Memories of Life in Downers Grove

Farm Fields

Our family moved to Downers Grove in 1954 when I was 17 and my brother Tom was 13. We were familiar with the area because we had a business associate and later good friends, Larry, Eve and their son Scott Oakley that lived on the south side of 55th Street between Park and Hudson. I would spend week ends between 1952 and 54 at their horse farm. There are a few railroad tie, fence posts I helped put in, that are still around what was their 10 acre farm. Most of the land between 55th and 75th, Cass and Fairview was farmland planted in a rotation of corn, bean and grain. We cut hay off of what is now part of the Reagan Expressway.

In 1954 over Labor Day weekend we moved to 57th and Fairview. We had a Beagle and she ran her nose raw running rabbits the first week we moved. She was finally in her element. We had 5 acres, the equivalent of a city block to play on. In the city we had a 25x25 yard. We had a little more grass to cut. We could target shoot, hunt and camp out on our own land. Jette's lived next door and they had 26 acres, horses, a donkey named "Truman" and two boys Paul and Rocky that liked to do many of the things my brother and I liked. Behind that there were farm fields all the way to Cass Avenue. In the winter we could see the cars on Cass at night from Fairview. After the crops were off you could horseback ride cross country from 56th and Fairview almost to old 66 without a fence. We used the WCFL radio towers North of Ogden as our East/West guide to home when we wandered the fields. We were South of the towers.

I went to Downers Grove High School Class of 1955 and after Chicago it was like going to a parochial school. The teachers were dedicated and you could actually call them at home if you had problem with your homework. There were fellow students that planned on securing a degree in agriculture. It was not uncommon to see tractors towing hay wagons through town. We used a hay wagon to make a homecoming float in 1954 that I towed through town with Jette's Jeep. Our friends and relatives were sure we had moved to the end of the earth.

When November rolled around the talk around school was about hunting. There were plenty of pheasants and rabbits around right outside our back door. Our land was in grass and wetland and next door there was a pond, we had a lot of critters around. I got a hunting license and borrowed a shotgun from friends. I got my first shotgun when one of my teachers announced he had a double for sale. After class I explained that I was borrowing a shotgun, asked the price and made arrangements to look at it. I went home on the school bus, talked to my mother, borrowed $50. From her and went to look at the shotgun in our ‘53 Chevy. I looked at the shotgun in his kitchen. It was a good gun. I paid him the $50, threw the shotgun in the trunk and I now had my own shotgun. I traded that one I bought for a 12-gauge with the guy next door. I still have it. I had been on a rifle team in my Chicago High School for three years while in Chicago, acquired another rifle from the Spiegel Catalog that came COD from UPS. Guns were not an issue in those days.

The Tivoli Theatre had a free telephone on a table at the back of the hall past the bathrooms. When the show was over, you could get the operator and have here ring home to have someone come and pick you up. We had a party line and I think our number was 3182M. There were three other parties on that line. A live operator connected you. A little while later we went to a more modern system and the Tivoli had to take the phone out because there was no longer a live local operator to monitor abuse. If you had visitors and they got lost, it was not uncommon for the local police to escort your lost guests to your driveway.

Rich Manak