February 10, 1999

What a joy to find you on the Web! The photo of the clock tower in the shopping center brought back so many memories of my idyllic childhood in Park Forest. I remember the billboard announcing the creation of the village that beckoned my family off our route to a long-awaited vacation in Indiana. We spent the afternoon plodding through muddy lots that we were assured would some day become grassy lawns. As we left the fledgling village, our family voted - vacation or move? Later that summer we moved to our little home on Apple Lane in what the billboard had told us was a "Wonderland for Children." I assure you that for a family trying to flee the tenements of near-Northside Chicago, Park Forest certainly was a wonderland.
Although I have spent more of my life in Madison, Wisconsin, when I'm asked where I'm from, I always say, "Park Forest."

My sisters and I attended Forest Boulevard School before any elementary schools were built. Classes were held in living rooms and bedrooms of the townhouses. We hung our coats on the shower curtain bar and put our boots in the tub. When the library moved to the Lakewood Boulevard address, I took part in the parade of citizens who hand-carried the books to their new home (mid to late 1950s).

Thank you for the opportunity to share memories of our community with my parents and my sisters, who will be receiving the calendars I am ordering.

Sincerely,
Lynn Rotman Ansfield