Growing up in Libertyville: Memories of a 1970s Childhood

For the last two months, I have been planning Libertyville’s Central School All-Class Reunion, and it has given me the chance to travel back in time, and reminisce with scores of other people who grew up in Libertyville, went to Central School, and have glorious memories of those days.

For me it was a childhood on a street filled with playmates, where children ran out the front door in the morning and didn't come home until they heard the supper bell in the evening. Libertyville was a great place to be a kid. One treasured memory of those days was walking to Central School.

Walking to school back then was the norm, not the exception, and it could be an adventure, rather than a chore. For my sisters and me, it was not quite a half mile, and we made the walk four times a day. Yes, we walked home for lunch! Walking without our parents by our side allowed us to explore the world around us. We would walk up Milwaukee Avenue, past the train station and Liberty Theater, and finally around the corner on School Street. Of course, we would say "Hi" to “John the Crossing Guard” whose job was to walk out and stop traffic on Milwaukee Avenue to get children safely across that busy road.

I was the master of dawdling along the way, whether it was because I sat down on the sidewalk to watch the city crews putting up the Christmas decorations, lingered to see a tow truck hitch up a broken-down car, or just stopping to pick mulberries from the trees on School Street.

Planning the Central School All Class Reunion has let me reconnect with old classmates, teachers, and even a former principal who was most generous with his photographic archive of decades of students who passed through the school.

As it turns out there are a lot of kids like I once was – now adults living throughout the United States who have fond memories of walking to Central School, attending classes in the gorgeous old brick building, and listening and learning from the wonderful teachers and staff. 

My former classmates have helped me recall the Halloween Parades down School Street; the “cake walks” where parents baked their tastiest treats and all the children vied to win the biggest, gooiest cake on the table; and the favorite classroom job assignment was getting to take the chalkboard erasers outside and banging them against the school at the end of the day.

The Central School All Class Reunion will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 18, at Mickey Finn's Brewpub in the Amber Room (upstairs). It will be a casual affair; we’ll have memorabilia organized by decade, time for greeting and sharing, and some light refreshments. School Street developers (who are busy converting the Central School building into residential lofts) will give reunion attendees a tour of the school building – one last time before it is closed to the public for good.