Elmer Blasco Oral History

              Narrator:  Elmer Blasco
Interviewer:  Leo Floros
Date of Interview:  November __, 1991
Interview Location:  201 South We-Go, Mount Prospect
Interview Length:  46 minutes
LEO FLOROS:  This is Leo Floros.  I'm in the home of Elmer Blasco at 201 South We-Go, and Elmer has consented to participate in the oral history project of Mount Prospect in conjuction with the seventy-fifth anniversary celebration.  Elmer, thank you, first, for your cooperation in this project.  For the record, what is your full name?
ELMER BLASCO:  Well first, Leo, thank you for inviting me.  I hope I can contribute something.  My full name is Elmer Adam Blasco.
FLORES:  Born?
BLASCO:  Born November 21, 1920.  In fact, coincidentally my birthday was just a few days ago, and also coincidentally Stan Musial and I are both the same age�both born November 21, 1920, both of Polish parents, but he could hit a curve ball and I couldn't.
FLORES:  Where were you born?
BLASCO:  In Streator, Illinois�a great place to be from. FLORES:  And your parents?
BLASCO:  My parents are Adam and Matilda Blasco.  My father was a switchman on the Santa Fe for forty-two years, in Streator.  He came over as a child with my grandfather as a immigrant from Poland in 19� . . . oh, gosh . . . 1898 I think he came over.
FLORES:  You're a native of Streator?
BLASCO:  A native of Streator.  We came from St. Louis.  Actually we lived in Collinsville, Illinois, where I lived for about eight or nine years while I worked at the Rawlings Sporting Goods company.  We moved up here in late fall of 1956 from Collinsville�actually from Belleville.  We lived in Belleville for six months prior to coming here.
FLORES:  And you moved where?  To this location?
BLASCO:  Well, actually not to this location, 201 We-Go Trail.  We came up and were looking for houses and a friend of mine lived in this area and said they were developing We-Go Park.  The Klein Developers were the developers at the time, so we came over here and with the money we had�actually, we didn't make a lot of money in those days, Leo, if you'll remember�and saw a house that we wanted to buy, but it had already been purchased but there was
another one which was a foundation only.  We're in that foundation right now.  We said fine, we would buy this, and moved up on Dresser Drive, 807 Dresser, and rented a house there for six months while they built this house.     '
FLORES:	I see.  So you moved in here, then, in 19 . . .
BLASCO:	Roughly early 1957.                       
FLORES:	... 57.
BLASCO:	Spring of '57.
FLORES:	Your family then consisted of?
BLASCO:	Four children�three girls and a boy.
FLORES:	And your wife?
BLASCO:	Delores, my child bride.
FLORES:	And the kids were how old then?
BLASCO:  Oh, I wish you hadn't asked me that.  The youngest was six months old, and she is now thirty-something-or-other.  The oldest is forty.  They had to be about�well, there are the pictures right there.  I guess Trudy was four or five at the
time�the oldest.  So they were very young.
FLORES:  So they were schooled entirely in Mount Prospect or in and about Mount Prospect?
BLASCO:  Well, in Mount Prospect, actually.  They all went to St. Raymond's.  I think a couple went to Lincoln for a year or two, but they all graduated from St. Raymond's.  Trudy went to Sacred Heart of Mary in Arlington Heights, and the other three graduated from Prospect High School.
FLORES:  And went on to college?
BLASCO:  Yes.  Actually, three of them graduated from the University of Illinois.  The fourth one, Trudy, did not go to school but right at the moment she is in her second year�she's 40 years old; the mother of three children�in her second year at Harper, majoring in dental hygiene.  She expects to be a dental hygienist in about a year and a half.  So she's back at it right now.
FLORES:  What was Mount Prospect like in 1956 when you moved here? A little different than it is today?
BLASCO:  Oh, gosh, yes. 
FLORES:  In what way?
BLASCO:  Well, for instance take this house on We-Go Trail.  When we moved in here, We-Go Trail was not paved.  The curves were in place, but there was no paving on the street.  Across the street, there were no houses.
FLORES:  To the west.
BLASCO:  To the west of us.  I think one of the things I remember most were the pheasants that were over in the fields.  The property went all the way from We-Go Trail to Waller Creek, so we had pheasants living in the field across the street from us.  In fact, a friend of mine who lived next door worked at the Board of Trade, and every night I talked him into bringing home samples of corn and soybeans in his briefcase, on the train, and I kept buckets full of corn and soybeans in the garage and I used to feed the pheasants across the street.  I had as many as fourteen and sixteen at one time that we could count.  I used to leave trails of corn and soybeans up my driveway into the garage.  I actually had one in the garage one day, but I couldn't get the door closed fast enough.  As I say, I fed those pheasants every night. They're awfully expensive, corn and soybeans, Leo, right on the floor of the Board of Trade, and one night about 10:30 in the middle of winter I'm out there, colder than blazes, feeding the pheasants and a police car rode by, and threw his spotlight on me. I, of course, surrendered and came over and said, "Yes, officer, what's up?"  He said, "What are you doing out there?"  I said, "Well, you won't believe it, but I'm feeding the pheasants."  He
said, "You're doing what?"  I said, "Feeding pheasants."  He said, "I like to look at them."  And I said, "Yes, I like to look at them."  And he said, "What are you going to do when you get them?" I said, "Well, I might take a shot at them."  He said, "Not in the village, you're not."  I said, "Oh no, I wouldn't think of doing that."  He paused for a couple of seconds and then said, "Okay, go feed your pheasants," and drove off.  I'll never forget that.  He was a little disgusted with me.  He didn't know what to do with me.
FLORES:  What were the village boundaries then?  How far did the village go to the west?  Was this it, or what?
BLASCO:  No, no.  I think at that time, Leo, it went to Busse. You were asking about life in the village.  I think back now of memories of living here, and one of the reasons we moved here . . . I was working for an advertising agency in the Loop, and obviously I had to get to the Loop every day, so therefore the Northwestern was the attraction to move to a community on the Northwestern tracks.  So I started at Park Ridge, I think, and worked my way out in looking for homes, got out to Mount Prospect because a friend of mine lived here, who I had known from years past at the Wilson Sporting Good company, and got to Mount Prospect and it looked like this was the place for us.  It was a small town ...
FLORES:  How big then?
BLASCO:  Well, I was just going to tell you right then.  We moved here because my wife was from Highland, Illinois, which isn't a very big place, either.  I was from Streator, with a total population of 14,000, originally, so we decided we'd like to live here because the population.  When we drove up [Route] 83 and moved into this house, the sign at Golf Road said 13,000 people, and we said, "This is for us."  And now here�it says 53,000 out there now.  It's not the town it used to be, but ....  Getting back to the Northwestern, I guess, it's the reason we moved here. I had to be on the train.  But we go back�and I know you'll remember, too, those old, single-level cars that we had.  There was no air-conditioning in them.  In the summertime you kept the windows open.  You got dirty from the soot that blew in off the street.  In the wintertime you froze your fanny off because there was no heat in them.  Oh, I can remember some of those cold winters.  I know you can remember some of those cold winters, too. In fact, I specifically remember some nights that it was so cold, some of the commuters who were on their way to further on out, like Barrington and Palatine, out in there, would light fires with newspapers in the vestibule of the car.  It drove the conductors crazy, but they were trying to stay warm.
FLORES:  How did you get to and from the station from here?  It's a pretty good walk.
BLASCO:  It wasn't bad.
FLORES:  Did you walk?
BLASCO:  Well, no, actually most of the time my wife would drive me in the morning, and I would walk home at night.  In the wintertime, she would pick me up.
FLORES:  I imagine in those days you were a one-car family.
BLASCO:  Oh, sure.  Who had two cars?  The other thing about it�I remember my father who, as I said previously, had worked on the Santa Fe for forty-three years, couldn't get over this railroad�could not get over the fact that it was a backwards railroad.  All railroads run the trains on the right�when they're going north they're on the right, and when they're going south they're on the right-hand track on the other side.  Northwestern is the only railroad in the country where the tracks are reversed, where they go in the wrong way.  My father could never get over that.  He said, "How do they keep from killing people?"  I said, "I don't know."  But the Northwestern has played a big part in our lives.  We blessed Ben Heinemann for putting on those double-decked cars that were air-conditioned and heated.
FLORES:	It's like heaven, isn't it?
BLASCO:	Oh, it was heaven.  Yes, we enjoyed that.
FLORES:	All right.  You moved out here.  In those days, there was
no Randhurst, there was no Woodfield.  Where did you and your wife do your shopping?
BLASCO:  Well, basically, when we wanted to shop you went to Old Orchard because Old Orchard was operating then, in those early years.  Other than that, there was the downtown area of Mount Prospect and the downtown area of Arlington, and the downtown area of Des Plaines got a lot of our traffic.  I remember one of the clothing stores there, Sundberg Clothing, was down there close to where Reefer's Pharmacy is right now.  There was also�and I don't know how many people remember this�there was a National food store just about where the meat market is now, and Sam's Tavern, on the south side of the tavern.
FLORES:  On the south side of the tracks.
BLASCO:  There was a Murphy's 5 & 10 & 25 cent, a variety store, in right where the travel agency is now.  And of course, Kruse's was always there.  You were talking about reminiscing, and I was having a kick making some notes here and remembering Kruse's. There were two things that stand out in my mind about Kruse's. One is, it was a classic small-town tavern, bar ...
FLORES:  Saloon.
BLASCO:  It was a saloon, that's right.  And the thing I remember about it is, you'd go in there any weekday afternoon from 4:30 to
about 7:00 and there would be the doggonest collection of men you ever saw in your life.  There were doctors, there were salesmen, there were plumbers and carpenters and agency people, and every class of working person from the highest to the lowest would be in at Kruse's having Scotch, having beer . . .
FLORES:  All male?
BLASCO:  All male, yes.  Of course, it's a hippie place now.  We'd go in there.  It was a great place to eat.  This was an institution in those days.  Everybody had to go to Kruse's.  I remember coming back from O'Hare one time in a cab, and the taxicab driver had the intercom radio on.  There was a call from the dispatcher to another cab to go to Kruse's and pick up a fare�this was a Mount Prospect Cab�and the cab driver came back and said, "Where is Kruse's?"  The dispatcher came back and said, "If you don't know where Kruse's is, you have just lost your job," because everybody knew where Kruse's was.  I think that was a funny part.  But I think we miss those little shops that were downtown.  They were not only handy, but they were pleasant and they were friendly.  They weren't as impersonal as Venture today, and K-Mart and some of that stuff.
FLORES:  Yes, they knew your name.
BLASCO:  Oh, sure, they knew your name.  But that I remember.
FLORES:  Now, you've spent most of your career in sports-related jobs, and you also were very much involved in the park district, here, of Mount Prospect.  How did that come about?  You're a few blocks here from the golf course, is that . . .
BLASCO:  We're right across the street from We-Go Park, which nobody knows is there.  Actually, I really got involved in the park district, Leo, because of my background.  I had spent eight years at the Rawlings Sporting Goods company, which manufactured football, basketball, baseball.  I've got background in almost all of those sports, and associations in all of them�new coaches in every one of the aspects of them.  Was involved with the Athletic Institute and their program of fostering more playgrounds, and things of that sort, so when I got here [I thought] I might as well put some of this background to use.  I ran for the park district ...
FLORES:  When was that?
BLASCO:  1972, I think.  I served one term, and then resigned with a month to go in my term because . . .
FLORES:  Was that a six-year term then?
BLASCO:  That was a six-year term then, yes.  I resigned because there was a position open at the golf course for an assistant greenskeeper, and my son-in-law had applied for the job, and I
resigned so there would be no question about nepotism.  I suppose I could have got away with it, but I did not want to take a chance.  I had three grandchildren that he had to feed, so I was doing everything I could to feed them.  I got involved in [the park district], and enjoyed it.  I think I contributed in some way.  If somebody would say, "What did you do?" I would say I don't know.  What do you point to?  I got a fence along We-Go Trail.  We overcame a petition of 800 names to get involved in. One of the years I was president, we tried to bring a professional softball team into Lion Parks to play their home games.  They were out of Park Ridge and needed a diamond.  We had a mass meeting one night of about 800 people protesting that.  Channel 7 came up to cover the meeting.  You've been through meetings like that, too, I know.
FLORES:  Yes, once or twice.
BLASCO:  But last time I ran I got beat, but that's�you know, the thrill of victory; the agony of defeat.
FLORES:  Do you remember when the park district was organized? When did they buy that golf course?
BLASCO:  That's a good question.  They bought the golf course about�it was twenty-five, twenty-six years ago.  What is that from '91?  The golf course has been a part of the park district for the last 25 years which would make it, what, '65 or something like
that.  It was owned previously by the Sophies, and then the hoods bought it and that young kid Haugh ran it for a while.  An interesting thing about that�I was reminded when you said you were coming over it reminded me of a ladies' golf tournament that was held there prior to the park district buying it.  The hoods owned it�Haugh was running�so they decided to have a ladies' golf tournament.  We had all the lady pros in.  All the good ones; Patty Berg, Mickey Wright, Louise Suchs�I can't think of the rest of them at the moment.  As I said, the hoods ran the place.  After the first day of the tournament, it was interesting that the Chicago Tribune sent its crime writers out to cover the tournament, because the ticket-takers, all the gatekeepers were all members of the Mafia.  They were either runners or bagmen or drivers of all the hoods.  So, instead of the sports department covering this golf tournament, the crime department covered it. In fact, the number one crime writer for the Tribune dubbed it "The Switchblade Open, which didn't last too long.  But I'll never forget that.
FLORES:  Well, were you involved at all in the referendum at which
BLASCO:  I was not a member of the board then, but I was active with the board and with the board members in getting that referendum passed.  If you'll remember, the first referendum was defeated because they didn't want to spend the money.  I think it was a million dollars, and they said, "Oh no, my God, we can't
thing�I was not on the board at this time; I came on just after this, and you'll remember this�is when [what] I laughingly refer to it as Jackson Hole was created, with Bob Teichert and Bob Jackson putting that Clearwater . . .
FLORES:  Clearwater Park.
BLASCO:  Yes, but I call it Jackson Hole.  It's a combined effort of the park district with Teichert and with Bob Jackson, who did a great job.  Boy, as I've mentioned many times before, there are a lot of basements over in Hatlin Heights that are dry today because those people insisted and worked at developing and generating that facility.  It's worked out well.	,5
FLORES:  I'm glad to hear you say that.  What other things do you remember about Mount Prospect in the early years, or the changes that have taken place, good or bad, as you see them?
BLASCO:  Oh, the things I reminisce on, Leo, are little things.  I was thinking a little while ago, in getting ready for this, that our kids always enjoyed the Fourth of July parade.  I always remember the early Fourth of July parades�these were in the '50s�when the parade began at what is now Owens Park and came across to Main Street and then south on Main Street to turn into Lions Park for the celebration and the nonsense.  That's where the fireworks would be, and that's where the festivities were.  But I'll always remember when they had to stop the parades so the
trains could go through, and the same held true for Route 83. Years later when they changed the parade route so it began at Lions Park and ended at Millis, they didn't have to cross the tracks.  I'll never forget the parade stopping so the train could come through.  The kids always enjoyed that, too.  Kruses's Tavern�I remember the schools that are no longer there.  Central School, where the library is now.  __________ School is now a park.  When my son was playing basketball at St. Raymond's and we used the Central School and�of course, this is where the park district is getting its open space now; buying a school from one of the school districts and tearing it down, which is what's going to happen at Busse School and has happened at Central and a few other schools in the park district.  But, those schools are gone. I miss them.  I miss the small-town atmosphere.  We're at 55,000 people now.  I guess it's all right, but I liked it when it was 13,000.  I think if you're talking history of the village, I don't think you can talk about the village of Mount Prospect without mentioning the great blizzard of 1967.  There was another one in '76�it was big, too�but '61 was the big one, as you'll remember. I'll never forget coming home.  I was working in Norton Grove at the time, driving and not using the train.  It took me seven hours to get home from Morton Grove.  I came down Milwaukee Road to Central, where I made a left turn.  It was now 7:30 at night � pitch black, snowing.  I turned left to go west on Central, and looked down Central as far as I could see, and there was not a tire track.  All I could see was one carpet of snow.  So, I put that little Ford station wagon right between the two telephone
poles, and blazed a trail through there, got all the way through town . . . didn't see another car.  There was not another car on the road.  Came across the tracks, came up across Central, came to We-Go Trail; after driving seven hours turned into We-Go Trail and ran into a snow drift.  I had to dig myself out of it.  But that was the great blizzard of '67 which, of course, froze us.  We had a great time.  Nobody moved.  We all shoveled snow.  We all barbequed out.  Huge snow drifts.  It was a grand time.  Three glorious days.  I don't want to go through it again, Leo, but it was a fun time.
FLORES: Yes, I remember it. The trains ran. The next day the trains ran.
BLASCO:  You're doggone right.
FLORES:  I couldn't get there, but the trains ran.
BLASCO:  To Mr. Heinemann's eternal credit, that doggone railroad really did a job.
FLORES:  How was snow removal then, in Mount Prospect, compared to today?
BLASCO: It was a little wanting, let me put it that way. They didn't come too often. Gosh, we just finished leaf raking. We were talking about snow removal; we'll talk about leaf removal,
too.  Gee, I can remember burning those leaves.  That was fun.  It smelled good.  Can't do that now because we're tearing up the environment.  I suppose as years go on and people have children and they go to Prospect High School, and as they drive in the back way, they'll see the dugouts at the baseball field.  The story of the dugouts is one that I always like to reminisce on.  My son was pitching on the baseball team�this was 1971.  George Busse was president of the Booster Club at Prospect High School, and I was secretary or something on the board.  I asked George Geddes one day; I said, "George, what is it you would like to have the Booster Club work at, a facility or some service for the high school, because that's what we're here for, to help the school and to help your budget."  He said, "Well, we would like some dugouts at the baseball field."  I said, "Dugouts?  That's fine.  We'll go to work on it."  So, I suggested the project to George Busse and he said, "Okay, fine.  If we can do something we will, but where are we going to get the money?"  I said, "Don't worry about the money.  We'll get the money."  Having been a regular with Louie the barber�Louie Velasco, who is a very staunch Lions member�I was getting my hair cut one day and I said, "Louie, the Booster Club needs some money."  "What do you need money for?"  "Oh, to build some dugouts for the high school for the baseball team."  "Oh," he said, "that's just right in line with what we use our money for. Fine.  You let me know what you want."  I said, "Fine.  We'll be up at the meeting."  There was a meeting the next week.  So, we went to George and he said, "Will they have the money?"  I said, "Let's go ask them for it, George." We got to the meeting, and
George got up to make his presentation.  I introduced George and he made the presentation.  The president�I forget who it was�said, "Well, how much do you want?"  George was ready to ask for $2,000. I said, "No, George, make it $2500.  We need the money."  So he said, "$2,500," and the president said, "Okay, fine.  You'll have your check tomorrow," so he gave us a check for $2,500.  I immediately went out and I got�one of the player's fathers was an architect, so I said I needed some plans.  He drew up the plans for the dugout.  These are the plans for the dugouts that are there today.  Got some other people to donate some concrete block and some metal for the roof.  Mines gave us a real deal on lumber, and the park district used their excavation equipment to dig out the dugouts and to run the water lines.  We got a steel company to donate the steel railings for both dugouts.  We got the dugouts built.  When the dugouts were finished, we got Dave Kingman, who at that time was with the Chicago Cubs, to come in.  We had a dedication with Kingman and the mayor and Kuhlicke.  George said, "Well, we got it all done."  I said, "George, we've got $187 left."  He said, "What do we do with it?"  I said, "We give it back."  He said, "Can we?"  I said, "Yes."  So we went to a meeting and George got up and said, "We finished the dugouts. Here are pictures of the dugouts.  Here is a check for $187. We've got some left over."  The board didn't know what to do with the money.  All they could say is, "Nobody's ever given us money back."  So they said, "Anytime you need more money, come back and see us."  I never will forget the expression on those people's faces when we gave them $187 back.  But that's how the dugouts got
built.
FLORES:  The first time in history that a project came in under.
BLASCO:  In under bid�oh, yes.  But that was a fun project.  The dugouts are still there.  They haven't fallen down yet.
FLORES:  So you had a lot of involvement with the school through your kids.
BLASCO:  Oh, yes.  Booster and band, because we had two girls in the band.  That was when Morgan Jones was the band leader.  He is now at the University of Iowa�director of bands at Iowa.  They won't be in the Rose Bowl.  Michigan is going to be in the Rose Bowl this year.  But we went around the country, following the girls in their band.  I remember sitting through a downpour, an absolute deluge, at Illinois Normal as they won the state band marching championship, or something.  We just got drenched.  In fact, they marched with their shoes off.
FLORES:  Did they march in a few parades here in Mount Prospect?
BLASCO:  Yes, in a few parades�that's right, Leo.  Let's see, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, what else?
FLORES:  Well, those are great events.  We had a couple of band kids ourselves.
BLASCO:  Well, thinking back to what the village was before--