Bill Matteson
Uptown Chicago History Correspondent
As I look back, it was a long walk from Lawrence and Kenmore to The Clarendon Park Field House, and we thought nothing of walking that distance in the middle of winter with ice skates tied together by the laces and flung over the shoulders.
About six blocks there, then skate for a few hours, six blocks home. I don't ever remember getting cold. Now if it's under 70 degrees I wear a sweater.
As soon as it got cold in the late fall, we would speculate as to when "they" would freeze Clarendon. I always thought they had some kind of machine that put ice down until I watched a city worker use a big fire hose. He was covered in ice when he was finished; we all cheered him
It usually took a few days of applications before we had a good skating surface. There were always big shovels with two handles in case it snowed, then we volunteered to shovel the ice.
We would go in upstairs then down to ground level, put on our ice skates, and leave our shoes under the bench. No one would ever steal them. After skating a while it was a treat to come back in the warm basement and have Hot Chocolate from the concession stand, listen to the juke box at 5 cents a tune or 6 for a quarter, or play ping pong. We could get the paddles and balls from the counter. Everything was free in those days.
Before it became the Clarendon Park Field House, it was known as the Clarendon Park Beach House because at one time the beach was right on the east side of it. Then progress and landfill pushed the lake even farther east to its present location. In and about the 1949/50 time bracket, someone decided to open a teen center in the building just south of the field house. We went there a few times, but our group didn't like it because there was too much supervision.
April 27, 2012
April 10, 2012
Treasure Hunting in the Alleys
Bill Matteson
Uptown Chicago History Correspondent
As a treasure hunter the alleys were our gold fields. Things we could find that became our treasure were
an old pair of roller skates and a 2 x 4. This was the birth of modern day skate boarding. We would take the skate apart and attach the ends to the front and back of a 2X4, this was the skate board.
Now to make a scooter we would take the 2X4 with the two pieces of skate wheels and attach a wooden orange crate to it. We then attached an old broom stick to the top of the crate; this became our handle. We would paint them if we could find paint. Old baby buggies were prized for the wheels; we always wanted to enter a soap box derby but we never progressed that far. Most of the time it was a cardboard box on top of a collapsed buggy.
A rare find was an old inner tube. We would find one and patch it up. This became our Lake Michigan Yacht. If it was shredded and couldn't be patched we would cut it into strips and make rubber guns.
This was a carved piece of wood that resembled a rifle; a spring clothes pin was the trigger and we would shoot a large cut piece of rubber out of it.
Match guns were made by taking a spring clothespin apart and reversing one of the handles with the spring on the outside. By pushing in the lever of the spring, it fit into a notch that we cut in on the inside of the pin. Then when we inserted a kitchen match and pulled the spring/trigger, the spring shot out a lit match. This was great for burning down small forts we made out of popsicle sticks.
Finding bottles was the same as finding money. Cereal box tops and the inner liner of a jar of Ovaltine was the same as a pot of gold. Kellogs PEP sponsored Superman, Ovaltine, Captain Midnight, Ralston Tom Mix, Wheaties Jack Armstrong. Cherrios The Lone Ranger* We listened to all their radio serial programs, 15 minutes each.
When we found a piece of wood about a 2X2 we would taper it at each end them put numbers on it. 1 on one side then 2 then 3 then 4. We then would hit the tapered end with an old broom handle, the piece would fly up and then when it landed the number showing on top was your score. We played to 21.
Speaking of patch kits for inner tubes, which we could buy at the Dime Store, we would also buy repair kits for shoes. A rubber sole the could be glued over the hole in your shoe, along with new rubber heels. I even remember the "Cats Paw" brand.
Metal crescent shaped cleats were essential in order to be noticed walking down the street. We would attach them to the heels and the tips of our shoes. As young kids we developed a way of walking, double bouncing and dragging the cleat on the sidewalk that made a terrible racket. Especially in the school hallways.
Most every kid in Stewart School collected trading cards. We would start out with an ordinary old deck of cards and the trade one of your cards for a different card from someone else. Over a period of time, we would end up with a hundred cards all different, most valuable was any card that that had a scene on it. Pin ups were the best.
We did this for a couple of years, then some company started selling trading cards with an already mixed set and blank on the suit side. Well, that took all the fun out of what we were doing, so we all quit. I think the Dime Store got stuck with a lot of inventory
Thanks for reading!
Uptown Chicago History Correspondent
As a treasure hunter the alleys were our gold fields. Things we could find that became our treasure were
an old pair of roller skates and a 2 x 4. This was the birth of modern day skate boarding. We would take the skate apart and attach the ends to the front and back of a 2X4, this was the skate board.
Now to make a scooter we would take the 2X4 with the two pieces of skate wheels and attach a wooden orange crate to it. We then attached an old broom stick to the top of the crate; this became our handle. We would paint them if we could find paint. Old baby buggies were prized for the wheels; we always wanted to enter a soap box derby but we never progressed that far. Most of the time it was a cardboard box on top of a collapsed buggy.
A rare find was an old inner tube. We would find one and patch it up. This became our Lake Michigan Yacht. If it was shredded and couldn't be patched we would cut it into strips and make rubber guns.
This was a carved piece of wood that resembled a rifle; a spring clothes pin was the trigger and we would shoot a large cut piece of rubber out of it.
Match guns were made by taking a spring clothespin apart and reversing one of the handles with the spring on the outside. By pushing in the lever of the spring, it fit into a notch that we cut in on the inside of the pin. Then when we inserted a kitchen match and pulled the spring/trigger, the spring shot out a lit match. This was great for burning down small forts we made out of popsicle sticks.
Finding bottles was the same as finding money. Cereal box tops and the inner liner of a jar of Ovaltine was the same as a pot of gold. Kellogs PEP sponsored Superman, Ovaltine, Captain Midnight, Ralston Tom Mix, Wheaties Jack Armstrong. Cherrios The Lone Ranger* We listened to all their radio serial programs, 15 minutes each.
When we found a piece of wood about a 2X2 we would taper it at each end them put numbers on it. 1 on one side then 2 then 3 then 4. We then would hit the tapered end with an old broom handle, the piece would fly up and then when it landed the number showing on top was your score. We played to 21.
Speaking of patch kits for inner tubes, which we could buy at the Dime Store, we would also buy repair kits for shoes. A rubber sole the could be glued over the hole in your shoe, along with new rubber heels. I even remember the "Cats Paw" brand.
Metal crescent shaped cleats were essential in order to be noticed walking down the street. We would attach them to the heels and the tips of our shoes. As young kids we developed a way of walking, double bouncing and dragging the cleat on the sidewalk that made a terrible racket. Especially in the school hallways.
Most every kid in Stewart School collected trading cards. We would start out with an ordinary old deck of cards and the trade one of your cards for a different card from someone else. Over a period of time, we would end up with a hundred cards all different, most valuable was any card that that had a scene on it. Pin ups were the best.
We did this for a couple of years, then some company started selling trading cards with an already mixed set and blank on the suit side. Well, that took all the fun out of what we were doing, so we all quit. I think the Dime Store got stuck with a lot of inventory
Thanks for reading!
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