Moving to Streator IL

[supernova9]

I went there a few times for a job interview. I was frightened that I'd actually get hired and have to consider moving there. It was a pretty miserable town in the middle of nowhere, and I was actually contemplating a 45 minute commute from Bloomington to keep from living in the vacinity of the area. The areas between the burbs and Bloomington / Champaign are no joke. These are pretty dull and isolated places, and one of the exact reasons why I would never live anywhere but Bloomington-Normal or Champaign-Urbana or within a 20 minute drive of these places if I wasn't going to live in Chicago. Metro East St. Louis is the last hope of any meaningful activity south of I-72.

Don't move to Streator.

[sgresident]

I have only been to streator once, for a high school basketball game. Did not look like the greatest place to be. The only other thing I can comment on is that they seem to misplace a lot of kids in Streator. We must share the same Cable network because they are always breaking in to say a kid is missing. It is never any other town. Always Streator!

[Bulldog54]

Hello. I stumbled across this forum this morning. Interesting. I used to get back to Streator once in a while to visit relatives. They are no longer there. I grew up in Streator a long time ago. Graduated from SHS in '54. Worked at Knoedler Mfg under the viaduct for a while after graduating. Nice little company. It's long gone. Then on to Peoria and attended Bradley U. From there it was Chicago and then Syracuse, NY. Now, I only get back for class reunions.

The other contributors to this forum are right. Industry has left. The downtown area looks deserted. Others my age will remember Main Street from the good old days. Always busy at night. Cars cruising in front of Hill's Brothers. We had three movie theaters. The Plumb, the Majestic, and I think the other was the Granada.

As a kid, I used to pedal my bike south of town to the dam on the Vermillion River and fish. Also could get to the river at the end of 12th Street by the old trestle bridge. Can't get there anymore. And, the dam area is all fenced off denying access to the river. I wonder why?

As a kid, I attended St. Anthony's School. In those days there were four Catholic churches in town. I think there are only two now. The population of Streator was more then than it is now.

A word about Syracuse. When you tell someone that you live in NY, they usually think of New York City. We are along way from there. This is a great area. Even though I'm now retired, I have no desire to leave. The largest wilderness area in the lower 48 is only a two hour drive from here. Beautiful country in the Adirondack area. A great area for backpacking and canoeing. Yes, it snows a lot here. But, I love to ski and look forward to the snow.

Our next reunion will be in 2009. Looking forward to it. Fifty-five years. Wow. Time flies when you are having fun.

If any of my old classmates see this note, I'd love to hear from you.

[larrylampson]

I grew up in Streator; graduating from HS in 1954. It was a great town then and a great place to grow up. The school system was very good also, as you can see from some of their graduates.

I must admit that when I return to Streator for reunions, I am very disappointed at the downtown, Railways, Lipton tea, bottle plants etc. They used to be very busy and successful. I worked at Owens Glass while in HS and could work any shift as they needed bodies. I worked for the Santa Fe Railway during summers while I was in college. I worked at the Granade Theatre also, and had a paper route while going to Plumb grade school. I spend a lot of time at the YMCA, Hill's Bros.,Readers Smoke Shop, Millers, Staceys, and of course Trapps For me, it was an Ideal place to grow up, but I'm not sure now that that is true for the youth of today.

For sure I made good friends there that I still contact to this date. Perhaps the economy of the world right now is so bad; Streator really does not look like it did when I lived there, I wish it did.

Larry T. Lampson