My Lincolnwood Story- Rich Hedquist
Item
Title
My Lincolnwood Story- Rich Hedquist
Subject
“What happens - happens. And you gotta make the best of what life is.“
Rich Hedquist lived in Lincolnwood until the early 2000s. He took over his father’s business in 1960 and ran it until 1999. Listen to his story as he talks about his childhood in Lincolnwood, his professional life, and raising 5 kids.
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 here with Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is April 9, 2019, and I am interviewing Rich Hedquist. Rich, welcome, and what is your Lincolnwood Story?
Rich Hedquist 0:15
Ok, I lived in Lincolnwood from 1942 to 2002. Then we moved up to Wisconsin. My father owned a business in Lincolnwood from that time, and I took it over in 1960. So, like I said, really, truthfully, I went to school with my friends, which is Barbara Smith [inaudble], and also with Marty [unaudible]. I more or less remember the school going there, and I went up to third grade. Then in third grade, I went to Sweden for a year. And then I came back and then I went to a school up in Morton Grove. I was a resident of Lincolnwood all that time. My father owned a business, Lincolnwood Sheetmetal & Roofing, and I had a good time, meaning, as far as going to school there, and also into high school, which is Niles Township High School in those days. I'm, more or less, how can you say, enjoyed myself. Time went so fast, I can't believe it. But I tried my best to remember a lot of things now that I go back on. I'm hoping that I can do this interview, and do it right.
Lev Kalmens 1:43
Do you know how your parents ended up in Lincolnwood?
Rich Hedquist 1:46
My parents, of course, lived on Clark Street in Chicago, and my dad had the business there. Just before I was born, less than a year before, a young man got hit on the road outside their shop. My mother told my father, we're moving out into the country. Of course, Lincolnwood was the country in those days. It was a nice place. I enjoyed it. It was open. There was a lot of open fields and stuff, and we would fly our kites and build forts and everything. I had a good childhood in Lincolnwood doing things that was enjoyable. Another thing we did is we also would go into the gardens that the farmers around here would plow, and grow different products. We would get carrots. We would get potatoes and everything and cook them on a fire outside, and enjoy yourself and have that as our goodies. In those days, the only place that sold any candy that is I can recall was at McCormick and Touhy, which was a little gas station by Bell & Howell. But that was too far as for us to go. We had to enjoy whatever we could get from the fields as our candy, or whatever you would like to call it.
Lev Kalmens 3:07
What is your family's history? I know you mentioned that you went to Sweden; is there a Swedish background?
Rich Hedquist 3:13
Great. Both my parents were born in Sweden. My father was a coppersmith there. He came over in the 20s, and my mother, also in the 20s, and lived in Chicago. And of course as I mentioned, moved out to Lincolnwood in 1942.
Lev Kalmens 3:32
How did your father get started in his business?
Rich Hedquist 3:34
His father owned a big coppersmith company in Sweden. He was supposed to inherit the business, but he went over with a bunch of Swedish boys to America here. He started his own business in, roughly I would say 1930, 32, or something like that. From that point, he kept it going until '60, which he had to retire because of a heart problem. I took over the business and ran it from then to 1999.
Lev Kalmens 4:14
What were your -- going kind of back -- what are some of your best memories of growing up in Lincolnwood?
Rich Hedquist 4:20
The best memories was with all of us. It was Barbara, Marty and I, and Freddy [inaudible] also, and Carrol Sue. There was a lot of us that knew each other. In those days, you would do things together. You would play in sandboxes. If we had sandbox [inaudible]. We would make forts. There were so many things that we did outside. We didn't have all the modern conveniences they have today. We have to make our own fun, even climbing trees and that. And sometimes I could not believe that we didn't kill ourselves in some of these things that we did. But the good Lord was with us and we're here today.
Lev Kalmens 5:02
Did you guys get into trouble?
Rich Hedquist 5:03
Oh, never. We were good kids. [laughs] There's a couple times we were up on the roof. Next to our home, which was 7163 East Prairie Road next to Touhy, there was a gas station on Touhy there. I remember the one time we got up on the roof, Marty next door to us, we got up on the roof. We were taking spitballs, and throwing them at the cars. Spitballs were nothing. But the officer, Bill was his name, he stopped by and saw us one day. He came up the back ladder, which we had climbed, and was standing there. I swear he was about 40 feet tall. He said, "What are you boys doing?" We almost died. I was afraid that we would get in trouble with our parents. But in those days, he said stop it. We went down a ladder. He said, "I don't want to see you up there again." And again, we would climb ladders. The one thing I remember, there's a train that used to go just east of Hamlin and Morris, and there was an old weigh-in station. I remember going under there with Barbara and Marty. Somehow, something broke, and we get trapped in there for a little bit. But, we were able to get out. That was scary at the time because we thought "Oh, now we're here forever." But, other than that, we had a good time. You were very respectful of your parents so you didn't want to do anything that would make them come after you. That was the rule of thumb. You could do it a little bit, but you had to watch what you did.
Lev Kalmens 6:44
What did you want to be when you were little?
Rich Hedquist 6:46
An architectural engineer, a structural engineer, that was my love. I love to draw homes and stuff. That was something that I always wanted to do. Because of my father's heart attack in 1960, no '59; he had his third heart attack. The doctor told him to give up. So, I either took over the business or my dad had to sell it. And, of course, I took it over and ran it.
Lev Kalmens 7:18
Tell me about the business. What was it? What were your duties?
Rich Hedquist 7:20
My duties when I was young kid growing up in it, I did many things. But the one thing with my father was when we go out on a job we would- what do you call it? How can you say... do things with the men, I was a go-getter when I was a young kid, let's say in my 13, 14, 15s- go get things in the truck for them and bring it to them. They were very wonderful in trying to teach me how to do the trade as well as my father. I learned that and, as a younger boy, I worked in Urhausen' s greenhouse with Marty [inaudible] making tomato boxes. We'd make about 50, and then we'd eat tomato. Then, we'd make another 50, eat a tomato. I recall at the time, Johnny and Nick was staying there with their, I think it was their uncle. And what happened was, I remember I knew German at the time, some German, and I remember him saying, "How can those boys eat so many tomatoes?" He didn't mind us eating the tomatoes, but he couldn't figure out how we could eat them. It was joyful. We made a penny a box. Then the other thing we did in the greenhouse is to tie up chrysanthemums. I remember there was 3,500 something like that, and it was about two blocks long and about five feet across. We would sit there and we'd make something like a bench. We would make like $30 or something, 30 or $32 a bench, and we'd split it. We made a lot of money for two weeks. That was $16. How many candy bars and coke you could buy in those days! It was enjoyable.
Lev Kalmens 9:07
How did you learn German?
Rich Hedquist 9:10
Well, I grew up, as I mentioned- my father spoke five dialects of German, and my mother spoke Swedish. She knew some French, too, on her side because she was French and Swedish. But really, the German was what they spoke, German and Swedish. I picked it up then; you know when you're a young kid, you hear it and then right away you pick it up automatically.
Lev Kalmens 9:40
Did your mom work?
Rich Hedquist 9:42
No, my mother was always a housewife. She always stayed home and took care of the house. Plus, she loved to work in the garden, and she used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers and everything like that. That was her thing. The days when she didn't go to store to buy cucumbers or tomatoes when they were grown because she had fresh ones all the time. We had two cherry trees, and an apple tree, and a peach tree. I remember Barbara Smith's brother got up in the cherry tree. He was a little older than us. He was like five or six years older. He got up in a tree and he went for some cherries and the branch broke. He came down, but luckily, he didn't hurt himself. He ran home. My mother was so worried that he had hurt himself bad.
Lev Kalmens 10:35
Did you have siblings?
Rich Hedquist 10:36
No, I was the only one; my father and mother had me and in those days, one kid was enough.
Lev Kalmens 10:46
What are some of your best memories of your parents?
Rich Hedquist 10:50
Best memories was... my mother and father, we would take trips in the old 1937 truck out in the country. I used to, in the summer, just sit in the back with my dog Tommy. Tommy was a black, not Labrador, but similar to it. But he had really black curly hair. He had his short snout, and, believe it or not, on his rear feet, he would put his front paws on my father's shoulders. My father was about six foot, and he put them on his shoulders and look right at my dad right in the face. He was a very protective dog because he got to know Marty and Barbara and I, and the rest of kids. But if anybody else come around, he would growl. Because he didn't want nobody come close to me.
Lev Kalmens 11:43
What do you do for a living right now?
Rich Hedquist 11:45
Right now, I'm retired. I work for the Aurora Hospital in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I'm 50. I do the grounds work there. And also sometimes they bring me in the operation roof where they fix things and stuff like that because of my background. I do both of them for them.
Rich Hedquist 11:46
Do you enjoy what you do now?
Rich Hedquist 12:02
I really enjoy it. You got to realize when I took over the business, I went from one business to four businesses. One was, my father was in the heating business. I got into the air conditioning right after that because it was starting to get very popular. I took on a partner from '66 to '69, and I got into the hot roofing part. Then then also I did some siding. And of course my favorite was doing the copper work. I did a base and everything with copper, and I was known as a coppersmith to these contractors.
Lev Kalmens 12:47
What about that work is enjoyable for you?
Rich Hedquist 12:49
Oh, copper work was enjoyable because, number one, you had to be very careful what you did. First of all, the price of the copper was very expensive, even today. You had to know what you were doing, and you had to double check and triple check. Every bend you made or every thing you did was right on the money. Enjoyable. My father used to do very ornamental work. When I took it over the ornamental work was going out very much. What I did was, I did bay roofs in copper, I did regular roofs in copper, and some art- how can you say- something that was out of the normal I would do in copper. Copper was really my joy because it took my mind off of. Where the other stuff was the same thing every day where this, you really had to get used to it to know what you're doing.
Lev Kalmens 13:50
Were there any specific life lessons that you learned from the work that you did in life?
Rich Hedquist 13:56
Well, yes, there was. For instance, when I made a mistake, I had to live with it. The biggest mistake was- and I was just young guy, I was only about probably 23- I estimated a job for the United States Post Office. They have one on the South Side. I read the complete chapter on it. That was late at night, and I decided to write the contract rather than wait in the morning. I wrote the contract and I used one word that was very dangerous. It was "all," and when they went to do it, I got the contract and everything. I was so happy. When they came down to it, "all" meant anything that belonged to copper, I was responsible for. In the bottom where the foundation and the brickwork started, that was called a vapor barrier copper. I didn't figure that in and that was about $8,000.
Lev Kalmens 14:58
Oh, wow.
Rich Hedquist 14:58
I got found out, and that was really a problem. I was doing a complete job all the way up, and it came time for me to do the job with the roofers. That day, I didn't do the roofing, somebody else did. I did the copper work, and then they did the work. Then when I was through with the job, I was really not happy. But I learned a lesson: when you make out a contract, always remember, the smallest word can bite you real bad.
Lev Kalmens 15:29
Have there been, either when you were younger and working or now, certain hobbies that you've enjoyed or you currently enjoy?
Rich Hedquist 15:38
My love for motorcycles and antique cars. I had an number of antique cars; so did my wife. I still, to this day, have an 1937 stake bed truck. Original. That is my love. I'm in the process of selling it because- many of my friends that I grew up with, friends back in the 60s, we went touring with the old cars. But now that many of my friends are gone, more or less, the truck sits in a garage, so it's time for it go on to somebody that can enjoy it.
Lev Kalmens 16:14
You mentioned, so you were married?
Rich Hedquist 16:19
Yes, I was married. My girlfriend, which was Barbara Harrison at the time. She lived in Morton Grove. I met her, believe it or not, I met her junior year at Niles Township High School in the study period. We dated in, if I'm not mistaken, in '58 or '59. We got married in 1962. April 7 of 1962.
Lev Kalmens 16:49
Did you have any children?
Rich Hedquist 16:51
I have five.
Lev Kalmens 16:51
Oh, wow.
Rich Hedquist 16:52
I have two daughters and three sons. My oldest daughter is Barbara Jean Hedquist, same as my wife. My second one is Karen Sue Hedquist. My oldest son is Clifford Hedquist. Then comes Christopher Hedquist. The youngest is Steven Hedquist. They all went to Lincolnwood school. They also went to Niles West.
Lev Kalmens 17:18
What was for you, raising them or watching them, grow up in Lincolnwood, how was that different from your own childhood here?
Rich Hedquist 17:27
To be very honest, I was working so much that I didn't have much time. Matter of fact, sad to say, I missed my oldest daughter's graduation from grade school to high school. The reason for that was - when they own a business, one night, or it was probably about six in the evening when we were supposed to be there at 7:30 - I got a call from a contractor in Skokie asking if I could come over and talk to him about a contract. I told him no, I got to go to a graduation. He said, "It'll only take a minute. Can you come?" I said, "Yes I can." So, I asked my wife to take the car, and my daughters, and my kids, and then I would meet them at the graduation thing. And when I got over to the house and walked into the house, he took out the blueprints and we were talking about it. All of a sudden, I said. "Well, I got to get to the graduation." He says, "It's 10 o'clock." I never seen three hours go so fast in my whole life. I swear, I walked in and just talked to him for 5, 10 minutes. With my yap [laughs], I found myself three hours and I didn't even want to go home that late. Of course, they didn't speak to me for about three months after that. But I didn't make the same mistake with the rest of them, you know.
Lev Kalmens 18:46
And they, all your kids, went to Lincolnwood School and-
Rich Hedquist 18:50
That is correct.
Lev Kalmens 18:51
-Niles Township Schools?
Rich Hedquist 18:51
That is also correct.
Lev Kalmens 18:53
And what do your kids do now?
Rich Hedquist 18:55
My oldest daughter, she works for ProHealth in Wisconsin. She takes care of all the billing and everything there. She's well known there. She's been doing that for 30 some years, if I'm not mistaken. My youngest daughter- her name is Karen Sue- she works for Sigler's Automotive on Lincoln Avenue. And she's been with Avi Sigler now for I would say 30 years, something like that, 30 years. And then my oldest son, he owns a heating and air conditioning company in Naperville. And then my middle son, he's a fireman-paramedic. Now, he started his fireman-paramedic here in Lincolnwood. He was on Lincolnwood when they first started the fire department here. I'm very proud of him on that. And what happened was his first case when he was on the fire department was that they got a call on Eden's Highway by Devon. A motorcyclist had lost his bike doing- they figure- about 100 miles an hour going northbound. He got there, and he was able to get this young man on a stretcher- it was not a nice sight, you see- and to the hospital and his parents donated his organs, which, to me was nice. And then my youngest son, he- what do you call it- he was diabetic since he was a baby. And I've almost lost him now five times through comas. But, gratefully, the Good Lord was with. And then last year in April, just about now 15th, he had a transplant, a pancreas transplant, and now he's doing real good, and he lives in Woodstock. He got married last year.
Lev Kalmens 20:39
Wow.
Rich Hedquist 20:40
So I'm very proud of him.
Lev Kalmens 20:43
Speaking of pride, what has been the proudest moment in your life?
Rich Hedquist 20:49
Well, there have been a lot of moments that I'm proud [of]. I'm proud of my children; the way they they've done their life and stuff. Really, with Barbara Smith and Marty [inaudible], we're friends to this day. And I think, really truthfully, really through the years, a lot of things made me proud. It's not one overshadowed the other one, because we all live our lives, we go different ways, and now that we've gotten this over, we're starting to all come back together again. But like I said, I just feel that life has been good to me. It's up and down, like we all have, but you got to take the good with the bad.
Lev Kalmens 21:57
You mentioned that you've been friends with Barbara and with Marty for your entire life. What is the secret to maintaining a lifelong close friendship?
Rich Hedquist 21:43
Well what that is, we're lucky. We grew up in a day that you got to know each other, and it wasn't as hectic as it is today. I hate to say it. Many of the kids today, there's just too much out there that take away their thing. When we grew up, you learn to enjoy each other. You did things. We played in the sand. We had a good time in the sand and in the trees. We did things, like I said, in the fields, and we would eat fruit. It was just a real close friendship. And, of course, as time went on, we also turned around where, you know, you sort of part away because now you have your families. You're not together all the time, you know, so we sort of went apart. Marty lived in Florida. Barbara lived in Lincolnwood. Of course, I lived in Lincolnwood, too, but, even though it was only about four or five blocks away, I had my life to live, and they had their life to live, our families. But we still met because Barbara would take walks and stop by our house. Sad to say, I didn't walk over to her house. But that was part of the life. We enjoyed ourselves. I think what made it so nice is, in those days, you just enjoyed. You didn't hear all the stuff that's going on in this world. I hate to say it, and in my true feeling, that this hurts kids very much. Because there's just too much knowledge out there that I think should be sort of put to rest, you know. This is my feeling about growing up in an environment. I think we grew up in one of the best years of this century because we got to know each other, as far as that goes.
Lev Kalmens 23:33
What were some of the places that you guys, besides playing in the sandbox or climbing trees... what were some of your favorite businesses? Maybe restaurants or places you used to go like that?
Rich Hedquist 23:47
Restaurants. I'll be very honest. As we grew up, the restaurants were not that much around us. But as we got older and we got into it, it was Jack's restaurant on Touhy Avenue. There was the Desiree in Skokie. I love matzah ball soup. I was a good fan of matzah ball soup. Any delicatessen like Normie's or anything that had that, I enjoyed it. And Ruben's. We had Ruben's.
Adult Services 24:18
I know that Jack's is in Skokie. Any Lincolnwood specific businesses?
Rich Hedquist 24:24
Oh, Lincolnwood? I'll tell you where we used to eat. My wife and I used to like it. It's gone now. It was a restaurant on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Crawford Avenue on the southwest corner. And I forget the name of it now, but- [voice in the background]. No, it wasn't [inaudible]. I'm trying to think of the name of it. There was also, right across the street, there was Jaylin's, if I'm not mistaken. They had delicious food. Then they closed up and remodeled it and got fancier and the prices went skyrocketing. We lost it there. But that's it, you know.
Lev Kalmens 25:10
Tell me about a historical event in your lifetime that really stuck with you, or is really something you think about, or something that was really memorable for you.
Rich Hedquist 25:18
Okay. Well, one of the things that I remember- on the corner of East Prairie and Touhy, on the southwest corner, there was a... not a farm, but it was like a farm. It was a barn area, which my father used as a shop in the 40s. That was torn down. When it got torn down, other things started to go. For instance, there was a greenhouse where Barbara was living growing up. Behind it was a greenhouse. And that greenhouse, more or less was - I remember going there. We used to play back in there and have a good time. But what happened was that different things started to change. I didn't really notice 100% because you're busy, you're growing, you have family. But as time went on, today, I really notice it tremendously. Touhy Avenue was the best. As I remember now, Marty's father used to grow vegetables from their house to Hamlin along Touhy Avenue, and he used to sell them. Marty and, I used to be out there on Touhy Avenue selling them. Of course, in those days, if you saw a car, probably two or three cars, let's say in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that was a lot. You didn't have to worry about getting run over. You could almost stand in the middle of the street and sell stuff. Today, in the middle of street, you'd have to be doing some running. But, like I said, what really started hurting is when I started seeing buildings that I knew getting torn down. The greenhouse, which was Myer's Greenhouse, which was just west of our house got torn down. I mean, now everything started changing. Across the street, the little stores that were there, now they did more like a mall along there. And over Crawford and Touhy, which is on the northwest corner, there was a gas station, George's gas station it was called. Next to it, there was a- what do you call it- there was a grocery store. I used to work in there, too, as a young kid, making some money and stuff like that. One other thing, right next to our house, which was on East Prairie, there was Marty's and then the gas station, but there was a house right there that also belonged to George. But he moved over to Crawford and they tore that house down. I remember them tearing it down. I was in there being a young kid, I was probably only about six, seven years old. I remember tearing it down because Dave Olson was the owner of the property. There was this jar in the wall, I grabbed the jar, and it had a bunch of green stuff in it. So I showed it to his brother, Avi, that was doing the tearing down. He said, "Oh, I lost that. Give it to me." I swear there was a lot of money in there. I can't swear to it, but it was green. And I remember that because it was a clear jar. The jar had to be at least about 10 inches high, and probably about eight or nine inches around. All I saw was green in there. Things like that start changing. And then, of course, they built the homes along Touhy Avenue where [inaudible] used to grow vegetables. These houses started to come in where we used to play. This was things I noticed. But you don't realize that when you're young, until later in life, you say, "Oh, everything's growing up around here." Plus, on top of it, Barbara and I was looking at a picture where Marty is in it, and you can see the field behind up to where she lived. All that is gone. It's like everything comes together and you can't see more than probably about 100 feet away and that's it.
Lev Kalmens 25:18
It certainly sounds like Lincolnwood today is a completely different place than it was when you were growing up.
Rich Hedquist 28:35
It was, it was. Urhausen's is still the way it was, that's the only thing. Everything else, where the factories are, that was all fields. And another thing I did is - I think it was in fifth grade- I learned to make gunpowder. Of course, I wasn't much into, what do you call it, science, that but that I liked. I was taught how to make gunpowder in school. Since my father was in construction, I was able to get a pipe, a 12-inch pipe, and capped both ends. Then, I drilled a hole about an inch down from the top one. And then, I would put the gunpowder in there, and then I would hit it down with a rod. Luckily, the good Lord with me in those days, rods were brass. They weren't steel. So, as I sat there and pounded it down, it didn't explode. My mother used to do knitting and stuff like that. She had yarn. Put some glue on it, then I'd roll it in the gunpowder and we went out on the Hamlin, just north of Hamlin, in the fields. We put it in a [inaudible] thing, Marty and I. And what happened, we lit it, and we got behind this hill, which was about a good half, three-quarters of a block away. I'm just hearing, "Boom!" We blew the top of the tree off. When I turned around, right across the street on the west side of Hamlin, there was a bungalow with a big picture window. I heard it go, "Crinkle, crinkle." I turned around and watched it falling, and the lady that lived in there had her arms crossed, and she was looking at us, wondering what we had done. So, of course, we got up and ran home. Well, she called my dad and we went over there and looked at. And all that tree, there was nothing left to the top of the tree. He told me, "See, if this had been you, you would have been gone". I remember I had to replace the bay window with the money I'd saved. And I had $103 saved and the bay window cost them $100. When I took the money out, my father says, "You take the complete $103 out." I said, "But dad, I get $3." "No, that goes to her for problems." I was nice. [inaudible]. But I learned the lesson not to do it again.
Lev Kalmens 32:02
So, they were teaching you how to make gunpowder in school?
Rich Hedquist 32:05
Yeah, you gotta realize. Now today, it's more how to make an atom bomb. But in those days, it was gunpowder. It was a very simple life, you know. We figured gunpowder was dangerous, you know, in those days. We didn't know at the time what the scientists were thinking up next, you know.
Lev Kalmens 32:25
What were your favorite subjects in school?
Rich Hedquist 32:28
My favorite subjects was anything to do with building things like woodshop, auto shop, printing shop, anything that had to do with that. Now, math was one of my strong things. When I went to Sweden, I was in school there for a year, I told you. I was going into third grade, at the time. Over there, third graders were almost in division. And here I was just learning to do subtraction and adding. So, I got a real fast course in that. By the time I left there, I could do multiplication, division, and all that. That was just one of the things that was good about going there because the schools were completely ahead of ours. I enjoyed it, and stuff like that.
Lev Kalmens 33:26
Looking back on everything, I know you mentioned missing your daughter's graduation and regretting that. Have there been other big regrets in life now that you look back on that?
Rich Hedquist 33:37
Not really. Life is life. You got to live it with what the Lord gives to you. You got to realize that you are not in control of it. What happens, happens, and you got to make the best of what it is. My mother always used to tell me nothing goes smooth in this world. You got to live with what happens. You don't like some things that happen and you regret it, but it happens. One of the things is, I was injured. I was injured in my back. My- what do you call it- vertebrates were not broken, but they were cracked, and I laid in the hospital for I think it was about six months. I couldn't move. Then I got out of there, I was in a wheelchair, then crutches. I think it was just before I got into high school, it was the year before high school, which was probably '55 I think it was. And, of course, I just had to live with that and got back to where I was walking good.
Lev Kalmens 34:43
What happened to your back?
Rich Hedquist 34:44
It was an accident. We were playing baseball and some boy lost the game, and he got mad and came after me. He lived in Chicago and judo chopped me in the back of the neck. In those days, didn't know anything about judo. But he was mean. He kept hitting me. I rode home, I remember riding home, not realizing it. The next day I went to the hospital. My dad was going to take me because the pain was severe. I took the bus down to Touhy to Clark, and Clark to Presbyterian Hospital down in Chicago. That's when they realized how serious it was. Then they put me in traction. But it's like anyting. Look at today: now, I'm walking. I've had a lot of things happen after that, thank God that happened because it saved my life. I've rolled off two roofs, really three roofs. A two story onto a one story and into a thorn bush. Which took the fire department about 45 minutes to cut me out of.
Lev Kalmens 35:54
Wow.
Rich Hedquist 35:55
I used to be stupid when I was young boy. I would run off, jump off of one story onto the grass, go get something, I'd come back up the ladder. My dad would hit me in the back of my head say, "Wait till you get my age." He was 50 in those days. Believe it or not, now I got two bad knees that need to be operated. So, now I wish I hadn't done such a stupid thing. But it saved my life, really, truthfully, a number of things that happened. But you live with it. And that's it. You know?
Lev Kalmens 36:25
You have grandchildren?
Rich Hedquist 36:26
Yes, I have. My oldest daughter has Dana, and now she's married. She has two children of hers. I have great grandchildren. She has grandchildren there. Then my Karen Sue, she never got married. Then it comes Clifford. He has here my oldest one. He's 19. Then he has several others. Then comes Christopher, he has, let's see, five. So, I do have that many now, you know, as far as that goes. My youngest one just got married last year. Steven. He lives in Woodstock now with his wife.
Lev Kalmens 37:10
And do you get to see your family often?
Rich Hedquist 37:13
That's a thing. Because we're so far apart in a lot of things. It's the same way with me when I was young: you try to see them as often as you can, but you don't find time or they don't find time, you know. Dana and her children, that I was telling you about my great grandchildren, they live in Maryland. So I only see 'em probably once- once a year, you know, as far as that goes. My other children I see occasionally.
Lev Kalmens 37:43
How would you like- how would you like to be remembered?
Rich Hedquist 37:51
I would like to be remembered as fun-going, enjoying people. Hopefully, they think that of me, you know. And if I talk too much, they say "Hey, shut up, Rich." [laughter] That comes from- what do you call it- taking on a business age 19 because I had to do a lot of talking. When you go out to sell something to a customer, and he looks at you and says "How old are you?" and you say, "19." "And you're selling me this roof? You're selling me this heating?" They look at you, but it took about 10 years before people would start to really trust me. Not that I didn't get work. I had to do a lot of talking and convince them. One of the things I feel that I was very smart in doing, which I wasn't taught by nobody, was that when I would go to a house, the lady would say "Well, my husband's not home. You'll have to wait 'till he comes home." I'd say, "Why?" And they'd say, "Well, I don't know much about it." And I said, "Well, let me explain it to you, and then you can explain to him." And a lot of women liked that. Then when their husband would get home, they says, "We want Rich to do it." That's the way I got it because I had a lot of trust in the ladies of the house. As a matter of fact, I found many times where I would say something to a lady and explain something- it would get back to her husband 100%. If I had to explain it to her husband, it would get back to the lady, it was probably 50% truthful. And I will say this, my mother believed in the woman power because she was like that. She wanted to learn to fly, but she never did. Never even drove, but she believed in women can do what men can do. She- she made sure I knew it.
Lev Kalmens 39:35
That's a good lesson, too.
Rich Hedquist 39:37
She was a little under five foot, and she was dangerous. I never fought her. I'd rather go into a room full of snakes than to fight her. My dad was more understanding, but even he could be kind of... but only once he hit me in the behind. And that was because I smirked at him, and I was only probably about four or five years old. I learned how big his hand was. Went flying.
Lev Kalmens 40:02
Well, Rich, um, I want to thank you for coming down, and I would like to thank you for sharing your Lincolnwood Story with us.
Rich Hedquist 40:09
Okay, listen, I want to thank you for having me. I hope this goes on and younger people will hear it and enjoy it and understand that right now, you got to enjoy yourself now because, as you get older, things change.
Lev Kalmens 40:25
Thank you.
Rich Hedquist 40:26
You're welcome and thank you for your time.
Rich Hedquist lived in Lincolnwood until the early 2000s. He took over his father’s business in 1960 and ran it until 1999. Listen to his story as he talks about his childhood in Lincolnwood, his professional life, and raising 5 kids.
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 here with Lincolnwood Public Library. Today is April 9, 2019, and I am interviewing Rich Hedquist. Rich, welcome, and what is your Lincolnwood Story?
Rich Hedquist 0:15
Ok, I lived in Lincolnwood from 1942 to 2002. Then we moved up to Wisconsin. My father owned a business in Lincolnwood from that time, and I took it over in 1960. So, like I said, really, truthfully, I went to school with my friends, which is Barbara Smith [inaudble], and also with Marty [unaudible]. I more or less remember the school going there, and I went up to third grade. Then in third grade, I went to Sweden for a year. And then I came back and then I went to a school up in Morton Grove. I was a resident of Lincolnwood all that time. My father owned a business, Lincolnwood Sheetmetal & Roofing, and I had a good time, meaning, as far as going to school there, and also into high school, which is Niles Township High School in those days. I'm, more or less, how can you say, enjoyed myself. Time went so fast, I can't believe it. But I tried my best to remember a lot of things now that I go back on. I'm hoping that I can do this interview, and do it right.
Lev Kalmens 1:43
Do you know how your parents ended up in Lincolnwood?
Rich Hedquist 1:46
My parents, of course, lived on Clark Street in Chicago, and my dad had the business there. Just before I was born, less than a year before, a young man got hit on the road outside their shop. My mother told my father, we're moving out into the country. Of course, Lincolnwood was the country in those days. It was a nice place. I enjoyed it. It was open. There was a lot of open fields and stuff, and we would fly our kites and build forts and everything. I had a good childhood in Lincolnwood doing things that was enjoyable. Another thing we did is we also would go into the gardens that the farmers around here would plow, and grow different products. We would get carrots. We would get potatoes and everything and cook them on a fire outside, and enjoy yourself and have that as our goodies. In those days, the only place that sold any candy that is I can recall was at McCormick and Touhy, which was a little gas station by Bell & Howell. But that was too far as for us to go. We had to enjoy whatever we could get from the fields as our candy, or whatever you would like to call it.
Lev Kalmens 3:07
What is your family's history? I know you mentioned that you went to Sweden; is there a Swedish background?
Rich Hedquist 3:13
Great. Both my parents were born in Sweden. My father was a coppersmith there. He came over in the 20s, and my mother, also in the 20s, and lived in Chicago. And of course as I mentioned, moved out to Lincolnwood in 1942.
Lev Kalmens 3:32
How did your father get started in his business?
Rich Hedquist 3:34
His father owned a big coppersmith company in Sweden. He was supposed to inherit the business, but he went over with a bunch of Swedish boys to America here. He started his own business in, roughly I would say 1930, 32, or something like that. From that point, he kept it going until '60, which he had to retire because of a heart problem. I took over the business and ran it from then to 1999.
Lev Kalmens 4:14
What were your -- going kind of back -- what are some of your best memories of growing up in Lincolnwood?
Rich Hedquist 4:20
The best memories was with all of us. It was Barbara, Marty and I, and Freddy [inaudible] also, and Carrol Sue. There was a lot of us that knew each other. In those days, you would do things together. You would play in sandboxes. If we had sandbox [inaudible]. We would make forts. There were so many things that we did outside. We didn't have all the modern conveniences they have today. We have to make our own fun, even climbing trees and that. And sometimes I could not believe that we didn't kill ourselves in some of these things that we did. But the good Lord was with us and we're here today.
Lev Kalmens 5:02
Did you guys get into trouble?
Rich Hedquist 5:03
Oh, never. We were good kids. [laughs] There's a couple times we were up on the roof. Next to our home, which was 7163 East Prairie Road next to Touhy, there was a gas station on Touhy there. I remember the one time we got up on the roof, Marty next door to us, we got up on the roof. We were taking spitballs, and throwing them at the cars. Spitballs were nothing. But the officer, Bill was his name, he stopped by and saw us one day. He came up the back ladder, which we had climbed, and was standing there. I swear he was about 40 feet tall. He said, "What are you boys doing?" We almost died. I was afraid that we would get in trouble with our parents. But in those days, he said stop it. We went down a ladder. He said, "I don't want to see you up there again." And again, we would climb ladders. The one thing I remember, there's a train that used to go just east of Hamlin and Morris, and there was an old weigh-in station. I remember going under there with Barbara and Marty. Somehow, something broke, and we get trapped in there for a little bit. But, we were able to get out. That was scary at the time because we thought "Oh, now we're here forever." But, other than that, we had a good time. You were very respectful of your parents so you didn't want to do anything that would make them come after you. That was the rule of thumb. You could do it a little bit, but you had to watch what you did.
Lev Kalmens 6:44
What did you want to be when you were little?
Rich Hedquist 6:46
An architectural engineer, a structural engineer, that was my love. I love to draw homes and stuff. That was something that I always wanted to do. Because of my father's heart attack in 1960, no '59; he had his third heart attack. The doctor told him to give up. So, I either took over the business or my dad had to sell it. And, of course, I took it over and ran it.
Lev Kalmens 7:18
Tell me about the business. What was it? What were your duties?
Rich Hedquist 7:20
My duties when I was young kid growing up in it, I did many things. But the one thing with my father was when we go out on a job we would- what do you call it? How can you say... do things with the men, I was a go-getter when I was a young kid, let's say in my 13, 14, 15s- go get things in the truck for them and bring it to them. They were very wonderful in trying to teach me how to do the trade as well as my father. I learned that and, as a younger boy, I worked in Urhausen' s greenhouse with Marty [inaudible] making tomato boxes. We'd make about 50, and then we'd eat tomato. Then, we'd make another 50, eat a tomato. I recall at the time, Johnny and Nick was staying there with their, I think it was their uncle. And what happened was, I remember I knew German at the time, some German, and I remember him saying, "How can those boys eat so many tomatoes?" He didn't mind us eating the tomatoes, but he couldn't figure out how we could eat them. It was joyful. We made a penny a box. Then the other thing we did in the greenhouse is to tie up chrysanthemums. I remember there was 3,500 something like that, and it was about two blocks long and about five feet across. We would sit there and we'd make something like a bench. We would make like $30 or something, 30 or $32 a bench, and we'd split it. We made a lot of money for two weeks. That was $16. How many candy bars and coke you could buy in those days! It was enjoyable.
Lev Kalmens 9:07
How did you learn German?
Rich Hedquist 9:10
Well, I grew up, as I mentioned- my father spoke five dialects of German, and my mother spoke Swedish. She knew some French, too, on her side because she was French and Swedish. But really, the German was what they spoke, German and Swedish. I picked it up then; you know when you're a young kid, you hear it and then right away you pick it up automatically.
Lev Kalmens 9:40
Did your mom work?
Rich Hedquist 9:42
No, my mother was always a housewife. She always stayed home and took care of the house. Plus, she loved to work in the garden, and she used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers and everything like that. That was her thing. The days when she didn't go to store to buy cucumbers or tomatoes when they were grown because she had fresh ones all the time. We had two cherry trees, and an apple tree, and a peach tree. I remember Barbara Smith's brother got up in the cherry tree. He was a little older than us. He was like five or six years older. He got up in a tree and he went for some cherries and the branch broke. He came down, but luckily, he didn't hurt himself. He ran home. My mother was so worried that he had hurt himself bad.
Lev Kalmens 10:35
Did you have siblings?
Rich Hedquist 10:36
No, I was the only one; my father and mother had me and in those days, one kid was enough.
Lev Kalmens 10:46
What are some of your best memories of your parents?
Rich Hedquist 10:50
Best memories was... my mother and father, we would take trips in the old 1937 truck out in the country. I used to, in the summer, just sit in the back with my dog Tommy. Tommy was a black, not Labrador, but similar to it. But he had really black curly hair. He had his short snout, and, believe it or not, on his rear feet, he would put his front paws on my father's shoulders. My father was about six foot, and he put them on his shoulders and look right at my dad right in the face. He was a very protective dog because he got to know Marty and Barbara and I, and the rest of kids. But if anybody else come around, he would growl. Because he didn't want nobody come close to me.
Lev Kalmens 11:43
What do you do for a living right now?
Rich Hedquist 11:45
Right now, I'm retired. I work for the Aurora Hospital in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I'm 50. I do the grounds work there. And also sometimes they bring me in the operation roof where they fix things and stuff like that because of my background. I do both of them for them.
Rich Hedquist 11:46
Do you enjoy what you do now?
Rich Hedquist 12:02
I really enjoy it. You got to realize when I took over the business, I went from one business to four businesses. One was, my father was in the heating business. I got into the air conditioning right after that because it was starting to get very popular. I took on a partner from '66 to '69, and I got into the hot roofing part. Then then also I did some siding. And of course my favorite was doing the copper work. I did a base and everything with copper, and I was known as a coppersmith to these contractors.
Lev Kalmens 12:47
What about that work is enjoyable for you?
Rich Hedquist 12:49
Oh, copper work was enjoyable because, number one, you had to be very careful what you did. First of all, the price of the copper was very expensive, even today. You had to know what you were doing, and you had to double check and triple check. Every bend you made or every thing you did was right on the money. Enjoyable. My father used to do very ornamental work. When I took it over the ornamental work was going out very much. What I did was, I did bay roofs in copper, I did regular roofs in copper, and some art- how can you say- something that was out of the normal I would do in copper. Copper was really my joy because it took my mind off of. Where the other stuff was the same thing every day where this, you really had to get used to it to know what you're doing.
Lev Kalmens 13:50
Were there any specific life lessons that you learned from the work that you did in life?
Rich Hedquist 13:56
Well, yes, there was. For instance, when I made a mistake, I had to live with it. The biggest mistake was- and I was just young guy, I was only about probably 23- I estimated a job for the United States Post Office. They have one on the South Side. I read the complete chapter on it. That was late at night, and I decided to write the contract rather than wait in the morning. I wrote the contract and I used one word that was very dangerous. It was "all," and when they went to do it, I got the contract and everything. I was so happy. When they came down to it, "all" meant anything that belonged to copper, I was responsible for. In the bottom where the foundation and the brickwork started, that was called a vapor barrier copper. I didn't figure that in and that was about $8,000.
Lev Kalmens 14:58
Oh, wow.
Rich Hedquist 14:58
I got found out, and that was really a problem. I was doing a complete job all the way up, and it came time for me to do the job with the roofers. That day, I didn't do the roofing, somebody else did. I did the copper work, and then they did the work. Then when I was through with the job, I was really not happy. But I learned a lesson: when you make out a contract, always remember, the smallest word can bite you real bad.
Lev Kalmens 15:29
Have there been, either when you were younger and working or now, certain hobbies that you've enjoyed or you currently enjoy?
Rich Hedquist 15:38
My love for motorcycles and antique cars. I had an number of antique cars; so did my wife. I still, to this day, have an 1937 stake bed truck. Original. That is my love. I'm in the process of selling it because- many of my friends that I grew up with, friends back in the 60s, we went touring with the old cars. But now that many of my friends are gone, more or less, the truck sits in a garage, so it's time for it go on to somebody that can enjoy it.
Lev Kalmens 16:14
You mentioned, so you were married?
Rich Hedquist 16:19
Yes, I was married. My girlfriend, which was Barbara Harrison at the time. She lived in Morton Grove. I met her, believe it or not, I met her junior year at Niles Township High School in the study period. We dated in, if I'm not mistaken, in '58 or '59. We got married in 1962. April 7 of 1962.
Lev Kalmens 16:49
Did you have any children?
Rich Hedquist 16:51
I have five.
Lev Kalmens 16:51
Oh, wow.
Rich Hedquist 16:52
I have two daughters and three sons. My oldest daughter is Barbara Jean Hedquist, same as my wife. My second one is Karen Sue Hedquist. My oldest son is Clifford Hedquist. Then comes Christopher Hedquist. The youngest is Steven Hedquist. They all went to Lincolnwood school. They also went to Niles West.
Lev Kalmens 17:18
What was for you, raising them or watching them, grow up in Lincolnwood, how was that different from your own childhood here?
Rich Hedquist 17:27
To be very honest, I was working so much that I didn't have much time. Matter of fact, sad to say, I missed my oldest daughter's graduation from grade school to high school. The reason for that was - when they own a business, one night, or it was probably about six in the evening when we were supposed to be there at 7:30 - I got a call from a contractor in Skokie asking if I could come over and talk to him about a contract. I told him no, I got to go to a graduation. He said, "It'll only take a minute. Can you come?" I said, "Yes I can." So, I asked my wife to take the car, and my daughters, and my kids, and then I would meet them at the graduation thing. And when I got over to the house and walked into the house, he took out the blueprints and we were talking about it. All of a sudden, I said. "Well, I got to get to the graduation." He says, "It's 10 o'clock." I never seen three hours go so fast in my whole life. I swear, I walked in and just talked to him for 5, 10 minutes. With my yap [laughs], I found myself three hours and I didn't even want to go home that late. Of course, they didn't speak to me for about three months after that. But I didn't make the same mistake with the rest of them, you know.
Lev Kalmens 18:46
And they, all your kids, went to Lincolnwood School and-
Rich Hedquist 18:50
That is correct.
Lev Kalmens 18:51
-Niles Township Schools?
Rich Hedquist 18:51
That is also correct.
Lev Kalmens 18:53
And what do your kids do now?
Rich Hedquist 18:55
My oldest daughter, she works for ProHealth in Wisconsin. She takes care of all the billing and everything there. She's well known there. She's been doing that for 30 some years, if I'm not mistaken. My youngest daughter- her name is Karen Sue- she works for Sigler's Automotive on Lincoln Avenue. And she's been with Avi Sigler now for I would say 30 years, something like that, 30 years. And then my oldest son, he owns a heating and air conditioning company in Naperville. And then my middle son, he's a fireman-paramedic. Now, he started his fireman-paramedic here in Lincolnwood. He was on Lincolnwood when they first started the fire department here. I'm very proud of him on that. And what happened was his first case when he was on the fire department was that they got a call on Eden's Highway by Devon. A motorcyclist had lost his bike doing- they figure- about 100 miles an hour going northbound. He got there, and he was able to get this young man on a stretcher- it was not a nice sight, you see- and to the hospital and his parents donated his organs, which, to me was nice. And then my youngest son, he- what do you call it- he was diabetic since he was a baby. And I've almost lost him now five times through comas. But, gratefully, the Good Lord was with. And then last year in April, just about now 15th, he had a transplant, a pancreas transplant, and now he's doing real good, and he lives in Woodstock. He got married last year.
Lev Kalmens 20:39
Wow.
Rich Hedquist 20:40
So I'm very proud of him.
Lev Kalmens 20:43
Speaking of pride, what has been the proudest moment in your life?
Rich Hedquist 20:49
Well, there have been a lot of moments that I'm proud [of]. I'm proud of my children; the way they they've done their life and stuff. Really, with Barbara Smith and Marty [inaudible], we're friends to this day. And I think, really truthfully, really through the years, a lot of things made me proud. It's not one overshadowed the other one, because we all live our lives, we go different ways, and now that we've gotten this over, we're starting to all come back together again. But like I said, I just feel that life has been good to me. It's up and down, like we all have, but you got to take the good with the bad.
Lev Kalmens 21:57
You mentioned that you've been friends with Barbara and with Marty for your entire life. What is the secret to maintaining a lifelong close friendship?
Rich Hedquist 21:43
Well what that is, we're lucky. We grew up in a day that you got to know each other, and it wasn't as hectic as it is today. I hate to say it. Many of the kids today, there's just too much out there that take away their thing. When we grew up, you learn to enjoy each other. You did things. We played in the sand. We had a good time in the sand and in the trees. We did things, like I said, in the fields, and we would eat fruit. It was just a real close friendship. And, of course, as time went on, we also turned around where, you know, you sort of part away because now you have your families. You're not together all the time, you know, so we sort of went apart. Marty lived in Florida. Barbara lived in Lincolnwood. Of course, I lived in Lincolnwood, too, but, even though it was only about four or five blocks away, I had my life to live, and they had their life to live, our families. But we still met because Barbara would take walks and stop by our house. Sad to say, I didn't walk over to her house. But that was part of the life. We enjoyed ourselves. I think what made it so nice is, in those days, you just enjoyed. You didn't hear all the stuff that's going on in this world. I hate to say it, and in my true feeling, that this hurts kids very much. Because there's just too much knowledge out there that I think should be sort of put to rest, you know. This is my feeling about growing up in an environment. I think we grew up in one of the best years of this century because we got to know each other, as far as that goes.
Lev Kalmens 23:33
What were some of the places that you guys, besides playing in the sandbox or climbing trees... what were some of your favorite businesses? Maybe restaurants or places you used to go like that?
Rich Hedquist 23:47
Restaurants. I'll be very honest. As we grew up, the restaurants were not that much around us. But as we got older and we got into it, it was Jack's restaurant on Touhy Avenue. There was the Desiree in Skokie. I love matzah ball soup. I was a good fan of matzah ball soup. Any delicatessen like Normie's or anything that had that, I enjoyed it. And Ruben's. We had Ruben's.
Adult Services 24:18
I know that Jack's is in Skokie. Any Lincolnwood specific businesses?
Rich Hedquist 24:24
Oh, Lincolnwood? I'll tell you where we used to eat. My wife and I used to like it. It's gone now. It was a restaurant on the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Crawford Avenue on the southwest corner. And I forget the name of it now, but- [voice in the background]. No, it wasn't [inaudible]. I'm trying to think of the name of it. There was also, right across the street, there was Jaylin's, if I'm not mistaken. They had delicious food. Then they closed up and remodeled it and got fancier and the prices went skyrocketing. We lost it there. But that's it, you know.
Lev Kalmens 25:10
Tell me about a historical event in your lifetime that really stuck with you, or is really something you think about, or something that was really memorable for you.
Rich Hedquist 25:18
Okay. Well, one of the things that I remember- on the corner of East Prairie and Touhy, on the southwest corner, there was a... not a farm, but it was like a farm. It was a barn area, which my father used as a shop in the 40s. That was torn down. When it got torn down, other things started to go. For instance, there was a greenhouse where Barbara was living growing up. Behind it was a greenhouse. And that greenhouse, more or less was - I remember going there. We used to play back in there and have a good time. But what happened was that different things started to change. I didn't really notice 100% because you're busy, you're growing, you have family. But as time went on, today, I really notice it tremendously. Touhy Avenue was the best. As I remember now, Marty's father used to grow vegetables from their house to Hamlin along Touhy Avenue, and he used to sell them. Marty and, I used to be out there on Touhy Avenue selling them. Of course, in those days, if you saw a car, probably two or three cars, let's say in 10 minutes, 15 minutes, that was a lot. You didn't have to worry about getting run over. You could almost stand in the middle of the street and sell stuff. Today, in the middle of street, you'd have to be doing some running. But, like I said, what really started hurting is when I started seeing buildings that I knew getting torn down. The greenhouse, which was Myer's Greenhouse, which was just west of our house got torn down. I mean, now everything started changing. Across the street, the little stores that were there, now they did more like a mall along there. And over Crawford and Touhy, which is on the northwest corner, there was a gas station, George's gas station it was called. Next to it, there was a- what do you call it- there was a grocery store. I used to work in there, too, as a young kid, making some money and stuff like that. One other thing, right next to our house, which was on East Prairie, there was Marty's and then the gas station, but there was a house right there that also belonged to George. But he moved over to Crawford and they tore that house down. I remember them tearing it down. I was in there being a young kid, I was probably only about six, seven years old. I remember tearing it down because Dave Olson was the owner of the property. There was this jar in the wall, I grabbed the jar, and it had a bunch of green stuff in it. So I showed it to his brother, Avi, that was doing the tearing down. He said, "Oh, I lost that. Give it to me." I swear there was a lot of money in there. I can't swear to it, but it was green. And I remember that because it was a clear jar. The jar had to be at least about 10 inches high, and probably about eight or nine inches around. All I saw was green in there. Things like that start changing. And then, of course, they built the homes along Touhy Avenue where [inaudible] used to grow vegetables. These houses started to come in where we used to play. This was things I noticed. But you don't realize that when you're young, until later in life, you say, "Oh, everything's growing up around here." Plus, on top of it, Barbara and I was looking at a picture where Marty is in it, and you can see the field behind up to where she lived. All that is gone. It's like everything comes together and you can't see more than probably about 100 feet away and that's it.
Lev Kalmens 25:18
It certainly sounds like Lincolnwood today is a completely different place than it was when you were growing up.
Rich Hedquist 28:35
It was, it was. Urhausen's is still the way it was, that's the only thing. Everything else, where the factories are, that was all fields. And another thing I did is - I think it was in fifth grade- I learned to make gunpowder. Of course, I wasn't much into, what do you call it, science, that but that I liked. I was taught how to make gunpowder in school. Since my father was in construction, I was able to get a pipe, a 12-inch pipe, and capped both ends. Then, I drilled a hole about an inch down from the top one. And then, I would put the gunpowder in there, and then I would hit it down with a rod. Luckily, the good Lord with me in those days, rods were brass. They weren't steel. So, as I sat there and pounded it down, it didn't explode. My mother used to do knitting and stuff like that. She had yarn. Put some glue on it, then I'd roll it in the gunpowder and we went out on the Hamlin, just north of Hamlin, in the fields. We put it in a [inaudible] thing, Marty and I. And what happened, we lit it, and we got behind this hill, which was about a good half, three-quarters of a block away. I'm just hearing, "Boom!" We blew the top of the tree off. When I turned around, right across the street on the west side of Hamlin, there was a bungalow with a big picture window. I heard it go, "Crinkle, crinkle." I turned around and watched it falling, and the lady that lived in there had her arms crossed, and she was looking at us, wondering what we had done. So, of course, we got up and ran home. Well, she called my dad and we went over there and looked at. And all that tree, there was nothing left to the top of the tree. He told me, "See, if this had been you, you would have been gone". I remember I had to replace the bay window with the money I'd saved. And I had $103 saved and the bay window cost them $100. When I took the money out, my father says, "You take the complete $103 out." I said, "But dad, I get $3." "No, that goes to her for problems." I was nice. [inaudible]. But I learned the lesson not to do it again.
Lev Kalmens 32:02
So, they were teaching you how to make gunpowder in school?
Rich Hedquist 32:05
Yeah, you gotta realize. Now today, it's more how to make an atom bomb. But in those days, it was gunpowder. It was a very simple life, you know. We figured gunpowder was dangerous, you know, in those days. We didn't know at the time what the scientists were thinking up next, you know.
Lev Kalmens 32:25
What were your favorite subjects in school?
Rich Hedquist 32:28
My favorite subjects was anything to do with building things like woodshop, auto shop, printing shop, anything that had to do with that. Now, math was one of my strong things. When I went to Sweden, I was in school there for a year, I told you. I was going into third grade, at the time. Over there, third graders were almost in division. And here I was just learning to do subtraction and adding. So, I got a real fast course in that. By the time I left there, I could do multiplication, division, and all that. That was just one of the things that was good about going there because the schools were completely ahead of ours. I enjoyed it, and stuff like that.
Lev Kalmens 33:26
Looking back on everything, I know you mentioned missing your daughter's graduation and regretting that. Have there been other big regrets in life now that you look back on that?
Rich Hedquist 33:37
Not really. Life is life. You got to live it with what the Lord gives to you. You got to realize that you are not in control of it. What happens, happens, and you got to make the best of what it is. My mother always used to tell me nothing goes smooth in this world. You got to live with what happens. You don't like some things that happen and you regret it, but it happens. One of the things is, I was injured. I was injured in my back. My- what do you call it- vertebrates were not broken, but they were cracked, and I laid in the hospital for I think it was about six months. I couldn't move. Then I got out of there, I was in a wheelchair, then crutches. I think it was just before I got into high school, it was the year before high school, which was probably '55 I think it was. And, of course, I just had to live with that and got back to where I was walking good.
Lev Kalmens 34:43
What happened to your back?
Rich Hedquist 34:44
It was an accident. We were playing baseball and some boy lost the game, and he got mad and came after me. He lived in Chicago and judo chopped me in the back of the neck. In those days, didn't know anything about judo. But he was mean. He kept hitting me. I rode home, I remember riding home, not realizing it. The next day I went to the hospital. My dad was going to take me because the pain was severe. I took the bus down to Touhy to Clark, and Clark to Presbyterian Hospital down in Chicago. That's when they realized how serious it was. Then they put me in traction. But it's like anyting. Look at today: now, I'm walking. I've had a lot of things happen after that, thank God that happened because it saved my life. I've rolled off two roofs, really three roofs. A two story onto a one story and into a thorn bush. Which took the fire department about 45 minutes to cut me out of.
Lev Kalmens 35:54
Wow.
Rich Hedquist 35:55
I used to be stupid when I was young boy. I would run off, jump off of one story onto the grass, go get something, I'd come back up the ladder. My dad would hit me in the back of my head say, "Wait till you get my age." He was 50 in those days. Believe it or not, now I got two bad knees that need to be operated. So, now I wish I hadn't done such a stupid thing. But it saved my life, really, truthfully, a number of things that happened. But you live with it. And that's it. You know?
Lev Kalmens 36:25
You have grandchildren?
Rich Hedquist 36:26
Yes, I have. My oldest daughter has Dana, and now she's married. She has two children of hers. I have great grandchildren. She has grandchildren there. Then my Karen Sue, she never got married. Then it comes Clifford. He has here my oldest one. He's 19. Then he has several others. Then comes Christopher, he has, let's see, five. So, I do have that many now, you know, as far as that goes. My youngest one just got married last year. Steven. He lives in Woodstock now with his wife.
Lev Kalmens 37:10
And do you get to see your family often?
Rich Hedquist 37:13
That's a thing. Because we're so far apart in a lot of things. It's the same way with me when I was young: you try to see them as often as you can, but you don't find time or they don't find time, you know. Dana and her children, that I was telling you about my great grandchildren, they live in Maryland. So I only see 'em probably once- once a year, you know, as far as that goes. My other children I see occasionally.
Lev Kalmens 37:43
How would you like- how would you like to be remembered?
Rich Hedquist 37:51
I would like to be remembered as fun-going, enjoying people. Hopefully, they think that of me, you know. And if I talk too much, they say "Hey, shut up, Rich." [laughter] That comes from- what do you call it- taking on a business age 19 because I had to do a lot of talking. When you go out to sell something to a customer, and he looks at you and says "How old are you?" and you say, "19." "And you're selling me this roof? You're selling me this heating?" They look at you, but it took about 10 years before people would start to really trust me. Not that I didn't get work. I had to do a lot of talking and convince them. One of the things I feel that I was very smart in doing, which I wasn't taught by nobody, was that when I would go to a house, the lady would say "Well, my husband's not home. You'll have to wait 'till he comes home." I'd say, "Why?" And they'd say, "Well, I don't know much about it." And I said, "Well, let me explain it to you, and then you can explain to him." And a lot of women liked that. Then when their husband would get home, they says, "We want Rich to do it." That's the way I got it because I had a lot of trust in the ladies of the house. As a matter of fact, I found many times where I would say something to a lady and explain something- it would get back to her husband 100%. If I had to explain it to her husband, it would get back to the lady, it was probably 50% truthful. And I will say this, my mother believed in the woman power because she was like that. She wanted to learn to fly, but she never did. Never even drove, but she believed in women can do what men can do. She- she made sure I knew it.
Lev Kalmens 39:35
That's a good lesson, too.
Rich Hedquist 39:37
She was a little under five foot, and she was dangerous. I never fought her. I'd rather go into a room full of snakes than to fight her. My dad was more understanding, but even he could be kind of... but only once he hit me in the behind. And that was because I smirked at him, and I was only probably about four or five years old. I learned how big his hand was. Went flying.
Lev Kalmens 40:02
Well, Rich, um, I want to thank you for coming down, and I would like to thank you for sharing your Lincolnwood Story with us.
Rich Hedquist 40:09
Okay, listen, I want to thank you for having me. I hope this goes on and younger people will hear it and enjoy it and understand that right now, you got to enjoy yourself now because, as you get older, things change.
Lev Kalmens 40:25
Thank you.
Rich Hedquist 40:26
You're welcome and thank you for your time.
Collection
Citation
“My Lincolnwood Story- Rich Hedquist,” Lincolnwood Historical Collection, accessed May 20, 2026, https://lpld.omeka.net/items/show/55.
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