by Deborah Lewis Dougherty Posted 9/15/05

My family moved to Park Forest in the summer of 1956. My father, Paul Lewis was with the Prudential Insurance Company and moved us so that he would be able to make it home for dinner every night. My mother, Doris Lewis, was a stay at home mom, like so many women in those days. We lived at 462 Talala, in a long ranch house that sat on what appeared to me at the time, to be a very high hill. The house had a sunroom instead of a garage, with what looked like leather walls and a beautiful bar. When we stepped out of the side door, there was a red patio in the shape of a round balloon. I thought it was just heaven!

The Dwyers were our next door neighbors and I immediately become best friends with Denise. Unlimited possibilities for fun and excitement were ahead. We lived very close to the woods at Tampa and Monee Road. Denise and I spent many of our summer days hiking in the woods and finding beautiful rocks and often, we would find Indian arrowheads. I used to have quite a collection of arrowheads.

Other summer days were spent at the Aqua Center, which was an all day event. I used to love to buy the ice cream sandwiches at the refreshment stand. I still have one of my picture badges, which of course was the identification to get in to the pools. The children's pool was great and but then we moved up to the adult pool. We had prove that we could swim across some part of the pool in order to make this transition. I thought that the high dive was so high and scary. It was a right of passage to be able to dive off that board.

A quarter for a bus ride also brought us to the Plaza and we did this as early as the age of 7 years old. Those were amazing days-1957. Our parents gave us such freedom because the town was so safe. Marshall Fields, Mayama's book store, Stuarts for clothes, Goldblatts, the Holiday theater, it had everything that we could ever want. In 1960 when Nixon came to town to speak, Denise and I were standing right at the circle drive. The Nixon's walked past us to their car and Pat Nixon took off her corsage and gave it to Denise. We thought that was pretty neat. Possibly the best of the best at the Plaza was the Art Fair that was held every summer. I will never forgot how exciting it was, with people so nicely dressed enjoying the artwork. Does anyone else remember the Jazz concerts that took place on some evenings under the clock tower? Mom used to take me and we stood there and swayed to the music.

Kresge's holds many memories for me. I used to buy my goldfish there, in the back of the store. You could pick out your fish and they would scoop it out and deposit it a plastic bag, with water in it. Then it was placed in a box that looked like Chinese takeout. The lunch counter holds the funniest memory for me. My sister was 11 months older than I was and to say we didn't get along would be an understatement. I was looking at the Evening in Paris blue bottle of cologne in the makeup section and happened to notice my sister at the counter with a girlfriend. In front of her was a great big glass of coke. She turned her head and I jumped in and grabbed her coke and started to drink, knowing the moments were numbered for me when she caught me. Instead she saw me and just kept looking at me. It slowly dawned on me that something was wrong and then she told me it wasn't her Coke, they hadn't cleaned the counter yet from the last person who sat there.I never did that again!

My mother used to shop at the Jewel Food Store at the Indianwood shopping center, which also had a doctor's office (Dr. Alex White) and a pharmacy. Doctors made house calls in those days and I remember being sick, laying on the sofa and having Dr. White taking my temperature.

Sweet memories of a simpler time of life....oh what I would give to live another day there as a young girl and be able to run into the house for dinner and see both of my precious parents (now deceased) sitting at the kitchen table. So many wonderful experiences that I will never forget!

Thank you for letting me share my memories with you....

Deborah Lewis Dougherty