by Garry Klein Posted 5/9/05

My family moved to Park Forest in 1955 or 1956, shortly after my older sister was born. My grandfather lonaed my folks the down-payment and the rest was worked out with the GI Bill, as my father was a "between the wars" GI who was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood.

My older sister was born while my folks still lived in Chicago. I was the second of three children born at 410 Rutledge St.. My older sister, younger brother and I went to Illinois Elementary School. We lived next to an elderly couple whose last name was Harper who had a collie to whom we gave steak bones to. Across the street was the Roman family who had kids our age ( I remember their daddy was an FBI agent, which we thought was very cool).

My grandparents all lived in South Chicago and would visit us on Sundays. Occasionally we would go into the city to visit relatives. They would always complain that we lived so far away. My grandfather always had a silver dollar that we would compete to get from him. My grandmother would tell us how families used to live together but "thing change."

One memory I have of Park Forest was our house which was a split level with a builte in bar in the basement and thin stairways. I remember it as a fairly dark house because my Mom insisted on keeping the drapes closed to protect the living room furniture.  I remember red berry shrubs in front of the house that invariably I would "pop" and get the juice all over myself and my clothes. I would catch holy heck for that!

The most vivid memory I have is the day that JFK was shot. My mom was ironing in the kitchen and I and my younger brother were eating lunch in front of the TV. I remember my Mom crying and my older sister coming from school early.

We shopped at Shoppers World and went to the McDonalds (when the building had the old candy-striped design). At the end of our block was a field that had black-eyed Susans and "ant plant" what we called Queen Anne's Lace because ants crawled on top of it when it rained.

We lived in Park Forest until 1967 when we moved to Highland Park. We were a nomadic generation that went where the opportunities took us.