00:00:02.780 - 00:00:08.400

You have a speaker right now. Yeah there's a speaker right here I just want to check it out right here. Right there.

00:00:08.760 - 00:00:22.860

So if you'll hold it there. Please start by giving us your name and address. Anthony Hyatt, 6301 West Halbert Road, Bannockburn. How long have you lived here? I've lived here since I was about

00:00:23.000 - 00:00:37.040

five years old which is I guess 1968 or actually we might have--we moved, we lived on Kenhow Drive before that for about a year, so pretty much ever since I was little, too little to remember anywhere else.

00:00:37.200 - 00:00:48.340

It was a good place to grow up around here I liked it. I didn't really realize how good it was until I spent some time going to some other places and in

00:00:48.340 - 00:01:06.060

comparison this place stood pretty well. In what way? What kinds of things? Well, just like knowing people around here and that there's--people have more of an interest than just the fact that

00:01:06.060 - 00:01:17.340

they live next door to each other, they never get to talk to each other, that you know people all around the neighborhood. I liked working on the spring show. I got to know a lot of people, and from delivering people's

00:01:17.460 - 00:01:29.660

newspapers. I mean, I probably don't now, but I knew everyone around for a few blocks in every direction. I thought that was pretty cool.

00:01:31.500 - 00:01:43.820

So what are some of your fondest memories about living here in Bannockburn? Do you have memories from when you were a kid or recently? Things that were important to you? Well we used to have great hide

00:01:43.820 - 00:01:55.320

and go seek games down on Owen Place every night about 7:30. The ice cream man would always come. So that would get us all out. We'd play hide-and-go-seek till it

00:01:55.320 - 00:02:10.100

got dark, and our parents made us come in. That was real good. Good times there. I still hang out with a lot of friends that I grew up with.

00:02:11.600 - 00:02:26.800

I have a lot of friends that go back a long way, whereas most people my age I find really don't. They're into people that they've met in just the last year or two or whatever, but they don't

00:02:26.800 - 00:02:39.170

maintain connections even past high school. Like, they don't have connections with people from their high school, but I still have connections with people I've known all the way since elementary school, so that always surprises

00:02:40.240 - 00:02:50.150

them and I think it's really good. It's nice to know people for a long time like that. Any funny stories that you

00:02:50.150 - 00:03:00.600

remember about living here? Gosh, I'd have to think for a minute. Yeah. So what do you think is important about living in Bannockburn now?

00:03:02.620 - 00:03:19.440

One thing that's real important to me is being close to the river. And I spend a lot of time down there. And I really appreciate that a lot. I think that it's really good that there's a valley here, and there's

00:03:19.440 - 00:03:43.420

a lot of access to nice places which aren't all developed and at the same time being close to the to the city when you want it and, it's--Bannockburn's changed a lot though I mean I think it's changing a lot, it's getting to be very exclusive neighborhood.

00:03:43.780 - 00:03:56.340

And the people that move in here, they aren't, a lot of them, maybe they aren't quite into the same Bannockburn I don't know. Really that's interesting say a little bit more about that what--how do you think it's changing?

00:03:56.840 - 00:04:16.200

What's different about the people moving in now from the people who moved in when you were younger? I think like a lot of the young couples that move in here today are that, they're two people both working full-time and when they've come to move into a neighborhood

00:04:16.200 - 00:04:31.560

like Bannockburn they've basically made a choice between living in Bannockburn or having a kid a lot of times. I don't think that a lot of the people that come here are really coming here to have big families as much.

00:04:31.560 - 00:04:39.200

I mean, that's the biggest thing. There aren't kids in Bannockburn as much anymore at all. I mean, maybe there's another,

00:04:39.220 - 00:04:50.780

more of a generation getting started now, but at least for quite a period of years, it's declined a lot. And maybe for young couples just getting started, this neighborhood's too expensive.

00:04:50.780 - 00:05:04.820

And--I don't know. A lot of the people that do move in, they're pretty busy and into their own lives. And I think probably a lower

00:05:04.820 - 00:05:16.420

percentage of them are getting really involved in doing the community type activities or whatever than percentages of people in the past. I mean, I don't have any facts to

00:05:16.420 - 00:05:22.780

that point. But it just seems like that kind of. I don't know.

00:05:22.780 - 00:05:40.740

I mean, it's just something that's changing because a lot of the people that are the original Bannockburners are getting pretty old and, you know, it's the changes and who owns the houses and who lives here are coming through now, you know, a lot more.

00:05:41.320 - 00:05:53.660

And so that's one big thing really. I mean, it's not necessarily that the neighborhood's getting better or worse, it's just changing. Do you think you'd like to stay on

00:05:53.660 - 00:06:04.080

here? Is it the kind of place you'd like to continue to live for a long time? Oh yeah, I'd love to live around here. I mean well a lot of it's got to do with the fact of people that I

00:06:04.080 - 00:06:24.740

know that are around here, but it's a good area. But I'd try other areas too. My name is Mark Stephen Freybaum. I currently live at 7014 Braeburn Place in Bannockburn.

00:06:25.900 - 00:06:41.200

I'm living in the former house of [Udo Rall]. I was born in Bannockburn in 1959, and I lived with my parents until I went away to college. My parents are Maura and Jerry

00:06:41.200 - 00:06:57.180

Freybaum, who currently reside on Elgin Lane. I plan to live and die in Bannockburn. Why? Why? I guess I have deep roots here.

00:06:57.180 - 00:07:06.540

I went to the Bannockburn Elementary School and my mother taught here, the elementary school. And I went to Bannockburn

00:07:06.600 - 00:07:11.400

Elementary. I went to Pyle. I went to Whitman. Although I did swim for Merrimack.

00:07:15.140 - 00:07:25.080

We beat them all the time. So I chose the good team. I swam on the Merrimack swim team. And my mother participated in the

00:07:25.080 - 00:07:35.500

Bannockburn show for many years. And finally, last year, I participated. And this year, I inspired one of

00:07:35.500 - 00:07:45.560

the songs in the show. A current Bruce Springsteen favorite called Born in the USA, which we readapted and called it Born in Bannockburn.

00:07:50.740 - 00:08:04.220

My fondest memories of Bannockburn would probably be, as far as I can recall, this place used to be crawling with kids. And it took a lull in the 70s and

00:08:04.220 - 00:08:15.400

seems to be returning now. But the streets were full of kids and we would play pick-up football games in the street and behind other people's houses.

00:08:17.040 - 00:08:36.840

I loved going through the path that's behind Bannockburn Elementary School that would lead to Highs, which was well worn down and is now being dug up I believe for a series of townhouses that they want to put in there.

00:08:36.840 - 00:08:42.800

But I think that was blocked. I dom't know, I haven't kept up with that one. But I do remember going back and

00:08:42.800 - 00:08:54.060

forth up and down that path quite a bit as well as several other paths through the woods between houses. So it is my stomping grounds and I know as well behind the homes as I do on the streets.

00:08:54.920 - 00:09:12.680

And, well, you ask the questions. So, any funny things? Any humorous events that you remember? Things that happened to you or to the friends? I ran away from home when I was

00:09:12.680 - 00:09:24.060

four or five. And I put all of my belongings in a paper bag and my sister and I were angry for some reason or another.

00:09:25.720 - 00:09:39.020

We packed our things and ran down the street and we hid in what was the Bannockburn day camp. And they had little campsites up in the woods there behind the pool.

00:09:39.720 - 00:09:48.920

And I set up camp and sent my sister to Highs for provisions. And... Is your sister older or younger? She's older by a year.

00:09:48.920 - 00:09:58.400

Uh-huh. And, I think it was, I can't remember, maybe my mother or father who caught us running up Bannockbun Drive with...

00:09:58.440 - 00:10:01.790

Found you. ...With the goods. Uh-huh. Short-lived escape.

00:10:01.790 - 00:10:14.540

So, we didn't, we didn't make it through the night, but we were ready to. So what's important about living here? What has been important? As you were growing up you said

00:10:14.540 - 00:10:22.020

that just having a lot of other children around. I imagine it... As an adult, what do you think about it? As an adult, it gives me a sense

00:10:22.020 - 00:10:30.820

of place. And I can go away for a number of years as I did, and come back and still see the same old people doing the same old things.

00:10:30.820 - 00:10:45.040

And you know people by face and by name and and you don't even have to know the people personally but you know if they're living in Bannockburn you already know something about them.

00:10:45.640 - 00:10:56.100

What is it that you know about them? I think you just share a little piece of personality with everybody who lives here just because it rubs off on you and becomes a part of you.

00:10:56.100 - 00:11:06.080

What is that personality? What characterizes a Bannockburner? A Bannockburnian? A Bannockburnian. A Bannockburnian?

00:11:06.760 - 00:11:27.830

Yes. What would characterize a Bannockburnian? I guess it would be, a sense of humor, a staunch Democrat, a, I imagine a sense of humor, a

00:11:27.830 - 00:11:43.380

staunch Democrat, a... I imagine fashion would be on their low priority of things. Pretty fancy t-shirts. Well, this is the latest and greatest.

00:11:43.380 - 00:12:05.400

This is the Bannockburn of the '80s, So it's a little different, but it's certainly, you see people who a large majority of them are government workers and none of them are making any fortunes, but yet they have enough to live comfortably and I think they place

00:12:05.400 - 00:12:21.060

their priorities with their children and seeing to it that they get a good education. And things like fancy cars and clothes and homes are not as important to them as some of the

00:12:21.060 - 00:12:28.640

other things in life. You said that this is the Bannockburn of the '80s. How do you, how has it changed?

00:12:29.140 - 00:12:44.580

It sounds like that means that there's a change from the Bannockburn of the whatever, '50s, '60s, '70s. What's it like now compared to when? Well, only, the only real indication I have of it would be

00:12:44.580 - 00:13:01.780

the kids. And I see it because the pool is right behind my house and I that's a good--that's a good reading, you can just spend an afternoon down there and look at the kids.

00:13:01.780 - 00:13:10.160

And-- How do they look? [laughter] You have to tell me more about this. They don't know how to tie their shoes.

00:13:10.900 - 00:13:29.380

They've all got those Velcro sneakers and and you know, fluorescent clothing and they you know, well, the same thing that happens to all the kids I guess. It's--Bannockburn's no different in that respect, but certainly

00:13:29.380 - 00:13:44.700

when I grew up it was a little more earthy I think. And you can see it in the old people, but the young kids, I don't think, have a grip on it. I think they have lost it, some of

00:13:44.700 - 00:14:04.280

it. .Anything else important that you'd want to commit to the archives of Bannockburn? I hope they don't rape Glen Echo Park and destroy it.

00:14:04.280 - 00:14:19.560

I have very fond memories of stealing whatever change my dad would put on his dresser and running down there with a few friends and something like 75 cents would be good for a whole Saturday of rides.

00:14:20.220 - 00:14:35.840

I rode the wooden roller coasters and went through the House of Mirrors and the Spook House and shot the .22s at the gallery and the whole bit. I still walk down around there and can imagine all of it in

00:14:35.840 - 00:14:55.020

operation, and I'd hate to see it all torn down. Almost anything but what it is right now would be wrong, I think. I do remember the race riots in Washington and how they spilled over into Glen Echo.

00:14:56.540 - 00:15:10.040

My father was active in the busing program, which was kind of a pilot project and it was one of the first of its kind, especially in this area. He was close friends with Mrs.

00:15:10.040 - 00:15:25.400

Jones who was the black principal who died recently and she was at Bannockburn Elementary and she was active in the busing program where they took about, I imagine it was about two dozen kids from the inner city to Bannockburn

00:15:25.600 - 00:15:45.880

Elementary and I do remember that it raised a few eyebrows even in this community. So that whole combination of the '60s into the '70s, I do remember, because I was at that pretty

00:15:45.880 - 00:16:18.400

impressionable age. And as I said, I went through the whole system, the nursery school, to the Bannockburn Elementary, to Pyle, to Whitman, and off to college in New England.

00:16:18.840 - 00:16:48.140

But I did return and as I said before I'm back in Bannockburn and I have joined my older brother Robert in business and we are working at the, right above Highs in the Glen Echo Shopping Center and we are partners at Sea and Ski Travel and sending Bannockburners

00:16:48.140 - 00:17:00.700

in all directions. But they come back too. Thank you. My name is Andrew Pollack.

00:17:00.760 - 00:17:18.600

I live at 165 Park Street, San Francisco, California. I moved, my family moved here in 1951 when I was six months old approximately, and I lived here for 18 years until I graduated from high school, and then I, my parents still live here, so I come

00:17:18.600 - 00:17:30.060

back and visit them. My fondest memories of Bannockburn, well, a lot of things. I love that there was a lot of open space and there were

00:17:30.060 - 00:17:44.560

playgrounds everywhere and there was a creek. I think it was really important that there was a sense of community even when we were kids we knew that we were somewhere special, that we knew that we had this identity and that basically

00:17:44.600 - 00:18:00.140

we were living a, I don't know better life in some ways or a more interesting life than a lot of our friends from other neighborhoods. How did you know you were special? What were the clues? Well there's just a sense of that we belong to Bannockburn.

00:18:00.140 - 00:18:06.060

There's this community. I mean I don't know when I realized that it was different. I know in junior high school,

00:18:06.260 - 00:18:23.720

there were even teachers, a sociology teacher, I remember, who pointed it out and used it as an example of a place where everybody knew their neighbors and who lived on their street which I guess when I was little I didn't realize was rare but later on I did realize

00:18:23.720 - 00:18:39.670

that and there is also a sense of growing up in a very liberal place which I'm not sure when I realized that either but I know that I still tell people that this is one of the few places where the parents were against the war in Vietnam before the children were.

00:18:39.670 - 00:18:47.920

[laughter]. That's great. That's a good line Really. And I don't know you know I just

00:18:47.920 - 00:19:03.720

really I still appreciate the fact that I grew up here and that we could come back 35 years later and still see my old friends and that there's a sense of being part of a community which In San Francisco, I sort of have had that also.

00:19:04.140 - 00:19:15.720

I sort of moved into a, certainly very different from Bannockburn, but a group of people who identified themselves as a community. So I've been real lucky in that, always having that.

00:19:16.800 - 00:19:32.460

Let's see, what are some of my fondest memories? Playing in the play, the tennis courts down from here, moving playground equipment around, having big, going out in the summer every night and playing hide and go-seek and badminton

00:19:32.720 - 00:19:47.580

Often people have mentioned that. Ball tag, just the swimming pool, I used to spend all my time in the summer at the swimming pool and playing cards and being on the swim team.

00:19:49.080 - 00:20:01.740

Let's see, what else? Anything funny that you remember? Any funny events that were special to you or a sort of community event that you remember that was humorous or some little anecdote? Anecdote.

00:20:04.000 - 00:20:12.320

Offhand, I can't think of anything. I mean of course I remember the Halloween parties, people probably mentioned that a lot.

00:20:13.860 - 00:20:23.000

And let me think-- I mean what. Thing of it, what I tell people about growing up here is that it was true, a true American dream. It was like growing up in Ozzy and Harriet land.

00:20:24.000 - 00:20:33.780

That it was just so idyllic, at least for me. I mean I know that the people who grew up here had just the same kind of problems as anywhere else. But for me, it was just, it's

00:20:33.780 - 00:20:49.600

really what the American dream was supposed to be. You know, lots of room to play in, and friends, and very sheltered. I mean, this place, I never, there's such an, I live in San Francisco now, and I see kids growing up in San Francisco where

00:20:49.600 - 00:20:59.700

they're you know growing up on the streets and it's just so completely different. I mean it's a different time now also but there's just that feeling of being so sheltered in a

00:20:59.700 - 00:21:08.660

positive way. I mean really nothing the evils of the world just never really penetrated here at least not in my life.

00:21:09.100 - 00:21:19.440

Although you're-- it seems that there was a sense that your parents were socially active, so that obviously the-- as though the world was very much a part of this.

00:21:19.440 - 00:21:30.780

But for our children, maybe not so much? Well, it was and it wasn't. I mean, I remember being very young and being fairly politically mature, talking about democratic socialism when I was in elementary

00:21:30.900 - 00:21:40.780

school. Things like that. But did you know what it was? But at the same time, I mean, I didn't realize how privileged we were, really, or any.

00:21:41.060 - 00:21:57.440

I just assumed this is how people lived, basically. Any last comments that you want to have in the archives forever? No, I'm just happy that it was all here. I'm happy the clubhouse was here.

00:21:57.440 - 00:22:11.180

That was probably the... As a child, it was such a place of mystery. I mean I remember climbing up in little secret passageways. Still to this day I would love to have a chance to completely

00:22:11.200 - 00:22:19.540

explore this place. And know what's everywhere. What's actually upstairs. Because it was always such a

00:22:19.540 - 00:22:28.680

mysterious place for us. I guess that's it. Good, thank you. I'm Marilyn Showalter.

00:22:29.180 - 00:22:52.080

I live at 4125 Rainwood Drive Northwest Olympia, Washington 98502 and Showalter was my name at the time. We came to Bannockburn in 1958 when I was eight years old. And I think that I don't have a particular fondest memory but my

00:22:52.080 - 00:23:06.660

fondest feeling about Bannockburn is the the sense of security that I got. Because-- from knowing everyone in the neighborhood, I-- it might not have been true, but it seems to me

00:23:06.660 - 00:23:29.640

that I knew every family in every house in Bannockburn or that in Bannockburn Elementary School when I was there I knew every kid in the school and where they lived and that that kind of feeling of--Belonging really had a good impact.

00:23:29.640 - 00:23:46.940

I don't think I knew it at the time, but when I look back on it or compare it to other people's childhood experiences or even what my own daughter's experience will be, I don't think she'll have the sense of, coming from a place that I had.

00:23:46.940 - 00:23:59.820

The other thing. I think is important is the sense of civic responsibility that Bannockburn had and that was ingrained in my family but also in the community.

00:24:00.040 - 00:24:16.960

And I remember for example in 1960 I think it was when I was 10 years old the community really as a whole integrated or integrated Glen Echo Amusement Park or at least it picketed one whole summer.

00:24:16.980 - 00:24:28.370

And I remember when I was 10 years old walking on the picket line and all either I think all of the signs, all the picket signs were made in our basement my father had a big shop.

00:24:28.370 - 00:24:36.740

Or maybe some of them were it's hard to know when you have you're only speaking from your own memory. The other memories I have are, I

00:24:36.820 - 00:24:55.120

don't know these are just coming to my mind they aren't particularly poignant or anything else, but, I remember in fifth grade was just when boys and girls started to become kind of a little bit aware of each other.

00:24:56.040 - 00:25:12.220

In fifth grade, at least in our year, were the first dances that we had. But we saw the transition of boys' hostilities to girls' ending up in the year socializing.

00:25:12.340 - 00:25:29.020

But what I remember about fifth grade some of my images that I would I was ,a I was a smart and popular girl and I would have to--but I would have to run home after school because this group of boys which included Mike Schwartz

00:25:29.100 - 00:25:48.160

and Robert [Comb] and Steve Jacobson and Gary [Rickusen] would chase after me and--and if--and they'd try to catch me or throw, throw stuff at me or whatever, but I'd get to my house and then they would throw mud balls at my window and then take these little juniper

00:25:48.180 - 00:25:56.460

berries or something and throw them at our window. Oh dear. And it was this kind of a, it was obviously looking back on it, a tension, but it was kind of a

00:25:56.460 - 00:26:15.040

little bit scary. But one day I offered them lemonade and from that day on it became much more sociable. But another thing about my particular year is that the

00:26:15.060 - 00:26:30.980

Bannockburn crowd, this would be the kids who left Bannockburn in 1962, went to Pyle Junior High School and more or less joined another, more or less joined the Burning Tree Elementary School group in junior high school.

00:26:31.560 - 00:26:44.400

We were in the smart classes or whatever, but really a blend of those those two classes from Bannockburn and Burning Tree stayed together through high school.

00:26:45.060 - 00:26:58.320

So that it really means that some of my friends, anyway, I had from the age of eight through high school. And that kind of continuity, I

00:26:58.320 - 00:27:15.580

think, is also unusual in this day and age. How long did you say you lived in Bannockburn then? Until you were how old? Well, from the age of 8 to 18 when I left to go to college, but my parents remained here for a number

00:27:15.580 - 00:27:29.440

of years. And do they still live here? No they don't, no they live nearby actually. So what summarize again for me what you think was the most

00:27:29.440 - 00:27:43.660

important thing about having grown up here as you, I guess as you look back at it at this point? Well, Or were you aware at the time? That it was special? No I was not aware no I was not aware at the time at all, I

00:27:43.660 - 00:28:00.700

probably just thought everybody had communities like that. Well the first is the--the sense, not just a sense of community, but that that the that the community itself had its own identity. I think it's really unlike other communities.

00:28:00.820 - 00:28:13.360

So it's very good to be rooted in any community I think, but I think our community was extra special. Another thing I didn't mention which I think is awfully important is the quality of the schools.

00:28:13.940 - 00:28:29.180

Bannockburn Elementary school was a superb school as far as I can tell and I think the teachers were excellent. I remember things, I remember for example in the sixth grade there was some children's version of the New York Times that we had to read

00:28:29.540 - 00:28:37.200

and we'd get quizzed on it. So my sense is that the standards were very, very high. For some kids I think that

00:28:37.200 - 00:28:53.220

probably wasn't good because I think there were a lot of smart kids who felt dumb because they weren't at the very top of their class, and it happened at Walt Whitman too, but I was at the top of the class and I just think I got an excellent excellent

00:28:53.600 - 00:29:10.740

education I feel very bad that I think my daughter won't get the same kind of education no matter where she goes to school and I certainly don't think she's going to get it in the public schools. Any last comments you'd like to make about Bannockburn as we

00:29:10.880 - 00:29:18.540

finish the interview? No, I can't think of anything else. Well, thank you very much. Thank you.