My Lincolnwood Story - Frances Salvi

“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.”

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.

This interview was recording using Zoom.

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.



TRANSCRIPT:

Lev Kalmens  0:00  
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?

Frances Salvi  0:17  
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.

Lev Kalmens  2:21  
Just to clear up: how exactly did you end up living in Lincolnwood?

Frances Salvi  2:27  
Alright. My mother's neighbor, who lived down Karlov and Devon in that area, Sauganash Park...

Lev Kalmens  2:32  
Right. 

Frances Salvi  2:33  
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.

Lev Kalmens  3:50  
What are your memories of Lincolnwood back in the mid to late 60s?

Frances Salvi  3:57  
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?

Lev Kalmens  4:10  
I've heard it from from a few people. So, yes.

Frances Salvi  4:13  
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.

Lev Kalmens  5:37  
Let's talk a bit about your family. Tell me a little bit about your parents and where they were from.

Frances Salvi  5:48  
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.

Lev Kalmens  8:13  
Talk to me a little bit about your childhood, even before Lincolnwood, just growing up in Chinatown.

Frances Salvi  8:21  
Oh, that was fun. 

Lev Kalmens  8:23  
What your life was like? 

Frances Salvi  8:25  
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.

Lev Kalmens  9:27  
Do you remember who your friends were at that point?

Frances Salvi  9:29  
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.

Lev Kalmens  10:28  
Now, so you mentioned that you met your husband when you were going to Italy...

Frances Salvi  10:35  
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.

Lev Kalmens  12:50  
Why did you decide for the trip to go by ship versus by airplane?

Frances Salvi  12:57  
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.

Lev Kalmens  15:00  
While you were in Italy - you said you went there to study?

Frances Salvi  15:04  
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.

Lev Kalmens  16:43  
What pushed you to, or inspired you to, study voice at that time?

Frances Salvi  16:49  
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.

Lev Kalmens  17:53  
It is; yeah, I can imagine.

Frances Salvi  17:55  
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.

Lev Kalmens  18:34  
Speaking of family, when you did move to Lincolnwood, you said you had or you have rather, you said two children, correct?

Frances Salvi  18:44  
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. 

Lev Kalmens  19:36  
Well...

Frances Salvi  19:37  
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...

Lev Kalmens  20:05  
I was gonna ask a bit more about their childhood, growing up in Lincolnwood.

Frances Salvi  20:12  
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. 

Lev Kalmens  21:49  
Sure. 

Frances Salvi  21:50  
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.

Lev Kalmens  22:46  
You mentioned you also ended up in real estate; how did that transition happen for you?

Frances Salvi  22:51  
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.

Lev Kalmens  24:53  
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?

Frances Salvi  25:11  
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.

Lev Kalmens  27:36  
The area that you that you described where you live in Lincolnwood that's pretty close to the library, correct?

Frances Salvi  28:21  
Yes, the library used to be the Jewel food store.

Lev Kalmens  28:25  
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...? 

Frances Salvi  28:35  
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? 

Lev Kalmens  29:11  
Right.

Frances Salvi  29:12  
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.

Lev Kalmens  29:42  
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...

Frances Salvi  30:18  
Okay. 

Lev Kalmens  30:19  
...that you remember?

Frances Salvi  30:20  
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. 

Lev Kalmens  31:34  
Right, right. The Starbucks was in that same space, right? 

Frances Salvi  31:39  
Yes. 

Lev Kalmens  31:40  
Like a print shop?

Frances Salvi  31:42  
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.

Lev Kalmens  32:16  
In your 55 years in Lincolnwood, how has, in your opinion, how has the village...what changes have you seen? 

Frances Salvi  32:26  
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.

Lev Kalmens  34:22  
Any other final thoughts, memories, that you'd like to share?

Frances Salvi  34:27  
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.

Lev Kalmens  35:03  
Well, you stayed for such a long time.

Frances Salvi  35:06  
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.

Lev Kalmens  36:40  
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.

Frances Salvi  36:53  
Oh, you're welcome. It was my pleasure.