‘None of us had cars’

Having so many memories of growing up in Waukegan, it’s hard to pick out the best ones.

My family spent many hours fishing on the pier at the harbor. We only kept and ate the perch, but if we caught something big enough and the right kind, on shore we would smoke it to bring home. They had some kind of smoker and someone to do it.

One of the joys of summer when I was in high school was to take the ferry from the harbor to swim at the beach. None of us had cars.

My mother worked at Waukegan Dry Goods. When I was in high school, I worked at the telephone company around the corner from Genesee Street. Everything was manual then —“Number please” every few minutes. I also worked the lines there when the recruits at Great Lakes were allowed to place calls.

My father, Roland E. Bjorkman, my father-in-law John Dobrzenski and my husband Tony all worked at U.S. Steel. Tony then moved over to John Motors in the drafting department.

My husband Tony played and won championships in every sport except football, tennis and golf, even though he still played them. In Jackson School, he was marble champ twice and pitched to an unbeaten championship. His freshman basketball team was unbeaten. John Burnison was coach. All the guys liked him and admired him.

In 1949 he played basketball on the grade school all-stars that won the invitational tournament in Evanston. He pitched fast pitch softball for several teams. Almost all the games were played at Dugdale Ball Park, which was like our second home.

My grandfather Hilmer Eugene Bjorkman was one of the original members of the Swedish Glee Club until he moved to California in the mid-1940s. Even though I was young I remember them singing at a bar on May Street and at Viking Park. I was a waitress at the club on Belvidere for a few years before we moved to Round Lake Beach in 1962. The food was really wonderful and unique.

From when I was real young, all the women I knew would go to the Hein’s sale the first Monday after New Years. Everyone saved money for it. We stood in line no matter what the weather until they opened and then rushed in.

In 1956, I was pregnant, due the end of February. I was with Sylvia, my mother-in-law and her neighbor, Lorraine Alderin. We were starting to leave for home when in front of their elegant cosmetics counter my water broke and I fainted. We were so embarrassed.

Our son was born three hours later at Victory Hospital. It’s funny, but at that time it wasn’t.

My families really enjoyed and made use of all the parks in town — Yeoman, Powell, etc. We went sledding, skating, followed trails and played in the creeks.

Beverly Dobrzenski,

Round Lake Beach