Waterfront supplied fish for Lake County and beyond

Fishing was an important and colorful part of Waukegan’s history. Perch, trout and chubs were the mainstay of the Waukegan fishing industry. Boat captains operated from the Waukegan Harbor to supply the region’s demand for fresh fish.

On Clayton Street just west of the Yacht Club was the Waukegan Fish Market, owned by Al Shellswick. The market was the major supplier of the restaurant around the area, including Ray Radigan’s in Kenosha, The Rustic Manor of Gurnee and Mathon’s Seafood Restaurant in Waukegan.

Al also owned Al’s Fishery just west of Navy Pier on Grand Avenue in Chicago. He received one penny per pound plus one penny per pound for arranging the sale of the fish.

The Fulton Street market is located between Halsted and DesPlaines Street. I drove a truck for my father and delivered loads of fish to Chicago when I was 15 years old and made lifelong friends of the wholesale owners on Fulton Street. Many times going into Chicago with my father, we would get stopped by the police to check the juice draining out of the truck. The police were checking meat rationing, which was prevalent after World War II.

Regarding the local captains and their boats, when the Waukegan fishing season was open, transient boats, captains and crews would come to Waukegan when their home state seasons were closed. This caused hectic activity at the Waukegan waterfront. New York buyers would flock to Waukegan, triple the prices and take everyone to the taverns and finest restaurants to transfer their catches to the restaurants in New York.

My brother Joe and I grew up during this time with the Larsen brothers (Jerry and Kenny, owners of Larsen Marine). Joe and I (at ages 15 and 14) asked Tom Johnson, captain of the Lilly-B, if we could go out on the lake to help bring in the catch. The process took around two to three hours. All the time the boat was rocking and rocking.

Along with the smoke from the Kollenberg and the smell of the fish, we were both sick for more than six hours. The big lunch we brought out came back with us. This was our last fishing trip. To this day we remain friends with Jerry and Kenny Larsen and leave the boating to them.

Larry Keller

‘It’s the only place I’ve ever lived’

I, too, remember how Waukegan used to be. Different people have different perceptions of the “good ole days” were all about.

I was born in 1936 at St. Therese Hospital. We lived on Kennard Street when I was born. I was the youngest and the only girl out of five kids. I must admit, I was probably the most spoiled little black kid you would ever want to see. But I was also rich and blessed in so many ways. I had a mother who stayed home and a father who worked hard and was very proud of all of his five children. I never thought of our family as being poor or deprived because we always had the necessities that we needed to live.

We later moved to South Avenue and something that many folks don’t know is that the neighborhoods were completely integrated; that included Swedish, Finnish, Armenians, Mexican, Polish and black. We as children were taught that we were no better but certainly no less than anyone else. Our home was open to everyone.

I attended McAlister School, and it was there that I experienced my first act of racism. I can remember that in the second grade when they had registration for Girl Scouts, the teacher had all of the girls line up at the door to attend a meeting. She then had all the black girls return to their seats. The black girls were not allowed to join a school-sponsored program like Girl Scouts. It was also not uncommon to see a teacher slap a student in the face.

Although the schools were completely integrated, all the integration of the children ended when school was out. Once the white kids from McAlister reached high school, they acted like they never knew the black kids they had attended grade school with. Again, it was okay because the black kids had made new friends with students from North Chicago and it was a whole new scene for us also.

Waukegan had two hangouts. One was at the YMCA in downtown Waukegan for the white kids and the other was at the branch YMCA on South Genesee Street for the black kids.

Another bit of history is the fact that there was a USO on Sheridan Road, which is now the Puerto Rican Society, for the white servicemen, and they built a USO for the black servicemen on South Genesee Street, which later became the branch YMCA.

South Genesee Street was a bustling array of businesses, and many were owned by blacks. There were three cleaners, restaurants, ice cream parlors, pool halls, car dealerships and, of course, taverns and churches. With all of these things that we had, it’s hard for non-natives to fathom what the good old days looked like in Waukegan. One thing for sure is that we did a lot of walking to get where we wanted to go. Not every household owned an automobile.

Another thing about the “good ole days” is Waukegan was, with the exception of Kresge’s dime store, you could not eat in any of the food serving places in downtown Waukegan. And you know, it never really bothered us. That was just one of the many things that native blacks endured during the “good ole days” in Waukegan. Once we reached high school and when we attended the prom or grad hop, we had to go all the way to Chicago to have dinner because no one would serve us here in Lake County. I have to add that the bowling alleys didn’t want our business either.

As I close, if you want to know how I feel about Waukegan, I can only tell you that I still love Waukegan because it’s the only place I’ve ever lived and my friends, family and my church are still here.

Betty Foxie-McKenzie

Waukegan