'A wonderful time to grow up in Waukegan'

I moved to Waukegan in 1947 at the age of 8 years old. We moved back here after my great-grandmother Emma Adams Webb died and we moved into her home at 323 Center.

My great-grandfather, Chase Webb, had built his new Victorian home when he was elected police magistrate of Waukegan in 1886. He had previously been sheriff of Lake County and lived on a farm in Grayslake on Washington Street. His son Frank married my great-grandmother Emma Adams from Millburn. The old house was moved to Center Street and given to his son Frank when he was married to Emma, and that was the city limits back in the 1890s.

Chase built a large Victorian house on West Street for his family. When the old house was moved to Center Street, everything was left in the attic and we had a treasure trove of antiques, including Civil War items from when Chase served in the war.

At the age of 8, a child's memory bank is totally open and my early years established many vivid memories which remain with me to this day.

It was a wonderful time to grow up in Waukegan, because it was after World War II and people were optimistic and the gloom of rationing and sacrificing for the war was over.

I do remember how wonderful it was to get a piece of bubble gum when I was in first grade so that I could teach myself how to blow bubbles, but we had to save the gum and chew it more than once, so we put it on our bedposts. Bubble gum was hard to get after the war and almost impossible to get during the war.

Because I met a girl my age across the street who went to Immaculate Conception School on Water Street, I wanted to go there. My mother was Catholic, so I started third grade and then graduated grade school there. It was such an old school with a cinder parking lot and the street cars went around the corner from County Street to Water Street and then east. The school was located on the corner of Utica and Water Street, west of the old Schwartz Theatre & Hotel where Jack Benny got his start, but it was a hotel by then.

I went to the YMCA on Clayton and County Street every day in summer to swim. Central School was across the street and we liked to go up into the cylinder fire escapes to hide. We took trips with the Y to Riverview, which was a fantasy for young kids. Aladdin's Castle was my favorite because it took a lot of mental stimulus to figure out how to maneuver through those mazes and get through the rolling barrel. The Flying Turns and the Chutes were also my greatest thrills. You will find that Riverview is a fantastic memory for everyone who lived around here in the '50s. It's no longer there but it was a wonderful treat for young children in Chicago and the suburbs.

Waukegan was in the midst of its heyday in the early '50s after World War II and it was a bustling town with a vibrant downtown and lots of things to do. I went to the movies as many times as I could go because we had four theaters back then and there was something different going on at each one.

The Genesee had the best musicals showing and the Academy had dramas and mysteries and the Times was known for the great Westerns and serials of the day and the Rialto was the smallest one and we didn't go there that often. My early years in Waukegan were wonder and filled with curiosity.

Chandra Simpson Sefton

Gurnee