Barb Westfall March 12, 2008

I believe it was 1952 when we bought a small tract house on Sauk Trail. I cannot tell you the number right now, but it was between the Ivan Bakers (father and son). I believe the son became a principal or superintendent of schools there. We have moved so many times, but there are the memories of the short time spent there. I laugh. My computer ser up is on that old formica table which was purchased for the kitchen. I think it was about 30 yrs. ago that the stove was finally donated and replaced by a built in. An the refrigerator went a short time after we moved to these mountains. Just call me a pack rat!!

Barbara R. Westfall, EdS.

by Rosalie Turkel Cripps, sent March 23, 2008, updated August 27, 2010

My parents, Leo and Mary Turkel, older sister, Sandi, and I moved to Park Forest from Iowa in June, 1953 when my father was transferred for his job to Chicago. We first lived in the "rental units" on Fir Street very close to Lakewood Elementary School where my sister and I attended 4th and 2nd grade, respectively. In April of 1954 we moved into our newly finished house on Blackhawk Drive (close to Orchard Drive). That house was truly the home of my childhood.

from Leo Turkel, July 14, 2008.

When I graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1941, I accepted a job with a company based in Omaha. The job took me to Des Moines, Iowa for twelve years. In Des Moines I met my wife and we have now been married for sixty five years. Our two daughters were born in Des Moines and started school there. However, in 1953 my company offered me a chance to move to the Chicago area and be the manager of a new branch.

Memories from Audrey Nordlof Ohlson Smith, an early teacher, 1953-1954. March 18, 2008

Four other beginning teachers and I lived at #1 Hemlock during the school year of 1953-1954. Since there were no apartments in Park Forest then, the school board rented two townhouses which they then rented to new teachers. We called our apartment, "The Teacherage." The five of us taught at Dogwood School. The principal there, as I recall, was a Mr. Lautenschlager. I had applied to teach in Park Forest because of John Moon, a member of the school board. I had worked for him during a summer job at R. R. Donnelley & Sons, Co. in Chicago the summer of 1952.