Salvi, Proesel Park Bonfire. Lincolnwood, 1972 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/e1cfa8aea9d5d09d90fe79ac85125db7.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=XTHvPAZgSXyG7WeaTZFDzw1WWiXpNmo6Az6lrDvC2xZitFuxMIqOXixTWv3%7EeFB8tC%7EIG3MupEKjFL1vgh7K0i4XX2rJzBhRt1oSJwvFtZLO6rBrQHgDWUEjIy7cqyaL32EQBBCGzPL10FI2WldxEd%7EHdVMk%7EAPCXJyIismnfOerqzIXGhCxXBYcDqC6n0mYR3suD-fXF6NUrJhBIuk-SNZ5BXv%7EfRwDzmR7GtvzDQJdHbKjk6szPPJa6oArEuYeGILkTLJMgHgKCH56E4n6d%7ExBY6tL4onEFrxtpF1IH4JVB262hgiLQY5i%7EoFTHk5rzEtuUSM7vfFsD8gmzy0csA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 8529def45ce8ba2a8c8d89eaf232ee79 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Salvi family https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/e84c9d0c00723d9c6c9f2fc4c4f49105.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=Rz6cjP8hcb8j96NzeMNdCECVHURgcXdLXeQJ-aXOlP96dEmhkpCdFbLmwlJyR%7EzmUNUB4W7kmSFwjhO3ERDrYhLH3z7BA3mXZCQFRo7wLvvkL4neScyww2f4DtVq3jXM6rzARVPj7U9OEmz2M%7EG--JExtgM-QROyXH7UXNK7Kzzb2fKhBe2kD9sr0tScJAebOH%7ErPJJ%7EWv85nqREhMW0zd0UKqTm-QrGLN0-FZXCsLQyhILCK-eZvS4q9qItRR4grQM6V2G3agPuv8u2pYgFLZrcTdadzJtrOLkZx2Kn8ePjtPyoeFXWAPYndWv4FUqe7NNKgUmO2co0iw-OJMTf5A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 5d03bdac6dea9e9107f9e3c7cc793b68 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Salvis celebrating their 50 year wedding anniversary Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story - Frances Salvi Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“Different families move in and out, [but] to me, the way the village has been run, it’s pretty much the same as it was in the beginning. That’s why it has remained a very good place to live.”</strong> <br /><br />Frances Salvi has been a Lincolnwood resident for nearly 55 years. She was born in Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood before her family moved to Sauganash Park. She met her husband, Salvano, in 1965 and together they moved to Lincolnwood in 1966, where they live to this day. Her maternal and paternal grandparents immigrated from Sicily, via Ellis Island, in 1907 and 1912, respectively, and settled in Chicago. Frances fondly remembers the yearly Halloween bonfire organized by the Lincolnwood Police Department, the time she spent studying voice in Italy, and the changes Lincolnwood has seen over the years. <br /><br /><em>This interview was recording using Zoom.</em><br /><em></em><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian at the Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is November 6, 2020. And I'm interviewing Francis Salvi for our oral history project. Francis, thank you so much for joining me, and what is your Lincolnwood Story?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  0:17  <br />Well, I can start out by saying that I started out in Chinatown, where I was born. I went to grammar school there. And then my parents, because of the Circle campus being built, moved from Chinatown to Sauganash Park. After we moved to Sauganash Park, I grew up at Queen of All Saints, and went to school there. Then I went to school, to a girl's school in Evanston. Then I went to Barat College in Lake Forest, and after that I decided to go to Italy to see where my grandfather was born. So I took a trip on the Leonardo da Vinci in 1965 and the day I got on the ship, I met Silvano Salvy, who became my husband a year later. We stayed at my mother's house for two months and had purchased this house in Lincolnwood - because my mother's neighbor had a nephew - and she sent me on Crawford Avenue and Pratt to look for the duplex that was for sale next to her nephew's house. I got lost. I kept going and I went past this school on Crawford and made a left turn onto Lunt Avenue. Driving down to Lunt and Kedvale, I found our house. We purchased the house, and two months later my husband came from Italy. We got married a month later. And then we moved to Italy and we've been here since 1966. Then our children came. Emilio and Sam. They are two years apart, and went all through Lincolnwood school. They went to Loyola Academy. After they started in grammar school, I started to become a real estate agent for a small company that was here in Lincolnwood and sold real estate up until even today.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:21  <br />Just to clear up: how exactly did you end up living in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  2:27  <br />Alright. My mother's neighbor, who lived down Karlov and Devon in that area, Sauganash Park...<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  2:32  <br />Right. <br /><br />Frances Salvi  2:33  <br />My mother had a neighbor whose nephew lived on Pratt. She told me knowing that I was going to be married, and that we were looking for a house. I was looking with my parents because my husband hadn't come yet. She said to me one day, go over to Crawford and Pratt. She wanted me to make a right turn on to Pratt and I missed it. I drove past the school going north. The first street I turned left on was Lunt. I looked, and I thought, oh, this is really nice here. All the elm trees met in the middle as you drove down the street. I came upon a house on the corner of Kedvale and Lunt that was for sale by owner. So I went home that night; my parents came home from work, and  we all three got in the car and drove over to this house and knocked on the door and asked the people if we could see it. That's how we connected with the owners. Then my husband came that Thursday that same week, and we brought him here to the house. We told the people we were going to buy it. That was 1966.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:50  <br />What are your memories of Lincolnwood back in the mid to late 60s?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  3:57  <br />Well, it being near Halloween, I always remember the bonfires and the Halloween contests. Do you know what I mean by the bonfires that were set up in the park?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:10  <br />I've heard it from from a few people. So, yes.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  4:13  <br />All right. The police used to make a great big fence, and in the middle of the fence in the park - I believe it was on, I'm not sure if it was on the tennis courts, but it might have been - they would pile old wood and furniture and all kinds of things into a huge pile. Halloween night they would give out candy and a prizes to the best costumes for the children. Then they would light the bonfire, and everybody went to the park and the weather was usually very nice. We'd watch the bonfire, and then everybody went home. That was something that was discontinued a few years later in the 70s. I don't know why. I think maybe they thought it was dangerous. But they did continue having the Halloween contest and giving out the candy. At one point, they gave out hotdogs, too. We were here when they opened the first pool. That was a big thing, to have a beautiful pool. That summer, my children and I went there every day, to the pool. And let's see, what else can I remember? I can't think of anything else unique to Lincolnwood except for the bonfire.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:37  <br />Let's talk a bit about your family. Tell me a little bit about your parents and where they were from.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  5:48  <br />Okay. Well, I'll start with my grandparents [who] migrated from Sicily, all four of them: my mother's parents and my father's parents in the early 1900s came through Ellis Island. My one set, my maternal grandparents, came in 1907. My paternal grandparents came in 1912. They went through Ellis Island and landed in Chicago because they had relatives that lived here. They didn't know each other; however, they were from two small towns in Sicily. My father's father from Nicosia, and my mother's parents from Calascibetta. Those two towns are about an hour away from each other by car. So they came here and they went to Chinatown because that was the Sicilian neighborhood. There was a church there, and it's still there, called Santa Maria Incoronata. The church, the masses, and everything were said in Italian and Latin. That's where I went to school. Later on, the St. Therese's Chinese mission purchased the church. I believe it was in either the late 70s or 80s. The church is still there. We lived on Alexander Street. My parents met at the church. My dad was selling tickets to a dance, and my mother was attending with her sister. They got married in 1938 in Chinatown, and we lived there until I was 10. When I was 10, and they built the Circle campus and the Eisenhower Expressway, we moved to Karlov Avenue and Devon. My father was a Northern Trust Vice President and my mother worked for Carson Pirie Scott. She was John T. Pirie, Jr.'s secretary for 17 years, and she worked at the store 37 years. They lived until 1994; my father passed away. My mother passed away in 2004. They lived exactly five blocks away from where I live now, so we were very close.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:13  <br />Talk to me a little bit about your childhood, even before Lincolnwood, just growing up in Chinatown.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  8:21  <br />Oh, that was fun. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:23  <br />What your life was like? <br /><br />Frances Salvi  8:25  <br />Well, we had to walk a pretty long way to school because the church was on our street, but the school was about nine blocks away. I walked every day rain or shine - it didn't matter, at least when I was about in third grade, I think I started walking - and I was there until I was in fourth grade. But we learned how to do double dutch jump ropes, and we played jacks. It was really fun there. We would go outside for recess every afternoon, and there were grocery stores around. You could go in and put a penny in the gumball machine, and I actually still have the things that I won in the gumball machines. You could buy french fries. It was a very nice time. You could walk anywhere without any fear or anything. It was a good time.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:27  <br />Do you remember who your friends were at that point?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  9:29  <br />Yes, I have kept in touch with about two friends, but one just passed away recently. They were both nurses. They were twins and one got married. One was single all her life. After I moved from Chinatown I kept in touch with them, and I did go back to one of the reunions. But then later on, being here in the Sauganash Park area, I made a lot of friends. We have kept in touch, and recently had our 60th grammar school reunion. It was in 2016. We had 75 people attend, and we had it at Colletti's, which is a restaurant on Elston and Central. It was really fun to see everyone again.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:28  <br />Now, so you mentioned that you met your husband when you were going to Italy...<br /><br />Frances Salvi  10:35  <br />Right. Well, the reason I went to Italy was I was studying mezzo soprano voice at school. I had private coaches. I was also in the Glee Club and did some solos. But since the time I was small...I have a brother who passed away in 1990; my grandfather used to say to him, I'm going to take you to the old country, meaning Sicily. I would always say, "Me, too! I want to go! I want to go!" That wasn't going to happen; he was going to take my brother. In 1965, I decided this is it, I'm going to take a trip. I incorporated some studying for voice in Italy. I left on June 2, and I stayed three months. I left on the ship, the Leonardo da Vinci, and that's where my husband was working. He was the pursers assistant and the waiter of my table. The trip takes eight days. It was a really nice trip. The weather was beautiful. The trip was beautiful. When I landed in Sicily - excuse me, I landed in Naples - my Sicilian cousins were there to meet me. I didn't speak a word of Italian. I got off the ship in Naples, and there was a man with a sign that had my last name on it. That's how I met my cousins. They took me to this village where nobody spoke English. So I had no choice. I had a book, a small book, and I learned from the table how to say fork, knife, spoon, glass, glass of water, glass of wine, etc. That's how I started to learn. I stayed with them for 12 days, and was able to communicate very, very minimally in a way that they could understand and I could understand. The longer I stayed in Italy, the more I learned. I became fairly fluent, not grammatically correct, but fairly fluent.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:50  <br />Why did you decide for the trip to go by ship versus by airplane?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  12:57  <br />Well, first of all, airplanes were not that popular in those days. I had been on an airplane, and I wasn't thrilled with it. I wanted to have the experience of going by ship. I had read everything I could. Then went to a travel agency at Carson Pirie Scott, and the man coached me on the different ships.In those days you had first, second, and third class. I thought, well, I'll go in the middle. So I went second class. In those days, on the ships you went to the same table every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There were dress codes; you had to dress for dinner. It was quite different than today where everyone is very casual. In 1965, it was the beginning of airplane travel and kind of the end of the ship traveling. I decided that I wanted the experience of going on the ship and seeing what it was like; being influenced by the movies and the Three Coins in the Fountain and all of those wonderful movies. I wanted to see Rome and Florence; I especially wanted to see Florence. I went to the Art Institute and took a class on Etruscan history. I thought that summer that that would help; the the year before I went to Italy that that would help me immerse myself in some of the culture besides what I knew from my own family. I wanted to take the ship because of the experience of going by ship. That's how I ended up on the ship. I came back on a brand new ship called the Raffaello. The Leonardo was a little bit older but the Raffaello was brand new. They both took eight days to come back; going and coming back eight days each way.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:00  <br />While you were in Italy - you said you went there to study?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  15:04  <br />Yes, I went to study voice. I tried to coordinate my trip with some of the religious festivals, and in Sicily there was a festival. It was called the Body of Christ, Corpus Domini. In those towns, they process with the large statue of the Virgin Mary, and they sing; it was very ancient sounding. You would go to all these different churches and they actually celebrated the feasts, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I tried to coordinate with different feasts and also some public celebrations. I went to Sienna to see the Palio, which is the horse race. I went actually to study voice. But then after I met Silvano, he decided that we would get together and go to his town, which is very close to Cinque Terre, the Italian Riveria, and it's called Lerici. That's where Mary Shelley wrote the story of Frankenstein, and where Lord Byron and Shelley, both lived and wrote their poetry. Lord Byron died; he he drowned in the Bay of the Poets, which is where Lerici and San Terenzo, the two small villages, that my husband's family grew up in.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:43  <br />What pushed you to, or inspired you to, study voice at that time?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  16:49  <br />Oh, I had been singing all the way from the time I was in grammar school in different choirs. My father was the one who really wanted me to go to the Lyric. But in that type of lifestyle, you really don't have...it's very hard to have a normal life if you're a singer, famous actor or anything. But I always like the singing, so I did continue. After I graduated college, I taught at the Convent of the Sacred Garden on Sheridan Road. I was the speech and drama teacher and I did the choir. I was a music teacher; not music, but singing teacher. My father was the one who wanted me to do that. But I decided that wasn't going to be the kind of life that I was going to pursue because it's a very lonesome life.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:53  <br />It is; yeah, I can imagine.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  17:55  <br />I mean, if you've seen Maria Callas' recent movie - it's a story about her life - she expresses it very, very well: either you have your career or you have a family. Some people are lucky and are able to do that, but it's very rare to have both. I could see that I wasn't really that enthusiastic about being on the stage, although I love being in the speech and drama. That was my major.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:34  <br />Speaking of family, when you did move to Lincolnwood, you said you had or you have rather, you said two children, correct?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  18:44  <br />Yes, I did. We had two sons. My first son is Emilio, and he was named after my father-in-law, my husband's father. That's a tradition to do that. My second son is named after my father, Sam. So there's Emilio and Sam. They were born in 69 and 60; excuse me, 67 and 69. They went to Lincoln Hall, all through school, and Sam was in the first preschool that they had at Lincoln Hall. I think the teacher's name was Miss Marcucci, I think. They have friends that they met in that school up to this day. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:36  <br />Well...<br /><br />Frances Salvi  19:37  <br />Even though most of them, the kids, went to Niles West, and Sam and Emilio until Loyola, excuse me - and Sam and Emilio went to Loyola Academy - they still kept their friends. Every year one of my son's has dinner with about seven or eight of the fellas that they went to school with that lived in Lincolnwood. They had a good life too, they like to...<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:05  <br />I was gonna ask a bit more about their childhood, growing up in Lincolnwood.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  20:12  <br />Well, they were able to walk to school because in the area where we live - which is west of Crawford, south of Touhey, north of Pratt, and east of Lincoln - there is no bus. You have to either drive or walk. That was a big influence on where I chose to send my children because I could have sent them to the same grammar school I went to, but that's on Devon near Cicero. It was too far away. At that time, we only had one car, and my husband would take the car to work every day. We decided that the walking only three blocks to Crawford from Kedvale here would be fine. That's why we sent them there. We were very happy with the school. I was a little bit involved; I used to get involved with the kids' plays and things. But it was just a minimal, voluntary basis. That was fun to be involved with that. They liked the school and they liked their friends. They would bicycle around everywhere here. At that time, there was no pool. But then, of course, when the pool came in, they would go there. Eventually, one of my children worked for the Village as a groundskeeper for one summer, and Emilio was working at the - now, I won't remember the name of it - but there was a toboggan slide on Devon and Milwaukee. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:49  <br />Sure. <br /><br />Frances Salvi  21:50  <br />I can't think of the name of the pool, but he worked there one summer. Sam worked as a groundskeeper in Lincolnwood for one summer, and then he worked for the Park District in Chicago other summers. Then from there they went on to work...well, my one son has been working at Northern Trust, for 35 years, I think 36 now. Sam is a real estate appraiser, who does appraisals of commercial property. Both of them are kind of in finance and real estate; they are in that kind of thing, finance and real estate. We talk a lot about the market. We talk a lot about buildings and things around Chicago; apartment buildings and office buildings that he goes to every day, even today.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:46  <br />You mentioned you also ended up in real estate; how did that transition happen for you?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  22:51  <br />Well, that happened again - my father was very influential in my life. My parents kept urging me; and I had a brother who was in real estate, and he was an attorney. He urged me to take the license and begin to work in real estate. My dad knew a man who owned the company here, and I went to interview with him. My husband and I both went. I'm telling you, the way I'm talking now, you would not believe this. When I went to interview, it was probably - let's see, Sam was three - probably 1972. I didn't say a word. I didn't say one word during that interview. The man called my father and he said, "Are you sure it wasn't your daughter that came from Italy? Because she should say one word." So my husband and I left, and he said, "Okay, well, you go first, and if it works for you, we'll see." So anyway, I took the test. In those days, you didn't have to go to school. I took the test, and luckily I passed it, because after I passed that test, they made a rule that you would have to go to real estate school to get your license. I wouldn't have been able to; I didn't have a babysitter or any of that. That was just timing. I got the license in '73 and started working. We sold primarily in Lincolnwood, Skokie, Morton Grove, and we would branch out to Edgebrook and Sauganash. When the computer systems came in, it opened up a whole new world. I would sell things even as far as California and New York City because I knew people that were traveling, and they had things that they wanted to sell. But, in the old days, you stayed right in your village. It was so different.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:53  <br />Tell me a little bit about...I imagine you had a lot of various family traditions. Either with you growing up, or when your children were growing up. Were there any traditions that stand out that you may have passed on, that were passed on from one generation to the other?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  25:11  <br />Well, of course, when we lived in Chinatown we lived upstairs from my grandmother. She had four sons: three were married, and one was a bachelor. We always went to her table for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Later on, as I could understand it, as I got older, I realized how hard it was. Because of course, my mother wanted to go to her family's. So we would have to negotiate every year how far we were going to be able to eat at my grandmother's downstairs. Then, for Thanksgiving, go to my aunts and uncles on my mother's side. My grandmother would make food. She made eight loaves of bread every Saturday. She made her own pasta. I used to help her - not help her, I was there - and I would see how she made the pasta. Every Saturday morning, I would be down there with her. I'm sure I was of no help at all. She tolerated my presence; that's all I can say. I'm not the cook of the family, but my husband is very good cook. The traditions of having the meal every week, I mean every holiday with her, was really something very strong. Our tradition in our own family was we always had spaghetti and meatballs on Sunday; my mother would make her own sauce. She didn't make her own pasta, but she would make meatballs and her own sauce. Then when we moved north and all the sons that were married and had children each moved into their own homes. My one uncle who was bachelor stayed with my grandparents until they died. We all would try to get together periodically, if not for the major holidays, at least during the summer once in a while we'd go to each other's homes. We did remain very close. I have cousins who call me, I would say two or three times a week, from St. Louis and other cousins who live in Des Plaines, and all over. We still talk to each other and are pretty close. We had these [inaudible] and the Thanksgiving turkey. My grandmother had four sons and she would make whatever they wanted. We had not only turkey, we had chicken and beef and sausage and soups, and she would make everything. Even though she worked - when I was very young, she worked outside the house. She then quit working and she stayed home. She was really a fabulous cook.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  27:36  <br />The area that you that you described where you live in Lincolnwood that's pretty close to the library, correct?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  28:21  <br />Yes, the library used to be the Jewel food store.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  28:25  <br />Right. So I was gonna ask - of course, I understand that the library kind of didn't appear about maybe 15 years later after you had moved to Lincolnwood. But do you remember...? <br /><br />Frances Salvi  28:35  <br />Right. Well, the one thing I remember in particular - and this doesn't really have to do with the library - but when the big snowstorm came in 1967 in January, my son was born in March, and we were quarantined in the house for five days. The only way that we could get groceries was we took a sled and walked to the library. Which was the jewel food store? <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:11  <br />Right.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  29:12  <br />I'll never forget that. I don't remember how many exact years it was that the library came. But I do remember that we did buy a brick with her family name on it. That was one of their first...well, years later, they had a promotion to support the library. I did have a name, but I don't know if they still have it. I went to look for it one time and they didn't. They've redone that, and done something else now.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  29:42  <br />Yeah, the bricks...I think when the building was renovated the lastest time in 2017, the bricks were removed and I think there's a...I think the names of the people who have who had bricks purchased are on the big window when you first walk in to the building. In addition to the library, and you mentioned the Jewel, what were some of the other businesses, whether it was restaurants or stores...<br /><br />Frances Salvi  30:18  <br />Okay. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  30:19  <br />...that you remember?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  30:20  <br />Well, thinking back now, we were really pioneers because there were no malls. There were no Village Crossing. There was no Village Crossing. But there was a restaurant, there was a hamburger place on Lincoln and it was, I think, near where the Walgreen is. Oh, they had peanuts. Where did you remember? Well, you may not remember. But they had these restaurants where people would eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. It had something to do with a hamburger. I can't think of it. There was Howard Johnson's, too. Also, there was a restaurant called The Fireside Inn, and there was a florist shop called Ernie's Florist that had been there for years. I think The Fireside burned to the ground. This is where David's Gift Shop was on the corner of Touhy and Kostner. The mall there. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:34  <br />Right, right. The Starbucks was in that same space, right? <br /><br />Frances Salvi  31:39  <br />Yes. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  31:40  <br />Like a print shop?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  31:42  <br />Yes. There was a store there. It was called David's and they had antiques; beautiful antiques and lamps. You could get your lampshades made there. The owner, his name was David, I think, Goldberg. He lived upstairs with his wife and mother. They owned the whole property for years. Then he really scaled down to a much smaller store. Then eventually he sold the whole mall property.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  32:16  <br />In your 55 years in Lincolnwood, how has, in your opinion, how has the village...what changes have you seen? <br /><br />Frances Salvi  32:26  <br />Well, the biggest changes are the availability of all the different types of shops, malls, and restaurants that are here now compared to 54 years ago. There was only the Jewel food store, and only the school and only the park. There were no malls or shops to walk to, or even drive to. The purple motel was there or hotel. But other than that, there were no condominiums. The first condominium was built on Devon and Cicero. That was built in the late 70s. As a matter of fact, Nicky Weiss is the man who built that building. He passed away about two months ago. He built the Hampton Place on Touhy and Lincoln, and there are two others called the Barkeley and then the Lincolnwoods Suites. Those were the only big buildings that came about in the late 70s. Prior to that, everything was one story high. I'm not talking commercial except for the bank on the corner of Lincoln and Touhy. That was the only highrise that we had. Other than that, there were three story or two story houses, but most of the homes were ranches. A lot of the ranches got torn down, and the lots were divided into two. Millennium Homes were built where they were more straight up and down; lots of space, but it was three stories.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  34:22  <br />Any other final thoughts, memories, that you'd like to share?<br /><br />Frances Salvi  34:27  <br />Well, I think my biggest, fondest memories were I would say the bonfire and the pool. I don't know; it was just a great place. It is just a great place to live regardless of the changes, I still like it here.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  35:03  <br />Well, you stayed for such a long time.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  35:06  <br />I intend to stay here forever. We have no plans of selling. We live in a ranch with one level; we have a basement. But I really enjoy my garden. Everything is pretty much the same. I mean, as far as our house, well, he did say that when we first moved here, we had a two bedroom house, it was the smallest house on the block. And 10 years later, we added out it was a rectangle, and we added another rectangle, which made four bedrooms and three baths. And they became a livable place for four people. So now we use four place for four people, there's two of us. And we still utilize Oh, pretty much the whole house. But what I meant by things are the same is that yes, different families move in and out. And but the area to me has, I mean, the, the way that the village has been run, it's pretty much the same as it was in the beginning where everybody kind of follows the rules. So put your garbage meals out at a certain hour and take them in street sweeping and all of that all of the amenities are still here. So that's why it's remained a very good place to live.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  36:40  <br />Well, I would like to thank you for taking the time and speaking with me about your history in Lincolnwood, and contributing to our oral history project.<br /><br />Frances Salvi  36:53  <br />Oh, you're welcome. It was my pleasure. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/5a6879d1a78d0e9dfd5cb09646013404.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=A-uE1ySQm8AM6DtCfNjQ5b5Tg6pjlWEIS077ttVRd3BdzcTVKZcQbrvS%7EVvC3dyXs1Urwp55u7Ru3G4Q-CYbVgOr48JGVY016v9aGtwcs9tXXsw-0dm1oGx63sKzbEhUUkHcC4FbkjE7SzfcrTtlCwVFvv81rZROvEGqEdXZoS0pSUb4uZn4fEcAh8voJTQl-Q1m069wBU1jA7Zd4TaA%7EvUh-wvNccZeLxwvObGXg-t%7EdsOnEIKScG1leUSIQO10vn2H8DEq13bDywOTbEYViwZ6R%7EPH2vL1qFeewM84x7P3zA%7EYZ0O4abzOO9YcZNETrsquKQUnr8RWy3KxrOf6Dg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c7f681dd065801e678c595cb8a8409af Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Frank Chulay, June 2019 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/6332792535d8e0c91c480afeed3e1a0f.mp3?Expires=1781740800&Signature=ZugKJ9tKlax0K41dsfYZfc2%7EkP39B4aBJtdWaJwkb3gfmXondcTP5LDgAKk33Go0%7E69pY-7j-tgrgFDdIaToF-Ci8uh0FHxqVJ6oXEdLIC19s%7EcniTClsWi6UzMMrqVjjxWegKeCOssAy0vwMEY6m-oMl6rkXXb9PSOfWb-ylYhbKIxnswI07FjqH4rgdu6-SyP-6urWHK4fmq4oZCT670yVEq1lK5jImIU2w-iBHgJLLngQd%7ECDH6hb%7EG2L%7EPrb8ZzWiNEulJJtDTwXEtNixrE4w6JjF8qbvYd97FxHDT6tIm5iFDcD0bygsdw0iq0gkD1l8bhY6tE-soOVVcQFFg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 824fd853e931c6503c638b44c2506294 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Frank Chulay Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Frank Chulay Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“Lincolnwood has always been a pleasant place for us. I was proud to be mayor.”</strong> <br /><br />Frank Chulay was mayor of Lincolnwood from 1985-1993. Originally from Hungary, Mr. Chulay immigrated to the United States in 1923. He talks about his career, his time as mayor, and serving as a pilot in World War II.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. I'm an Information Services Librarian here at the Lincolnwood Public Library. And today I am speaking with Frank Chulay for My Lincolnwood Story. Frank, thank you for being here. And what is your lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  0:16  <br />Well, I'm a resident for 52 years. And I worked for a company for 35 years. And they gave me early retirement. But I wasn't happy to early retire. They said, "Well, the food deposit--Chicago Food Depository--is looking for someone." And I took the job there and worked for them. And then all of a sudden, they were going to make me the director of the food depository. But in the meantime, the Lincolnwood mayor that was also retiring asked me to run for his seat. And I wasn't sure. I was never in politics. But I decided I would run for it. So during the election time, people were against a mall. And that came up after I was elected. I won and became mayor. And we, the board, and with my approval, authorized the mall to be built. Now the other big thing that happened about two weeks after I was made Mayor, I got a nice letter from the Chicago Fire Chief, saying, "Congratulations on your election. As of a month from now, we will no longer do the fire service in Lincolnwood. We have a first aid unit. But we did not have a fire department. We had a police department, but not a fire department. So I got all upset about it. And I talked to the state representative in our district. And he said, "Let's go talk to Mayor Washington." So we went to City Hall, talked to Mayor Washington, and he was very kind, but he didn't think he could do it. So we had to develop a fire department for the city. And I went to the people that were going to build the mall. And I got a million dollars from them to build a new city hall and a fire department. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:21  <br />Well, before we go on, so you said you've been in Lincolnwood for 52 years. So that's what, 1967. How did you end up in Lincolnwood? I kind of want to know where you were born, how your family ended up in Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  3:37  <br />Oh, well, number one, I was born in Hungary. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:42  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  3:42  <br />But I came to the United States when I was two years old. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:46  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  3:46  <br />I grew up in a town in Chicago called Jefferson Park. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:53  <br />Sure. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  3:54  <br />And when I was still there, I graduated from Prussing Grade School. From Schurz High School. And then I went to Chicago Teachers College. And that's where I was when the war came along, and I had to sign up for the draft.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:19  <br />So do you mind my asking what year did you come to the United States?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  4:25  <br />1923. I was born 1921.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:30  <br />Okay, so that makes you 97?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  4:33  <br />97. I'll be 98 this year. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:35  <br />Wow. That's quite impressive, I must say. So what do you remember about growing up in Jefferson Park at that time?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  4:43  <br />Oh, it was a lovely neighborhood. I remember a lot of things from Prussing. It was a grad school. I was a police boy, and one year, I was the head of the police boys. And one of my classmates is still living. He lives in California. That was great growing up.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:20  <br />What prompted you to move to Lincolnwood?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  5:23  <br />And then when we got married, right after the war, it was so difficult to find a place to live. So we ended up in Rogers Park. And then we bought a place in Sauganash Park. That was on the other side of Devon. So then, we were enticed with Lincolnwood. And we move to Lincolnwood.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  5:59  <br />So did you serve in the war?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  6:01  <br />Oh, yes, I was a pilot in World War II. I tell my friends I've been to Hawaii twice: once on my way to Okinawa, once on my way back. And I served in South Pacific and ended up in Okinawa, when the war was ended there. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:32  <br />So when you move back--<br /><br />Frank Chulay  6:34  <br />And I came back to Chicago, and we've had trouble finding a place, but we bought a home in Sauganash Park. 60-something Trip Avenue.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  6:53  <br />What was this area like back then?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  6:59  <br />Sauganash was rich people, and Lincolnwood had a section that was the Towers in Lincolnwood. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:09  <br />Right, right. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:11  <br />And we always would go through the Towers at Christmas time to see all the decorations.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:20  <br />Yeah, I think they still have it now, that house where the Christmas tree goes all the way through all the levels of the home. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:27  <br />Right. Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:30  <br />So you moved to Lincolnwood in 1967. Then you moved to Sauganash--was it in the early '50s, late '40s?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:39  <br />'67. We came to Lincolnwood in '67. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:42  <br />Right, but what about Sauganash Park?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:45  <br />Oh, we were there for a good number of years. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:50  <br />Okay, so you said right after the war, right? Yeah. So in the late '40s. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:54  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:54  <br />Okay. So what was the company that you were working for at that time?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  7:59  <br />That was Signal Steel Strapping Company, and they were at Western and Logan Boulevard. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:10  <br />Okay. And what did you do there?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  8:13  <br />I was an accountant.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:16  <br />What was your educational background in? Your education, what did you go to school for?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  8:25  <br />After I graduated from Schurz, my dad couldn't afford to send me to the University of Illinois in Champaign. So I spent two years at Wright Junior College. And then I was working at the Palace Theater, Downtown. And one of my teammates there says, "Why don't you take the exam for Chicago Teachers College?" So I took the exam and passed, and I started at Chicago Teachers College. And then the war came along, and I had to go in to serve. And when I got out of service, Uncle Sam sent me to DePaul.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:19  <br />DePaul. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  9:21  <br />So I graduated from DePaul with a degree.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:26  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  9:27  <br />In accounting. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:28  <br />Okay, so that's--<br /><br />Frank Chulay  9:29  <br />And that's when I got my job with Signal Steel Strapping Company, and I was with them.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:37  <br />Your entire career? Or your entire career in accounting. And then you said you retired, or your early retirement was--<br /><br />Frank Chulay  9:45  <br />In about '84--'83 or '84. And I became mayor in '85. '85 to '93.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:59  <br />Why did you think that that was something you were interested in doing, becoming mayor, since you had no political experience.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  10:07  <br />[overlapping] Well, what prompted me was the current mayor didn't want to run you for another year. And he lived a couple of houses from me. And he said, "Why don't you go for mayor?" I said, "I was never in politics." But it sounded good. And either I would be mayor, or I'd be director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. So I took mayor.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:39  <br />Tell me about it. What were some of the challenges? What did you like about it? What were the accomplishments? <br /><br />Frank Chulay  10:47  <br />Yeah. At that time, there were people who were against the mall--some people, not everybody.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:56  <br />Oh, you're talking about Lincolnwood Town Center?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  10:59  <br />Yeah, Laincolnwood Town Center. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:01  <br />Okay. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  11:02  <br />And I went to them, and they gave me the million dollars for that, but I authorized the mall. And then we built the new village hall, fire department, police department, and everything else we needed. Except the building for public's works were no longer in the back with us. We have a new section for them.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:44  <br />So you're talking about the building that's now here in Lincolnwood, kind of by Proesel Park. By Proesel Park where that village hall is?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  11:54  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:56  <br />So where was the facility before? Or where was City Hall before?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  12:04  <br />Oh, City Hall was in the same spot as we built it. Only, at that time, it was on the street behind Lincoln. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:23  <br />Okay. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  12:24  <br />So it's by the parks. The parks district. We own that property. Yeah, in fact the police department was in back of City Hall. But the new building was on Lincoln Avenue rather than the street behind it.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:59  <br />Gotcha. I understand now, okay. I didn't know that. I didn't know that that's where it used to be. Okay, so you rebuilt City Hall. You added the police department and the fire department. And then during your time, Lincolnwood Town Center was built. What was on the property where Lincolnwood Town Center is now? What was there prior to that?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  13:22  <br />I can't think of the name of the place. It was at one time, they made the telephones and stuff.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:36  <br />Well, are you talking about Bell &amp; Howell?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  13:39  <br />Bell &amp; Howell! That the one.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:42  <br />Because I know that Bell &amp; Howell was on the other side, on Pratt, where Lincolnwood Place and Lincolnwood [inaudible] are now.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  13:50  <br />Yes. They had a good portion of that area. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:54  <br />Okay. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  13:56  <br />The Town Center bought everything else they needed.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:00  <br />So how was it decided that the village needed a big mall?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  14:05  <br />Well, they were deciding that they wanted to build a mall there. And the people that lived near that, they didn't want it. But it was a good thing. We put it in because financially it helped the village. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:25  <br />Because Lincolnwood doesn't really have a downtown area.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  14:29  <br />No. That's right.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:30  <br />So was the mall kind of the closest you could come to that?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  14:36  <br />That's right. We had at that time the hotel.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:43  <br />The Purple Hotel.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  14:44  <br />Purple Hotel, right. But other than that, there wasn't really a downtown. Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:51  <br />What were some of the hardest parts, or what was the hardest thing about being village mayor?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  14:58  <br />There were times when you had to make decisions. You didn't know which way to go, and then you had to do something. And those were the times. And when you had to give speeches.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:17  <br />After your tenure as mayor--what would you call it--your time as mayor was over? What did you do? You said you were mayor till '93?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  15:25  <br />Well, after I was mayor--I mean, just before my job ended--my first wife died. And then the young lady that was in a club that we belonged to, we kind of, after a couple years, we kind of go in together. And it was 23 years ago. And then I got remarried. At 98 I'm still here. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:05  <br />That's amazing.<br /><br />Mrs. Chulay  16:08  <br />Yeah, I'm happy to. And I'm not 98.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:13  <br />I won't ask you how to old you are. In the time that you've lived here in Lincolnwood--not just your time as mayor--since the late '60s, how has the village evolved in your opinion?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  16:28  <br />I think that the village got more modern here than it was here years ago.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:36  <br />In what kind of ways?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  16:37  <br />Well in people are more active. And there are more things going on. We started with a Lincolnwood Fest, and things like that make it so much nicer. Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  16:55  <br />So you're saying just more community involvement from the residents?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  17:00  <br />I think so, yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:02  <br />So what do you do now to keep yourself active? To entertain?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  17:11  <br />As we get older, we're very fortunate. My daughter-in-law makes a bunch of meals, different meals, and she freezes them. And then she sends them up here from North Carolina, and we put them in our freezer. And because of that, we're able to live in our apartment, and feed ourselves or get outside things once in a while. Fortunately, I can still drive a car. I flew an airplane. Right. And I just got my notice from Secretary of State that you have to renew your license every year.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:07  <br />What do you think has contributed to your just staying so active through the years?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  18:12  <br />Well, I don't know. I think it's that being active. For quite a while, I was going to the Skokie YMCA, but then they shut the pool down for a while. And I dropped out. And now I'm getting a little bit older. So I think that I have to be active in order to stay going. I get more tired now than I used to.<br /><br />Mrs. Chulay  18:55  <br />We go to Florida for four months. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:57  <br />Okay. Yeah, that certainly helps. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  18:59  <br />That's the other thing. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:00  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  19:01  <br />Going to Florida every year for during the winter. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:05  <br />Oh yeah. You don't want to be here during that time.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  19:06  <br />And another thing is that we have more friends and companions down there than we do here. So much of our friends are deceased.Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:25  <br />What would you say that you've been most proud of in your life?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  19:32  <br />The what?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:33  <br />The most proud of? <br /><br />Frank Chulay  19:34  <br />Proud of?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  19:35  <br />Proud of. Yeah.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  19:41  <br />Yeah, I guess flying was most because I don't believe it either that I was a pilot. Yeah, you know, it's been a long time. And I say, "Did I really fly that thing?" Especially when I get onto a plane. They had a show here with the B-24s. And we got into it, they had that you could go into it and walk around. And I got into it, and then I said, "This thing is so small. When I got into it, it was big." <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:27  <br />Was that the type of plane that you flew?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  20:29  <br />Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:29  <br />Do you have any regrets?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  20:30  <br />No, I have no regrets because I've been all over the world, either as by myself or during the war.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:48  <br />So you've traveled a lot. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  20:49  <br />I've traveled a lot. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  20:52  <br />What has been the most memorable place that you've traveled to?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  20:57  <br />Well, I think that my trip over to the South Pacific. I always remember that. The Philippines, we were there quite a bit.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:11  <br />How long were you there for?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  21:14  <br />How long in The Philippines? Or all together?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:18  <br />All together.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  21:19  <br />Well, I think I joined in about '43 to '46. Three years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:26  <br />Is there anything else that you would like to mention/talk about from your time living here in Lincolnwood or anything else at all?<br /><br />Frank Chulay  21:36  <br />Well, Lincolnwood has always been a pleasant place for us. And I was proud to be mayor. One thing I remember about the Army Air Corps is that when the war came along, and we had to sign up for the draft, I signed up for the draft. And then somewhere--I don't remember this, whether it was at school or what--they said, "If you sign up for the Army Air Corps, you can finish school." Now, that's wonderful. So I signed up for the Army Air Corps. And three weeks later, I was called out and I was sent to Miami Beach. And there, they decided what I would be. They had us come in to a place where there were three officers at the desk. And they called you up. And they said, "What do you want to be: a pilot, a navigator, or a bombadier?" And I said, "I think I'll be a pilot." "You think you'll be a pilot?! If you want to be a pilot, you'll..." "Sir. I want to be a pilot." "Get out of here." I went out. I was called back, and, "Now, what do you want to be: pilot, navigator, or bombadier?" "I think, what did I do the best in?" "Oh, you were good at all three." "Then I'll take pilot." "Then you'll take pilot?! Get out of here." Well, the third time, I learned. I walked up and said, "Sir, I want to be a pilot." And how it happened, I don't know. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:43  <br />So just like that, it was completely your choice. <br /><br />Frank Chulay  23:47  <br />Yeah. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:48  <br />Well, I want to thank you so much for coming down, for sharing your lincolnwood story with us.<br /><br />Frank Chulay  23:55  <br />You'll be able to get something out this. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:58  <br />It was a lovely conversation. 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Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Jerry Schenwar https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/d76007586591385f371cd0f6e68fc3a8.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=LU7E5odlrzq5J8wxAEKif0JpatpuI17Md%7E2WvRHhapVkJ7JEFH8N36XnaK-105pVWTfiTIJFKqkI9BEE9p7JCCIu6AcSVzwxLTD5fNZQBh0bDZIOh2yNBC9mTJBSe3kaqbINX732ELFaPGIKUkHzuoXCfPUL0pxcHQIisI7tIsxUkc9%7ELEoq3f5Sip6acIenkdvx9Td8Q5I0INqW7UXJ9P381IXT7TYv3YhRZ8Ad1Eo0Bj2cYdp5mq6xA2lNCd--gDTurDQqLgoO2QJ0mwVf4kZ1AhJXGEWSNg7zbF0Iwa42PjPEZ6kYee%7EyRtYz%7ED8LNgRKsAwmqLcf37smRAclIA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM a30a985c45ae51964dacde1a6981592e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Milk Pail (Courtesy of consumergrouch.com) https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/21996/archive/files/d9caf3aa4a1025ac59ed2f7270d403ea.jpg?Expires=1781740800&Signature=N5vtZ7259tsTkKgPkgcLhVWwn2E0Yi2tRgnFCwNsVJJN7pDlRhDyObCrbvwBRgwwjJppGeQxXfiWdFBG%7E4gymqoTS-m7RSbcYVm7Q19s0v4nmHqqKSP0TT7peo33d43Lv8Ld7ICDwuMzUn7uW4q4icHr-ZT%7EJwvXrdbG6uIWn0Ni7Y662Vs5ib1csrJXIfYWBbDYNrCtX3dAKchNshJiWm-3nuZR8fC03FmOylMqhcihl5lGw4LGUARQE5tgmLCqlX24FfxzIGqxh%7EuTTKTO7KP9a8RKv0O4g34RUrWirngHqY0Oqat3%7EhsNLIeoIVYJjaMJz5Gb5nDxC-WEaeUAWA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM aebdd43eca2d13b571dc70b9ed87bfdb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Milk Pail (Courtesy of craigslostchicago.com) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story Description An account of the resource My Lincolnwood Story was an oral history project which aimed to explore the past and present of Lincolnwood by documenting stories of its residents. The main goal of this project was to record, preserve, and share audio interviews with the Lincolnwood community in order to connect residents with the history of their neighbors. This project presented Lincolnwood residents with an opportunity to share their story, and for all patrons – a chance to learn about the diverse community of Lincolnwood. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Lincolnwood Story- Jerry Schenwar Subject The topic of the resource <strong>“Compared to the sixties, Lincolnwood is a whole lot more diverse, and more interesting.”</strong> <br /><br />Jerry Schenwar has lived in Lincolnwood since 1989. Originally from Chicago, his first job was at the Milk Pail in Lincolnwood. Jerry remembers jobs from his teenage years, talks about his career as a high school teacher, and why he enjoys living in Lincolnwood today.<br /><br /><em>The views and opinions expressed in interviews do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Lincolnwood Public Library, including its Board of Trustees and staff.<br /><br /><br /><br /></em>TRANSCRIPT:<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  0:00  <br />My name is Lev Kalmens. Today is May 6th 2019, and I am interviewing Jerry Schenwar for My Lincolnwood Story. Jerry, thank you for being here. What is your Lincolnwood story?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  0:15  <br />Well, I'm 74 years old, and I only moved to Lincolnwood in 1989. But my Lincolnwood story takes place 1962-63 when I was in high school. I lived by Devon and Kedzie, in Chicago. But Lincolnwood was a couple blocks away. I got a job in high school, working after school and on weekends, at the Milk Pail, which was about a block west of McCormick on Devon. It was a small supermarket, very popular, small supermarket that was there for many years. It was one of my first jobs, it was a big experience, for me. It was a great experience in high school. Just to describe the Milk Pail a little bit. It was a small supermarket, you'd say now, and at the back of the store there was a counter where the dairy products were and we, the clerks, would -- people would come up to the counter and ask for milk, or butter, or eggs, or sour cream, or half and half. And we would get it from the cooler for them right in back of us. Then we would ring up their order, it was all one counter and just had registers and [the register didn't specify] nothing about how much change we owe them, we would just take their bills -- no charge cards then, just money -- you take their money and count back from the price to what they gave us. And here's your change. We would put it in a bag for them, no plastic bags, just paper bags. The funny thing is, I still remember the prices. Even at the time the groceries were average prices. Oh -- also there was a produce counter at the front end of the store; by the street, by Devon. There was a produce guy who worked there, Byron, very funny guy. He would weigh the produce for the people, put in a bag, mark the price, and then they bring it back to us. The prices were very reasonable. It was a very popular store. A gallon of milk cost 79 cents. If you bought a gallon of milk, you'd get a pint of half and half for 23 cents. Only with a gallon of milk. Half a gallon was 42 cents a quart was 24 cents. Cigarettes, we sold them cigarettes, 25 cents a package for the regular -- you know, the non-filter, 28 cents for Marlboros and the filter cigarettes a carton was $2.41. I don't know, I just happen to remember these prices from way back and it sounds funny nowadays.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  3:59  <br />So customers didn't walk around picking up their own --<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  4:01  <br />They did. They would pick up the produce, the fruit and vegetables. He [Byron] would weigh them and put them in a bag for them mark the price. But otherwise they would walk up and down the aisles with their shopping carts and it was self service. Then they would bring it to us in the back. Mostly guys, for some reason, worked there. There were a couple of women, older women.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  4:34  <br />How did you start working there? How did you find out that there was a job opening at the Milk Pail?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  4:40  <br />That I don't remember. I was a junior in high school. In those days you just went around to stores in the neighborhood and asked them if they needed help. I worked at the Red Hot Ranch on Devon before that, that was slave labor. That was 60 cents an hour. Even then it was a terrible wage. Milk Pail was much better, it was a $1.50, or something. I worked at Thillens ballpark a little bit, but the Milk Pail was my best experience. When I started there I was as a kid, I was very nervous. It was new, it was hard for me at first. The manager who worked during the day -- I worked on the days and Saturday and Sunday -- was Louis Guskey. He was just a great guy, he took me under his wing and was like, "it's okay, kid I'll teach ya." I was kind of this, you know, sheltered, middle class Jewish guy. And the place was not a Jewish business. It was Art Blanch, by the time I knew him, he was a really old guy and he'd sit up in the office. It was just a very broadening experience for me just to learn about the world. I remember Art Blanch, the owner, said to me, "Kid, this is a penny business." In other words, you know, every penny was important. [The manager] Louis was a great guy. Saturday we would work three to twelve. Afterwards we would go out bowling sometimes. For a 16 year old kid that was big experience, you know, go out late at night, and it was okay. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:06  <br />What about it was mind opening for you?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  7:14  <br />The guys I met there, the workers, were different. Kind of a different milieu that I was used to. They weren't Jewish, they were working class guys. It was very interesting for me, it was very broadening in that sense to get to see the greater world outside. It was it was very educational, I would say.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:46  <br />You said you grew up in West Rogers Park at Devon and Kenzie, right?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  7:49  <br />Yeah. Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:51  <br />Where did you go to school?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  7:53  <br />Mather.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  7:54  <br />Mather High School.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  7:57  <br />I don't know if that's allowed because this is Lincolnwood. Can I talk about -- [laughs)<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:02  <br />[overlapping] Of course. You live in Lincolnwood now, everything is fair game.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  8:09  <br />Okay. The working in high school was a great experience for me because teenage years can be kind of hard and socially I wasn't too adapt. The jobs were great. It was fun working at the hotdog place at Thillens. There was a bigger supermarket called Hillmans in those days, by Devon and Western, I worked there one summer.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  8:47  <br />Tell me about what it was like on Devon Avenue back when you're growing up. I'm familiar with the area now but I'm curious to know what the neighborhood was like back in the 50s and 60s.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  9:03  <br />Very quiet, middle class. Mostly Jewish, but not orthodox at all. Not orthodox, like it is now. Let's see. There was a Robert Hall, that was kind of a cheap clothing department store. Rosen's Drugs on Devon in Sacramento. Randal's Restaurant on Devon and California. Very thriving. Very thriving, lively place.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  9:53  <br />What was your experience like in Mather High School?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  9:58  <br />Well Mather was a brand new school when I went there. It had just opened up in 1959, that's when I started high school. I was sort of new in the neighborhood. My family had moved from Albany Park. Like a lot of other kids at that time, I had moved from Albany Park up to Rogers Park<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  10:24  <br />Why did they decide to move?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  10:32  <br />I guess it was a nicer neighborhood, you'd say. So I moved out to Rogers Park when I was about 14. It was a different world, I was [really] into cars and in those days cars were -- it was just interesting because every year the new styles would come out, and there wew big changes. Now cars kind of look like each other more.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:25  <br />Right.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  11:26  <br />They were very -- they had their own personalities.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:29  <br />Did you have a favorite? Favorites?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  11:32  <br />Oh, yeah. Corvettes. [laughs] But we had a Studebaker Lark, which was a compact car. From the Studebaker Company.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:43  <br />What was your first car?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  11:45  <br />That I owned myself?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:47  <br />Right. Yeah.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  11:47  <br />1965 Ford Galaxy. So it's like a two door Ford. It's okay.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  11:58  <br />Was there a specific dream car that you wanted? Because in 1965 you were just out of high school, right?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  12:09  <br />Well, like I say, you know, the Corvette, you know, there was the Thunderbird. Those were beautiful sports cars.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:18  <br />What did you do after graduating from high school?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  12:20  <br />I went to college at the University of Illinois, Champaign.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:26  <br />What did you study there?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  12:29  <br />I ended up majoring in history.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:31  <br />Okay.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  12:32  <br />But later, I picked up education classes and I became a high school teacher in Chicago. High school Spanish then English teacher.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  12:42  <br />Where did you teach?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  12:43  <br />I started on the south side; Tilden High School, Philip's High School for some years. In those days, you would get transferred, suddenly, for some reason, and I get transferred to Kelvyn Park High School, which is on the northwest side by Fullerton and Cicero. And I was there for 25 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:07  <br />So is that where you retired from?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  13:09  <br />Yeah, I taught for 34 years.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:17  <br />Was that something you wanted to do growing up, was to go into education?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  13:21  <br />No.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  13:21  <br />What was your dream job?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  13:24  <br />For a long time, I wanted to be a lawyer. And then I thought I would be a judge. But also, when I was very young, they wanted me to umpire a baseball game. It was very unpleasant for me, my friend was tagged out at second base, and I called them safe. The other guy threatened to beat me up after the game. So I said, you know, I don't think I want to be a judge. Because my experience as an umpire wasn't good. For a long time I wanted to be a lawyer, and then that kind of faded away. I really didn't know what I wanted to do in my early 20s. Then I just sort of fell into teaching but ended up really loving the job, being a high school teacher, I tried to teach at grammar school, and that didn't work at all. So the older kids were better for me.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  14:30  <br />What's been the highlight of your career as a high school teacher? What made it worth it?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  14:41  <br />The day to day. If I could connect with the students in a way; if I felt they were learning something and excited about learning. That was very satisfying to me. When you're standing up in front of a group of teenagers you can't really go to sleep; you got to be alert and time went fast. There were a lot of difficulties too. I was in an inner city school. So there were a lot of problems. But it gave me a direction in life because I grew up in the 60s, and there was a lot of uncertainty about things. So that was great.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:38  <br />So you said you moved to Lincolnwood in 1989?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  15:42  <br />Yeah.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  15:44  <br />Tell me about that.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  15:55  <br />We were living in Rogers Park, my wife, Clara, she had been a teacher, but at the time, she owned a bookstore, a children's bookstore on Touhy near California. So we were living in Rogers Park and [my daughter] was at Rogers School. The kindergarten class was very big and we weren't excited about the teacher at all. And Clara had this bookstore and this woman came in, Mrs. Naka, she and her husband lived in Lincolnwood for a long time, and still do. And Mrs. Naka, she was an aide, then she became a teacher in the Lincolnwood Schools. She came into the store a lot, bought a lot of books. She and Clara would talk and Clara was talking about the school Maya was going to and Linda said, "you know, the schools and Lincolnwood are good." So that's really why we moved to Lincolnwood. But the funny thing there, another Lincolnwood connection, her husband, Denny, and I went to grammar school together. And we knew each other. Just more recently, we become good friends.We go to Starbucks together up on Touhy. So it's kind of funny how things are -- what it was, six degrees of separation.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  17:49  <br />Right.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  17:50  <br />But anyways, we moved to Lincolnwood for the schools. And it worked out. It was good for Maya. Our daughter Maya.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:02  <br />How old was she when you guys moved? Because she started in Chicago schools and then you immediately brought her here?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  18:10  <br />Yeah, first grade, she went to first grade in Lincolnwood. Yeah. The first teacher wasn't great, but most of the teachers are very good. She got a good education.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:23  <br />So it sounds like Lincolnwood was your first experience living in the suburbs, having grown up in Chicago.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  18:36  <br />Oh, yeah, yeah. I wasn't dying to living rooms but you know, Lincolnwood, it's great. Just because the location you know, you're so close to things.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  18:49  <br />Was there was there some was there a difficulty adjusting? And I know, like you said, we are very close to Chicago. Was there a difficulty adjusting to the suburban life versus the city life?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  19:01  <br />Not really. Yeah, that that wasn't it. There are plenty other problems. But no, the neighbors were friendly. We felt welcome. Infact, back in the 90s, we had block parties every summer for a while. The selling point -- I didn't mention this -- the selling point is we live right next to O'Brien Park by Chase and East Prairie. So that was definitely a selling point. At that time we just had Maya. Later Keeley came along, our other daughter. The people that lived around O'Brien Park would come to this block party every summer. We had maybe five, six years. It was very nice. I've always liked it. I love, well I like the location because we're a block from the Touhy with Dunkin Donuts. Wholly Frijoles. Now Wholly Frijoles -- we went in there when they first opened, and it was very much smaller than it is now, it was just a little place. And we ate there and it was really good. And we were the only ones there. So we say jeez we hope this place survives! Because this is really good. We got to tell people about it. Then something happened that I think it got reviewed in the [Chicago Tribune] or something. And it just changed real fast. It caught on in a big way. And then you couldn't get a seat. Renga Tai is on the corner, the Japanese restaurant. So I like having that stuff close by. Especially Dunkin Donuts [laughter].<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  21:18  <br />It's a good place to have nearby.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  21:20  <br />Oh, yeah. I mean now that I'm retired -- I've been retired for 12 years now -- just to go there in the morning, have my coffee, sit down, read or do a crossword puzzle. I like being in public spaces like that. So that's nice. I like that. Because the the other thing is, I like living next to the park because what I don't like about suburban living is the empty streets without any [unintelligible]. So when you got the park there, whenever the weather is nice there are people there, a lot of people. And the park is just nice. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:05  <br />So you said you've been retired for 12 years, what have you been doing with your time since then?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  22:10  <br />Well, I had a couple of part time jobs. I was what they call teacher in the library in Chicago Libraries, where you come in like 3 to 6 and help kids with their homework. So I did that for several years. And I do some volunteer things for quite a few years at Gail's School, which is an East Rogers Park program where you help kids with their reading. You sit down and read with them. As I said Dunkin Donuts, and I like to explore the city, and just kind of have fun like that. <br /><br />Lev Kalmens  22:57  <br />What are some life lessons you've learned over the years?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  23:01  <br />Keep trying. Keep moving. Be kind. I like what the Dalai Lama said, "kindness is my religion". [laughs]<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:11  <br />So you've lived in Lincolnwood for 30 years now what? What's different? What has changed?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  23:16  <br />I don't notice. I could compare Lincolnwood in the 60s, the Lincolnwood that I knew just --<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  23:25  <br />From living down the street?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  23:26  <br />Yeah. Oh, the other thing, just a couple of things about Lincolnwood. A colleague of mine at Kelvyn Park, Harold; he was older. He's about 10 years old than me, older Jewish guy who had grown up in Chicago. And he said he would come here in the 30s, -- it must have been in the 30s or 40s. And Lincolnwood was a network of sidewalks without any houses because I guess what happened is they laid out the village in the 20s then the depression hit and they weren't doing any construction. So yeah, he told me he would come out with his family for picnics and Lincolnwood was just this open place with all these sidewalks. If you look at the inscription on some of the sidewalks, it says Peter Lutch 2905 Farragut 1928. But the houses are not from 1928 they're, you know, from the 40s, 50s --<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:58  <br />Right.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  24:58  <br />Right?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  24:58  <br />Yeah.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  24:59  <br />So it was really interesting. I actually went to check out the 2905 Farragut in the city and [it's a] big, old house. Really nice. I think now as compared with the 60s Lincolnwood is whole lot more diverse and more interesting. You know? We've got very international, which is nice.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:27  <br />Is there anything about Lincolnwood that made you feel like you really belong here? Anything that comes to mind?<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  25:33  <br />I really enjoyed watching the eclipse from the school. They had like a little event for the eclipse.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:44  <br />Right. Two summers ago now.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  25:48  <br />Was it that long ago?<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:49  <br />I think so, I think it was 2017.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  25:51  <br />You know, the big, where the the glasses --<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  25:53  <br />Yeah it was the whole thing.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  25:54  <br />Yeah, that was that felt like a nice community event. I liked that.<br /><br />Lev Kalmens  26:01  <br />Well, Jerry, I want to thank you for coming down and sharing your Lincolnwood story with us.<br /><br />Jerry Schenwar  26:05  <br />Very happy to. Thank you.