When I was growing up, I considered many things and people to be favorites:
Milky Way was my favorite candy bar, and I bought this 5 cent delight at either Zehender’s Pharmacy or the Lake Theatre when I went to the movies.
Chocolate was my favorite ice cream, and my mother would buy a few gallons at Strickland’s — or during the summer, I would go to Zehender’s with a few buddies and buy a double chocolate cone.
“What better than to live a life of brave unselfishness?” was my favorite quote. Seventy years ago, my grandmother crocheted this saying in light blue on a background and framed it. This work of art hangs on a wall in our basement to this day.
Stagecoach was my favorite western movie. I first saw this film on TV when I was 16.
Summer was my favorite season because there was no school, no leaves to rake, no snow to shovel and lots of baseball.
My favorite baseball team has always been the White Sox, and my favorite football team was the Chicago Cardinals. Pro basketball and pro hockey were not as important as they are now, so I never followed those sports.
Johnny Groth was my favorite sports figure. Johnny was married to the daughter of the man who had been the best man at my parents’ wedding, so I had the opportunity to meet John a few times during the years he played with the Tigers, White Sox, St. Louis Browns, Athletics and Senators. He was always friendly and quite willing to answer my questions regarding batting and fielding.
South Pacific was my favorite musical. I saw it on stage in Chicago with the original Broadway cast when I was 15. I particularly liked the song, “There Ain’t Nothin’ Like A Dame.”
When I was in grade school, Armstrong Sperry and John Tunis were my favorite authors. I enjoyed Sperry’s stirring tales of the sea and Tunis’ baseball stories about fictitious players on the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Theodore Roosevelt was my favorite president. He spoke softly but carried a big stick, meaning that negotiation was a means of settling problems, but the U.S. would not be pushed around by other countries. I also liked his efforts in conservation.
My favorite male movie star was Gary Cooper, and my favorite female star was Barbara Stanwyck. I liked them because they were straight-shooters without guile.
Jackie Gleason was my favorite television performer. He was a man who could play many characters like Reggie Van Gleason, a playboy drunk; Joe the Bartender, an empathetic person; and Charlie Bratton, a braggart who let the good times roll.
The Village Inn on the west side of the 100 block of North Oak Park Avenue was my favorite restaurant, My family went to this Chinese restaurant once a month for 7-8 years to eat Mandarin duck with dressing and mixed vegetables.
Some of these are still my favorites. For example, I will never turn down a Milky Way, a chocolate cone, or an oldie starring Gary Cooper or Barbara Stanwyck.
John Stanger is a lifelong resident of Oak Park, a 1957 graduate of OPRF High School, married with three grown children and five grandchildren, and a retired English professor (Elmhurst College). Living two miles from where he grew up, he hasn’t gotten far in 75 years.