The Bergmans - A Living History of Mokena - Mokena's Front Porch

Episode Transcript
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Israel (00:00):
Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch a Mokena History
podcast with Matt Galik and me,Israel Smith.
This is a conversation I wasreally looking forward to having
and it turned out to be as goodas I expected.
I think I really enjoyedtalking with the Bergmans.
Matt was not able to join us,but our friend Tony Marjus came

(00:21):
and sat with me, and Tony andDave know each other, I think
mostly from hanging out atLittle Al's, but so they know
each other, and so it was nicethat Tony was able to come and
join us.
He shared some historicalthings as well and information
that he has.

(00:41):
So that was nice to see him.
We also, as we've been doingthis summer, we recorded this
episode sitting on my frontporch, so you'll get to enjoy
the sounds of downtown Mokina,like the train, cars and many of
our kids playing.
It was a beautiful summer nightso I couldn't pass up the
opportunity to sit out on theporch and have a conversation

(01:03):
with the Bergmans.
The other night, matt and I satdown to record and we talked a
little bit first about theBergmans and I wanted to get his
perspective on why he believedthey were important and their
historical role to our village,so that we can kind of
understand.
Going into this, you know thebackground and you know Dave

(01:25):
spent his whole life working onFront Street and living on Front
Street.
He has a great sense of humor.
His stories are reallyinteresting.
I'm hoping, you know, we get achance to talk more, although he
told me he ran out of stories,but I don't think I believe him.

(01:47):
Before we get into theconversation, you'll hear Matt
and I talk a little bit aboutthe Bergmans and then, once we
get into the recording, as I'vehad happen a couple of times,
here and there, there was asmall glitch and I did a brief
introduction.
That was cut off and as we'retalking, we are beginning with

(02:11):
Mr Bergman talking about whenhis father passed away, and so
that's where that story starts,but you didn't miss anything
before that.
But there's nothing I could doabout it.
So, other than an introductionof Tony and the Bergmans and
thanking them for sitting downand talking with me which, again
, I will just say to them thankyou.

(02:33):
So they were very nice to comeover here.
We had a really niceconversation and I'm glad we
finally got to really meet andtalk, and I'm sure we're going
to have more opportunities totalk in the future.
So thanks for listening and Ihope you enjoy my conversation
with the Bergmans.
Matt, on this episode we'regoing to talk to Dave and

(02:56):
Charlene Bergman.

Matt (02:56):
Yeah.

Israel (02:58):
And you weren't able to join us for this conversation,
but it's a really goodconversation.
They're super interestingpeople.

Matt (03:04):
Yeah, they definitely are.

Israel (03:05):
Great sense of humor?
Oh yeah, absolutely, and herewe have a lot of laughs at good
time.
So tell us what you know aboutthe Bergmans and why they're
important to Moquina.

Matt (03:17):
Yeah.
So it's a very important familyto the history of this town for
a lot of reasons.
A, they've lived here for many,many, many years.
Not many people can say thatthey've been around in Moquina
quite as long as the Bergmanshave.
Dave moved to town and of courseI don't remember the exact year

(03:37):
right off the top of my head,but it was right after the end
of World War Two.
So this is right after 1945,maybe on 46 or so, I'm sure he
says exactly when.
But it was right in thatimmediate post war era when
everybody was coming back totown that had been off fighting

(04:00):
and the town started toexperience a lot of growth that
it hadn't had in quite a longtime.
And Dave continues.
I won't say where he lives in,you know I'm sure he's had some
privacy, but he has been livingin the same house on Front
Street that he always has sincehe first moved here.

(04:21):
As a pretty small kid he wasonce again, I'm sure.
I'm sure he says in theinterview how old he is, but I
won't, I won't release it.
I know exactly how old he is,but he was, let's see he was
about.
He had to be less than 10 whenhe moved here, and Charlene, his

(04:43):
wife, has also a.
Mrs Bergman has roots planted inthe community that go way, way
far back.
Her ancestors were theHohenstein family, who came to
Mokina, or not, let's say,frankfurt Township.
They came to Frankfurt Townshipas the area where they settled

(05:04):
and farmed nowadays would beconsidered Mokina, but at that
time it wasn't.
It was too far outside town,the old farmstead having been
located on 191st Street.
And that was was right afterthe Civil War, when we're at
about 191st Street let's see.
So the Hohenstein farm thatSimon Hohenstein senior farmed

(05:28):
and which later passed into thehands of his son, christian,
that stood, let's see, on thenorth side of the road, a little
bit west, no, pardon me, alittle bit east of, I guess
that's 88th Avenue.
If you were to go just a littlebit further east from there,

(05:49):
let's see, on the other side ofthe road there is a I guess it's
like a storage facility, kindof directly across from.
There is where on the northside of the road is where the
Hohenstein farm was, and in factpretty recently, up to about
maybe seven or eight years ago,there was still one of the silos

(06:11):
still standing.

Israel (06:13):
Oh, wow.

Matt (06:13):
Yeah, yeah, Got some pictures of that, luckily before
it came down.

Israel (06:17):
And that would have been yeah, that definitely would
have been out in the countryfrom downtown Moquina at the
time.
Oh, absolutely.

Matt (06:22):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it was pretty, would havebeen considered pretty far
outside town.
But yeah, that was in the handsof the Hohenstein family for
many, many years, decades anddecades, and that is, that's
Charlene Bergman's family.
So wow.

Israel (06:41):
And you can call yourself a real Moquina, and
that's for sure and for sure youtalk and we hear Dave was part
of the fire department for along time.
Another person, a businessperson in town that was part of
the civic side and helping thecommunity, whether it be with
the police officers or thatthey're all community members.

(07:02):
These front street businessowners were yeah, and that's
something that the Bergmanscarried through all those years.

Matt (07:09):
Oh sure they did.
Yeah, and that's what thebusiness Dave's auto right on
front street which, for those ofus who don't remember the
business, that was in the sameold building where tribes
brewery was all the way up untilrecently yeah, that was a real
landmark in Moquina.
They set up shop there in the1970s and were in business all

(07:32):
the way up until trying totrying to place it, you're must
have been around and theyprobably, once again, I'm sure
they say in the interview I'mjust kind of guessing around
2015 or so, but yeah, that was along established business in
town and Dave, before hebranched off on his own with his

(07:52):
own business, worked for theCooper and Hastur Ford agency
which we have talked about.

Israel (07:58):
Yeah, and he talks a lot about, about that and his, his
experience and good and how muchthat, you know, shaped and
helped him, helped him with hisbusiness.
Yeah, yeah, really really neatthe way he's tied to so much
history.
I mean, then, when you think ofthe Cooper, you know in the
years they go back, it's reallyincredible.

Matt (08:19):
It is.

Israel (08:20):
Yeah, and then he's still.
They today still have hisdaughter, has the U-Haul and,
yes, tarspingel sales, which hetalks a lot about.
How he got into doing that andsourcing American made flags
Good.

Charlene (08:34):
Yeah.

Israel (08:36):
And it's a really well rounded conversation.
I was appreciate to get yourinput as well and kind of share
with us why why it's importantthat we're talking to these guys
and get their stories and heartheir their history as well.
So thanks for your input, Matt.
And I hope you enjoy theconversation as well.

Matt (08:55):
I know I will always love hearing both of them talk
whenever I can.

Dave (09:03):
And 46 at an auction down in Joliet at and where was the
house at?
It's when I live in on frontstreet.

Israel (09:10):
Wow Okay.

Dave (09:12):
And then in 1947, he died.
He was there to one winter andthen came summer and it was like
August.
We were down at the tavern onthe corner of Molkina or Wolf

(09:33):
and La Porte and they playedbaseball there at the end of the
evening and I was there and Ithink the ball game was over
with around 10 o'clock and Iwalked home and there was all
kinds of people there.
My dad had had a heart attack.

Israel (09:49):
And how old are you when that happened?

Dave (09:50):
10.

Israel (09:51):
10 years old.
So what happened after that?
You stayed in town.
It was just you have siblings?

Dave (09:58):
No, I got forced into moving in with my aunt and uncle
, which was my dad's brother, inhis way in Chicago, on the
south side, by the rainbow beach, 76th Street and Exchange
Avenue.
Okay, and from that point, whydon't you feed them?

(10:23):
Fly vote over here.

Charlene (10:25):
I know rainbow beach, you got a fly bug in you, yeah.

Dave (10:30):
And I stayed there for oh, three years maybe.
Then I came back out here and Irented a room from Bessie
Newton at right behind thevillage hall on the corner there
.
Earl Baker lives in it now anda buck a day for the room, and

(10:55):
she did your clothes for adollar extra.

Israel (10:58):
And did you have a job then that paid.

Dave (11:01):
Yeah, I worked for the four people.
One day I was messing aroundand he said what are you doing
today?
I said I'm going to go swimming.
We had a pool, a pond, downthere behind the park, still
there.
We call it Sapex whether thatwas a guy's name or not, I have

(11:22):
no idea but it was an 18 footspring-fed pool or pond and we
went down there and swam everyday or every couple of days,
come up through the woods andthere was a guy by the name of
Dick Magovny, sure that's awell-known town name here.

(11:47):
And he lived in a.
He had a house and they movedto jail from Moquina down there.
I had never seen that jail uphere in town, but they say they
moved it down there and he sleptin that jail house and we used
to come up through there a bunchof kids, you know and we

(12:08):
stopped and get a drink out ofthe well and somebody opened the
well up and there was ratsfloating in the top of the water
and I said I don't think we'lldrink this anymore.
But nobody got sick.

Israel (12:22):
Wow so.

Tony (12:24):
Carol told you to come to work.

Dave (12:27):
Yeah, so yeah, I was out there and I was going to go
swimming and he said now you gohome and change clothes, I'm
going to give you a job.
I didn't know if I wanted towork or not, but he insisted
that I do that.
So I went down, I came up thereand I stayed with him for 23
years Wow.

(12:47):
And he became more like afather to me than I can remember
my dad being.

Israel (12:55):
And that was at the Ford .

Dave (12:57):
Agency.
It was called Cooper andHostard Ford Agency and they
sold four tractors and equipmentand they sold cars.

Israel (13:12):
And what did you start doing there when you were first
started working at thedealership?

Dave (13:16):
He handed me a bunch of stuff and he said you go over
there by the grinding wheel andyou clean it off, You'll get all
that carbon off of them.
These are valves that come outof an engine and I went all that
off of there and I had themshining when I got done.
I maybe took a little longer,but I had them shining.

Israel (13:37):
So you were with them for quite a few years 23.
So what kind of jobs did you dowhile you were with them?

Dave (13:44):
I did mechanical First off , I worked a rack for a while
and then on Saturdays we used tohave a guy come from the
railroad.
He was a foreman for the GandhiDancers or the track repairs.
His name was Bill Viscori.

Israel (14:06):
Gandhi Dancers.
Well, we call them Gandhi.

Dave (14:08):
Dancers.
They were Mexicans that workedon the railroad and Bill used to
come over there In the evening.
He'd work mess around.
He wasn't married and hadnothing to do with it.
He lived on that lot that Ihave there where the U-Hauls are
.
There was a small cottage onthat place and he had a well but

(14:33):
he had an old wood stove forheat and a bed.
And he finally got a girlfriendfrom Frankfurt and they used to
go out every night and havesupper or whatever and he
finally married her.
But he was a good guy, goodfriend.

(14:53):
He died of cancer.
But then I got into giving thempeople to say how much is my
car worth?
If I wanted to buy that, andI'd say something just a price,
I'll give you $700 for your car.

(15:16):
And he came out there and hesays you know, you do pretty
good.
He said I'd like there to sella few.
He said so I started sellingcars but I stayed in the
mechanical work group.

Israel (15:32):
Did he have other salesmen as well?

Dave (15:34):
No Him him.

Israel (15:36):
He didn't sell cars.

Dave (15:38):
No, I can't remember if hemight have sold one or two.

Israel (15:47):
What would he do mostly?

Dave (15:50):
He just come around and raise a lot of hell.
No, he was a good guy, he was agood boss, he chased parts and
he'd tell me you go with metoday for a little bit.
We're going to Kankakee to getsome tractor parts.
I don't care, you drive.

(16:10):
I don't even think I had adriver's license yet.
And he says you drive and I'mdriving along and we get down to
about Andres.
He says don't this car go anyfaster?
I don't know, I give it the gas.
We got up to about 90 miles anhour.
And he says you're doing prettygood, keep going.

(16:35):
But we used to call him BarneyO'Field and he did that.
There was a lot of fun there.
A lot of fun.
Guys had a guy there by thename of Fred Clark.
He cleaned cars but he workedfor Ray Williams Press and he

(16:56):
was on a train and he would haulthese money bags and mail and
stuff and at that time when atrain went through they had a
holder that was a post and theywould put a gunny sack or a
canvas bag hanging between thetwo posts and the train would

(17:17):
come on and they'd never stop.
They'd just grab it and snatchit and he'd slide the door open
and pick it up.

Israel (17:24):
So that was something that went on in your day, you
remember that as well.

Dave (17:27):
Oh yeah, he told me one time.
He said, dave, if you want,I'll give you this bag of coins
that I will have in my car, in arailroad car.
He said, if you can carry theblock, I'll give it to you.
It was full of change.
How far did you get?

(17:48):
I never took it.
I never took it on.

Israel (17:52):
Wow, that's really interesting.
We've done an episode of thepodcast on the Ford agency Matt
and I did and one of the thingsthat it talked about is that it
really was, for a lot of years,kind of a town center.
People gather there andsocialize, and what do you
remember about that?

Dave (18:12):
Oh well, we had a couple seats out front and if there was
no work we'd all sit out front.
Had two gas pumps, three gas,no two gas pumps, standard oil
pumps with the crown on the top.

Israel (18:26):
Would you pump gas as well?

Dave (18:27):
for people and we'd sit out there and commit, smoke,
cigarettes and whatever, andthen somebody would say well,
there's a guy in the back, whydon't you oil change?
Okay, then a couple of us goback there and change the oil.
It was kind of a haphazard dealat that time and it had a lot

(18:49):
of fun though.

Israel (18:50):
Eventually.
Well, so the Cooper-Hostertagency opened in 1916.
And I had read somewhere youstarted about 1953 working for
them.

Dave (19:00):
I can tell you that they used Harold Cooper who was my
boss.
He was the Cooper part of thebusiness his dad and him,
because Barney and Elmer Cooperwere brother-in-laws and they
used to farm out here on Route 6in Wolfe.
Well then they came into townand they opened up this garage

(19:26):
and they both worked it.
And then Harold came in andtook over.
He was a big guy and he used totell me that he worked for Ford
Motor Company up at 130th andTorrance.
That was a plant and they usedto put the bodies of the cars in

(19:50):
a box car.
And Harold said that was my jobup there was to put them bodies
in the car.
And he'd say I'd call them upon a telephone and say there's a
car load of cars coming down,don't move nothing, I'll take
care of it when I get home.
I know how to unload it.

(20:11):
I'm the guy that loaded it andthey'd just let it sit there.
He'd come in.
There was a siding on this sideof the tracks.
Well, the depot was there alsoand they would put that on the
siding and he'd go in there.
I wasn't with him when he didthat.
That was long before me.

(20:32):
They weren't model T's.

Israel (20:34):
And were they still putting the cars together?
They?

Dave (20:38):
put them together in the back shed and they had a back
barn that faced Front Street.
The back was at First Streetand they had a rail in the
ceiling.
One around was a U-shaped railand when they got the car in

(20:59):
they would push the chassis andthe engine and the steering
wheel were all together and thewheels were on the car.
They would push it and thenthey would lower the body onto
it off of this track and thenthey'd bolt it up and do the
wiring and the gas lines and allthat kind of stuff, because the

(21:21):
gas tank was already in it.
I didn't never see this, theyjust told me about it.

Charlene (21:28):
So but Well, hopefully when this gets released to the
WWY World Web podcast.
The Heggwish Plant is theoldest Ford assembly plant in
Chicago, 130th and Torrance.
So I have pictures from when itopened, to pictures to every

(21:56):
millionth car that was sold atthat plant.
So I'll make a copy for youguys too.

Israel (22:03):
Any idea how many million, if they marked?

Dave (22:06):
every million.
I think they made about 7million.

Charlene (22:09):
I don't know the exact number, but I do recollect.
Every time I would do theresearch and look it up.
It would be X million cars andthere's pictures where they're
standing on holding, you know,like Model T's and all that.
That's the oldest plant.
So the one in Chicago Heightsis just a stamp, that's a
stamping plant.
It's a stamp and plant wherethey make the pieces for the car

(22:30):
, but the assembly plant is130th and they had a plant in
Livonia, michigan also, thatmade engines, so the one in the
one in 130th and Torrance.
A lot of people connected withHeggwish.
So Heggwish is a littlecommunity of Chicago but it's
actually in South Deering butit's never been associated with
South Deering per.

(22:50):
You know the conversation ofthe neighborhood.
So but yeah, I'll get you.

Dave (22:54):
I'll get you some pictures of that, probably sometime in
the early 70s.
I remember a guy telling me heworked.
He was a friend of mine.
He worked for Ford at thestamping at the assembly plant.
His father was my field rep forFord Motor Company.
His name was Cletus.
Danny Cletus was my field rep.

(23:17):
George Cletus worked in thefactory and he had brothers and
sisters all over the place.
Everybody got a job, but I was.
I was going to tell you that.
I don't remember right off handnow, but I'll get back to me,

(23:40):
I'll get back to you about it.

Israel (23:41):
As the Ford Cooper Hostard Agency closed and was
sold after you opened Dave'sAuto in 1975.

Dave (23:55):
But they had been there.
He sold out to Ralph's showover in Frankfurt.
It was a Cooper show agency.

Israel (24:02):
And did that state here on Front Street for that time,
or did they move?

Dave (24:06):
He kept the one in Frankfurt show and his name was
not SHOW, it was SJO and Cooperwas his father-in-law.
He married one of the Coopergirls and they came here and
then he bought Cooper Hostardout.

(24:28):
I was on vacation in Coloradoand I called up to see if
everything was okay and firstthing he said is we're having a
terrible time.
He said I wish you were herebecause the transmission on this
guy's car we've had it outthree or four times.

(24:51):
He said we can't stop thisnoise that he makes.
He said he steps on the gas andit goes.
I suppose it's got a brokenmotor mount.
He said what?
Next day he called.
I called him again.
He says you're the smartest kidI ever met.
He said that was what was thematter with that car.

(25:12):
They had the transmission onfour different times and took it
apart.

Israel (25:17):
Did you pay you while you were on vacation.
For that I got paid anyway.

Dave (25:23):
The next time, after Sho bought the place, I stayed with
him for a short time and Ididn't like the way he ran the
business.
He was kind of loose and wetook a vacation.
Charlie and I went to Floridawith our kids I come home in

(25:47):
about a week and they handed mea check.
I thought, well, I'm out here.
I said what's this for?
Well, he said anybody to comein and ask for you.
If we sell them a car, you gethalf the commission.
I said if I don't know that,I'll stay in Florida.

Israel (26:09):
So was there ever any thought or opportunity for you
to buy the dealership or becomea part of it?

Dave (26:19):
There was a deal or there was talk, not a deal that Harold
and I would be partners and Iwould buy out the Hustards.
The problem was Harold wasgoing to come up with the money
and I would sign on with him,but the Hustards thought it was

(26:43):
worth more than what he wasoffered.
So this Chuck Hustard, whichwas the oldest boy from the
Hustard family, he said Dave,come on down to my house for
supper tonight.
And I said to Harold, I saidChuck Hustard just invited me to
supper.
He said you go.
But he said I'm going to tellyou something when you go.

(27:08):
If he says anything about thatdeal that we're trying to cook,
he says you just tell him.
If he don't like the price,we'll sell our half to him for
the same price.
He shut up from there on.
He worked for United Airlines.

(27:31):
He was the head of themechanics in the United Airlines
.
Chuck Hustard.
He was a smart guy, not a niceguy, but his mother and his
brother, art, which worked forthe company and him, were buying

(27:55):
out his mother and it justdidn't work.
Hustard was his brother, he hadbeen there for a long time as a
mechanic, and Chuck come in andhe was going to start
everything all over new.
I did pick up a few tips fromthem, and I think somebody else

(28:15):
probably did, but they fadedaway.
They just decided that theydidn't want to own it.
He didn't want to buy this guyout and the other one didn't
want to have the money to buyout.
So that just kind of went away,went back to the mother and I
stayed there for a while butthey sold out the show and I

(28:39):
didn't last maybe a year andCharlene took care of their
books.
She was a cashier and whatever.
But he would come in and open acash register and take whatever
he wanted.
He made any arrangements ofwhat he took.

Israel (29:00):
So then, in 1975, you decided to open up your own
place.

Dave (29:06):
I went down the street but Walt Yonker owned a building
that I had.
It was used as a road prayingfor township had a road
equipment in there for a time.
Walt had a couple ofcaterpillars and a trailer and a
dump truck and he used to.
He was a haul coal for thegrade school because they had a

(29:34):
coal burning furnace in thebasement.
He'd have a big truck blow thecoal for him and he didn't want
to really use it for much.
He had people in theneighborhood used to bring their
cars in and park them overnight.
You know he'd get my key andthey'd walk in and get their car

(29:56):
out.
But fine, that didn't work outtoo well.
After I got a little upset withRalph Scholl, my brother was in
a concrete business and he saidI got to have my truck fixed.
Can you do that?
And I said I think so.

(30:17):
I have to see if I can get thatgarage.
So I went to Walt and I askedhim if I could use the garage.
I said I'll pay you rent.
It might take me a day or two.
Yeah, he said, go ahead.
So that's how I got started inthere and then he came to.
We opened up and we're rentingit from him.
And then he came in one day andhe says I want to sell my place

(30:41):
and I give you first refusal.
You're here and I'd like to seeyou buy it.
I said, okay, how much you want.
And he told me and I okay,that's good for me.

Israel (30:55):
And you were already in business at that point.

Dave (30:58):
I was kind of in and out, harold and the banker, les
Brownlee Johnson.
They kept telling me you don'twant to leave, you don't want to
leave.
And I said I don't want to stay.
So I said I'm leaving.
And then it was ironic, it wasprobably six months or so Harold

(31:23):
come down and he said do youthink I could put a desk in here
and we could sell a few carstogether?
I said sure, so he did.
Oh wow, and then people come in.
They all knew him.

Israel (31:34):
Anyway, he'd get to see all his old friends and so did
Dave's auto kind of take over asthe social pick up.
You know the social hangout.

Dave (31:44):
Yeah, yeah.
One of my favorite people thatused to come in was Father Cecil
Koop, great guy, and he was aCatholic priest over here and
he'd come in there and talk andhave, just have fun with him,

(32:10):
and he had us fix his busesschool buses.
Well, we'd fix him late atnight because we couldn't get
him till four or five o'clock inthe afternoon.

Israel (32:19):
In between runs.

Dave (32:20):
he had to go, he had to go ten o'clock or so, you know,
and when we got done, haroldsaid we're going over to Oasis
in Frankfurt and have a littlelunch.
I said okay.
He said we're going to stop,take the bus over to Father's
and then we'll go to the doorand knock on the door and tell
him if we're going over to eatand if he wants to come, he can
come with us.

(32:40):
Well, he was in his pajamas.
He said I'll be right there so,and they moved him out of here
and he went to Springfield, Ithink it was, and he was down
there for quite a while and heused to come up once in a while.
Now you have to understand.

(33:03):
This guy was a priest atMochina and he was sworn to
poverty, but he had a Galaxy 500XLT, a dog and a pack of cigars
and he'd pull in the garage andhe'd be smoking a cigar and a

(33:24):
dog laying in the back seat.
Nobody ever said nothing.

Israel (33:28):
Was he a longtime priest here in town?

Dave (33:31):
Yeah, he was a good friend and I invited him to our
wedding and my father-in-lawsaid who in the hell invited a
priest?
I said I did.
He's a friend of mine.
You got all kinds of peoplehere.
I only got a few today.

Israel (33:52):
I know.

Dave (33:52):
Yeah.

Israel (33:54):
How many people complain about a priest coming to the
wedding?

Dave (33:58):
Well them, Protestants are that way.

Israel (34:00):
Oh, that explains, it.

Dave (34:03):
That was what we are.
We're Protestant, but he was abest friend.
He liked Charlene.
We had an old upright piano.

Tony (34:12):
Tell them about that, mom, I don't know Well one of our
customers parents had passedaway and she was left with the
family positions, which one ofthem was an upright piano, and
she didn't know what to do withit and she didn't know how to
move it, and so a couple of theguys moved it.
We didn't know where to go withit, so it ended up out in the

(34:36):
shop.
Well, father Coop would comeinto town he loved to play the
piano and he would get out there.
He had his chair and he wouldsit down with the cigar in his
mouth, his dog laying by him,and he would play and play and
everybody would just come in andenjoy it.

Dave (34:57):
It was just I don't know where he stayed when he came up
here.

Israel (35:02):
I don't know either Was he playing church music in the.

Tony (35:05):
No, not really.

Dave (35:06):
Wait, I'll record this show.
But he, when I get ready toleave and he might be there and
I'd say I'm going to breakfasttomorrow morning and meet me
over here at the restaurant,docs, Okay, he'd be there, I'd
buy him breakfast we just had.
He was just a super guy.
Now I'll tell you somethingthat probably you won't believe.

(35:29):
He walked in the back door oneday and I had a mechanic laying
underneath a car and he wassaying where the hell is that
son of a bitch?
Where is that son of a bitch?
And Father Coop walked up frontand he got ahold of Barney
Hustard.
Barney, I want to ask you aquestion.

(35:49):
Yeah, he says what part of acar is a son of a bitch?
And Barney looked at him and hesays what are you talking about
?
Well, he said it must be a caron a car, because the guy
underneath there is looking forit.
Wow, what a character.

Israel (36:09):
Any other characters that you remember from your days
that were memorable?
Not really.

Dave (36:15):
We have a few characters.

Tony (36:19):
Tuffy Hummergill, Francis O'Brien Francis.

Dave (36:21):
O'Brien, francis O'Brien.
He was quite a guy.
His wife was a postmistress andhe would Meaning they delivered
mail or ran the post office.
No, they just had a little postoffice there, oh yeah, okay.
And she and my mother got a jobthere.
She was a civil service, shewas filing bonds in Chicago at

(36:47):
the merchandise mark and she putin for this job as assistant
postmistress and she got it.
So she worked there for acouple of years.
I guess it was and was thatwhen the post office was on
Front Street.
Yeah, it was right where that.
You know where that vacant lotis, there between, Well, the

(37:08):
hearing aid place.
Right next door to that therewas a small building and there
was a guy by the name of AndyHar and he was a barber and he
had a shop there.
He was a barber and in the backhe had a pool table so kids
would come in and play pool andstuff to get an haircut and that

(37:33):
was.

Tony (37:36):
That was where the post office was on the corner of
Front and Mokina Street, wherethe hearing aid place was, and
just moved out that's the firstpost office I know of and then
they moved down to the buildingdown the street west.

Israel (37:52):
Okay, and that was built as a post office.

Dave (37:54):
Yes, Is that right?
Yes, well, not.
I don't know that it was built.
It was there when we come, butit must have been a rental place
, because when they went tobuild a post office, they built
it down there where that, nextto the driveway for the bank.
That.

Israel (38:15):
Right the NOS button by my building, yeah by.

Dave (38:17):
Dave's Auto.
And then there was a buildingthat was savings and loan and
there was an alleyway.
And then the next building theybuilt that for a post office
and later on in years it becamea printery Guy did printing
Business card and all that kindof stuff.

Israel (38:39):
Well, I know we've let Mr Bergman speak a lot, maybe.
Yeah, charlene, let's talkabout you a little bit.
When did you come to Moquina?

Tony (38:51):
I came in the day we got married in 1961.
But I lived over in TindleyPark on 171st and 88th by
Andrews High School.
I was farm girl.

Israel (39:04):
That was farm country then, huh.

Tony (39:06):
Everything over there was farm country.
My grandparents had a farm onthe south side and we had a farm
set of buildings on the northside of the corner of 171st and
88th.
But my mother was born andraised here in Moquina.
Really she's from the Hohnsteinfamily.
Okay, they lived out on 191stStreet.

(39:29):
Remember that last little silothat sat out there on 191st
before you got to the industrial?

Dave (39:36):
park.

Tony (39:36):
I'm gonna get something out of my car.
It's said on the north sidethat was their farm area.
Okay, she was raised there withher two brothers and two
sisters.
She lived here all of her lifeuntil she got married and

(39:57):
married my dad, and then movedover to Tindley Park.

Israel (40:00):
Wow.

Tony (40:02):
And they stayed in Tindley Park for their all, their lives
, all their married life untilwell, until 1962, the year after
we got married.
Then they decided to move toIndiana, rushville, indiana.
Mom and dad would go into townand we had hogs on the farm and

(40:22):
mom and dad would go into townand come back home and hear
their kids in the haymow and inthe pig barn and that didn't sit
well with my dad.
You don't do that.
We knew well enough not to do it, and the town kids better learn
how not to do it.
So they decided to move Thankyou Down there onto another farm

(40:46):
and lived their life down therethen.

Israel (40:49):
Wow, so what was what was growing up there like?
What was school like for you?

Tony (40:56):
We went to a one room country grade school at 175th
and around 45.
Wow, and there are 13 kids inschool.

Israel (41:08):
How many grades?

Tony (41:10):
We had.
We had all eight grades.
They were available but wedidn't have kids in all eight
grades as there happened to be.
In when I was in eighth grade.
Five of us were in the eighthgrade, so we had only left eight
kids for the other grades.
Some didn't have any, some onlyhad one, some had two.

Israel (41:33):
So then, what high school did you have?
Did you go to I?

Tony (41:37):
went.
I started at an Orland ParkHigh School and then my
sophomore year, carl Sainbergwas built, oh wow, and we
finished at Carl Sainberg.

Dave (41:49):
So that's cool over there, really old you were there
before me.
That's Father Cooper.

Israel (42:04):
Oh wow, father Cecil Cooper during his early years at
the pulpit of St Mary'soriginal little white church.
So he was a priest when it wasat the old white church.

Tony (42:18):
Wow, no, it wasn't in that white church.
Then he started there and thenthey built.

Dave (42:23):
I thought I didn't remember him coming and doing
that.
In there you got the picture ofthe people in front of the Ford
Ratch.

Israel (42:33):
It's in here and we've got.
I'll show you what I've got tooof there are a couple pictures
I found.

Dave (42:44):
Yep, oh, here, that's 1956 .
I remember that car sitting outfront.

Israel (42:53):
Yeah, oh, wow, that's a neat picture.

Tony (42:55):
Yeah, we've got that one at home somewhere.

Dave (42:59):
You know, and that's Barney Hostert out front.

Israel (43:03):
All right, this is great , you've got them all written on
here, so this is in front ofwhere Cooper.

Dave (43:08):
Hussard In front of Cooper Hussard, right here, right in
front of this building.

Israel (43:12):
Okay, and then written on the back you have from left
to right, are Fred Clark.
Fred Clark and Question mark onthe second one, that one there.

Dave (43:23):
That was Barney Huster's son-in-law.
Okay, and it was uh.

Tony (43:31):
I never knew what his name was.
I can't remember.

Israel (43:33):
And then Barney's next to him.

Dave (43:35):
And then Barney Huster and then Irv House and a big tall
guy in the back was Art Husterand the two boys there the one
with glasses sitting on the backis Tony Dynna, the barber, and
the other guy is Joey Gabarsekand he had a.
His father owned the Royal BlueStore.

Tony (43:54):
Which was on the west side .

Israel (43:56):
The Lashology building chase.
That's up there now, right yeah.
So do you know when thispicture was taken?
Any idea around the year?

Dave (44:05):
Vernon Hague is the other one that's sitting there.
That's Fred Clark, vernon Hague.
Barney Huster now, that'sBarney's son-in-law.
He married one of Barney'sdaughters.

Tony (44:16):
Tony looks like he might be just in grade school.
I don't think he's in highschool at that point.
Yeah, it looks pretty younghere, so um See that Tony?

Charlene (44:25):
Yeah, I have the.
I have an article at home fromTony.

Dave (44:29):
Yeah, we have the standard oil pumps Going into the
military, oh, I have.
And that's Barney Huster outthere pumping gas.

Charlene (44:34):
So you could probably backdate that.

Tony (44:36):
I think he's.
Tony is about 83 right now, ifI'm not mistaken.
Tony, you're talking about TonyJr.

Charlene (44:45):
Yes, okay so Tony Jr went into the Marine Corps in
1959.
I have the article at home.

Tony (44:50):
So he would have had to be 21.

Dave (44:52):
Now that that building there?
What?
What is that building is there?
At Burntown that was an oldbarn.
They used to have oystersuppers down in the basement.
I didn't go to, harold told meabout them.
But the funny part of it wasthis was two big doors that

(45:13):
folded together this way and Igot called out one night by the
police.
There's maybe, we think,somebody's in the garage.
Oh, can you get up here andopen it up?
I said yeah, but when I gotthere I said it's already open.
The door's open here.

(45:34):
Well, is there a light in there?
I said yeah.
Well, can you go in?
I said hell.
No, you got the gun.
You go in.
This side door was against TonyDynas.
There was a building there nextto Tony Dynas and we used to go

(45:57):
in and that's where our rack was.
We could drive in and go on arack In the winter time.
They had an old coal stove inthe corner and I called it puff
the magic dragon, that darnthing.
Every time we light a fire, thedamn thing.
In the morning you come in aplace with all smoke, ice, cold.

(46:19):
The ice was about three feetinside the door and this guy
wrote an article on this.
He's still in the area, bobBaker.
Bob Baker, and if you'd like toread that article, I sure it's

(46:41):
pretty nice.
He did a tremendous job, but hegot in trouble with a village
and they no, these are.

Tony (46:52):
More or less black mold.

Charlene (46:55):
Wow, this could be like a 14 hour an.
This is great.

Dave (47:02):
These have nothing to do with the Ford garage, but that's
when I went into my ownbusiness.

Israel (47:11):
So this is from when you started the.
The one down in the Dave's Autoso it's talking about.
So it looks like this is fromFebruary of 1998 and the Lincoln
Way sun.

Dave (47:22):
Yeah, it's not too antiquish.

Charlene (47:24):
But you know, I just thought well, I'll take a long
See, if you.

Dave (47:29):
You might be interested in looking at.
It doesn't mean what else do wegot in there, do you?

Tony (47:34):
remember when they brought new cars into town.

Dave (47:38):
Oh yeah, we took when they brought in a new car we would
take and hide it in somebody'sgarage and then we'd wait till
the Friday night, fridayafternoon, and then that's when
we start showing the car.
And we only had a one carshowroom and it had a little

(47:58):
basement underneath the showroom.
We were afraid to go collapse.

Israel (48:03):
But so you put in somebody's garage, in their home
and then you'd bring it out forthe unveiling.

Tony (48:09):
I told them, it would be all covered up Ah.

Dave (48:11):
I never forget the time we got the Pinto and Louis Rauch
owned the oil gas station overhere, across the street from
where I live, on the south sideof the track At schoolhouse road
.
That building was an oilcompany, moquino oil.
Phillip 66 products Earlier inlife and I don't never remember

(48:36):
it wasn't there when I was there.
That was a stockyards inMoquino.
They used to pull the cattle inor the pigs in and then they'd
water them there.

Israel (48:47):
So are you talking about where the apartment buildings
are now?
No, on the other side.

Charlene (48:50):
On the other side, right behind you.

Dave (48:53):
The building is there.
Wow, yeah, hmm.

Israel (48:58):
That's why.

Tony (49:00):
I'm telling them about what my little would do with all
the doughnuts.
She would go to Elmer.
Elmer was a baker in inFrankfurt and every time there
was a car opening she would.
He would deliver the mostwonderful doughnuts, a variety
of doughnuts.

(49:20):
He just bring them in by theboxes and everybody came in, got
a doughnut, cup of coffee,whatever for the grand opening.
That was good and everybodymade sure they got their
doughnut and they were to diefor.

Israel (49:39):
So tell me a little bit about how did you two end up
meeting?

Tony (49:46):
At a friend's wedding.

Israel (49:49):
How you met.

Tony (49:52):
He probably doesn't remember.
I'm going to tip him a few.

Israel (50:02):
At a friend's wedding.
So you met at a wedding andthen tell us how did David and
Charlene come about?

Dave (50:10):
I asked her for a date.
She said yeah, so I got overthere and I picked her up and
then a couple weeks later someconversation we had and I said
something about well, you'relucky, I showed up.
She says you're lucky, youshowed up because I had another
guy coming.

Israel (50:33):
Wow, and how many years have you been married now?
63.
, 62.
, 62.

Dave (50:39):
Got married in 61.

Israel (50:44):
So what was the wedding like?
Were you married in Moquina oryou?

Dave (50:49):
were.

Tony (50:49):
We got married in Tindley Park at her church Methodist
church in Tindley Park andeverybody had their reception at
Sanger Hall in Tindley Park.
It burned down after it wasJuly first, after your reception
.

Israel (51:03):
it burned down Must have been quite funny.

Tony (51:07):
It was, everybody was there.
We had a ball.

Dave (51:12):
They told me to go on home .
I said they love him too much.
That's good.

Israel (51:22):
Tell me about your family now.
What kids do you have?

Tony (51:26):
We have a daughter, linda, who just lost her husband two
years ago to cancer.
She lives here in town.
We have a daughter, barbara,who runs the U-Haul.
She's our second daughter.
And then we have a thirddaughter, meg Margaret, and she
lives in Manhattan.
Barbara has four daughters.

(51:49):
Meg has two daughters andBarb's second daughter has a
daughter which is a greatgranddaughter.
The next daughter has anotherdaughter.
So we have girls, girls andgirls.
Wouldn't you believe it For amechanic?

(52:09):
We have a room full of girls.
What are you going to do?
That's what everybody said.
We just had our first greatgrandson oh, congratulations In
January.
So he's kind of a little princeright now.

Israel (52:26):
I've gotten to know Linda a little bit through the
Heartland service dogs you didThrough the Mokina Lions Club
and that.
So we just celebrated sevenyears in Mokina and I always say
we walked into what's nowtribes and rented our U-Haul
truck, and so it's neat to seethat the story, not knowing then

(52:52):
the long story behind that.

Tony (52:54):
Barb started up there running U-Haul when we were up
there.

Dave (53:00):
But I started it.

Tony (53:01):
Dave and Linda started the U-Haul and then Linda wanted to
do other things so she went offand Barb came in and took over
and they run it as Star SpangledSails.
We sell flags.

Israel (53:15):
Yeah, and I read an article about that in 2000.
You guys started doing, startedthe Star Spangled Sales
business, right?
So can you tell us a little bitabout that, like how that came
about and what was involved withthat business?

Tony (53:32):
You want to tell them what's that About Star Spangled
Sales and why you started it.

Dave (53:37):
That happened on 9-11.
I said we got to do something.
So I said let's go buy someflags if we can.
And I took 100 hours, 200 hours, and I went out trying to find
flags.
I bought them, I got them home,they were sold.
I went out again, I took 500bucks, went out and I spent the

(54:03):
500.
I was all over and sold them.
So I was sitting in my officeone day and I said I think I'm
just going to start a businesscalled, but I got to get a name
for it.
And then I thought, well, starSpangled Sales would be a good
name.
She said well, that's what youwant.

Tony (54:25):
Well, U-Haul cannot be a business by itself.
It has to be a mothered inunder an existing business.
And as long as we were therewith Dave Zotto, it was under
Dave Zotto.
But when there was talk of usretiring, she decided to move on
down where she's at now.

(54:46):
So then she picked up the StarSpangled End of it and that's
the mother business and U-Haulis the secondary business.

Dave (54:56):
I still own that lot.
That's why it's gravel, becauseI don't fall under the
blacktopping deal and they'dlove to get the hell out of
there and make me blacktop it.
But before I do that, I'll sellit.

Israel (55:11):
So the village you're saying the village would like
you to blacktop it.

Dave (55:14):
Well, they would force.
If somebody bought that, theywould force them to blacktop it
if that's what they're going touse it for parking.
Not because it's down, but ifyou're going to build a building
on it.
They wouldn't make them do that, so it's grandfathered in your
name.

Charlene (55:30):
Right, right, but so it's grandfathered in your name
and then Barb can't take thatproperty.

Tony (55:40):
Barb runs it from me, she runs it from you.
Okay, right, I don't know howmuch.

Dave (55:45):
It must have been pretty cheap.

Israel (55:50):
And so I think we have, you know, one of the flags and
the telescoping flag poles hereProbably.
From you know the previousfamily that lived here.

Dave (56:00):
And we were at a show up at McCormick Place and this guy
was selling flag poles and Isaid is there a chance somebody
would become a dealer for you?
You know, if you do whateveryou want, you just can't come up
here and sell them.
Well, that's fine.
I got a little town I'm in.
Yeah, he said go ahead.

(56:21):
So we've been buying for sincethe 9-11.
Yeah, right, after that westarted doing business with him
and I bought one, and myson-in-law, barbara's husband,
is a Mexican and I had a lot ofdeep thoughts about all that and

(56:46):
then it turned out that it wasokay and he went and he got
himself a citizenship.
I said first, to celebrate whatyou got, I'm going to give you
a flag pole on a flag.
Well, he said that'd be fine,we put it in.
He says can I put a Mexicanflag on there?

(57:07):
I said hell no.

Charlene (57:11):
Barb was really nice.
When I bought my house in 2009here in Molquina I'm on
Stonehenge Drive Her husband andher came out and they installed
my flag pole and to this day Istill have my US flag and my
Marine Corps flag flying.
And she's very nice witheverything she does at the shop.

(57:31):
It's just not you-hauls.
A lot of people don'tunderstand.
I like the local businesses intown.
Right, it's more than just thebusiness.

Tony (57:39):
Well, that's what it used to be and that's what we would
like to think it should still be.
But Molquina is growing andgrowing away from that family
business here.
And you know, I mean I used tostay at home when the kids were
little and I needed pot roast.
So I called Roy, roy Richardson, molquina Meat Market Can you

(58:05):
get a pot roast?
He knew what I wanted.
He'd have it ready.
I'd send the kids up with themoney.
They'd get it, he'd package itand they'd bring it on home
again.
You know the same thing up inthe red blue, I need a couple
loaves of red or I need a gallonof milk.
Send the kids up and you know.
And it worked that way, but itdoesn't.

Dave (58:23):
That was in a building that is now a dentist.
That was a meat market when itfirst built it.

Israel (58:31):
So I found an article and based on what you said, mrs
Bergman.
I thought it was interesting.
There was a 2006 South TownStar article about Front Street
and you guys were featured in it.
There's a great picture of you.
Mr Bergman, and Tony Dima onthere talked about the days when
farmers would come to town anddo other shopping on Front

(58:53):
Street, with grocery stores,taverns, butcher shops, two car
dealerships, a boarding house,sweet shop, post office and
hardware store within a fewblocks.
So I don't know what was.
I mean, that had to be atotally different town, a
totally different time.

Dave (59:13):
There's a corner of division, that on this side of
that, in other words facingFront Street on the west side of
division, that's where thathardware store was called
Dunham's and used to go in thered all kinds of stuff.

(59:34):
I don't think he knew what theheck he had.
I'm looking for it.
I just sold the last one thatwas his famous words.

Tony (59:44):
He'll be in tomorrow, the next week, all the time.
Just sold the last one.
Mr Dunham was quite a character.

Israel (59:52):
How much do you think that not having that changed
kind of the sense of community?

Dave (59:58):
Well, they killed Front Street.
Front Street will never be backto what it was.
There will never be businesseson it.
I don't think I'm about thelast one, I don't know what the
guy that bought the old CloverFarm store that's next door to
my building on the east side.
He's in there rehabbing it.

(01:00:19):
I think he's making apartmentsfor people to live in and catch
a train right across the street.
Don't have any motor vehicle oranything like that, unless they
want one.

Israel (01:00:33):
Yeah, and his plan is to put a restaurant in the bottom
as well.

Dave (01:00:39):
We had a nice restaurant in there.
What was it?

Israel (01:00:42):
called Sure, paulies, paulies, I think that was the
last thing that was in there,right yeah?

Dave (01:00:53):
but before that it was a Clover Farm store, grocery store
that's like Royal Blue.
He was Clover Farm that wasowned by the Teskees.

Tony (01:01:02):
Wanamakers.

Dave (01:01:03):
And Wanamaker first.
Then the Teskees bought it orthat because they were relatives
of the Wanamakers.

Charlene (01:01:11):
Was it an IGA or was it a just mom and pop, mom and
pop.

Tony (01:01:16):
They lived upstairs.
And same thing with the RoyalBlues they lived upstairs, but
see.

Dave (01:01:22):
Clover Farm was a name.
It was like Whole Milk orwhoever you know.
Cheerio, that was a name.
It seemed like Royal Blue was aname.
That was a franchise.
As far as I know, you must havehad a pay for that name.
I don't know.
I don't know that for a fact,but Royal Blue was all over the

(01:01:44):
place at one time.

Israel (01:01:48):
So why do you think that downtown changed?
Why do you think businesseswent away and any ideas.

Dave (01:01:55):
Well, I think a lot of it was because they wanted to do.
They tried to streetscape itand it didn't work out.
They changed the parking.
We used to have parking on bothsides of the street.
Now they got it on one side andit's angle parking and it

(01:02:15):
really hurt the town.
Because if you have a couplelike us now in our 60s or 80s, I
stumble a lot If I have to walkacross the street.
There's no handicappedaccessibility.
You have to go to the openingat the parking lot and cross

(01:02:46):
where that by the old pharmacyyou used to be the.

Tony (01:02:48):
Or by in front of our place.
You could come up Right.

Dave (01:02:51):
We had to cross at the street where there was already a
cut in either a driveway orsomething, so you could get up
on the sidewalk on this side.
If you go down that street fromMoquina Street to where the old
drug store was, you can't crossthat street with any kind of

(01:03:13):
public access.

Israel (01:03:15):
You have to step off the curb and go and hope you make
it so is there a time frame, doyou think, when it really you
saw kind of a shift, and it'sinteresting enough, in that same
2006 article I think theyquoted you, ms Bergman, as
saying front street was once avibrant venue, then it died, but

(01:03:38):
in 2006, you said you saw itpicking up again.
Was that just a?

Tony (01:03:44):
It died pretty completely when they did the street.
They did the street from WolfRoad all the way to Schoolhouse
and they had it torn up.
You couldn't come in at allthrough the front door.

(01:04:06):
We had access through the FromFirst Street.
We were fine in that respectand I'm saying it picked up in
2006 because we had a steady setof customers but new people
coming in town.

(01:04:26):
Once they had the street back,you could only go west on it and
try to turn into park.
They had taken the parking onthe north side of the street
away and the parking was only atan angle and it came from the
west.

(01:04:46):
So you had to come from theeast and turn and make it, try
to make it into one of thoseparking spots.
The old people couldn't do that.
They were not used to that.
That was not their way ofoperating in Moquina.
So they gave up, they moved,they went other places and once

(01:05:14):
you lost the post office,everybody came to the post
office on Saturday morning.
Everybody came to Moquina StateBank on Saturday morning.
Everybody came to the drugstore on Saturday morning.
You couldn't find a parkingspace on Front Street on
Saturday morning.
You go down Front Street nowand you could shoot up I don't

(01:05:36):
know what, and I hit a, not hita.
Thing.

Israel (01:05:39):
Why?
Do you know why or what thejustification was for moving the
post office to Wolfe instead ofoff of?

Tony (01:05:46):
Front Street.
It wasn't big enough, it wasn'taccessible enough.
Evidently it didn't have enoughparking.
It only had parking on the sideof the building and things were
moving on the gas station,which was on the corner where
Patterson's dental office.
That was gone, so that area hadchanged.

(01:06:09):
They had to have parking.
Although they don't have streetparking up there, they had to
have their own parking lot.
Newer people came in.
Not that newer people are bad,but newer people came in with
different ideas and just changedthe town and it doesn't really

(01:06:32):
sit well with us.
We still grumble and it's notthe moquina we knew.
But we have to realize thatthings have to change, have to
move on.
But we just lost a lot.

(01:06:53):
Well we took the carnival offthe street.
We used to have a carnival onFront Street.
You couldn't move on FrontStreet when the carnival was
here and oh, we can't have acarnival down there.
It's to.
You know, da, da, da, da da.
We'll move it out to the 191stStreet out there.
They moved it out there and theparents said I'm not going to

(01:07:15):
take my kids out there because Icould let them run up town here
.
They could go up town here allby themselves and I didn't have
to worry about it.
Now I can't leave them outthere.
I have to stay with them.
What am I going to do whenthey're on the rides?

Dave (01:07:31):
Everything grew up and we stayed behind, I guess Because
the fire department came alongand they said go ahead.
The fire department came alongand they said you can't put the
ferris wheel in front of thishouse, in front of the Royal
Blue Store, because we can'taccess it if it started on fire.

(01:07:52):
Okay, you can't put it here,because you'll have a fire there
too.
That's an old building.

Did you guys ever have block parties where you?
Would just close a street downand you Street dances.

Dave (01:08:08):
Street dances.

You could just come out and sit out and block the
whole street.

Dave (01:08:12):
We had a rock and roll band on one end sitting on a
semi-trailer thing, and on theother end was a country in
western, and then half the nightthey'd switch and the crowd
would switch with them.
Well, we had a ball.

Tony (01:08:25):
That was fun.

Dave (01:08:27):
That was a good time.

Tony (01:08:30):
We don't have totals anymore.
Which was dry goods?
They had everything.
They sold TVs, they sold pinsand needles, they sold buttons,
they sold birthday cards.
They sold everything.
We don't have that anymore.
We've got all of these dollarstores all around and it's just

(01:08:51):
getting your car and go.
It takes a business out of town.

Israel (01:08:55):
You can't put everything in four blocks, that's a
trouble and you got to think thegrowth of Mokina with
subdivisions moving further andfurther out Downtown becomes
less of a focus area.
Clearly they've put a lot offocus on Lil' Grange.
You know I-80 area there.

Dave (01:09:17):
Lil' Grange Road is not that prevalent in businesses.
Everything the back of theirbuilding face 45.
If you come on the west sidethey do have a few buildings
that are there, but most of themare set back quite a ways.
So when a guy goes by their 50,60 mile an hour he ain't

(01:09:39):
looking for that kind of stuff.
So they're going to kill thattoo, you know.

Israel (01:09:47):
A little bit I want to talk about because, Dave, you
were part of the fire departmentfor a long time.

Dave (01:09:56):
I don't remember how many years I was there when they had
the 50th anniversary of the firedepartment and they just so in
2017, had the 100th yearanniversary, isn't?
It.

Israel (01:10:11):
Yeah, oh, wow.

Dave (01:10:14):
Yeah.

Israel (01:10:15):
So did you get to ride in the old fire truck when it
was-.

Matt (01:10:18):
No, no, that was after you , no, I did not.

Dave (01:10:24):
I got to fix the 46 Ford truck it was a ton and a half
F500 or F600.
And I worked on that once in awhile, but I never worked on the
Model A and they got a pullcard also there or the hoses on

(01:10:47):
it.
They run up to a hydrant andhook it up and then run down the
road with it, any big fires orany big activity you had the
Ford garage that I was in burneddown.

Israel (01:10:59):
That was while you were- .

Dave (01:11:00):
I was not there at that time, I was in my own, but it
burned down.
We remember we walked up down.
Fred Raul was a fire chief atthat time.

Tony (01:11:12):
There was a big house between Tony Dina's home place
and the garage, a big home.
Two older ladies lived in itand that it was in the middle of
summer, hotter than Hades, andit started burning.
And it was right next to thegarage and Dynast Place, which

(01:11:33):
was wood, and the garage waswood and everybody's concerned,
you know.
And then there's the gas pumpsthere.
So everybody turned down forthat and they I don't remember
why.

Dave (01:11:46):
What happened there was a Gratowski was inhe was a mayor
of this town at one time.
He's dead now, but he was there.
He had a associate attractionwas the name of his company.
And what they would do isthey'd buy these small cars like
a Volkswagen or something andthey'd build a rack around it

(01:12:10):
and they'd make floats forparades.
And he did some of that inthere and what else?
They had there?
A flag company.
Gratowski owned that and thenhe left that.
Somebody else bought in andthat's when the fire happened, I
think.

Tony (01:12:29):
I don't know.
I think that was what happened.
They had a lot of material,there was a company come in
called Van Dominiums.

Dave (01:12:37):
They redid the vans.

Israel (01:12:40):
Yeah.

Dave (01:12:40):
And a guy worked for me, tommy Doyle.
He was working for VanDominiums as a body man and a
painter, and he come down hesaid, dave, I can't work with
these guys.
You got a job.
And I said, yeah, come onthough.

Israel (01:12:56):
The entire to put in shag carpet or yeah, I guess.

Tony (01:13:00):
Yeah, didn't he paint the?
Disco lights dice on themirrors, didn't he paint the cow
yeah.
And the by the creamery, thecreamery.

Dave (01:13:12):
No, no, no no.

Tony (01:13:13):
They brought it in from Chicago.

Dave (01:13:15):
No, no, that's not that cow.

Tony (01:13:17):
Not that cow, but a big one that was for Tino Latiri.

Dave (01:13:23):
He had a grocery store up there in Chicago and he had this
big overgrown cow that wouldprobably stand as high as your
roof here and Tommy got a ladderand he worked up there.
There was a hole in the head ofit and he patched it up and
then he painted it.
They took it back to Chicagoand put it up in front of that

(01:13:46):
grocery store again.
He died, tino, but his wifestill lives here in town.
He had a couple of girls and Idon't know where they were at.

Israel (01:14:00):
And then I saw, charlene , that you were the village
secretary for about nine years.
Is that right?

Tony (01:14:08):
Right, but I was also the village clerk for when Mr
Sorensen passed away.

Israel (01:14:15):
Was that after you were secretary?

Tony (01:14:18):
I was secretary from about 63 to 71.

Israel (01:14:23):
Okay.

Tony (01:14:25):
And I don't remember exactly when, I think Mr
Sorensen passed away.
After that Mrs Sorensenbasically was the village clerk
at their house.
Mr Sorensen had another job andshe did all of the paperwork
and she needed the job as avillage clerk because she would

(01:14:48):
then get paid and they had toappoint a village clerk until
they could have an election forher to run to be the village
clerk.
So they appointed me as theinterim village clerk to fill in
the position until they couldset up the next election.

(01:15:10):
And then Rita ran for theelection and she won and she was
a village clerk for many yearsafter that.
Village village clerk, theactual clerk, wow.
But she ran it from her homefor many years.
You were also the secretary.
I was the secretary.
Yes, right, I took the minutesfor the village board, for the

(01:15:30):
plan commission, for the parkboard, for the zoning board.

Israel (01:15:36):
I found a picture, an article, Don't say it.

Dave (01:15:46):
See if you remember that, don't say it.

Well, he's looking for the picture.
Where was the village hallway?
Was it in the same spot?

Tony (01:15:55):
On Front Street.

On Front Street, that little building on Front.

Dave (01:15:58):
Street.
This is a little concretebuilding there.

Israel (01:16:01):
It's a test for Mr Bergman.

Dave (01:16:04):
Can you tell who that young lady is?

Israel (01:16:07):
That's my wife.

Dave (01:16:09):
There she is.
You don't want to dance withher, would you Absolutely?

Israel (01:16:13):
So this is from Thursday January 26, 1961, and it says
Mr and Mrs Elvin C Sippel,senior of 71st Street and 88th
Avenue in Tinley Park,announcing engagement of their
daughter Charlene to DavidBergman, son of the late Mr and
Mrs Joseph Bergman of Mokina.

(01:16:33):
A fall wedding is planned bythe couple.
Mrs Sippel is employed as asecretary at the Continental
Casualty Company of Chicago andMr Bergman is employed at
Cooper-Hostrick Garage in Mokina.

Tony (01:16:47):
Right A long time ago so you happy with your decision?
What we're still standingaround Kind of late now.
That's right.
He's going to change horses inthe middle of the street.

Israel (01:17:04):
I found another one.
I thought was pretty neat, Davea view here with the I think it
was the, let's just say the asteak fry in the Mokina.
Community Park was enjoyed bythe New Lennox Methodist Men's
Club.
Yeah, and it looks like you'rehere with Dave Bergman, mike
Herman and John Peterson.

Tony (01:17:29):
I remember Mike Herman, oh yeah.

Dave (01:17:32):
I remember him, but I can't tell you what he was.
John Peterson no, I don't.

Tony (01:17:39):
I think we have one of those at home somewhere.

Dave (01:17:42):
I brought something else.
You got it there underneaththat book, Mom.
Now I got this given to me byMrs Rauch, who was her husband
on the Mokina oil company.

Tony (01:18:00):
And he was also a a couple of years ago.
Four policemen Sели 66 profit.

Dave (01:18:04):
They're down here on the other side of the tracks at
schoolhouse road.
Now she claims that this wasone of the first hold on one
second.

Israel (01:18:11):
Don't open that yet okay .

Tony (01:18:15):
I gotta get my camera.

You want some picture of the flag Okay Can we turn it
over to the.

Israel (01:18:20):
Porsche line.

Dave (01:18:20):
I'm going to have to stand up to get it open Want me to
help you out.

Tony (01:18:26):
No, no, I was told someone was going to have to get it
open.

Dave (01:18:29):
Now I was told through her that this was one of the.
This was the original flag ofMoquina, but I don't have any
proof of that.

Nice.
I think, yeah, where's my?

Tony (01:18:44):
number yeah, there you go, there you go.

Dave (01:18:47):
I have no proof that that happened.
Wow, Now I also seen a pictureclose to that that the Civic
Association had, but I don'tknow what year they had that and
I don't know what year thiscame in.

Israel (01:19:02):
And where did?
Where did?
How did you come about this,mrs Rauch?

Dave (01:19:06):
Ah, she lived.
They moved from Moquina, theymoved down to Louisiana.
She came up this visit and herdaughters stopped by, for I have
no idea.

Tony (01:19:24):
I don't know that there's any marking.

The tire spingled better.

Dave (01:19:32):
You know I can't prove what I'm telling you.

Tony (01:19:35):
Well, they always said I can only go by hearsay.
We always had the Indian headNow.

Dave (01:19:41):
Neil Tuttle originated the Indian head in the later days
of Moquina.
They used it as a symbol ofMoquina.
He made that up at Lincoln WayHigh School.
But why, why?

(01:20:03):
She told me that I have anyidea other than the fact that I
go by what she tells me.
Her husband was here for yearsand the family was here for a
long time.

Tony (01:20:18):
I think you got to make it a bend here, here and it folds
in half.

Dave (01:20:25):
And it folds again.
Hold that Mom.

Tony (01:20:31):
Tell them about the time that you had with Harold Fitch
when he was the chief.

Dave (01:20:39):
I had a couple of dealings with the police chief Fitch,
One of them.

This could be edited out.

Dave (01:20:48):
It was down here on Wolf Road, this side of Route 30.
As you come off of Wolf Road oroff of 30, you come down a hill
and then you go up and it was awinter day and it was nasty and
it was cold.
And this woman says I went offin a ditch right by Route 30.

(01:21:09):
She says can you get your truckout there?
I'm worried somebody's going tohit it.
Well, I was busy as heck and Isaid you know, he's just going
to have to wait, I can't doeverything.
She really was getting upset.
I said, ok, let's go.
I put her in the truck and awaywe went.
We got out there and there's aflash of lights and there's a

(01:21:30):
squad car right in the middle ofthe road.
I get out and I said what'sgoing on?
I said this lady owns this car,I guess, and I'm here to get it
out of here.
He said, oh, yeah, that'd be agood idea.
I said, well, you're going tohave to move your squad car
because it's in the way.
Oh well, yeah, you'll have towait a few minutes.

(01:21:50):
Well, here come a kid off of 30.
He got on Wolf Road and he wasdoing like 45 miles an hour.
He's seen that squad car and hehit the brakes and he slid and
slid and slid.
He couldn't stop that car and herammed that squad car right in

(01:22:11):
the back.
He run the trunk all the way upto the driver's seat, oh no,
and it pitches in the middle ofthe road and he's jumping up and
down.
Stop, stop, stop.
I said.
I told you to move the car.
What?

Matt (01:22:26):
the hell is the matter with you?

Israel (01:22:29):
How do you like that?
Was he happy?
You told him that.
Oh yeah, Then he.

Tony (01:22:35):
You had to know him.

Dave (01:22:36):
Then one day I fixed her car, I put one of the squads
come in.
I put new brakes in it.
This brakes was just cominginto the thing.
And he come back and he saysyou know, I just had brakes put
in that one squad car.
He said that's making a noiseand I said, well, bring it in.
I don't know what's the matter.

(01:22:57):
Pull the wheel and see, theshoe was wore off.
He wore the brakes out.
It's only been a month or so.
Oh, he said you just use a badpart.
I said, okay, I put new brakesin it.
I happened to go down the roadhere on Front Street and I seen

(01:23:17):
this guy, he driving in thebrake lights on all the way down
the street.
So I went and I got fit.
I said you come with me, I'mgoing to show you something,
what you going to show me.
I got behind this car.
I said watch, he never takeshis foot off the brake.
That's why he ain't got nobrakes on that car.
I said they can't handle that.

(01:23:38):
You can't be driving in yourfoot.

Tony (01:23:40):
This was a police officer.

Dave (01:23:46):
Oh, I can't tell you.

Israel (01:23:47):
Oh, please.

Tony (01:23:50):
Tell him about the other one that lost his gun.
Oh no, what is this?

Dave (01:23:59):
Where's this stuff going, just?

Israel (01:24:01):
on the internet.
Oh no, Half an hour he'swalking away.
We're done why?
Maybe just tell why did youguys choose to spend your

(01:24:22):
lifetime here, and your familywhat was it?

Dave (01:24:25):
about.
I liked it.
My wife wanted to go back outfarming.
I didn't know a whole lot aboutfarming.
I had farmed some.
I pitched oats in the field, Idrove a tractor and stuff like
that.
It really wasn't my cup of tea.

Israel (01:24:45):
You made it work in town .

Tony (01:24:47):
It was a good place to raise a family.
We lived on Front Street.
We had three daughters.
They could walk to schoolbecause they only had to go to
Willowcrest.
Of course there was a crossingguard, which was fine, but they
would come to First Street andpick up another bunch of kids.

(01:25:07):
Then they would come over tothe next street.
Once they were out of my sightthey were within the sight of
another mother.
She'd watch them until they gotto the next house where they
picked up some more kids.
Our kids had a rule theycouldn't go past Third Street.

(01:25:28):
Better not ever be found beyondThird Street.
Everybody in town knew them.
Everybody knew our kids.
If they get in trouble here,they get in trouble at all.
Again, it was just a regulatedliving type of environment.

(01:25:52):
There was a fire siren went offat 9 o'clock.
You can look on Facebook todayand see all of these kids
wearing their 60s.
What do you remember aboutMoquina?
The fire siren going off at 9o'clock and I better be home.

Israel (01:26:10):
Bolted home.

Tony (01:26:10):
right, you start running you got it, Get out of our way.
It was just where the policestation is now.
It used to be the fire station.
When our kids were little, theyclosed Front Street from
division down to schoolhouse.
The kids would all come intheir costumes and they would

(01:26:35):
parade.
They had pulled out all of thefire trucks.
The kids paraded infive-year-olds, six-year-olds
and they all got a prize.
It was just the biggest eventfor the kids ever.

Israel (01:26:52):
Who was doing that?
Who was putting that on?

Tony (01:26:54):
The fire department did the wives yeah, the wives One of
the other big events in townWomen's auxiliary, they called
it.

Dave (01:27:04):
We used to have a water ball team.
We played water ball.
They put a beer keg on a wireand two poles and you should try
to shoot it over their head.
Del Yonker was pretty good atit.
We finally beat Manhattan BobBorden over there, but nobody

(01:27:25):
could beat him.
We finally got him beaten.

Israel (01:27:28):
Water ball huh Water ball.

Dave (01:27:30):
They took a hose and a pumper and they'd get pressure
built up.
And then they would aim at thatbarrel or keg of beer.
Wasn't any beer in it, it wasjust empty.
Then you'd try to shoot it downto that end.
They'd start out in the middle,and then you'd work back and
forth.

Tony (01:27:50):
That was every Sunday in the summertime for the fire
department.
Wives.

Dave (01:27:57):
You wore your bunker coat and your boots and your helmet.
It was already like just thatof fire.
We got some pictures of that, Idon't know where they're at.

Tony (01:28:12):
Another big doings for the fire department.
The auxiliary always had aspring luncheon for the town.
They'd pull all the trucks outof the fire station, move them
elsewhere and all of the wiveswould make all of these dishes
and bring them in.
We fed I don't know how manypeople, table after table after

(01:28:35):
table.
You didn't go to any restaurantand eat that day.
You came up to the fire station.
It was just an event in town.
It was just moquina.

Just one closing note.
I've only been in moquina for14 years, but I guarantee you,
when the whistle stopped manyyears ago, you were like in
heaven, because you live righton the railroad tracks correct.

Dave (01:29:05):
That house wasn't there.
That house was halls, this onewas tape barons and then
Oliver's chef's taper was in thenext one.

So do you miss the whistle?
Bobby Brummel, yeah, likemidnight.

Tony (01:29:22):
See, it really came over us and hit more on First Street.
People had come up when we wereat the garage and say what time
is the next train going by?

I don't know.

Tony (01:29:35):
You better go there and get a schedule.
I don't know.

Israel (01:29:38):
I hardly noticed it after a while right.

Tony (01:29:40):
You don't.

Dave (01:29:41):
When we were kids we'd get recess.
The trains were steam enginesat that time and when them steam
engines come through town theywere chugging.
They would blow black smoke andit would go all the way over to
the playground.
You could feel the hot cindersin your hair and the smoke.

Israel (01:30:04):
Can you talk a little bit about how long it's been
About five, six years now sinceyou sold 2017.
2017.
So what was that process?
How was that?
Was that a hard process for you, was it Not?

Dave (01:30:22):
really I was there for 40-some years, 42 years.
I was getting old, I was in my60s Time to quit.
Yeah, yeah, so then go ahead.

Tony (01:30:39):
I haven't missed it, I miss the people, but I haven't
missed getting up at fiveo'clock in the morning and
hustling and trying to get outby 7.30 to be up there by eight
o'clock and who knows when youget out at the end of the day,
because five o'clock wasquitting time.

Dave (01:30:58):
But if somebody's car was there there's plenty of times I
worked at midnight or laterputting an engine in the car or
finishing up.

Israel (01:31:10):
And then you know watching the process after you
sold it to tribes, and that youknow what did you think.
What did you think about whatthey did?
How was it seeing what was?

Dave (01:31:19):
Well, I was surprised at a lot of stuff that he did.
And then other things that hedid was fine, you know, I can
understand.
He bought in all the windows.
I had like three windows andfour windows down the side of
the building on each side.
He blocked them all in.
He didn't have anybody but Isuppose he didn't want somebody

(01:31:41):
breaking in there, you know.
And then the front windows.
I had one that had a crack init.
The rest of it was pretty goodbut he took them out.
And then he put windows inthere to open and close in the
front.
That was a big move.
And he put a new door on thefront, new doors on the back,

(01:32:07):
concreted.
The driveway coming in thevillage was just dying to have
me put black top in there.

Tony (01:32:15):
Wait, I never did.
I don't have any feeling aboutyou know, just not seeing the
people.
But as for not being inbusiness anymore, we went back
there a couple of times.
It wasn't the same.

(01:32:36):
We have a daughter who has notever Barb has never gone back in
the building.
She says I can't go back in thebuilding.
That's not what we had.
Her kids were raised there.
Her four girls were raisedthere and our other daughters
two daughters were there.
We babysat them all.
We had a room and they hadtheir toys in it.

(01:32:58):
And you get in the back roomand play and shut up and let me
alone or come on out here andhelp me.
And they all helped.
They all did.
You know.

Dave (01:33:09):
They all remember it as a place to play, play and have fun
.

I miss all the spinning wheels because every
time you drove down the streetwhen you came up to the shop,
barb had every flag, every kindof spinning wheel, you know all
kinds of cool stuff.
That was like a staple.

Tony (01:33:32):
And she still has all that .
But you know, I mean, and therewere days we had a slow day
here and a slow day there andthe guys were standing around
and the girls came out.
They were, you know, we wereplaying soccer in the back,
kicking the soccer ball back andforth.
The guys mechanics were kickingthe soccer ball back and forth,

(01:33:53):
you know, hey it can't all bereal.
It's got to be a little fun hereand there, and the girls
remember that to this day.
They just we were up at thegarage all the time we talked to
.
You know, we helped thiscustomer and we helped that.
Yeah, it's memories for themtoo.

(01:34:14):
Yeah.

Israel (01:34:16):
Well, I really appreciate you both coming and
talking with me tonight andcoming and sitting on our porch
talking a little bit.
You know my, my grandfather wasa mechanic in Wisconsin and a
small town and had a U-Hauldealership with it.
So you know I, you know and Isee the old pictures of my

(01:34:38):
grandpa was Burlington,wisconsin, for 45 years had a
shop that's still there my uncleruns.

Tony (01:34:44):
Right.

Israel (01:34:45):
So that is a you know those play an important part in
in small towns and I reallyappreciate you guys sharing some
of your story with us.

Tony (01:34:53):
I don't think there are any old timers left in business
that I can think of.
The bank has changed hands.

Dave (01:35:03):
A lot of them are dead.

Tony (01:35:05):
Yeah.
A lot of people died, that'strue, but their families are
even gone.
They were involved with it.

Dave (01:35:10):
They're not here, They've been stuck.
Del Yonker from the firedepartment and I think Fitch is
in Texas, but he might be deadby now.
And uh uh, Tino looked there.
He had the liquor store.
He's dead.
Yeah, that's it.
But he wasn't an old timer here.
But he made a mark.

(01:35:31):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Israel (01:35:35):
Well, as have you, and I'm glad we get to share a
little bit of that story withour podcast and, uh, we'd love
to be able to sit down againsometime.
Talk to you guys.

Tony (01:35:45):
I'm out of stories.
You're out of stories.
We've got them all.

Israel (01:35:48):
No, I highly doubt that.

Tony (01:35:50):
I highly doubt that.
There's some older guys aroundthe uh have stories.

Israel (01:35:57):
Well, thank you guys very much for talking to me.

Tony (01:35:59):
I appreciate it and uh, thank you for having us.
Absolutely, we're gonna figureout our time.

Israel (01:36:07):
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with the Bergmans.
I really enjoyed sitting downwith them and I'm glad we got to
share that conversation here.
Uh, if you're enjoying thepodcast, it would really help us
out if you would share onFacebook our posts and our
messages about the new episodes.
Also, if you're able to go onSpotify and Apple podcasts and

(01:36:28):
leave us a review, that would bereally helpful as well.
You can send us an email atMokina's Front Porch at gmailcom
With any show ideas orquestions or any comments you
want to share with us.
Um, we've been getting a fewemails lately and those have
been really good and actuallyare going to be leading to some
shows coming up soon.

(01:36:48):
So thanks for listening andwe'll see you next time on
Mokena's Front Porch.

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The Bergmans - A Living History of Mokena

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Bergmans - A Living History of Mokena