When I was a child in the 50s my family would take a CNW commuter train into the city and then a taxi from what was then called Northwestern Station to the Dearborn station. We toted our own luggage until we got to the Dearborn station where Redcaps would magically make it disappear, to be found waiting for us when we boarded our Santa Fe train. I have no idea how individual passengers transfer
Forum: General Discussion

Recalling WVON made me do some research. I never knew the Chess brothers owned the station and were, not surprisingly, responsible for the change to an R&B format after they bought it. I did know that WVON stood for “Voice of the Negro.” Now the station is talk radio and it stands for “Voice of the Nation.”
Forum: General Discussion

Does anyone else remember WVON? As a 60's kid in a lily white Chicago 'burb I remember spinning the dial, stumbling across this low power station and being blown away. This is not top 40! Not Dion and the Belmonts, not Ricky Nelson…. It was people and bands who are now Chicago blues legends , along with the more obscure but talented.
Forum: General Discussion

I spent many hard earned childhood dollars at Al's - model cars, trains, airplanes and rockets at various times. That was years ago. The last time I was in Elmhurst a few years ago Hartmann's Barber Shop, which was a real old time barber shop, was gone and the space occupied by a "Uni-sex Hair Salon." Ernie, the barber who always cut my hair, must be appalled if he's still with us.
Forum: General Discussion

I just found the attached despite its having been published in 1988. It’s by far the most plausible explanation of the origins of term “Juneway Jungle” I’ve heard. The last paragraph I take issue with. The area was widely and affectionately known as the “Juneway Jungle” or just “the jungle” in ’68, at least by NU students and the Loyola students I knew. Probably well before to
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Does anyone know where I might find a picture, or better yet a video, of the huge flashing neon Standard Oil sign that once dominated the Sheridan Rd "S" curve at Juneway? Also, when was it built and torn down? I've seen pictures of a large Bowman Dairy sign there in 1936 and know it was torn down after '73.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

My then GF worked at a dime store at the intersection of York and Butterfield in Elmhurst when I was in HS (60s), Kresge's(?). I used to pick her up after work, take her back to her sister's house and umm...... in the basment room where she lived.
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

Gulliver's. Howard and California. Great pizza in the late 60s / early 70s and never carded for pitchers of beer. Still there, but I moved away years ago.
Forum: General Discussion

Plentywood Farm was torn down to make room for yet another subdivision in the 90s. Another place with great memories for me, The Mill Race Inn, in Geneva closed last year. But Gulliver's on Howard is still there, that was a college favorite. I haven't been there in years as I now live on the East Coast.
Forum: General Discussion

Here's some info - http://www.restaurantwarecollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9907 They seem to have gone out of business in the early 60s. I don't remember them.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Sorry to confuse two topics. Who else remembers the tiny elevator (3, maybe 4 people max) that was the entrance to Le Perroquet (70 E. Walton) - after you were screened by the host of course? Fantastic food, incredible service that was neither obsequious nor snobbish – ever. It was one of the best restaurants I’ve ever enjoyed, and I’ve traveled the States, Canada, Caribbean, and most of Eur
Forum: General Discussion

I grew up in the western 'burbs where my Mom got TV (Top Value) stamps from the grocery store. She must have been shopping at Kroger at the time. The stamps were yellow and red and came in 1, 10, and other larger denominations (20, 50, ...???). I remember because I desperately wanted my own .22, not to borrow Dad’s. There was one I coveted in the TV stamp catalog and my parents agreed that I
Forum: General Discussion

The previous posts rekindled my interest in the history of the little Chicago appendage north of Howard - once my home and known as the “Juneway Jungle.” The area was known as Germania in the early 1900s. It was also known “No Man’s Land” because it was part of Evanston, but didn’t receive much in the way of services since it was cut off from the rest of Evanston by the lake, cemete
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I lived in "the jungle" right near the corner of Juneway and Sheridan from 1969 through 1972 as an NU student. Does anyone else remember the giant “Standard” sign flashing its message all through the night? Contrary to another poster’s opinion, it was called “the jungle” far more often than “Juneway Jungle”, at least by everyone I knew. It was an interesting neighborhood
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)