Good morning GH. This is a special blog that contains some of my reminiscences about life in the olden days. No need to read, just a desire on my part to record some of the things that made my life and that of a few others special in the bygone days.

I know that I have mentioned that I worked at a place called Triangle Mobil in Arlington Height, IL. The business is long gone, having succumbed to the relentless march of progress. It was originally razed to make room for the expansion of a Chevrolet dealership. That dealership has since given way to a strip mall and a grocery store. Both entities were across the street from one of the original malls called Arlington Market. That mall had a Hi-Lo grocery store, a Jewel Tea grocery, a Walgreens, an S.S. Kresge, a bakery and a Chicago entity known as Polk Brothers, a furniture and appliance store. That store along with several others of that chain, burned down several times during my youth.

It is interesting that Arlington Market conjured up so many memories for me. I saw many local performers there in their T.V. roles, the SilverCup Bread Co. rocket ship, (they used to give out mini loaves of white bread), that we kids thought were the height of cool. The Oscar Meyer Co. brought their Wiener Mobiles a few times and that was always a treat. Today, the Arlington Market has been razed too, with grandiose plans for a new condo complex, and then for a few years left in ruins as the money ran out. I think today that they have it back on track.

Across Dryden Ave. from Arlington Market was an apartment complex and Miner Junior High School, one of my earliest schools, and only the second junior high school in the District 25 system. More would be built later as Arlington Heights grew and then Miner would ultimately be turned first into a "special school" for special needs children and finally I think it was torn down. Miner sat next to one of only two elementary schools in the District 25 system. Again, Windsor School was built to accommodate a growing town. Many more schools would be built to educate the children of the baby boom generation. That was true of the second wave in Wheeling as District 21 expanded too and then shrunk as the children grew and the community aged.

During those boom years, High School District 214 had to expand to educate those same children as they grew into adults. Once there was only Arlington High School and their teams with a mascot of the Cardinals. My high school, Prospect, was on the border of Mt. Prospect and Arlington Heights. Our school started with a small campus and grew as the years went by and the Knights grew in number. A school that was originally designed to hold about 1,700 students had over 3,000 at one point. Their 45th reunion is coming up soon. Prospect was soon joined by Forest View, Elk Grove, Wheeling and Hersey. There were plans for another, but the baby boom was drawing to a close.

I have more to say, but I am growing weary. Maybe when the muse moves me, I'll add in some additional details about Bob and Triangle Mobil and the myriad things that made growing up in the post-World War II suburbs unique, at least to me. If I think about it, I'll describe the growth of one of the cities that housed the returning veterans and their spouses and children, Rolling Meadows. I'm pretty certain that Mary Kay, a former colleague could help me. She grew up on the other side of Arlington Heights, not too far from one of the parks that was added to ease the load on the original park and pool, Recreation Park. It was called Pioneer Park.