Paul Wisniewski:  

Life For the last 26 years I have been in Sales Management for a distributor of speciality fasteners and electronic hardware. I live in downtown Downers Grove, IL. Bachelor's degree from Western Illinois University. MBA from Roosevelt University. After a 30 year marriage, I find myself "newly single", a kinder, gentler way of saying divorced. I have 2 spectacular kids: Danny, 31, married and a graduate of the University of Illinois and part owner of an industrial supply business; and Laura, 29, a graduate of Lewis University in Romeoville, IL. Laura is beautiful, single, and loving it, I think. In regards to my children, I have been blessed. Danny has given me 2 grandsons, Collin and Landon. I didn't think I could have this much love for for another human being, but these 2 little guys just melt my heart. I own a bass boat and spend a great deal of time in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan around the town of Crystal Falls fishing and hunting. I also spend as much time as I can in the Lake Tahoe, CA area downhill skiing, whitewater rafting, and 4-wheeling on the Rubicon Trail. Lake Tahoe is my favorite place on this earth to be. Also love to gamble, but not to excess. Can't seem to walk by a craps table without placing a bet on the pass line. Adrenline seems to be my drug of choice these days. I still love doing the edgier stuff !! One Cal Park'ers Lament My name is Paul Wisniewski and I grew up in Calumet Park, IL. I lived on 125th and Racine Ave. That's where there are no houses on the other side (east side) of the street. Cedar Park Cemetery was our other side of the street. I was there from 1956 when I was 5 years old and left sometime in 1973. Hadn't been back in many years until recently. Much to my shock and dismay I discovered that Calumet Park was gone. No I don't mean in a physical sense. It's still there physically. I mean it's soul is gone, and most of the people and places that made it such a special place to grow up in. Raceway Park is gone. Many a night we would be lulled to sleep by the distant roar of the race car engines as they sped around that 1/4 mile oval. And many other nights we would approach adult strangers at the track and ask them if we could pretend to be their kids, because kids got in Raceway Park free with paying adults. Now there are strips malls where the track and parking lot used to be. What a pity. The CPRA bond pool is gone. After many years of neglect and abandonment it was finally bulldozed down to make way for retirement housing. Man do I remember how hard so many good people fought to make that pool a reality, including my parents. Steve Horvath was the spearhead of that movement and worked tirelessly to make it happen. All you had to do to become a member was to buy a $100.00 bond. And you know for many people in the village in those days, that was too much money and they couldn't afford it. Today that amount of money seems almost laughable. So many summers we kids would spend at that pool having nothing but good clean fun. It's a shame that the local political leaders couldn't have found a way to have kept that pool for future generations of kids to have good clean fun in. I loved that pool. Gone also is Irene's food store at the corner of 124th and Racine. A little Mom & Pop store where they had penny candy and you could always get a little credit from them on a handshake. On Wednesdays Ray, Irene's husband, always made fresh Polish sausage. So every Wednesday night at the Wisniewski house we had a fabulous Polish sausage and sauerkraut dinner. All stores of that type are gone forever from Calumet Park. The Tastee-Freez is gone. That was one of our most popular hangouts. I also received my first kiss in the alley behind it. Chris Metros, do you remember? The Bullard family owned it in the early years and sold it to the Stripens family. Mike Stripens and I were good friends back in the day and he used...Expand for more