Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Jenny Klein oral history

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Interview Audio: Interview Audio
Transcription: EvaAnne Johnson 0:02 All right. Today is Wednesday, February 8 2023. And this is the start of the interview with Jenny Klein at the Wilmette Public Library in Wilmette, Illinois. My name is Eva and Johnson and I'll be the interviewer. Today Jenny and I are going to discuss her experience living in Wilmette, and working at the Wilmette Public Library. So first of all, tell me a little bit about your life before coming to Wilmette. Like where you grew up where you went to school, those kinds of things. Jenny Klein 0:37 I was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, lived a suburban life with my two brothers and my parents. And upon graduation, I came up to Evanston to go to Northwestern University, and was there for the four years and graduated. After that, I went down to Duke University for an MA Ph. D, program and French and opted just to get the masters. I was not that happy in Durham, North Carolina in 1980-81. It's a different town from what I understand how it is today. So I was a Midwestern girl that came back to the Midwest and worked with a boyfriend and his computer company. And I was basically deadweight there because I'm not computer savvy, and then went to back to Northwestern and got the degree and a master's in the science of advertising. And worked in two large advertising agencies agencies down in the city for about six or seven years, and was warned that it's a burnout career, oftentimes, and I did see the glass ceiling too, I did see the glass ceiling. And after that, I got engaged and kind of like, floated around with simple jobs and got married. And upon the day that I got married, I was accepted into Northwestern PhD program for French so I can go back and finish it. And worked taught at Northwestern for four years in beginning French, loved it and really enjoyed it and got the outline and the first chapter the dissertation done and then started raising a family. So the degree hit the backburner. And I stayed home and raised children for 20 years and very much of a challenge. But I did it here in Wilmette is where I raised my children, so and then that's how I got to know the library, but not really, really well. In fact, I was thinking today that where I grew up, the library was not a center like it is here in Wilmette. And I don't even recall my mother ever taking me to the library. I know she read all the time. And she always encouraged me and my brothers to read. But it wasn't like a passion for her to take her children and expose them to the library. And I don't think there was a really strong live Public Library system in Indianapolis at that time. So I fell in love with the library when I was in undergraduate at Northwestern where I just took a part time job working in circulation, which was wonderful because I got to see everybody coming and going. I had this oddball hours because I was a newbie and you know everybody else who works study program had gobbled up all of the good hours. So I had like Sunday mornings, at nine o'clock after partying Saturday night on campus. I oftentimes went in with a fuzzy brain, let's put it that way. So and then the hours got better. And I worked continued to work in circulation, and that's where I loved going into the stacks because I did shelving as well. And then when I was working on the master's degree at in advertising, I worked in the Special Collections at Northwestern in their old library during library and I love that even more exposed to a lot of literature at the time that was kind of kept secret which was the LGBTQ was not out in the open but I explored a lot of that in basically I call it the bowels of Deering library at Northwestern. It was fun because I took the little caged elevator up and down from the first floor down to the second floor. And I was down there all by myself and just had all this lovely things to look at. And then I also worked in shelving at Perkins library at Duke University, in Durham. So that's where I really kind of fell in love with the library. And lo and behold, here, I ended up at a public library. EvaAnne Johnson 5:29 So yeah, so along those same lines, when when did you start working at the Wilmette library? Or what attracted you initially to? Jenny Klein 5:40 Well, I I, like I said, I stayed home for 20 years, and all my degrees were dated. And I went through a divorce and kind of fumbled around in my home for a couple years wondering, What am I going to do, I was on the path to get a master's in teaching, and had done all the basic skills, testing for that, except for I was nine points short in my math. So I was supposed to take the math exam again, and the day that I was supposed to take the math exam, again, for the Masters in teaching. I had an emergency and was not able to attend the test. So kind of bummed out on it, and got to thinking maybe that was a sign that maybe teaching wasn't what I should go into. And I'm not sure I would have been totally enjoyed teaching K through 12, I did enjoy the college scene much better. So there were some hesitations there with the master's degree in teaching. And a friend of mine knew that I loved I loved the library. And she said, why don't why don't you think about the MLA s. And lo and behold, I immediately ventured out to Dominican University, and I was accepted and kind of blew through that program. And I was 5758 years old when I was doing that and graduated and graduated in May of 2014. And really didn't know where I was going to land. I was pursuing a university libraries, but didn't get any takers. And I think it was probably some of it had to do with ageism. And I was a little bit reluctant to relocate because I still had my two sons in the area. So I had picked up the position here at Friends of the Library here at Wilmette, and just volunteered and worked in the store downstairs and did PR before there was a an official public relations or events manager person that was you know, as part of the library staff. So I did a lot of the advertising for friends of the library for any kind of event that they were having, and got to know the people in dolt services, Betty Georgie. And they needed a an assistant, adult references librarian and since I was just a newbie, they were going to give me assistant or they would give a newbie an assistant position. So they asked me if I'd like to interview and I did it was a very quick interview I got in. So that's when I started was in August of 2014. I've been here ever since. So yeah, and I It's ironic that since I've been here, which is nine years almost. I'm almost like the veteran in the adult services department because there were so many people that have retired when COVID hit the scene. So that's how I landed here. So it's been nice. It's been a good experience. EvaAnne Johnson 9:06 Yeah. Um, what is your favorite part about working at the library? Jenny Klein 9:13 I had one of those instances last night when someone comes in or calls and needs some reference work done. The one I've had one where someone's needed information on a specific specific site during World War Two. The one last night someone is taking a trip to Norway and wanted information not only on Norway in general, but it's World War Two. What happened there during World War Two. I gave them a novel written by a Norwegian author. They wanted to know about Northern Lights aurora borealis. And they were also going to be going up to part of the Arctic Circle. And so they want information on that. So I enjoyed doing that it was kind of a slow Tuesday. So I spent a lot of time giving them I think, a nice list very list. That was that's what I liked. I liked the research part of it. And dealing with nice people. EvaAnne Johnson 10:20 Yeah. And it sounds like with your, your background in education, and in French, you seem to like that research side? Jenny Klein 10:29 I do. I do. It's, it's, in fact, I have all I'm still tempted to this day to go back and finish the PhD. Maybe never too late, or too late. EvaAnne Johnson 10:42 Um, so in your nine years here, what is one of the major changes that you've seen at the library? Jenny Klein 10:55 I think the library was when I first started here, very much of a very busy bee community center. And I think when COVID hit, it was a time when everything completely came to a stop, for there to be a lot of reflection on how to change things. And I feel the library is probably running a little bit more like a business right now, which is probably good, because we have become a five star library, two or three years in a row. So I think it's it's run I believe much more efficiently and business like but not in a negative way. Not in a negative way. There are a lot of there's been a lot of changeover of managers in the each department. There was there was I think kind of a scramble to see who would be the best and you know, people who were not the best left. And I think I think we've hit a stride here where we we all kind of know what we should be doing and it's cohesive. So that's that's why but I think it's getting to be busy again. I don't think it's quite at pre COVID busyness and activity but I think it's climbing back there. So. EvaAnne Johnson 12:35 Yeah, yeah, I see the same thing. I'm kind of going back in the past again. When you initially moved to Wilmette, what drew you specifically to move to Wilmette specifically and and when would that have been? Jenny Klein 12:58 My husband and I were married in 1987. And we were living in Rogers Park. He had a little wood frame house and had a community garden right next to it in Rogers Park. And one evening he came home and heard gunshots in the neighborhood and decided it's time to move out. So we hunted for homes in Evanston and Wilmette and which was kind of hard to do because I was teaching and working on on my PhD so he would go out Sunday morning and scout and then I'd go out Sunday afternoon. So it was kind of an effort there. And we found this house in South East Wilmette and moved in in June 7 1988. I remember that goes was my older brother's birthday. And we moved here to the North Shore because of the schools because we knew we were going to have children and live here for about three years before we even started a family. And it was the first time I'd ever really owned a home with someone I mean I grew up in my parents home but so I was quickly introduced on how to take care of a house and a house that was built in 1893. So and that was the beginning of my love affair with the house that I had it was a Victorian 1893. One of the most the newest house on the block I believe it was and grew to I grew up in that house I think I grew up into you know, a mother and you know, a wife and it was the house has a very dear to my heart. I moved out of it in April of 2016. So I was there almost 30 years but Wilmette is, it's changed. It was a much quieter town southeast. Wilmette is actually still kind of like that it's very quiet it's it butts up against the the golf course that runs through Evanston and Wilmette, which is now named canal shores. And the street that we lived on a cul de sac, so it was nice and safe for my sons to play. And there were a bunch of kids in the neighborhood and nobody went to camp and they all just kind of hung out in the neighborhood. And the range of ages was like, three up to 13. And they'd all play together, which was great. So it was just a really kind of a nice quiet area to come to and kind of secluded and nearer to the city, because my ex husband was commuting every day on the L to go to enter the city. And the metro was here too. So it was just an ideal location. And of course having Lake Michigan really nearby which we could walk to from our house. So. EvaAnne Johnson 16:12 Can you tell me more about the house like interesting architectural features that it had or what it looked like? Jenny Klein 16:18 Um, it's, it has the turret. It it's an interesting story, I taken the boys out one day to go see a movie was around Thanksgiving time. And I pull up in front of the house. And there's a woman walking back and forth taking pictures of my house and I cure course, I'm going to ask her, Can I ask what you're doing. And she said that a friend of hers who lived in Massachusetts, had grown up in that house in my house, and wanted current pictures of it. She was unable to travel, she asked her friend to do this. So a friend was trying to find the house and all she had was like a two by three inch torn black and white photo of the house. And so that's how she pretty much matched that you know the house with the photo. So in that photo, standing on the front porch is a woman dressed in like Victorian garb, and a little boy, some downed trees and it looks like chickens in the front yard. And I think it was like probably right after a storm because this tree had come down. And the side of the house, the north side of the house was the North. The west side of the house was missing a porch which had been added on I have no idea when actually it became part of the living room. And so I do have a very old picture, which is anybody's ever curious. It's over at the Wilmette historic society. So the house originally had gaslighting because when we did some renovation, you could see the gas lines going through the house. The for those of you who are listening to this are familiar with the old wiring of homes it was called knob and tube. And I'm kind of embarrassed to say that when we did the renovation we didn't replace all that knob into because it would have been a tremendous undertaking and we had electricians look at it and say, you know, it's okay, it's gonna be okay. So when they tore into the house to renovate the kitchen, you could see the guts of the house and it was it was pretty interesting. And they found an old newspaper stuffed in somewhere dated 1915 and but it was high ceilings. On the first floor, about 1211 feet, foot ceilings and second floor was a little more closed up because the roof got was peaked. As it went up, it would peak come to a peak. So the upstairs was not like an ideal home for people. It had three bedrooms and a tandem room which I never know when a tandem room was but that's a tandem into another room and a big bathroom. And so the kids were there and then we had taken the third floor and renovated it so I slept like up like in a tree house every night which was wonderful. And we put a bathroom up there and the basement was old and a basement had once been a dirt floor but it had a thin layer of cement that had been put over it and you know, it's just everything was old. Everything was old. I had always had hoped that there was a ghost in the house but there never was a ghost that that I could find. The woman who lived in the house and had had that picture she wrote me a letter saying that there had been some a death in the house and a wedding and the house and when there was an exposition in Chicago a bunch of really Just came and they swept up in the attic and she had nothing but fond memory memories for the house so it is a nice house so it's not mine anymore but I like to go by and say hello and it was a lot of fond memories and my children really enjoyed that house to which was important, so. EvaAnne Johnson 20:21 And what was the address? Jenny Klein 20:24 244 Laurel Avenue in southeast Wilmette. So we I could see the Bahai Temple from just about every window that was on the east and the south end of the house, so it was nice to do my laundry in the basement and see kind of the glow of the behind because I hate laundry it's a continuum and will never go away, so. EvaAnne Johnson 20:54 At least you got one little perk. Jenny Klein 20:55 I got a little perk, I can see the Bahai Temple. EvaAnne Johnson 21:01 When you first came to Wilmette, do you remember what your first impressions were of the community? Jenny Klein 21:06 Um, yeah, it was quiet. Downtown was very humble. There was a little bookstore there. A little independent bookstore, not super well stocked, but it was nice to go in there. The restaurants came and went, nothing really seemed to stay. The one stable restaurant was CJ Arthur's, which was a greasy diner that everybody took their kids to to teach them how to eat in a restaurant. And how to behave. They had the wooden high chairs and they would scoot around and everybody would take their kids in there to like okay, this is what you do when you go to a restaurant and and they stayed a long time. It was a man and a woman and then their son ran it for a while as well. And then they finally closed up shop. There was a store called Meet and shop which was where you could you know, a small grocery store. When I got married, I was married actually here in Wilmette. Not even knowing I was gonna live in Wilmette. I was married at the Baptist Church at Forest and Lake Avenue. And there was a lovely little flower shop that where I bought my flowers that's no longer there. It was just very, very quiet. It's not what it is now, the downtown area and it certainly wasn't a restaurant Emporium. I kind of liked it. It was just nice and quiet. If you wanted some excitement, you went to Evanston where it was more, you know, hoppin and poppin. But it was fine. It was it was just a nice community to the good. I was very impressed by the park district system. Where I grew up, there was no Park District system. There were public parks but I always had in a suburban area when I was a kid. And they were cornfields and farms had been converted to suburban Indianapolis. So we didn't really have a park systems but I was so impressed with the park system in Wilmette. I've never been disappointed by it. Even you know, from the years I played tennis at Centennial to my kids doing like basketball and all that and Little League to take my dog to the dog beach, which is what I still do. And it's that that is just that's that has been like icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned. Because we all we all took advantage of it. EvaAnne Johnson 24:08 So yeah, yeah, yeah. And any other places where you would spend a lot of time you already mentioned some restaurants and businesses and the parks, but any other places where you spend a lot of time here? Jenny Klein 24:22 You I like I said, I live in South East Wilmette. And I would walk through the golf course cross the bridge that goes over the canal on Linden Avenue and I'd be right there at the Bahai Temple. And I would go into the Bahai and sit and I'd sit right underneath the center of the rotunda. And I go there meditate. I go in there just to clear my head. If you ever do that they have wonderful sayings in gold lettering all around the inside at the top of the rotunda, sayings, beautiful sayings, I went in there once and wrote all of those down and should go do it again because I have no idea where that is. And strolling the gardens in their gardens are wonderful. So the Bahai Temple and and walking all through Gilson Park, with my dogs, which I've done. And where else do I go? Centennial, which was all the tennis or whatever wanted to play and just biking through biking through the area, there was a park that has been revamped twice since I've moved out. Maple Park, which is on Maple and Forth in Wilmette, where the boys spend a lot of time. And I used to shoot baskets there. We'd go shoot baskets when I was in graduate school for a library degree. It helps me think about writing papers. So like I said, the grounds in in Wilmette, the it's just wonderful. So yeah. EvaAnne Johnson 26:17 So you mentioned when you first came here, the community was very quiet community. You kind of touched on that it's changed. So how has it changed since you first moved here? And what do you think about it now? Jenny Klein 26:31 Well change is good. I'm not going to be negative on that. I, I think Wilmette has been discovered. When we moved here, it was, you know, just that one step beyond Evanston. It's kind of a nice mixture, I think between Winnetka and Evanston. But I find that Wilmette is maybe a little more affluent than when I first moved here. I frankly don't know how some people are going to be able to afford to move to Wilmette that are starting families. I'm not a real estate agent. I'm just this is just my perspective. But I think it's been discovered. I when was was before COVID, there was I think a real estate commentary made on how Wilmette was a great place to live. And I think a lot of people read about that. And I just find like the additions people are putting on their homes, the landscaping. I don't know I just I just feel that it's just a little more affluent then when I first moved here, and that's bringing in I think more activity. And it's not as and certainly downtown. Wilmette is so busy now. So busy. And it's great to see. So you know, it's funny. Evanston was like all the fire and then Evanston got hit hard by COVID. Wilmette, I don't think got hit as hard. And it's really come back with a flourish. So that's what I'm seeing, except for central street in Evanston, which is always seems to be doing pretty well. EvaAnne Johnson 28:44 Can you describe any historic or interesting events that you witnessed here in Wilmette or the surrounding area? Jenny Klein 28:50 Um, I participated in celebration of history. Wilmette would have Memorial Day Service on the village green. And it was I always went to it, I always took my bike and even if I'd go by myself, I would always feel very obligated to do that. And I would go and listen to the village president speak and I'd hear the band play and they'd always have shoot the guns and it was it was just a really nice event that I always like to go to, to honor history. Any other historic event here that I had been to or observed? All those bad storms you know that were historic that were kind of downed a lot of pretty trees. There was one storm I think was in the early two hundreds that took down so many trees it was one of those microbursts that I miss. Think what else that I may have done around or witnessed anything in history? Well, on September 11 2001, typical morning in my house was watching WGN on TV while I was getting the kids breakfast, and got the kids breakfast. Got them off to school. And I believe before they left, the first tower was hit. And I was totally blown away by that. And I was like, I can't watch any more of this. Because nobody really knew what was going on. And I was and I was, so I put the dog in the car and went over to the beach, dog beach. Beautiful Tuesday morning. I mean, just beautiful, early fall, not a cloud in the sky, sun was out warm. And while I'm down on the beach, another one of my dog beach lover friends comes down and said that the second tower had been hit. And we were all deflated, whoo, the there was a group of us that would meet down there with our dogs almost every school morning. And we just, we were just deflated. And the skies became very quiet. Everything was quiet, extremely quiet, like, because you could you're down there you can hear planes go over or you can occasionally helicopter everything dead silence. So I went back home, and my husband at the time tried to go to work, but they told him to go back home. So he came back home and we just kind of like didn't know what to do. And we walked over, we actually walked and pick the kids up at school. And everybody just seemed to be out like, just didn't even know what to say what to think what to do. So that was a very unfortunate historic time that that I lived through. I'll never forget I just standing down at the dog beach and looking up at that sky and thinking, How could this happen? But it did. Any other thing that went on? Oh, okay, here's another one. I gave a a party to celebrate the end of 1999 in the beginning of 2000. And it was fun. We had a lot of music and dancing in the back room that the house I lived in, I had a huge back room. And it was like maybe like a dance floor. But it was I remember people talking about whether the computer systems and in the United States were going to go haywire because they were switching from one millennium to so that was kind of a funny thing to experience. But I can't think of anything else. I mean, you know, I can't really think of anything else unless I'm missing something that was really important during that time in the United States. But. EvaAnne Johnson 33:36 Of course 9/11 change the nation as a whole. Like, you know, in general, it changed the United States. But do you think it changed anything here locally? Did anything feel different after that? on a local basis? Jenny Klein 33:56 No, for a while there are people were very... I remember one thing, there was something found on the L tracks because I live near the L. And so they had they like completely stopped the L tracks and it was some kind of substance was found there. You know, they're, you know, people were worried about anthrax or something similar to that. But not really, it was generally things like complaining about travelling after that, which was, you know, it just completely switched up how we travel. But day to day life. No, not really living in the suburb of Chicago. No, at least not here. EvaAnne Johnson 34:49 And of course, the other thing that we lived through recently was COVID-19. And you were working here at the library during that time. You already mentioned that everything shut down. And we did. We closed for a couple of months. Jenny Klein 35:05 We closed March 12, I think it was, which was a Thursday, I got I supposed to come into work that day, I got a phone call don't come in. And I remember that the Wednesday before I was working at the reference desk. I had the 12:30 to five shift or 12:30 to 5:30, or one to 5:30, whatever it was, and the library director, Anthony comes up. And I guess he may have been taking a poll, he comes up to the desk and he goes, How do you feel about all this? You know, do you comfortable working here? And I said, I It's unsettling because we really don't know what's going on. And it's unsettling to sit here and deal with people and not know if they're contagious, or if they're probably thinking the same thing about me. And then, fair enough, the next day, we shut down and I don't think we went back to work until September of that, of 2020. And we I know, I was hesitant to come back. I wasn't real excited about it. I worked at home that whole summer. Just going through reports of dated books, whether you know I wanted to whether I wanted to look at them once I got back into the library, see if we should still keep them on our shelves. So I think we were I know we didn't go back until like September, I think it was. So yeah, I managed to work. I mean, kudos to the library, and they continue to pay us and we did Mozio from home and which is online chat. And so that worked out pretty well for me because I had knee surgery, so I couldn't really come in anyway. So I would just set in my backyard and went through the reports. But yeah, it was kind of stop and go because we worked, we came back to work. And then we stopped for a couple of weeks, I think it was when there was a resurgence. Or I remember I think we came back and then we didn't then we close down again. And then we came back and went through so many iterations on how to deal with checking out books, how again, how to get the books to the consumer, to the patrons. It was, it was a lot. In fact, it's so much that I try to recall all that we did and the timeline. And I don't think I can do it. Unless somebody had written it down. You know, probably it's all written down somewhere. But having experienced all of the different things that we did at different times to just manage the library in a short period of time actually so much went on in a short period of time, even though it seems like he has been with us forever. But I don't think I can sit down and exactly recall everything and what we did each time, so. EvaAnne Johnson 38:10 Yeah, of course I wasn't there for that entire time because I came back in September 2020. But from what other people were saying like there was some time where everyone stayed at home and then it was staff only in the building and then it was some patrons maybe? Jenny Klein 38:29 30 people I think were allowed in. EvaAnne Johnson 38:32 Yeah. Jenny Klein 38:32 We had a monitor at the front. God bless the monitors they sit there remind people to wear their masks and you know deal with perhaps some difficult patrons who weren't willing to do that. But yeah, it was a it was a an interesting time. And that's pretty historic, it was pretty historic. I was, my son would go to the grocery store, he wear plastic gloves and bring them home and paper bags. I would wipe the cans and things down with Lysol wipes. Then, I wanted to reuse the paper bags for recycling. So I take them outside and spray them with like, Lysol and have them sit outside for a while before I brought them in. I mean, we just we had we had we had we didn't know what we were dealing with. So. EvaAnne Johnson 39:35 Yeah, you didn't know if it could be spread on surfaces. And you know, yeah know that early time when everything was. You didn't know what exactly was going on and they hadn't studied it long enough to know what was going on. Jenny Klein 39:52 I remember going to the jewel here in Wilmette on Green Bay Road, looking for Lysol wipes or any kind of wipes and there were none. And then looking for toilet paper and there was none. Paper Towel there was not. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So and. EvaAnne Johnson 40:15 So after you moved out well that in 2016 Where, where are you living now? Jenny Klein 40:20 I am living. I feel like I'm straddling Wilmette and Evanston. I live just about three blocks south of Isabella, in Evanston in what they call Northwest Evanston right off of Central street. And when I walk my dog, many of our routes are heading north and we walk through Wilmette. And it's, it's a nice, it's a nice mix. Where I live now is a little more diverse. And I've got condo buildings and apartment buildings around me. I mean a townhome Of course it's 100 year old townhome so I'm dealing with the old the old again, again, I these old soul homes that somehow I seem to pick up and and nurture and so it's it's, it's, it's a nice life. It's I live in Evanston where it's a little more diverse, which I really like. And I still have close ties to Wilmette. And I know a lot of people who come in that Wilmette door, and it's really nice. It's very comforting. EvaAnne Johnson 41:36 So yeah, yeah. So in the past couple of years with COVID. So post COVID, how have you seen the community? Wilmette or Evanston or both? Have you seen the community change because of the pandemic? Or has it changed? Jenny Klein 42:06 Well, I see young mothers being very careful with their kids, which is good. I see in Evanston in both Evanston and Wilmette. I see in Evanston. I think a little more adherence to COVID policies. Not sure why. There are I think a lot of elderly in Evanston and maybe that's why but I think. Well, from what I see there's Evanston wears the mask more than I see in Wilmette. Wilmette did what they had to do to get through the well, the worst of COVID. And I think life might be a little bit more back to normal in Wilmette. And that might be, again, the mothers were really careful. But it's everybody gets tired of wearing a mask, including little three year old kids. Right. But I don't know there's, there's I think there's a different attitude between Evanston and Wilmette. And I think that's because one is a city and the other one is a village. And one's much more diverse than the village. But I, I think both areas have done the best in dealing with COVID. And the changes. I don't know I think ever since still struggling to come back from COVID. Whereas like I said earlier, Wilmots will met him managed to come back quite well with being a food scene. It's a food scene. So I think that answers your question. I mean, that's a tough one. It's a tough one to answer. EvaAnne Johnson 44:08 It is a tough question. Sorry. Jenny Klein 44:10 No, it's good. Makes you think. EvaAnne Johnson 44:11 Yeah. Well, is there anything else you want to talk about? Any other stories you want to share about Wilmette as a community? Well, or the library? Jenny Klein 44:27 Well, the library is great. The library is it's it's i It's very convenient for me. I can walk to it, even though I don't do it all the time. It's a wonderful place for me it my time and where am I where I am in my life right now. The library is very welcoming and diverse as its own community. It's, it's like its own microcosm of diversity in this library. And I love it. I love the cooperation that we have. And I think the respect that we all have for one another. And I don't feel on the older end of the group here, because the library is not wanting to push you out that I see, as the older you get. So for that I'm deeply appreciative. So the library is a great place. Wilmette has been wonderful to grow up in and raise my children in this area. And I think when they go away, and then they come back, and they see how they live and where they live, I think the appreciation level rises quite high. I think we all do that. Anyway, when we go back and say, Oh, my gosh, this was really a nice life. Or maybe you don't, but if you have had that opportunity, if you've lived like that, that's you're very fortunate. So Wilmette has been wonderful. And it still is wonderful in my life. And Evanston is always been part of my heart as well, because I went to school there and always really liked it. In fact, I just liked the North Shore. So it's really nice. And of course, the big gem of all is Lake Michigan. That's, that's, that's such a draw for me. So yeah, that's I just I feel good where my in my station life right now with what I've got. And, and I really like these communities and one more thing. And then I'll quit, I think the Midwest is going to become very popular for people with climate change going on, I think there might be a migration to this area. So you know, even though we grumble about the weather, and I whenever I think winter in Chicago, or winter in this area, I think of the pushing the shopping cart through the grocery store parking lot. And it's icy and slushy and the wheels don't turn right. And I'm mumbling, not very nice words under my breath. And all I want to do is go home and you know, sit by a warm fire, but I think the Midwest is a great place to live. So. EvaAnne Johnson 47:32 I agree. Yeah, I agree. Well, thank you so much, Jenny. Jenny Klein 47:37 You're welcome EvaAnne Johnson 47:38 For participating in this project and for letting me interview today. So I think this is the end of our interview. Jenny Klein 47:47 Thank you, Eva. Thank you very much. EvaAnne Johnson 47:49 Thank you. Jenny Klein 47:50 Yes.
Creators: Klein, Jenny, Interviewee; Johnson, EvaAnne
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Sound recordings
Description: Interview with Jenny Klein by EvaAnne Johnson in Wilmette, Illinois, on the subject of the Wilmette Public Library and living in southeast Wilmette on Laurel Avenue.

Jenny describes how she came to live in Wilmette and work at the Wilmette Public Library. She describes living on Laurel Avenue near the Bahai Temple and what the neighborhood was like in the late 1980's and 1990's. She also describes the house that she lived in and gives her opinion on how the area has changed over the years. Lastly, she recalls what it was like in Wilmette on Sept. 11, 2001, as well as during the Covid pandemic.
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 8 Feb 2023
Playing Time: 47:52
Subject(s): Oral histories
Wilmette Public Library
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Klein, Jenny
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 2023
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Historical Museum and Wilmette Public Library
Contact: Wilmette Public Library
Email:refdesk@wilmettelibrary.info
Website:
https://www.wilmettelibrary.info/

Agency street/mail address:
1242 Wilmette Avenue
Wilmette, IL
60091-2558
U.S.A. Phone: 847-256-6930

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