Gold Star Route
QIC
BroncoAO
Lil TundraPAX
- Alliance
- Bronco
- Cutter
- hOJOh
- Hong Kong Phooey
- JCS
- Juul
- Kramer
- Scarecrow
- Styrofoam
- Truckin
- meigs
- cal worthington
Workout
The count exceeded the HCs which meant PAX decided to take the first winter run a little late. Streets were clear after yesterday’s winter blast. Cal Worthington made it despite the non-Carolina November weather. Great to see Hong Kong Phooey and Meigs out for a run today!
Warm-o-rama
SSH -15; Imperial – 10; Hillbilly – 10; Don Qs – 12; Daisy – 10; Phelps – 10; Washing Machines – 12; SSH – 15
Thang
Gold Star Route with points of interest: Stevenson Park, Andersen Park, Field Park, Scoville Park and Longfellow Park
Mary
25 merkins; 25 LBCs; 15 wide arms; 15 Freddies; 10 diamonds; 10 BBSUs
COT
Our route took us past 4 of the 5 Gold Star memorials plus Scoville Park which honor WWI veterans. The Great War is leaving the living memory. Today is Veteran’s Day to honor all who have served in the military. I will be calling my uncle today who served. My dad, before he passed, called him every Veteran’s Day to thank him for his service. I have carried on the tradition for the last 9 years. Take a moment to honor the veterans you know.
Armistice Day – marks the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at 11:00 am—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918.
Veteran’s Day – honors all military veterans, both living and deceased, who have served in the United States Armed Forces. It originated as Armistice Day, but was officially changed to Veteran’s Day in 1954 to honor all veterans of all wars.
Oak Park “Gold Star Men of the World War”
On November 11, 1921, the Women’s Auxiliary of the American Legion erected five memorials in various Oak Park parks celebrating the service of male residents in WWI. Each memorial names a few local veterans, dubbed “Gold Star Men of the World War,” with individual elm trees planted for each of the men listed. The five memorials can be found in:
- Stevenson Park, 49 Lake St. Gold star plaque is located in between the park’s main entrance and a side entrance to the community center.
- Andersen Park, 824 Hayes Ave. Gold star plaque is located between Andersen Center and a flagpole.
- Field Park, 935 Woodbine Ave. Gold star plaque is located in the west central region of the park, next to the walkway opposite the Field Park Recreation Center.
- Longfellow Park, 630 S. Ridgeland Ave. Gold star plaque can be found on the western edge of the park, on the Ridgeland Avenue sidewalk between Jackson Boulevard and the Longfellow Center entrance. This marker includes Hedley Cooper, the rector of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church. Cooper is believed to be the first American clergyman to die in WWI.
- Carroll Park, 1125 S. Kenilworth Ave. Gold star plaque is adjacent to two other memorials, a flagpole in honor of WWII soldier Robert Emmett Murphy and an “honor roll” plaque of neighborhood men who fought in WWI.
Peace Triumphant: celebrating peace and honoring Oak Park’s war dead
A pinnacle of Scoville Park and noted as Oak Park’s town center, Peace Triumphant consists of three bronze figures that architect Gilbert Riswold said personified land, air and sea. They surround a larger granite figure uniting the three elements into achievement of peace.
The memorial includes the names of the 56 fallen, and an honor roll of the 2,446 total, Oak Park and River Forest residents who served in WWI.
In March 1921, the Oak Park River Forest War Memorial Committee raised funds for the memorial through popular subscription. Residents pledged more than $50,000 — or more than $875,000 today — for its creation.
The metropolitan Chicago radio station WLS broadcast Peace Triumphant’s dedication on Armistice Day in 1925. General Charles G. Dawes, vice president of the United States, was the guest of honor. Major General James G. Harbord delivered remarks.
According to archival collections from the Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest, and information on the Historical Marker Database, 16 monuments exist today commemorating local veterans ranging from the 1898 Spanish-American War to the Vietnam War between the 1950s and 1970s.