Wilmette Public Library Local History Digital Collection

Rosemary Egan oral history

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Transcription: Judith McBrian 0:02 Okay, the little red light is on. Today is Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at 4pm and this is the start of the interview with Rosemary Egan at her home at 774 Green Bay Road in Winnetka, Illinois. My name is Judith McBrian, and I'll be the interviewer. Rosemary and I are long term friends and members of the Cinechicks, a group of women that has been gathering for years to see and discuss movies. We will be discussing Rosemary Egan's experiences in Wilmette. Rosemary, could you give me just a little background about your family and where you were born and grew up? Rosemary Egan 0:49 Sure. I was actually born in the Midwest, which is surprising because I spent my entire childhood teenage years and young adult in the East Coast. And the reason I was born in Michigan was I was born at the end of the war and my father was stationed there before he embarked to Japan and he fought basically in Iwo Jima and Okinawa as a fighter pilot. So when when my mother and I traveled east again, I grew up in Westchester County, New York, and then Greenwich, Connecticut. I'm the oldest of five children. And that's three sisters and a brother and a 16 year gap between the oldest and youngest child in the family. And then I went to college in Pennsylvania, and then eventually came out here because my father had been transferred. And I arrived in Wilmette, because and I'll tell you that in a minute. Judith McBrian 1:44 When you arrived here in the Midwest, where were you? Rosemary Egan 1:48 Winnetka. Yeah, my parents bought a house in Winnetka, because in Connecticut, we had a lot of acreage and they came out here and were shocked at how small the lots were. So they found a nice place in Winnetka. They loved it, and it was very nice. I lived there for a couple of years before I was married. Judith McBrian 2:05 So what brought you to Wilmette Rosemary Egan 2:08 Wilmette? Well, when Tom and I were married, which was 1968, we lived in Rogers Park for a couple of years. He was transferred to St. Louis. And after that we were moving back here. And so we definitely wanted to live in Wilmette. He'd grown up in Winnetka, and he wanted to live in Wilmette because he felt it was a little more friendly and a little more-- he just didn't want to replicate his own stuff again. So we looked around for houses and found one at the corner of 14th and Maple which was darling and I will say what happened to me when I saw that house was it felt like Dick and Jane's but there were no Spot and whatever the other one was no kidding. No. But it was just like that was so too darling. And then after three years, we decided we wanted to move to a bigger house. And we ended up over at 8th and Elmwood. So we've lived in Wilmette for 45 years. We really, really like it. And now 2022 and we are primary residences in Michigan. We retired in 2019 and moved up there as our primary residences. But we come south in the winter to Wilmette every year for four or five months depending. So basically, coming to Wilmette was again a business change back in the 1970s. And it just felt perfect to live in Wilmette. We like it a lot. Judith McBrian 3:37 Do you have any children? Rosemary Egan 3:38 We do? We have one son, Brian, who is 48 years old at this point. And he was raised here from the time he was two until he left it 22 whenever he graduated from college. Judith McBrian 3:53 So what was it like? Raising your child in Wilmette? What schools did he go to? What? What were their friends around? What was the neighborhood like for in terms of raising children? Rosemary Egan 4:12 In a word, excellent. I couldn't have asked for anything better. Brian is the only child in our family. And he was just absorbed into the neighborhood. It was amazing. There were so many kids when we moved into our Elmwood house.The very first day there were five boys who came over to say hello on the block about his age, which is phenomenal. And also there was a girl or two. I would say raising him was so easy because he walked to school from our house. It was four blocks to Central. And he was there from K through six, which was the way it was back then. And then went to the junior high for seventh and eighth and then New Trier and in each location he's a very sportsie guy and so they Wilmette has incredible amounts of sports for kids. I think it's wonderful. And he played on teams for schools and he played on teams for the park district. And he played anything with the word ball in it so really football, softball, baseball, basketball, soccer, all of it. And it was just I think the park district was such a draw because it provided everything. I mean, he really wanted to skate all of his friends were doing skating in the fifth grade. Fine. So we got on the skates. All that happened in Centennial, it was great. And eventually, they actually got on the Wilbus at Wilmette Avenue and took it out there themselves and back. I mean, he was like 11 years old, it was fine. very safe, very comfortable. I mentioned the fun on Elmwood Avenue, which was great. Especially on Elmwood we found that the moms all looked out for each other's children, which was a strong draw. And it was a sense of community right away. It was just fun. For example, we were moving in in July or August. And a neighbor informed us there was a block party and they wanted us to come so we just met everyone. And it was keep casual and easy, unpretentious, just very nice life for us. And for him. One another example is a neighbor on my block. We were good friends on our sons were even better friends. One night, when I was teaching late, I went out to start my car in Northeastern Illinois University in the city and it wouldn't start. And so my husband was out of town on a business trip. And I just called Sharon my friend and said, I don't know what to do. The tow truck says an hour to two hours, it's snowing. And I'm supposed to pick up five boys at Centennial Park in a half an hour. And I don't know what to do. So she said, I'll take care of it. And I said, what, there's all these other kids to drive home, I don't care. So she just left her kids at home, got in her car, picked all these kids up, drove them all around where they lived, fed Brian and handed me a dinner for me when I walked in the door. You just don't find that in most places that was just adorable. So I think raising a child here was great. He, Brian, our son really has a strong attachment to it. And some of the friends that he made, both in grammar school and in high school are still his friends today. Some of them actually live in Denver, where he lives. And we were out there recently. And they had a party. And five people were from New Trier, which was so funny. Judith McBrian 7:35 Um, what was the - what were the courses like? Or what was the school like at Central? What kinds of classes did he take? How do you - How large were the classes if you had any idea about why -- Rosemary Egan 7:46 I had a very good idea because actually, I was a professor of special education at Northeastern. And I had a strong interest in making sure that he had a good experience. So the class sizes were good. They were probably 25 to a class. The teachers without exception in the Central School were really amazing. Each one was very different. The principal was Paul Nilsen, who was just the kindest, smartest, really, he had good morals and good values. And he really wanted everybody to learn. And he told me, you know, Rosemary, in this school, I pride myself on saying we have 18 different schools within this school because every teacher has to follow a curriculum, but they do it their way. And I support that. And it was great that I walked in the school for the first time children's art all over the walls. And then when it got to fourth or fifth grade, they started to rotate classes, and he learned a lot from very different people. And he had good friends there was good. And we because I did do some work with the PTA met a lot of parents and of course our neighborhood kids went there to most of them. Judith McBrian 8:58 Now, did you--were you a stay at home mom? Rosemary Egan 9:03 Yes and no. By no, I'd have to say no, I was not a stay at home mom, because I wasn't there all the time. I want to say here very importantly to me, I have tremendous respect for stay at home moms. I think it's an amazingly hard job. And most women do it very, very well. I had a career. I had three careers actually. My first one was teaching French at high school level. Then I became involved in special education. And I taught that at Northeastern. I trained teachers to work with children with disabilities who were under the age of six and also I work with their parents. And then ultimately I was a psychotherapist in a private practice in Glenview. So, I was not your typical working mom in the sense of some of my friends who worked got on a train at seven in the morning and didn't come home till seven at night. I drove down to Northeastern midday and got home at seven o'clock at night, three nights a week. But the other two days I was fairly free. So I had time to be in the neighborhood and hang out and I had people to cover for me if there was a band concert at the university, it was extremely friendly place to work as a mother. So in terms of sometimes people ask the question, what about stay at home moms versus the working moms? I honestly didn't feel resentment at all. And by the time, we lived there for 15 years. And by the time the 15 years were up, probably when I first came there, I was the only working mother on the block outside the home working mother. And by the 15 years, about seven or eight, six of them were doing or doing something part time or full time. So it was sort of that period from 1978 to 1992, or 3, a lot of changes occurring in the whole world and most specifically in our neighborhood as well. Judith McBrian 10:54 So with your background in special ed, were there any special ed programs at Central School at that time? Rosemary Egan 11:01 Oh, yes. Oh, yes. They have. Judith McBrian 11:04 Can you repeat this question? Of course, Rosemary Egan 11:07 Were there any special ed programs in Central School? Yes. Big time. One of my affiliations was within NSSED, the North Suburban Special Education District, which is was run by Sam Mikaelian, at the time, a fabulous guy. And he had an interest in each and every child, especially the kids with special needs. And I did consulting with some parents, while I was at the University, who had children in the district, and I worked with Sam about getting them the best possible education. And there is a law, Public Law 94 142, that guarantees a free appropriate public education for all children in the United States of America. And he, he forcefully made that happen for kids in Wilmette. It was not easy sometimes because these children need special training. They can't have big classes they have to have....At the time, they had two levels, which was self contained where the kids were all special needs kids. And integrated which means they were in the system for part of the day but came back. That's all shifted. But at the time I was working at Northeastern, pretty clear demarcation and he would come with me to classes and watch these kids. I mean, he was the superintendent of that hold, and NSSED so very, very good guy, and they provided a lot so it was good. Judith McBrian 12:29 Can you describe some of the most interesting experiences you've had in Wilmette? Rosemary Egan 12:40 Yes, I can describe interesting experiences I've had in Wilmette. Biggest one was the welcoming we received. When we first moved into 14th and Maple, I was still writing a dissertation and I was busy doing that. I had a summer girl to help so that I could write write write as much as I could with a two year old. Go figure. So all the neighbors were just so friendly. How are you doing? It's very kind and hilarious and very nice. Again, very welcoming. That would be the biggest word I think of when I think of Wilmette, extremely welcoming. Block parties and Christmas parties and all kinds of things. Again, at that neighborhood people looked out for each other. This sounds like a crazy experience. But it was really big to me. I was also a den mother at Central and for two years, and... Judith McBrian 13:32 What is it den mother? Rosemary Egan 13:33 Oh, excuse me. A den mother is when Cub Scouts have a little pack, they call it because they're not a troop yet because they're not Boy Scouts, they're cubs. And so when they have a pack, they need mothers to run it volunteer mothers. So I was tutored in this by an older mom who had done it before and she said the first thing you have to do is get an American flag. That's fine. I went out and bought the flag. I gave good treats. We did it fine but the irony is the word had gotten out by the time Brian was in like the third or fourth grade that I had some experience with kids with special needs. So my Cub Scout thing had couple of those in it. Super adorable but you know I needed a little bit of extra help. Anyway, so being a den mother for the Cub Scouts we had a fabulous experience which I think I talked about with you the other day going down to the water plant in Wilmette. We spent a few hours there with the people. The boys were enthralled, and so was I. I count that as a big experience. Another thing were parades. There were all kinds of parades in Wilmette and still are. There was a Christmas parade and a Memorial Day parade and a lot of celebrating with multi generations which I like. I mean, some of the people parading around were veterans from World War Two along with our Cub Scout den. So it was a real mix of ages and it was a lot of fun. And I remember the Bicentennial which was 17 - 1976 at Gilson. A lot of fireworks, a lot of special stuff. Another thing that's interesting to me more recently was surviving the pandemic in Wilmette. It was much more bearable than a lot of people in other places, partly because I would meet friends outside like even in the winter at Gilson, stand outside our cars or roll down the windows and chat. There are millions of opportunities. And we're very fortunate to be able to order groceries or get what we needed without going out and being in crowds. And just a sort of a sense of camaraderie among the neighbors that were near us was we'll make this happen wasn't I didn't feel the isolation that I've read about in cities like New York or other places, maybe more rural, where people were just really isolated. We always had connections. And I think that was a big thing. We were lucky enough to get our vaccines early, and kept up with that, which was very helpful. But I think it was a very scary time, particularly because we're seniors, and they kept warning you if you were over 65, you were at high risk, and it just sort of all settled down after a while. But it was a good place to spend the pandemic, in my opinion. Judith McBrian 16:17 What do you think the village did to ease conditions of the pandemic, if anything? Rosemary Egan 16:26 Well, what the village did? That's an interesting question. But certainly they made us aware of vaccines. So we knew where we could get them. After a while, it was really hard to get them like in February, but by March or April, things had opened up, they also provided a count for illness, how many hospitalizations and deaths that was always available, which was good. I don't know if they did anything about parking restrictions or anything like that. I have no idea. But it was a supportive environment. Again, it it didn't feel like every shop that I needed something from if I knew what I needed, they were so happy to do curbside all the time. And here's a joke. We ordered from Napolita one night, pizza, which was great. And it came in a large bag. And I said to Tom, when he got home, what's in there? He said, I don't know. I said you didn't even order a salad. It's just this giant bag. So we got home. And it was a roll of toilet paper with the pizza and it was, of course brand new. But it just said, we value our customers. And we know these are in short supply. Is that hilarious? I mean, that's the kind of stuff I love. Judith McBrian 17:38 Do you have any suggestions on how the village can improve? You've lived here now for 45 years. I'll ask you about some changes in a moment. But just from at this point, looking at the Village of Wilmette, are there things now that you see where there could be some room for improvement? Rosemary Egan 18:00 Yes. My the suggestion I would have, a primary one, would be I feel like the park district isn't responsible and responsive to-- they seem out of touch with what most of the people in Wilmette seem to want for Gilson Park. That said, the park district has done a fabulous job. The park is beautiful. There's all kinds of beautiful plants and trees and all kinds of stuff that makes it great. There are lots of little pocket parks around Wilmette that are beautiful and fun and easy for moms to get to with toddlers. So they do a lot of good. They maintain Centennial beautifully, it's fine. But this one instance about Gilson there seems to be a faction that is trying to turn it into more of a commercial venue. So I feel like it would be better if people on the district board were aware of how much frustration and even anger on the part of some people are about turning this into commercial venue --for example, using the what used to be the warming house which was just a small shed, and now is the center there. And having all these people come in for all kinds of stuff and melting a multi level parking garage and taking the roadway which needs improvement and widening it and putting bike lanes and walking lanes and it just seems like that's our green space. And I like it like the way it is with changes to I like the new beach house because everything's much nicer. I won't go into the condition of the other one. But again, right there for example. The people that work there are so nice. If you don't remember your beach pass, they can look you up. I mean they're just nice people working. Judith McBrian 19:48 Do you feel that Gilson is welcoming to others outside the community? Rosemary Egan 19:55 Yes, I do. I think one of the things I like about it is how many people from so many different cultures come. I mean, their people can get a permit if anybody can get a permit to have a picnic there. And if you go by which we do all the time on Saturday and Sunday, you can smell cooking from 15 different countries. And the people that I've seen are generally very respectful and they're keeping to themselves as a family playing sports while they have their barbecues or going down to the beach. And I like that. I don't like it to be an enclave where nobody can get in. And they can go in if they'll pay their daily fee, which is high at the beach. But it's-- it is open to everybody to enjoy. Judith McBrian 20:40 Oh, can you describe for me a couple of holidays in Wilmette, for example, Fourth of July and what - what's that like? Rosemary Egan 20:49 Fourth of July in Wilmette is a trip. Basically, a lot of people go to Gilson Park where they have fireworks and people are picnicking. It's a lot of fun. There's a parade somewhere in the day, I don't know when. And then it's a place where people gather. And usually with our friends, we would walk from somebody's house who lived a little closer to the beach when we weren't that far beneath anyone. But we'd all walk down together, go to the fireworks with our kids who were all in grammar school at the time, walk back to this person's house and have a barbecue or something. It was a lot of fun. Judith McBrian 21:24 Okay, how do you think -- what are some of the ways that you've seen Wilmette change in the 45 years when you first came here as a bride? Rosemary Egan 21:24 [not clear. laughter from speaker and interviewer] Judith McBrian 21:32 ...almost a bride...looking like a bride. Rosemary Egan 21:40 The bride, for sure. Judith McBrian 21:44 ...to retired. Rosemary Egan 21:45 Okay, the changes I've seen. There's several things. One, when we moved in, in 1976 on the block and sportin than maple, there were people who had all kinds of lines of work. And there were some retired people who were very funny, again, very happy with us, except we wanted to put up a fence between our properties and they didn't like that. But we went ahead and did it anyway for the safety of our child. They got over it. But at that point, people had jobs that would you consider not so much the professional line of work, but very important when they made money, and they were very great people. It's just right now it feels more to me like it's gotten more expensive to live. And the houses of course have gone up in value, but more expensive to live in Wilmette. And along with that I wouldn't say attitude, but just changes in how people seem to handle themselves. I mean, talking with some other mothers that grew up with our head, kids growing up with ours, who still live in Wilmette have said, you know, this idea that your children can't walk to school that they have to be taken and dropped off and picked up and they live three blocks four blocks away? I don't know there's a lot of differences. I think that basically, income diversity is going away. And I think that there are two things about Wilmette that I like a lot. One is that there is a facility for individuals with special needs, and people who are aged over by EL. And the other is I'm very pleased to see that the facility, the new thing that they're building on Wilmette Avenue, just west of Ridge has some low income housing in it. And that was a big fight to get that passed. But I very much approve of that. Judith McBrian 23:37 When you say the housing near the EL for the elderly is are there were ... Rosemary Egan 23:42 ...no for special needs Judith McBrian 23:42 ...special needs Rosemary Egan 23:43 ...and some elderly... Judith McBrian 23:44 ... are those some of the buildings set the condominiums that are over there. Rosemary Egan 23:49 No it's one big building, and it's like, just east of 4th on Linden on the north side of the street. Judith McBrian 23:56 Okay... Rosemary Egan 23:56 ...Yeah, I know some people who live there who are wheelchair bound. Judith McBrian 24:00 Okay. Just following up a little bit on the expensive, more expensive nature of Wilmette, who is, of course, true for many, many towns. Have you found that that has resulted in kind of changes in attitude among people? Or is it just the price of the house? Rosemary Egan 24:21 I think it's more of the price of the houses. I don't think that, I mean, they're always in any community you live in, there's going to be a we vow thing going on. I'll give you an example. When Tom and I were shopping one day in Winnetka, and this woman said something about living in Kenilworth. And I said, Oh, we have family there who live in where do they live? And I told her and she said, Oh, that's west Kenilworth. And I thought, oh my god, one of the toniest suburbs in the world and there now it's divided into east and west. Okay? Yes, it's west Kenilworth if you want to say that bye bye now. Just incredible. But anyway. So, those are experiences that I've had, that I like, and were surprising. I was going to say, I'd like to add a couple of things about things that we'd like about Wilmette. And one of the things is the park district -- surprise, but also the fact that they take such good care of the parkways and the trees, and they're constantly making it look better. We love the brick streets, and the old fashioned lights, just so quaint and so pretty. I mentioned the pocket parks and Gilson. And the library, I think, is a really, really big, good thing about Wilmette. I like it a lot. They have such great resources, extremely helpful staff and people and they keep expanding. When we first came here, it was really tiny, and they had basically books. And they started adding DVDs, and then the computers came in and whatever's happening in the world they're on top of it, and they provide it for the residents of our town. And I like that a lot. The other thing is I know that sounds funny, but we like the police. They're very friendly. We walk every morning at Gilson. And we wave to them, and they wave to us. And we've had a couple of things happen in different times where we've needed to call them for something and they've been very responsive, very friendly, follow up quickly. I think they're a very professional police force. Judith McBrian 26:25 If you were writing a novel, how would you, what kind of words would you use to describe Wilmette, the people or what it looks like? Or the institutions involved or where it's located? How would you characterize Wilmette? Rosemary Egan 26:40 Well, the only caveat to this of how I would characterize Wilmette is I'm speaking from back 25 years ago plus when we were raising our son, so although we've been involved in it, because we live here my experience in experiencing it as a mother through our child is different probably from what you'd see, among other seniors. But anyway, I would describe it as welcoming. Excuse me. Friendly, with old time values. Everybody was friendly. Like even the shopkeepers --they knew us, they would call us out by name, they knew our son. I would especially recommend the bookstore that used to be on Central, Lyman Sargent's, which is no longer, neither of them are. But when we first moved here, they were very big and very important in our lives. I mean, Lyman's delivered, not to mention... Judith McBrian 26:43 What is Lyman Sargant's? Rosemary Egan 27:29 Lyman Sargent's is a drugstore. And they-- I don't know how long ago Oh, my God, you're right, Judith, I don't know how long ago they went out of business-- a long time. But when we had anything we needed that was a prescription, if it was called in, and that's what they did in those days where you brought the prescription in, there was no faxing. They would just bring it right over to your house. It was so easy. You didn't have to worry. And I could call up and say Ooh, I forgot to get this with no problem. And even like Schultz and Odhner's they delivered too it was just a nice, nice, nice people in every single instance. One other thing about the novel, I would have to say it would be Norman Rockwellian as an existence for a child. Case in point, the kids would all go out to play. And they were all due home when the lights went on, because the lights went on shortly before dusk. So you kind of --we blocked out a radius for our son. He knew he could go from this block to that block. And he had friends in all the blocks. And then when the lights came on -pouf-- they'd show up on their bikes. I don't think that exists in a lot of places. And I mentioned-- did I mention the brick streets? We think it's quaint. And again at first both age diversity and income diversity were amazing. It was -- there were there were older people on both sides of us in our Elmwood House, who were very nice and friendly and gave Brian cookies and cared like grandparents would you know, and I just see everybody is more hurried and rushed. And perhaps I'm just speaking from being an older woman right now. But it just seems less laid back. Judith McBrian 29:19 Was there racial diversity in Wilmette? Rosemary Egan 29:22 Not much. I would say yes. In one way. Yes. The only way would be that there were many Asian families living in Wilmette. Not a lot, but I didn't know anybody who was Black. I didn't know anybody who was Hispanic who wasn't there to work for people and help in that way. But I didn't know anybody who was of another race besides Asian or Caucasian. Judith McBrian 29:47 Do you think that's changed? Rosemary Egan 29:50 A little bit? Yes, I do. Yeah, a little bit. Judith McBrian 29:53 So you're working. Were a working mom? Rosemary Egan 29:56 Yes. Judith McBrian 29:58 Was, did the village play a role in any way in terms of your ability to have a successful career or provide resources that enabled you to be so successful or transportation or anything like that that you can think of. Rosemary Egan 30:18 Other than the 303 cab that our babysitter would bring Brian home from preschool in. She took the EL up from the city. And she'd walk over to St. Francis to the preschool and then she'd call a cab and take him home from there. That wasn't exactly provided by the city. I don't remember anything there to support working mothers and and I'll be honest, and direct, that we were very fortunate to have the means to hire very good babysitter housekeepers. So I was fortunate as a work... I could focus on the academic work that I was doing, I could focus on my research. And I had time to do that because someone else was doing all the hard things in the house. I was very, very lucky. And I know other mothers... I mean, this lady that we had had dinner ready when I came home from work at seven o'clock at night when I taught two nights a week. And it was on.. the it was all on this hot tray we had covered up and I'd walk in and sit down, Tom would come home and Brian would come racing around and we'd sit down at 7:15. I mean, I was lucky. That's all I can say. Very fortunate. Judith McBrian 31:29 What haven't I asked you that you'd like to cover. Rosemary Egan 31:32 Um, I'm just looking to see if there's anything else. I jotted down a few things that I was liking and so forth. There's nothing that I can think of that I wish you had asked me. Judith McBrian 31:44 Is there anything you don't like about Wilmette? Rosemary Egan 31:45 No, really I don't. There's nothing. There's nothing about Wilmette I don't like. Judith McBrian 31:52 Do [you] think Wilmette is providing resources for people who are retired to continue to live in Wilmette? Rosemary Egan 32:01 That's a good question. What kind of resources do they provide? I think they provide a lot. There are...because I'm a therapist, I have noticed that there's a lot. By the way that's another thing I like there are several different agencies within Wilmette that provide social work services to people on a very, very big sliding scale. So it could be children, teens, parents, marital work, it's available within the community. I don't think it's sponsored by the community. But maybe they get money from the community, I don't know. And there also is like kind of a senior center field to some places in the New Trier district which is bigger than Wilmette. But there's a very active senior center in Northfield. I think that many people here end up moving to condos, after they sell their houses because they don't want to leave. Some people go downtown. I know two families that went downtown and came right back in two years. Each of them didn't work. So I think there are senior facilities available. There's Tai Chi and yoga and all that stuff going on over at the Mallinckrodt Center through the park district and of course, other park district locations so they do provide things that I'm not sure I know about everything. The other thing though -- this isn't Wilmette specifically-- but they do have a wonderful food pantry in Winnetka. And that provides food and I think that many people who live here are unaware of the fact that there is a big hunger problem for some people in this area. And the pantry there provides a list each week of what they need, and so people can bring that to them. Like some weeks it's no more mac and cheese or we need toilet paper and paper towels and Wilmette residents can avail themselves of that as well. Judith McBrian 33:54 I see. Well, thank you Rosemary, Rosemary Egan 33:57 You are most welcome. It's enjoyable... Judith McBrian 34:00 ...illuminating discussion of your experiences in Wilmette. We'll look forward to continuing this conversation at another time perhaps. Rosemary Egan 34:10 Absolutely. Absolutely. Judith McBrian 34:12 And I really appreciate your time this afternoon. Thank you. Rosemary Egan 34:14 You're most welcome, Judith. Judith McBrian 34:19 What's the red light on? What's a red light on it? Just stopped it.
Creators: Egan, Rosemary, Interviewee; McBrien, Judith
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Sound recordings
Description: Interview with Rosemary Egan by Judith McBrien in Wilmette, Illinois, on the subject of living in Wilmette for many years. Rosemary discusses raising her son in Wilmette, special education programs at Central School, being a den mother for the Cub Scouts, living through the Covid-19 pandemic in Wilmette, changes that she's seen over the past 45 years in the village, and her overall experience living in Wilmette.
Place of Publication: Wilmette, Illinois
Date of Original: 26 Apr 2022
Playing Time: 34:29
Subject(s): Oral histories
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Egan, Rosemary ; McBrien, Judith ; Egan, Tom ; Egan, Brian
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: 2022
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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