ROSEBUD ON THE LOOSE

                        ROSEBUD  ON  THE  LOOSE

                                    NORMAN  V.  KELLY

Where were you when you were five years old?  Now I don’t remember what I did last week but I remember a few things I did in 1937 when I was five-years old. I spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house on 214 Millman and I remember there was a school across the street.  I can actually recall going up to a place called ‘George’s Store.’  My uncles and my grandmother took me there with a promise of an ice cream cone. Grandma called me ‘Rosebud.’  Thank goodness she was the only one that did.  Of course I was a bratty kid and it was not long before I was going up there by myself.  I liked to print numbers and I had a little tablet that I wrote license numbers in. I have no idea why I did that but I did. It was a cold, snowy day when we moved out to 2402 Albany in a desolate place at the time called El Vista.  I stayed there until the house burned to the ground in 1950.

 

Since I brought up 1937 I might as well tell you what was going on here in Peoria, Illinois that year.  I have a feeling you might get a few surprises. By 1937 we had an estimated 101,000 people living within the 12.28 square miles of our city limits. Street cars served every square mile and it was 1937 that Peorians were lining up to buy “Gone With The Wind.” I know people love gangsters but by 1937 we had 102 churches and to counter that, why we had 258 taverns, saloons, bars, dives, dumps and ‘holes-in-the wall’ places to cry in your beer.

I wonder if you are old enough to remember the Beverly Theater on Knoxville and the Avon down in the south-end.  They opened up in ’37 and the folks that lived in those areas were grateful to have their own neighborhood theater.

 I am old enough to remember being scared when I heard my first telephone ring and believe it or not we had 24,000 telephones in our homes here in Peoria. People came to Peoria looking for a good school for their kids and a job they could make a decent living at and Peoria had both.  We had 271 different manufacturing companies making everything from cigars to tractors, automobiles and washing machines. The truth is Peorians produced 995 different products and numerous breweries and distilleries employed hundreds of people both male and female.

Have you quit taking the local newspaper?  Well in 1937 we had seven of them, three dailies and four weekly papers as well.

 

Folks came in to Peoria for entertainment, business and all kinds of sporting events.  They stayed in our 13 hotels that had a total of 2,000 rooms and first class service.  We also had 59 other places to stay that were not as fancy as our hotels. In fact we had dives, flop houses and small places with dozens of beds, the YMCA and dozens of rather ‘shady’ places for you to stay.  At that time we had a top notch school system which included 47 schools, seven of those were high schools and 16 parochial institutes.

Trains came and went every half hour and fifteen railroad companies serviced our area. Hey, we had way too many cars and they filled our 200 miles of roads and get this…137 miles were paved. We had a modern fire and police department totaling 124 cops and 127 firemen.  We had eight beautiful parks including the longest linear park in America called Grand View Drive. Peoria was a Convention City and we were still called The Alcohol Capital Of The World.  The Chamber Of Commerce bragged that Peoria was ‘A place where land and water travel meet.’ Peoria had a magnificent fair grounds, an active airport and merchants liked to tell visitors that ‘If we don’t have it then you don’t need it.’

 

Our downtown housed beautiful movie theaters, bars of every description and a somewhat ‘Wild, Bawdy Nightlife.’  Our shopping was beyond your imagination with 28 Bakers, 14 banks, 7 pool halls, and river events that lured people from all over mid-America to Downtown Peoria, Illinois. Our downtown contained every kind of physician known to modern man, bowling alleys, shoe repair and shine shops and a grocery store on almost every corner with 77 meat markets.  Of course we had too many lawyers, 30 jewelry stores and 60 labor unions.

All holidays were major events in Peoria and our Santa Parade is the oldest in the good old U.S.A.   If you drove here we had 251 ‘gas stations’ to serve you and in those days they actually called them service stations. Imagine just over 100 music teachers and 32 halls you could rent out to have your own event.  No, I did not forget the restaurants which numbered 158 at a time when Peoria was The Pearl Of The Prairie, The Gem Along The Illinois and a great place to live and raise a family.

Editor’s Note:   Norm is a true-crime writer and author of numerous books and articles on the history of Peoria, Illinois.

norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net