Inside Lake Forest

Dear Inside Lake Forest:
Somewhere, I noted that you were seeking comments about endearing qualities of Lake Forest or personal stories.  My husband and I will always remember our experience the day we signed the contract to buy our home here in 1976.  It was a beautiful late September day, and after the signing, we decided to drive uptown and take a walk around Market Square.   We had just started our walk, when a complete stranger stopped us on the street.  "Just stop and look at that beautiful red maple," she said.  We took a look.  It was indeed stunning.  People seemed to stop to enjoy nature here. Walking on, we noticed there were no parking meters anywhere.  "How nice," we thought.  Then my husband spotted Forest Bootery.  "We're going to give this town the test," he said.  (This referred to our five years in a Pittsburgh suburb, where he could never find a pair of ordinary black loafers in the entire metropolitan area.)  We walked into the shop.  "Can I help you?" said the clerk.  "Yes," said my husband.  "Do you have shoes like these in black?" he said, pointing to the brown loafers on his feet.  "Certainly," said the clerk.  We bought the shoes.  "I guess we've made the right decision to live in Lake Forest," we agreed.  And we have lived here happily for nearly 32 years!

 

The late Barry Fitzgerald later told me about the parking meters.  This may be a legend, but the story was that during a City Council debate on whether to install meters, the members of the Council were asked by a resident how much change each had in his pocket.  It turned out no one had enough to feed a parking meter, and that was the end of meters.

 

Gail Hodges

(Editor's Note:  Thanks Gail for all of your contributions over the years!)