Uptown Chicago History Correspondent
We always had a good time growing up in Uptown, hardly any problems, no gangs so to speak of. We all belonged to many groups but not one specific gang. I would hang out on Leland and Kenmore, sometimes at Wilson and Hazel, Clarendon field house, or with the group from the Arcadia Roller Rink. About 1949 / 50 a change started to take place in Uptown
I noticed that there were groups starting to call themselves gangs. A book came out called The Amboy Dukes
I think John Wayne copied from us.
We just all walked around looking cool and no one really got into any serious trouble.
Now if any one of our friends got into any difficulty with a rival group, we would mass together to meet the other group and usually end up with a lot of name calling. That was about it. Once we were going to fight some stupid group that came in wearing gang jackets. Our gang equipment was adhesive tape, which we put on our noses and backs so we could identify each other.
The Cops from Town Hall station got wind of this and came down hard on everyone that was there. We pulled all our tape off and walked quietly away and the stupid gang with matching jackets got beat and arrested by the cops.
Editor's Note: Bill Matteson is a regular correspondent for the Uptown Chicago History blog. Click the link below to read more of his stories of growing up in Uptown.
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