Washington Skateland, Bill Maher’s Drugstore, the Oliver Thomas Park and Mr. Quick are just a few of the places people are reminiscing about on the Facebook page “I grew up in Sunnyland.”
The page was created by Sunnyland native Cindy Donigian-Miller.
“I made the page last winter because I was getting connected with a lot of friends from Sunnyland on Facebook, and I thought it would be a way to hook everyone up,” she said, adding that another reason she started the group was to locate a friend who moved away after high school.
“I’m just hoping someday she’ll get on Facebook and type in Sunnyland,” Donigian-Miller said.
Finding people, reminiscing and celebrating a sense of community pride are the main goals of the site.
Sherry Hexamer, whose parents own Parish’s Pub on the square in Washington, recently shared some of her favorite memories of Sunnyland on the Facebook page.
“I grew up on Knollaire behind the shopping center off Summit, and my mother is still there. My best memories were walking the streets without any worries and hanging out at the skating rink... I remember playing with the neighbor kids, tag, red light, kick the can, basketball, etc.,” she wrote.
Donigian-Miller said she likes that members are 18 years old all the way to 72 years old.
“I only have a specific part of history that I’ve lived... There are people on there who have memories I don’t remember. They talk about Reed’s, penny candy and buying two loaves of bread for 39 cents,” she said.
Jerry Beneventi, who lived on Wagner Street in Beverly Manor, said he remembers pitching in many baseball games at Oliver Thomas Park in the early and late 1940s.
Boundary Disputes
In the introduction to the group on Facebook, Donigian-Miller writes, “Okay, so you grew up in Sunnyland, a place that actually doesn’t exist. What exactly are the boundaries of Sunnyland? Is it the field after Robein all the way up to School Street so it included Rolling Meadows? Or did it end at Summitt? Did it encompass Beverly Manor? Seeing as it doesn’t exist on the map, it would be interesting to know what your opinion is.”
And a lot of people have some disagreements.
“I consider Sunnyland to have started as you come in from Robein up to School Street, although I have heard some refer to it as ending at Summitt right before Rolling Meadows,” Donigian-Miller wrote.
One member said the Sunnyland area starts at Robein and ends at Ernest Street. Another said it ends at the intersection of Business 24 and Route 8.
Although Beverly Manor is normally left out of the Sunnyland designation, one former resident of the suburb said he was proud to be considered a “Scummylander” by fellow high school students from Washington.
Weekend memories
Group members have started numerous discussions on the site, including a “Where do you live now?” thread, “What street did you grow up on?” and a popular discussion thread called “Weekends.”
Most people remember three main weekend activities: the skating rink, Valley Forge movie theater (now Russell’s Cycle Shop in Washington) and hanging out at Oliver Thomas, Farmdale and Meadow Valley.
“I spent every weekend at either Skateland or Oliver Thomas park. Oliver Thomas is where I got picked up for my first date,” Jeniffer Brian wrote.
Other favorite weekend activities: riding bikes.
“The most common thing on the weekends seemed to be riding our bikes. I think there must have been more bike riding miles per capita in Sunnyland in the early ’80s than the rest of the continental United States,” wrote group member Rodney McDonald.
Digging deeper
Donigian-Miller said one of the neat aspects of the site is learning things about her community she never knew.
For example, she recently researched who Oliver Thomas was and learned he was a Boy Scout leader who was involved in a lot of community activities.
Another prominent community member, Bill Maher, who owned a drugstore in town, inspired her to create a tribute page to the unofficial “mayor” of Sunnyland.
“He was a wonderful man and a pillar of our community,” Donigian-Miller wrote.
She shared one story she remembers fondly.
“One year, a friend and I got it in our heads to steal two pumpkins from out front (of Bill Maher’s drugstore). We were in that 13-year-old ‘rebellion.’ We took them one night after the store had closed and walked home with the pumpkins under our shirts (stupidity, I know). The next time I went in there, Bill looked at me and said, ‘Hey Pumpkin.’ I about jumped out of my skin. He didn’t say anything about it, but he called me Pumpkin for the longest time.”
She said she plans to return to the Sunnyland branch library to research more community members and businesses.
A sore spot
Posts on the “I grew up in Sunnyland” Facebook page attest to the fact that many cornerstones of the Sunnyland business community have come and gone over the years.
The most glaring example of this is the Sunnyland Plaza, currently being studied by the cities of Washington and East Peoria in order to rejuvenate business.
The planning committee for the Route 8 Corridor Plan contacted Donigian-Miller and asked her to post a link to the city’s survey, which was recently completed.
“The plaza is a focus because people are disgusted with it. The general consensus is people want to see it either torn down or filled,” she said.
A couple of group members said Sunnyland was beginning to look like a ghost town with all the empty businesses, making the neighborhood look run-down.
Community pride
Donigian-Miller said the overall run-down look of Sunnyland bothers her, and she said she hopes her Facebook page will help instill more community pride in current and former Sunnyland residents.
“When a lot of the houses in Sunnyland were built, the owners were Caterpillar factory workers who took a lot of pride in their neighborhoods. But as people have died out, the houses have turned to rental houses or people just don’t care, and that kind of upsets me,” she said. “Maybe it’s just in my mind, but I remember the street I grew up on being so idyllic.”
When it comes to community pride, Donigian-Miller is not afraid to let hers shine.
“I once moved to Beverly Manor past School Street and it seriously felt weird. I lived there for 10 years, and now I’m back three streets away from where I grew up,” she said.
“This is where my roots are. I love this community.”
