Linda Kunstmann Anetsberger

(DONNA LEE GULLEY): Good morning. Today is Friday, February 13th, 2015, and welcome to Northbrook Voices, an oral history project sponsored by the Northbrook Historical Society and the Northbrook Public Library. My name is Donna Lee Gulley, and I am pleased to be welcoming Linda Anetsberger, who has lived and worked in Northbrook for most of her life and is going to tell us some interesting stories. She has the history timeline of Northbrook in front of her and is going to update us about our community. Welcome, Linda.

(LINDA ANETSBERGER): Hello.

(DLG): Thank you for being here.

(LA): It’s a pleasure. It’s fun to do, to remember everything.

(DLG): So, let’s see. You are an Anetsberger by marriage.

(LA): Yes.

(DLG): So, we want to hear some of those stories, and let’s go back to when you first moved to Northbrook. I believe it was 1953, and you were ten years old. Why did your family move here?

(LA): My dad used to come out here. The Weissmans, who owned the buildings where Adam’s Drugstore was and where Oliverii’s is now. They owned that. They still own it, and they own the Cypress building in that whole block. And my dad used to come out here when he was younger. In fact, they came out in the 40s, and they were, my grandparents were friends of the Weissmans. So, my father had been in the bakery business in his younger life, and he ended up interviewing with Anetsberger Brothers. And it was a far stretch from Chicago, Northside and Sears Roebuck and the sporting goods department. But we came out here in 1953, and we moved to Briarwood Lane.

(DLG): So, it was because your dad had a job offer with Anetsberger?

(LA): My dad worked for Anetsberger Brothers in the bakery and the restaurant division, and he, like I said, he had a bakery background. So, he was he worked with people like Sara Lee and Dominick’s and all those people when he came to Anetsberger Brothers. So that’s how we came to build our house on Briarwood.

(DLG): Okay, and so, your connection with the Anetsbergers goes way back before meeting your husband.

(LA): Yes, I was. I never paid much attention until I was in high school, and they had golf tournaments and things like that. And that’s how I ended up meeting him at a golf tournament, at a company family golf tournament. Before that, I was, you know, before I was in grade school years and everything, and I had my own, had my own life. But then I met Greg and his friends and all the people at Anetsberger Brothers when I was kind of in my first years of high school.

(DLG): Okay. Interesting. So, your first house was one you built or an existing house here?

(LA): My mom and dad built a house for like $15,000 on Briarwood, and it’s right where Chestnut intersects, and you can literally see Greenbriar out the front door. Well, there was nothing across the street when they built the house. And Jane and Ed Hochmuth, who owned Fashions by Jane and Leonard’s in town. They used to live in the same apartment building in the city with us. And when we decided to move, first thing you know, Jane and Ed built next door. And so, it was funny because they were they were very good friends of my parents. But there was nothing out here. Briarwood ended at Western. Beyond that, if your dog got loose and they ran in there, they could run till Wheeling, practically. And so, it was, and it was a small house. It was just basically three bedrooms and a living room dining room combination. And since we’ve expanded, I mean, you have to, you know, at that point. But it was a small house, just like every everybody else’s.

(DLG): But did I hear that you moved from Chicago?

(LA): Yes. We lived on Winona and Winchester near Amundsen High School.

(DLG): What a change.

(LA): Yes, my parents went to Amundsen, so they had lived there for many years, and my grandparents lived around the corner. And so, when they moved, when we moved out here, yeah, it was quite a change. It was like, you needed, you know, you just, everything wasn’t so close.

(DLG): And what did a ten-year-old girl think about this transition?

(LA): We loved it, actually. My brother and I both loved it. And I made fast friends with people on Blackthorn. That group of houses had been here for longer. So, my friend Damarisse Harm and Diane Gabel, and I actually made friends with Linda Kraft Struven, and they had been in town for a long time. Ruby Kraft had had been with St. Peter’s Church, and I mean, they have a lot of history too. So, we all made fast friends, and we walked across to Crestwood together. So, it got to be, it was great. Edward Rudolph and my dad were good friends, and they became good friends, so we all just kind of meshed. I didn’t miss the city at all. I didn’t miss it. I miss my grandparents. They lived around the corner. So, in the old days, Sundays was the day to go to Grandma’s for dinner, so we would do that.

(DLG): You couldn’t get them to move here?

(LA): Eventually we moved them out here because they got old enough that on Winchester, that we had to go in too often. So eventually, yeah, we did move them out here because it got to be too much. And they lived down Oak Street for a while. And so, and they loved it out here, too, because the kids could all ride their bikes to their house and things. So, it was good. I mean, we rode our bikes everywhere. We went uptown, went to, we were allowed to go to baseball games at night without, you know, parents. And when we were in grade school, too, and the guys would play up on the Village Green. And so, it was just a different, it was a different time. Everybody was, we were mobile. And yet there wasn’t a lot to be mobile for, which was a good thing.

(DLG): And you’ve seen lots of changes in Northbrook.

(LA): Oh, yeah. When we walked to school and literally, as people say, I walked to school two miles in the snow and the rain, we really did. I mean, it wasn’t much of an option with the car situations in those days. We all didn’t have three cars. And so, Diane Gabel and DeMarisse and I, and then we’d pick up Linda Kraft, and we’d walk across Greenbriar’s field here, and we’d have to go through town and up and past the Adam’s Drugstore and past Bernhardt’s Hardware Store. And he was creepy and used to sit out on his front porch, and that was that was a big thing. And then we’d walk up to Crestwood. And then in, when we just were graduating from eighth grade at Crestwood, they built the underpass, which was kind of strange because otherwise we had to go, we had to go way around and around, and it took us a long time where once they opened the underpass, you could walk right to the Jewel, which was right there.

(DLG): And just as you were graduating, of course.

(LA): Of course. Right. Of course.

(DLG): But that’s one of the big changes that you’ve seen in our community.

(LA): Yes, yes. And it was a huge change for the town because of the train situation. And, I mean, you couldn’t go anywhere if a train went through. And when the underpass finally went through, it was really, it was really a great thing safety-wise and everything for the town. It was good. And we could just get right uptown. The Jewel was where, and the National T, it was up there, and it was right uptown. And you had to go all the way around.

(DLG): Locate the Jewel for people, so they know where it was.

(LA): It was where Sunset is right now, and the stores were, stores were small, and it was the only place to go. And then when Sunset opened, Sunset was the only place to go. I mean, that’s all we shopped at for a family, so we didn’t have anywhere else to, we didn’t think about going to Glenview or, you know, anywhere else to shop.

(DLG): But Sunset didn’t start in that location, did it?

(LA): Sunset started across the street, and it was where the bank is now, where my, what’s the name? The Italian restaurant is right now and by the hardware store in that area. So, they were there for quite a few years. Where the bank drive-thru is, is where Sunset’s drive-thru was. Chase Bank, I believe it is. And it’s where that drive-thru was, and used to ride my bike up there and go to the store up there, but it was interesting. We had, and the National T was where the cleaners and right next to the Cypress or the landmark is now. And that was another place to shop too.

(DLG): How did how did the Cypress become the Landmark?

(LA): The Hillingers owned the Cypress for many years and the Werhanes ran it, one of the Werhanes ran it. The Weissman’s owned it always, and they ran it. And then the Hillingers took over, and Phil Hillinger took over, and his kids and everything. Well, when Phil passed away, they decided they were going to move the business, try to move the business and whatever. And that didn’t work out so well because we don’t have any place for anybody to park when they, if they would buy the building on the corner there on the Triangle. They were going to move in to where the old apothecary used to be on the corner. They’ve since made it into a modern building by the train station, but they were going to move into there, and they couldn’t get parking space. So, then it turned into, it moved into be the Landmark. They took it over. The Hillingers closed down the grills, and they didn’t, running it anymore. It was just kind of not going to happen.

(DLG): So, it’s the same building with the new name?

(LA): Absolutely. They just remodeled it on the inside. But the old Cypress was interesting because it had been there for so, so long that you could literally come back on a Thanksgiving Eve and walk in and know exactly who was there and where they were sitting because it had been around for so long. And all the, all the Northbrook people who had been around forever, you could always count on seeing everybody you knew, you know, there. So, it’s moved to that again a little bit, but not exactly what it used to be.

(DLG): What were some of the other restaurants that were around then?

(LA): There wasn’t a lot around. Seriously. What did, I mean, the only thing I’m thinking of is Country Maid Bakery was in the shopping center. We didn’t have a lot of restaurants in around here.

(DLG): How about Bartleme’s or Tonelli’s?

(LA): Tonelli’s, of course, was a, it was huge. I mean, when they left, that was a really big, big thing because they didn’t have anybody to run it either. Their family didn’t want to take it over, that part of the Tonelli family. But we spent many, many, many dinners and nights there as the Anetsbergers. We lived there, practically lived there. Bartleme’s was a bar, and that was interesting because the old guys used to hang out there. And they, the Galati, Frank Galati used to, we called him Gooch, and he used to hang out there all the time. And when that moved and that went, that was a that was a big transition to the Cypress too, I think. Everybody, you know, as far as dropping in for a beer, but that had such history to it. They had a big bowling alley in the back.

(DLG): In Bartleme’s?

(LA): In Bartleme’s, and it was a picnic grove out back, and it was stagecoach stop. So, when they moved it, it was a big deal.

(DLG): And when did they move it?

(LA): Bartleme’s, they moved down the street. Why did I, excuse me on the, I’m, oh, 1975. And I remember standing on Shermer and watching it come down the street, and they had to take all the electrical up, and they moved it. And at that point the Village Green didn’t have all the fences and trees and everything, so they moved it across the river and then across the park. And it was, that was quite a move, move that big building. The whole world was watching. It was interesting.

(DLG): And some, was it still Bartleme’s?

(LA): Yes.

(DLG): So, was it run as Bartleme’s in the park?

(LA): It was, no. No. When they moved it, they immediately moved it for that purpose. They moved it for the historical society to have. So, they immediately renovated it, and they had to, had to do a lot to it to make it what, you know, to keep it what it is today.

(DLG): So, it closed and was sold to the History Museum?

(LA): Apparently, yes. I mean, at that stage of my life, I, you know, I was not, but I see that it moved in ‘75 because sometimes timelines and dates just kind of escape, you know, you’re not really, was it that long ago? And so, but it’s still, I still drive by, and I said, you know, that thing is to sit up on Waukegan and Shermer. It was a stagecoach stop. And so, it’s interesting because the kids are like, really?

(DLG): Right, right. So, you moved here in ‘53, you went to grade school. The grade school and junior high were in the same building.

(LA): Crestwood. Yes, yes.

(DLG): And then you went to high school.

(LA): And then I went to Glenbrook High School, and I, like I said, I graduated in, what, ‘50, ‘58? Something like that. But the grade school part too of the thing was that bike races in Northbrook started. Ed Rudolph and my dad started bike races because we all were in the Northbrook Speed Skating Club, and Eddie Rudolph and Neil Blatchford and Linda Poulos and all the names that, you know, we all remember from years ago. We had, our first bike race was up through the Highlands. And then Ed Rudolph, and then they all got together, and then the velodrome was built after that. But we used to race through the Highlands in the grade school years and then went to Glenbrook, and I didn’t speed skate so much anymore than I did when I was a freshman.

(DLG): Speed skate or speed…?

(LA): Speed skating.

(DLG): Bike riding, speed skating?

(LA): Speed skating. Well, bike riding became almost synonymous because you trained for speed skating in the off season on a bicycle for your legs. And Chuck Burke was our coach, and Donna, and we, it all kind of, all the people who rode bikes also speed skated, which is how the velodrome came to be, because Ed Rudolph saw it as a mode to train for the speed skating club because Northbrook used to, you know, was the speed skating capital of the world for a lot of years.

(DLG): Do you recall the years?

(LA): Well, when I was in grade school, the first bike race was like probably about ‘56 or so, and we were the speed skating club at right about then, and it kept going for years after that. So, it was the late 50s and through. I mean, it’s still, what do we have? We had Dianne Holum and all of them. And that was still into the 80s.

(DLG): And how did you get intrigued by speed skating?

(LA): My dad got to be friends with Ed Rudolph. And so, my brother and I, it was there was not much for girls to do in those days. There was not a lot of sports to be involved in. And my friends Linda Poulos and Diane Gabel, and that they all would, were speed skating. And so, we all join, and it was a social event as well because we used to, and we speed skated right here where the library is because this library was not, wasn’t here. And the small version of a library, we had the whole pond, just not part of the pond that’s here. We had the whole pond was here. This was, I have pictures of it going towards town, and it’s all pond, no library. So, it was interesting.

(DLG): And did you use the library a lot?

(LA): It was the only way to go. I mean, we didn’t, we didn’t have, we had the encyclopedia, we didn’t have Google or anything like that. We had, we only had the library. So, we would come here to study.

(DLG): To study and maybe some social activities?

(LA): Social activities also. You always could see everybody you knew at the library, and but otherwise you had the encyclopedia at home, and it was limiting to your resources. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

(DLG): A big change from Google.

(LA): Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Nowadays the kids don’t have to research. They don’t have to do anything. They just pick up their phone, and they Google it, and they know the answer. I do it all the time now. 

(DLG): Of course, of course. Yeah. Well, let’s go back to high school and talk a little bit about classes and dating and clubs and music and…

(LA): I was, I was at Glenbrook from what, ‘58 until I graduated in ‘61.

(DLG): And was it Glenbrook North?

(LA): It was Glenbrook.

(DLG): Just Glenbrook.

(LA): Right. Glenbrook North High School was like ‘62, I believe, is when they went from North to South. That’s when they split, right after I graduated.

(DLG): And everything happens right after you graduate.

(LA): Didn’t it? Isn’t it? But also, we were in school with all the Glenview kids too, so it’s good years as years go by. I knew people, all the high school kids from Glenview went to Glenbrook. So now they’re split into North and South, and there’s not that much camaraderie. But in those days, we were all friends, and we would drive to Glenview, to friends’ houses and, you know, and back and forth and, but classes and I think just the technology has changed things so much. Now they, if you have trouble with classes, you can jump into the internet. You can learn whatever you want to do on the internet, and you can study whatever you want. In those days, you were more or less relegated to the classroom and the teacher. And now there’s so many extraneous sources.

(DLG): A chalk board, not a smart board.

(LA): Yes, yes. But, and we had, I mean, there was smoking in the hall like Glenbrook in one part of the hall. Certain parts.

(DLG): Seriously?

(LA): Yeah, in a certain part. And we had the pass that went underneath from one hall to another. Right now where the, it’s the open area in the middle of Glenbrook. It’s where they all sit and they have lunch and everything off the cafeteria. It used to be open and the busses used to pull in there, and that was the bus thing. And we used to have to go underneath the opening and the worst weather God ever knew. And the buildings were separated. And now everything is just one big, I went there and could hardly find my way. It’s just a miracle what they have.

(DLG): But you’re saying you would have to go outside to get from one building to another?

(LA): There was a pass there. They called it pneumonia pass because it would, right where the busses drove through and into the center area where the picnic is thing now, is it was all wide-open and the busses drove underneath the catwalk that went on the second floor. And so, we used to have to go outside to go to the next building to go to the north side of the building. And it was interesting, but you know, not anymore. They don’t go outside for anything, you know, and the middle is really nice now. It’s a really nice eating and social area for the kids.

(DLG): I think some of our younger listeners will be astounded to hear that there was smoking allowed in the high school. What are some of the other things that you can remember from high school that might surprise people today?

(LA): We didn’t go out to lunch. You weren’t allowed. We didn’t leave school. And if we did, it was not, you got caught. You were in big trouble. There were very few cars at school. We didn’t have to pay for parking. We didn’t. We got rides with people or God forbid you should take the bus as a freshman. But we got rides from people. Everything was, I think, a lot more, it wasn’t, security was non-existent. We didn’t, who needed it? We had much smaller classes, and we all knew each other, basically. There was very few people that I can look back and say that I really didn’t know. If we had a couple hundred people in our class, very few people that I, that you don’t know them, that I look back that I didn’t know.

(DLG): What did you wear?

(LA): Capezios. Matching skirts and sweaters. Yellow, you know, yellow sweater and a yellow skirt with black Capezio flats.

(DLG): No blue jeans?

(LA): No blue jeans and short shorts and all that. I mean, we really didn’t.

(DLG): To school, short shorts? Oh, no.

(LA): No, no. And so, it was I don’t know, it was just a different wardrobe. We, we were of course skirts and blouses and dresses. Pants, no, we didn’t, I can’t remember. We wore pants after school. And I have a picture of myself working on the float for the class of ‘61. And I have I have slacks on, and everybody has pants on, but I really didn’t. We didn’t wear them so much.

(DLG): So high school comes to an end. Have you met your husband by this time?

(LA): Yes, actually, I met Greg when I was freshman, sophomore, and so we were dating through then. We went to prom together in ‘61. The train station burned down the night of our prom. 

(DLG): How did that happen?

(LA): I can’t remember how the fire started, but that was the pre- to the new train station in town, whether it was arson or what it was. But yeah, there were fire engines everywhere. And he reminded me of that before he passed away a few years ago. Don’t you remember that? He said, it burned down the night with it that we had prom. So that was interesting. And then I, because I spent a lot of time over at the Anetsbergers, and we played golf, and but one thing about that time is the Anetsbergers bought the property and built their house on Voltz in ‘49. And then in the 50s, I mean, there was the golf course there. There was the picnic grove. The police used it, the fire department used it. It was opened up to any of the groups that wanted to. Frank Anetsberger opened it up to everybody. And so, you’d come there, and the fire department would be on the road next to the railroad track, shooting their hoses at buckets going across lines. And so, it was well used by the community, so you always knew there was going to be a group there. It wasn’t like you, you know, they’d just ask, and they’d say, sure, no problem. The state police used it. They would come through. So, it was more like a free security service because everybody would, the police would come through, and we all knew everybody.

(DLG): And did you end up working at Anetsberger?

(LA): I worked for a little bit when I got out of school. But you can only work for a boyfriend or a husband for so long, and then you’re done. And so, excuse me. I moved on from there, but, and then I didn’t. I didn’t work when I went. When we got married in ‘64, I had kids, and I didn’t work after that. I worked for a while at Avis Rent A Car at the airport.

(DLG): At the airport.

(LA): At the, at O’Hare. And in 1963 and ‘62, ‘63. And then we got married in ‘64, and I was still working until I had my first in ‘65.

(DLG): And how many children did you raise in Northbrook?

(LA): Four. And Tracy and Chris and John and Jimmy. And they went, all have gone to Glenbrook, and all my grandchildren are going to Glenbrook

(DLG): And have you encountered some of the same teachers?

(LA): In the beginning, Jean Dahl lived next door to my grandmother on Oak Street, so we heard Peg Bergman, and a bunch of the old teachers we knew. And plus, when we had our reunions in the beginning, my kids would, I would run into old teachers that had been there, and they remembered us. And it was interesting, but not anymore because they’re all, they’re all gone at this point.

(DLG): Well, you’ve lived you’ve lived in Northbrook for 60 years?

(LA): 60, 62 years.

(DLG): And what would you say is special about this community?

(LA): Well, everything. You go to other towns, and I have such a feeling of camaraderie in this town. I always, my kids say, God, you ever go anywhere where people don’t know you? And the Anetsberger name, you know, facilitates that as well. But I still know a lot of, I still know a lot of people in town that are still here from when we grew up. And so, it’s just nice to be able to go up to the Village Green to walk uptown, which is unique in the words of many towns, we call it uptown. You know that you’re an old Northbrook person if you call it uptown. And so, it’s a different sense of being and feeling when you walk in and out of the stores in town or, and you, you know, people all over the place. I don’t know that people in other communities have that kind of that sense of belonging.

(DLG): If somebody was going to move to Northbrook, how would you encourage them to get involved in the community? What would you suggest that they do?

(LA): The days of volunteering for the young people are really, really nonexistent because people are working all the time. So, the old groups, like I, I practically ran St. Norbert’s in the years my kids were there. That’s the only, I think that’s the only way that you can really get involved in town, is by getting involved with your children. As a single person, it’s difficult. I think you’d have to go to like the library or go to, go to maybe the Botanic Gardens or something to be involved, but I, I ran Saint Norbert’s for many years. Joan Plunkett and I, we were there because we all had kids that went through there. I had four children that went through St. Norbert’s, and so we knew everybody through that. And then when the kids, when the kids got out of there, you gain a group of new friends from their friends, you know, the mothers and the fathers and everything like that. But moving to town as a mom, it’s not a problem if you really want to get involved. Even the working moms. My daughter in law, Katie, is involved with Girl Scouts. She’s involved with Meadowbrook. My other kids are involved with Glenbrook and things.

(DLG): So, getting involved is the key.

(LA): Absolutely. You know, even if you hang out at Sunset, you get to know Ron and then you, it’s kind of a central point to, of everybody getting together. It’s fun.

(DLG): We’ve come to the end of our time, and I’ve enjoyed your stories, and I know our audience has too. I want to thank you very much for spending a half an hour with us telling stories about Northbrook. 

(LA): It’s been fun. I probably could go on for a year and a half as I remember and remember, but it’s fun. I’d like to listen to some of the others.

(DLG): Absolutely. They’re available at The Voices of Northbrook on the library website, and all of our listeners can go to that website and listen to this interview and interview with Ron Bernardi. There are about 120, I think, on the list. So do have fun listening to some of the other interviews. And thank you for being here today.

(LA): Thank you.