I was about 15 - 16 years old and working in a small business for a few summers where the small AM radio we had was tuned to WVON when it wasn't tuned to a baseball game. For the blacks who worked there, this was "the" station. A white kid like me still listened to WLS or WCFL and it was a revelation, the R&B music that I couldn't hear anywhere else. IIRC, the afternoon DJ was E. R
Forum: General Discussion

Try Dinkel's Bakery on Lincoln Avenue on the east side of the street just south of Roscoe. It's the old German neighborhood, though the ethnicity of the neighborhood seems to have changed to urban hipster now. Dinkel's looks the same as it did when I was a kid and everything is as good if not better than I remember. The chocolate chip cookies are fabulous but that adjective applies to everything i
Forum: General Discussion

The good old days of the mid-'50s. At noon on weekdays, a kid had 3 choices: Lunchtime Little Theater on WGN with Uncle Ned (Ned Locke), Uncle Bucky (Ted Ziegler), and Aunt Dodie whose real name escapes me. Aunt Dodie played piano and they sang,"It's lunchtime now, we'll show you how, your lunch can be lots of fun. For all the girls and boys there, a good time for everyone." On WBKB, Tw
Forum: General Discussion

Never went to Palos Park but we did go to Caldwell Woods when we lived in the area. When we moved to Florida, we gave away our toboggan and it's been pretty underwhelming to read that all the toboggan slides are gone now, victims of possible liability lawsuits. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the in-city skiing facility that was, briefly, out on Narragansett before it was replaced by the Bricky
Forum: General Discussion

I remember going to Mr. Kelly's a few times in the early '70s with my wife on our wedding anniversary. Once, comedian David Frye was the performer and another time we saw the comedy duo of Hudson & Landry. I recall it wasn't very big and the food was good but not great, but it exuded a certain class and it was very enjoyable. When we became parents, we didn't go out much and then it was gone.
Forum: General Discussion

I remember being a little kid when my family lived on Leavitt Street just south of Addison in early/mid 1950s. Most needs were met by stores within less than a block: at the corner of Addison and Leavitt was about everything we needed. On the northwest corner was a small Certified grocery store and, just west of it was Eddie Propst's butcher shop and then a bakery, the name of which escapes me at
Forum: General Discussion

I remember my Dad taking me down to Maxwell street when I was a kid. I still remember the man selling watches, sliding up his shirtsleeve to display about 10 of them.This would have been about late '50s - early '60s, long ago. But, on the humorous side, a friend of mine was looking around on Maxwell in the late '70s and found a deal on white dress shirts at a bargain price. IIRC, he bought 6 and
Forum: General Discussion

Most recently, "Backdraft" was filmed in Chicago. But, going back further in time, there's this one by Chicago's Selig Polyscope Studios which, in the year of our Lord 1907, was a feature, albeit only about 10 minutes long. I presume "His First Ride" was filmed on the North side somewhere since Selig was located near Western and Irving Park Road and you can observe that the
Forum: General Discussion

"AND, I vaguely remember a bakery on the corner of Leavitt and Grace, back in the early '70s. I don't know the name.That was a great little area, totally tucked into a residential neighborhood, blocks away from major streets." Jim, I remember that area, too. I walked by that corner twice every day (more, if I was serving at early morning mass) during my 8 years going to St. Ben's gram
Forum: General Discussion

I remember Community Discount stores having a lot of commercials on channel 7 which was WBKB back in those days. Sunday mornings, they showed old Flash Gordon serials from the 1930s and Larry Goodman, who was the spokesman, the owner, or both for Community, did all the commercials. The commercials were live, spontaneous,and totally cheesy as were the serials. And, I swear that they showed 5 minute
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I grew up in the North Center area a few lifetimes ago and I, too, remember some of the local dealerships. I also remember Alvin Ford on Irving Park and Hoyne but there was also a small Chevrolet dealer at Irving and Seeley, Hoskin Chevrolet. The thing I remember most was the number of damaged police cars sitting near the service entrance; I believe most of those were from the old Damen Avenue pol
Forum: General Discussion

I, too, lived in St. Benedict's parish once upon a time, graduated grade school in 1963. And, I also remember the Bugg, though it was sort of second-rate compared to the North Center but I have always thought of it fondly when I see that parking lot which replaced it. Unfortunately, I see it rarely only when I visit the city infrequently as I live in Florida but, locations such as the Lincoln-Dam
Forum: Forgotten Chicago Sightings

"Ithink that there was also the silver streak or gray streak" It was the Blue Streak. The Silver Flash was the first coaster just on your right as you entered the park at the main entrance on Western Avenue and walking west past it going towards the back of the park was the Blue Streak. It was a covered coaster and looked just like the Flash but the cars were a nondescript robin's egg
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

My family lived near Roscoe and Oakley (in what is now the trendy Roscoe Village) from about 1954 to 1963 so we were only about 3 blocks from the main entrance to Riverview. Quite a few of the people in the neighborhood worked there and did quite well, as I recall. The rides...memorable. Rollercoasters: the Silver Flash, the Fireball, the Comet, the Wild Mouse, and the legendary Bobs. Then, ther
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

There is one location that is not mentioned in that link and I'm not sure anyone could identify it, but I can. In a couple of brief scenes during the car chase heading back to the city from the Lake Wazupumani gig, you see a computer room where a man sitting in front of a blue CRT terminal says something like, "The use of excessive force against the Blues Brothers has been approved." (So
Forum: General Discussion

Being a North sider, I remember Andes Candies in the Lincoln Bank building at Lincoln, Damen, and Irving Park Road. Our family dentist was in the building and my Mom always got my sister and me each a chocolate shake at Andes if we behaved ourselves at the dentist (we always did). The air conditioning was always cold and the shakes were delicious. There was also the Roscoe Sweet Shop at Roscoe an
Forum: General Discussion

I, too, remember the 3 wheeled cart with the loud, distinctive bell that announced the knife sharpener was in the neighborhood. And I remember the fruit and vegetable peddler who came through the alley; for some reason, I still recall that he would call out "Strumberries" rather than "strawberries" in a basso voice that could be heard a block away. I don't think I've thought ab
Forum: General Discussion

The first place I ever skated was in the schoolyard at Audubon School, then later, at Revere Park where the east side of the park was about a foot or 2 lower than the west side and was flooded for skating every year. Also skated at Welles Park where the Revere Park Boys Club held a skating meet each year. Years later,when my kids were small, we'd go down near Waveland and the lake where there was
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

Here's a link to a site that lists all current and former Chicago Catholic Churches. Some of the addresses are close rather than exact, but it's a good resource. Chicago Catholic Churches
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

When I was a kid, my Dad always pointed out that tan brick building on Byron with the "S" in a pediment over the entrance and told me it had been Selig Polyscope Studios and that this had been a big time movie studio before Hollywood. A couple of the other old timers in the neighborhood said that there were stables on Western south of Irving Park to house animals and that there was a po
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

A couple of my HS buddies lived near Southport and Addison and we used to get pizza from Logalbo's, too, back in the day. Great thin crust pizza, good memories. Another great thin crust pizzeria was Riggio's on the west side of Western Avenue just north of Irving Park Road. It was a full service restaurant, too, and I remember seeing a few of the news and sports people from WGN TV dining there s
Forum: General Discussion

When I was in HS, there was liquor store on the corner of Irving and Kedzie where the gent behind the counter had thick glasses and 1 eye that pointed about 45 degrees to the side. One of my buddies who had a receding hairline and looked about 30 at age 18 would collect the money from the rest of us and make the buy. Then, we'd sit on someone's parents' front porch and drink quietly. I also recal
Forum: General Discussion

Back in the '70s, I played in a few R'n'R bands and still remember stopping at Jack in the Box for Breakfast Jacks ( similar to an Egg McMuffin but on a hamburger bun) and onion rings, a very complimentary taste combination, in the wee hours after playing a gig. When J in the B closed up, White Castle was the only convenient alternative but I still remember suffering for that choice the next day.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I played in several bands back in the '70s and around '74-'75, my band rented a 2nd floor room in an old building that had once been a plating factory just north of the Martin gas station. The building's new owners were renting rooms as "offices" but it simply had cheaply constructed walls with a dropped ceiling and cheesy paneling. But, we could play loud and there was nobody to complai
Forum: General Discussion

I grew up in the North Center area, St. Benedict parish. My friends and I also went to the North Center on Lincoln and also a small, dumpy theater on Damen just south of Irving Park, the Bugg. It was located where the parking lot for the drive in for the Lincoln Bank or whatever it's called now is located. I also saw quite a few movies at the Roscoe on Roscoe just west of Damen when I was small u
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

+1 on "Devil in the White City", but Herbert Asbury's "The Gangs of Chicago" is another excellent and entertaining historic read, though the history is pre-Prohibition/Capone era.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

When I was little, we lived on Leavitt just south of Addison. There was a Certified grocery store on the NW corner and just west, was Eddie Propst's butcher shop and a bakery, the name of which escapes me right now. In fact, that corner had most everything since Joe Schneider's drugstore was on the NE corner with another small food/convenience store just 1 door east and the SW corner had a barbers
Forum: General Discussion

"One issue discussed was obedience vs common sense since, according to the article, the Sisters had been told to keep the children at their desks and it was "disobedient" sisters who got their students out the windows." Yes, Querencia, this is something that's impressed indelibly on my memory and which I still find very disturbing. I really didn't see anything about the anni
Forum: General Discussion

What a kick, remembering this old show. WCIU was the first Chicago UHF TV station and seemed to have a microscopic budget. But, Don Cornelius' Soul Train ("You can bet your last money, it'll be a stone gas, honey") was 5-6 PM daily, IIRC, and RH&B was 9-10 Fridays. Both were really cheesy as has been noted, but for us ethnically isolated North Side white kids, it was fascinating.
Forum: Questions and Answers (Q&A)

I recall going to Clybourn Avenue northwest of Southport back in the late '60s to watch the street drags on Friday and Saturday nights. Racing began around 9 or 10 PM, IIRC, and the local police would pick up $10 per racer to not interfere. Only in retrospect do I now realize how dangerous it was but Clybourn was all industrial in those days and almost deserted by anyone but racers and spectators,
Forum: General Discussion