For those who love Tiki bars, it must have been awesome with its painted murals of beach scenes and palm trees behind the bar, bamboo around the front of the bar, and fish nets and floats on the ceiling in the dining area. It was located at Lincoln and Pratt and offered nightly dancing and specialties including aged steaks and milk-fed chicken. South Seas was around in 1944, 15 years before my parents moved to Lincolnwood. Unfortunately, despite scouring several great internet sources, I could not uncover photos of my little corner grocery store, North Shore Food Market, where I spent every cent I earned on candy bars, nor Van Zeelt’s Lawn and Garden, which was just around the corner from North Shore on Cicero Avenue. While most of the stores and businesses from my childhood are now just memories, it is reassuring Bunny Hutch and Novelty Golf & Games are still in business! Here is a brief picture history of businesses that existed before my parents moved to Lincolnwood, followed by a few I clearly remember from my youth. I’ll never forget when Bart Connor showed up with his Lincolnwood pals and did spectacular flips off the diving board. The water park section wasn’t there when I grew up, but I fondly remember basking in the sun with my friends when I was in junior high school and high school. The park where I spent much of my youth is called Henry A. Tessville officially became Lincolnwood 5 years later in 1936 and Proesel enjoyed a 46-year run as mayor, earning himself a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. I went to grade school with one of his grandsons, Ed. During Prohibition, Tessville became a haven for speakeasies and gambling facilities and this didn’t change until Henry Proesel was elected mayor in 1931. Proesel made huge changes such as planting 10,000 elm trees on village streets (many of which have succumbed to Dutch elm disease) and limiting the number of liquor licenses allowable within the village limits. Incorporated as Tessville in 1911 by 359 residents, the village was a rough and tumble place in its early days. I wrote before about Lincoln Village, which was just over the border in Chicago on Lincoln Avenue between Kimball and Kedzie and the adjacent Hollywood Kiddieland. I discuss both beloved places later in this blog. When I went to college on the East Coast, nobody heard of Lincolnwood, however, when I mentioned Skokie and Evanston, that elicited a glimmer of recognition. Lincolnwood is just a stone’s throw away from Chicago – Sauganash and Edgebrook are the lovely communities closest to where I grew up, near Pratt and Cicero. Back in 1959, there were very few if any Jewish families living in the Towers, so instead he opted for a house in the Lincolnwood Terrace section just east of the Towers. My dad loves recounting the story of live reindeer with a manned sleigh that graced one homeowner’s front lawn when they first moved to Lincolnwood! Actress Barbara Eden looked at a house in the Towers at North Shore and Navajo when she married Charles Fegert, a Chicago Sun-Times advertising executive, but they ended up living in Water Tower Place (1977-1983).
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My dad could have bought a house in the Lincolnwood Towers, famous for its extravagant Christmas decorations. However, he had the last laugh because Lincolnwood is an easy commute to North Michigan Avenue, where nearly all of them practiced and my dad has since 1958 – and still does part-time at age 93! They all thought he was a little nuts for choosing this somewhat obscure, unassuming village. My dad broke the mold of all his physician friends, many of whom moved from Hyde Park or South Shore to North Shore suburbs such as Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, and Highland Park.
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In 1959, my parents moved from Rogers Park to Lincolnwood, a quiet Chicago suburb with a current population of about 12,697 people.