I graduated from Rich Township in 1960 and have attended every reunion of my class and the all school reunion of several years ago. Our class is now in the process of planning a 50th reunion in 2010. My family lived in Park Forest from 1957-1963 when my dad (a middle manager for Swift & Co.) was transferred to North Carolina. I was married at Faith United Protestant Church on June 24, 1964 with Dr. Engelmann presiding. My mother, Lillnette Z. Hiller (1917-2006), also a member of Faith, inaugurated the Living Nativity at the church, I believe, a year after our move from New Orleans, LA where she had started it there but OUTSIDE. I have visited PF occasionally over the years, usually in conjunction with reunions, but also to visit my high school English teacher, D. Stanley Moore and his wife Jan.
My experiences at Rich High School were the most formative of my adult life, outside of my family. My values were formed, particularly those concerning social justice and affirmative action, at that time. No person was more influential in my life than Stan Moore-- except for my parents, brother, and maternal grandmother (of Norfolk, Virginia--my birthplace and heritage of over three hundred years-- who lived two days shy of her 100th birthday in 1994.) Their only rivals are my daughter, Susan Lillnette Rest Asplund and her husband Jim.
As a teacher (1966-1968--Latin in Wheeling IL, and 1970-1979--English and humanities in Plymouth MN) and as a politician (Minnesota legislature 1984-current) I often reflect on the lessons of individual freedoms and compassion for those struggling to achieve the American Dream based on my experiences in the classrooms of Rich Township High School and teachers such as Jim Fisher, Len Peart, and Ray Janota as well as Stan Moore. I also owe a lot to my classmates who challenged every social stereotype even as we lived in an all-white Chicago suburb.
Most of us who were schooled in the late 50s-early 60s in the north were not aware at the time of the great social movement of which we were a part. It fascinates me to read the comments of Philip Klutznick (on your oral history site) of all the details that went into producing Park Forest.
So the ramblings of one to whom Park Forest is so endeared.
Sincerely,
Ann Rest
P. S. An all school reunion memory. A couple of 1960 graduates and I chose a round table at random to sit at during the shopping center gala. We loved the prom dresses display and the music. The other folks at the table introduced themselves, and we started reminiscing. I asked the man sitting next to me how he and his wife were spending the weekend. He said that they were driving around to those spots that meant the most to him growing up. He spent all his school years in Park Forest. This was the first time he had returned to Park Forest since graduating from Rich in the early 70s. I don't remember his name, but he now lives in Washington state. I said that I did the same thing every time I visited: my house (and took photos), the Aqua Center, the library, my church, the cemetery where a dear friend was buried, and of course, the high school. I asked him where HE went. He said that he visited HIS house and the neighborhood. " Where did you live?" "On East Rocket Circle." "So did I. What number?" "Seventeen." I stopped dead in my tracks. That was MY HOUSE, and I told him so in no uncertain terms. He said he lived there. I couldn't believe it. My folks had moved to Wilmington, NC, when I was a senior at Northwestern U and had rented our house; his family bought it two years later from them. He and I had the SAME room alongside the path across the peat bog that led to the shopping center. Then came the part that brought me to tears. My father planted rose bushes at every home we ever had over the years-- Norfolk, VA; New Orleans, LA; Park Forest,IL; Wilmington, NC. So do I. This young man told me that at every home of his, HE plants rose bushes to remind him of those he and his family found in Park Forest when they moved in and for all the great memories he had of his life in our village. I have three rose bushes in my garden here in New Hope, Minnesota; every day they remind me of my father.
Ann H. Rest, State Senator District 45, Chair, Committee on State and Local Governmnt Operations and Oversight