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Post by Job on Apr 22, 2006 7:11:36 GMT -6
I used to cash my pay check in Trapps, and then get a beef sandwich and a schooner of beer, a big heavy glass, not one of those "modern" plastic pseudo-schooners. The beer cost a quarter.
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Post by itsmeagain on Apr 25, 2006 7:36:30 GMT -6
I hate beer in plastic cups. Now we have plastic bottles!!!! Glass for me all the way.
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Post by DumDave on Apr 29, 2006 19:17:56 GMT -6
I hate beer in plastic cups. Now we have plastic bottles!!!! Glass for me all the way. Ditto for me. Beer is ALWAYS best served in a bottle. -Dave
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Post by John on May 1, 2006 20:25:15 GMT -6
A view of Main St. in 1879. This is a view to the west from Monroe St.
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Post by Stephanie on May 2, 2006 17:03:19 GMT -6
I love all of the awnings and overhangs in that picture, Butch. Then in the later years the lighted signs were really neat to see in some of the other pics you've posted, from those pictures the town looked so lively. Too bad we don't still have the awnings and such, but they probably would clash with today's sign ordinance.
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Post by DumDave on May 5, 2006 12:27:23 GMT -6
Streator in 1912....... Streator had 30 passenger and 40 freight trains daily......had fourteen coal mines operating in two seams of coal....shipped 375 autos in 1912 over one road alone....packed 2,500,000 cans of corn....had a garter factory that turned out 3,000,000 pairs of garters annually....manufactured annually 7,000,000 milk jars, used in the Chicago milk trade....had 16 miles of sewers............handled an average of 8,000,000 pounds of freight daily. -UNIONVILLE DISPATCH published monthly by the Streatorland Historical Society. -Dave
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Post by Job on May 5, 2006 16:52:33 GMT -6
The Unionville Dispatch? What is that? I know that a number of years after my ancestors came here, there was a town, to the south, called Unionville. Did that town have a newspaper?
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Post by DumDave on May 6, 2006 15:08:22 GMT -6
The Unionville Dispatch? What is that? I know that a number of years after my ancestors came here, there was a town, to the south, called Unionville. Did that town have a newspaper? Several. I have somehow managed to forget the Heenanville Daily News Picynune Dispatch Panatagraph Times Post Tribune. -DD
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Post by Job on May 7, 2006 6:45:32 GMT -6
It was early August, about 8:00 pm. on a Tuesday night as I looked out of the window of Miller’s Pool Hall. I had looked out this window so many times in the past several years I could have written a book and called it “1001 Nights in Miller’s.”
I had long ago come to three possible conclusions about George “Honey Boy “ Evans. One possibility was that Streator had changed considerably since he wrote his now famous song, “In the Good Old Summertime.” Another possibility was that he had in mind some other town when he wrote that song. On the other hand, he may simply have had a manic personality. That night, like most summer nights during the week, the town appeared to be dead. Only the pool halls and bars were open, and there were very few people anywhere.
Tuesday night, and only the die hards were out. I couldn’t get the car, so I had to walk to town like a loser. After finding no one at Hills, I ended up at Miller’s. Other than George’s usual poker game in the backroom and Hoggy attempting to mooch money for a “bowl of chili,” there were only a couple of guys in Millers. I had won twenty dollars earlier that day on a derby at the factory, and was ready to do some drinking; but I did not have a car. If I had my dad’s car, I could have gone out to Oliver’s and picked up a quart or two. Better yet, I could have gone to Del Monte’s and sat at a real bar.
My girl friend was on vacation in the Dells with her parents, and I had come uptown early, around 6:30. Ralph had a good paperback book rack, and did not care if you read them. He only asked that you did not bend or fold the pages. I was in the middle of a book I had started a week earlier. Adhering to Ralph’s rule, I had not marked my place by folding a page; instead, I had used part of a match book cover as a bookmark.
After reading twenty pages or so, I wasted a couple of dollars on a Tip Board where the prize was a .22 rifle. I then watched a couple of guys engage in a clumsy game of rotation at the front table. On Friday and Saturday nights, the front table was informally reserved for a few older guys who played straight pool or pea pool. On Tuesday nights, however, anyone who paid a dime could grab the front table and knock balls around. In contrast with the experts who played on Fridays and Saturdays, these two yahoos were yelling and banging balls off of the table until Ralph told them that if they tore the cloth, they would have to pay.
I wanted something to eat, but the thought of eating those plastic-wrapped hamburgers Ralph sold did not sound appealing; and pizza at Ginny’s didn’t sound right. Who eats pizza on a Tuesday night? Where was that Mexican guy who sold tamales from his push cart?
I knew that if I waited until the last movie started at the Granada, I could walk down there and get in free. Last night, I had seen that whiney new guy James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause;” I did not care to sit through that again. I did like his red jacket, however.
Finally, around 10:00, ________ came by in his father’s DeSoto, and motioned for me to join him. We picked up several quarts at Oliver’s and quickly transferred their contents to the conical quart containers Whalen’s used for root beer. I had come up with the idea a few weeks earlier. Because dozens of kids rode around town drinking root beer from those containers, there was little chance that anyone would guess that we were drinking beer.
Around 10:30, we were able to pick up Randy’s Record Shop which broadcast Rhythm and Blues and Rock a Billy music from some station in Tennessee. As usual, the signal was weak, but the music was great.
Perhaps, “Honey Boy” had had a similar experience.
(Except from Diary)
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Post by DumDave on May 7, 2006 14:54:47 GMT -6
Very well done. I wish I had figured out that wax cup deal. Would have saved me from driving out to an old cemetary out by Kangley. Again hats off to your tome. -Dave
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Post by History Major on May 8, 2006 10:23:49 GMT -6
That is a good picture of the first Heenan store at Main and Park Streets. It housed the store, and other offices and smaller businesses and a post office. There was also an opera hall which could seat 1,000 people. The building burned to the ground in less than three hours on the night of November 22,1897.
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Post by Job on May 9, 2006 12:35:52 GMT -6
There is something almost hypnotic about old photographs, particularly ones containing people. I used to have a number of prints of old Chicago scenes on my office walls. One of my favorites was the one below.
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Post by Job on May 10, 2006 7:48:36 GMT -6
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Post by Job on May 11, 2006 12:17:30 GMT -6
That is a good picture of the first Heenan store at Main and Park Streets. It housed the store, and other offices and smaller businesses and a post office. There was also an opera hall which could seat 1,000 people. The building burned to the ground in less than three hours on the night of November 22,1897. According to today's paper, Tom Heenan died. He had a place not too far from us. Given his family's wealth, he could have simply sat at home and counted his money; but he graduated from Harvard Law School and was a long-time partner in one of Chicago's top law firms. He will be buried in Farm Ridge Township, just north of the area which was once called Heenanville.
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Post by pinehallmanor on May 20, 2006 21:28:18 GMT -6
Having just returned from a trip to Streator I am always amazed at the changes in the downtown area, not to mention the now disappearing mall on the North side of town. Where do people in Streator shop anymore? I spent a lot of time in LaSalle/Peru as a child growing up, my grandparents lived in LaSalle, but would hate having to drive to that area to do my shopping. Trips like the one last week make me glad that I decided to leave the area and put down roots somewhere else. I loved growing up in Streator as a child, movies at the Majestic on Saturday, special movies at the Plumb where we got to sit in the balcony. My brother worked as an usher at the Plumb and occasionally we would get in free. My friends Uncle owned the Granada and sometimes we would get in free there too. I remember sitting in the projection room and watching movies from the private room upstairs. Does anyone remember the race track that use to be located at the end of W. Third Street? I remember riding the bus to and from town and it would always turn around in the parking lot of the Rex Club located on N. Bloomington St. I remember my parents whispering about the Rex Club so I suspect it had a dubious reputation during those years. The Club Grove was located close to my house so I remember this as a very popular place for adults. There was a somewhat seedy restaurant/bar on W. Fourth St., or maybe it was Frech St. known as the Farm Tavern. It had some of the best fried chicken you could sink your teeth into. I hope there's enough left in Streator in year 2006 that people are able to establish fond memories to look back on!
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