Elgin, Illinois

I was born in Elgin and grew up there. I was eager to leave when I went to college and I never wanted to return to stay. Yet I have so many fond memories and when I go back, I bemoan all the changes in the entire region.  Seems like what we called "Elginland" is now just another part of the Chicago metroplex.

My father was a partner and then full owner of the Chevrolet dealership in Elgin. It was known early on as Lord Chevrolet, then became Brotzman and Melms, then Brotzman and Biggers, then Jerry Biggers Chevrolet, by which name it is still known.

Above the 1957 Chevy and below, the 1958 model.

We lived in three houses while I grew up in three different neighborhoods.  I attended McKinley School for grades 1-6, the Larsen Jr. High for grades 7-10 and graduated from Elgin High School in 1957.

Just down the street, Grove Avenue, from the 'garage' was the Elgin National Watch Company, R.I.P.

Now all of Grove Avenue is devoted to parking and shops, often related to the ridiculous river boat gambling casino sitting in the Fox River, the Grand Victoria.  At least they gave it a good name!

The Sears Art Gallery of the Elgin Academy was where I went to art classes and where my piano recitals were given. My teacher was Mrs. Sternberg, mother of my good friend Jody Sternberg Rullman.

Hanging in the gallery was a picture of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart. I have heard that the Academy sold the painting sometime ago and that was not the original, but a copy.

Nevertheless, it was alwasy a rude shock to glance up from the keyboard during one's nervous performances to see the fat white rump of that horse.

Not too far from our house on Spring Street was this mock castle. We made up all sorts of stories about it, but I've never known anything about who built it or why.

Downtown Elgin was dominated by the Elgin Tower which sat on a triangular intersection known as Fountain Square. I never remember a fountain near there, nor was there anything resembling a square.

As Towers go, this wasn't very tall. Other places downtown that I loved included the Rialto and Grove theaters and the Crocker, below.

I spent many many hours in each of them. I was a particular fan of Esther Williams movies.

My father;'s partner, Jack Brotzman, was a car dealer but at heart he was a horse dealer. He bought and sold horses frequently and once, they took a brown pony as part of the trade on a new car. In those days, we got things like a side of beef or a butchered spring lamb as payment for cars. Wonder if any of today's dealers do that?

Anyway, as a dedicated horse lover, I was crazy about this poiny. I took riding lessons with several of my friends, but when it came to Brownie (what an origianl name!) I had to do the saddling and bridling all alone. One of my friends came with me for a ride one day and Brownie bit her. Geez, she spread it all over how I had this murderous beast! Nobody wanted to come with me anymore. My mother wouldn't go near the poor pony, so I was happy to return to my weekly lessons with the other girls. I can't remember how long I had Brownie or what happened to him, but I'm sure Jack was happy to sell him.

To this day Elgin has major railtracks running through the downtown. I remember as a child going down to watch the Hiawatha come through. It was the first streamliner I saw.

In high school, one of my best friends lived in an apartment in Dunham Castle, opposite the Dunham Woods Hunt Club.

I loved to stay overnight with Pat and attend parties in Wayne, IL, where the club and tthe castle were located.

Once we all had our driver's licenses we liked to drive around and go shopping, sometimes at The Little Traveler in Geneva, IL. It is still a charming place to have luncheon and shop for trinkets.

My gang of teen girls and I tried to be pretty rebellious, though by today's standards,we were real duds! One of the things we did one Halloween was to hang a bra on this WWI soldier's fist. The next day at school, all the boys were laughing at one of our group. The bra was one she'd taken to camp and her nametag was still on it. How very lowering!