There never seems to be a time when Park Forest separated itself from its historical connection with those who served in the armed forces.
We have gone over the village’s link to veterans before; of its beginnings as a G. I. Town, built to accommodate World War II veterans looking for decent housing on their return home, saluting Medal of Honor recipients from Illinois by naming streets in their honor to the annual observances of both Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
An exceptional facility is the Park Forest Veterans Closet, located at 351 Founders Way in the downtown area. It offers all veterans the basic necessities of shelter including furniture, kitchen appliances, table ware and linens free of cost.
To this we now can add the Hometown Heroes Banner Project in which local members of the military, both active and those honorably discharged, can be honored by large banners hung from light poles, displaying that vet’s service photo. Twelve of these $250, 18-by-36 inch banners are arrayed along Main Street.
The goal is to have these banners on permanent display from April through November.
“Our goal is to get dozens of these banners,” says village manager (and former U.S. Marine) Tom Mick. “Nothing would please me more than a need for more light poles. I’d love to see these banners extend to Orchard Drive and beyond.”
You do not have to fire a gun to serve this country, and Park Forest resident John Ray, whose photo as a young Air Force recruit is on one of the banners, is a prime example.
Ray confesses he was a less than stellar student when he graduated Rich East High School in 1959 and that may have been his motive for joining the Air Force the following year. Somehow, his low rank of airman third class status did not keep him from being shipped to Hawaii, and somehow it did not keep him from being assigned to work on one of the newest IBM computers built for the service.
Whether it was the intellect needed for his new assignment or an awakened curiosity about the world around him, something clicked with Ray. While still in the service, he was able to take courses at the University of Hawaii. He left the Air Force in 1964 but stayed in Hawaii to acquire his bachelor and master’s degrees in fine arts from the university.
Ray also taught classes at the prestigious Punahou High School in Honolulu. In case you ask, yes, Punahou was Barack Obama’s high school. Years later, Ray met Obama, who was then running for the U.S. Senate in 2004, and exchanged stories of high school life with the future president.
Those four years in the Air Force prepared him for his life’s work. When he returned home, he taught art classes at both Prairie State College and Governors State University as well as James Hart Junior High School in Homewood, from where he retired in 2000. This past Christmas, Ray said he received cards from 27 of his former students.
Each person’s story is different, and village manager Mick wants to promote the banner program to more than the dozen on display.
Mick says applications are available at Village Hall and Veterans Closet, but you need to have both proof of service and residency, an honorable discharge, a high resolution photograph and $150. The rest of the cost for the $250 banner will be underwritten by the village.
Bookie’s
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The last book I bought at Bookie’s was “Jazz,” the wonderful companion volume to Ken Burns 10-part television series. Over the weekend, the 4-year-old independent bookstore in Homewood closed its doors. According to fellow Southtown scribe Mike Nolan, it was a landlord-tenant issue that forced the decision by owner Keith Lewis to end his stay in the south suburbs.
All is not lost. Lewis says he will maintain the Bookie’s flagship store in Chicago’s Beverly area.
Books still shape our lives but the printed word takes a beating these days and I suppose the store was just another financial casualty of the times.
How dreadful.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.