The Tales of Burr Oak

Falling in Love with Lake Forest At the tender age of 24, I had completed Northwestern Law School, passed the Bar Exam for Illinois, and joined a prestigious law firm in Chicago, each of them a major accomplishment. I also married my 21-year-old sweetheart. My whole life was in front of me, and I had to find a nice place to live for me and my new bride, Bonnie. We looked for places along the North Shore of Lake Michigan to find a proper location to start our lives as a family. Bonnie had just completed her education at Lake Forest College, located in Lake Forest, a town on the North Shore, and had developed an attachment to the town that was strong enough to the place to cause us to live there. The homes in Lake Forest were two types: 1. stately homes a person could easily refer to as a mansion, and 2. Smaller three- and four-bedroom homes that were owned and occupied by regular folks like us. We were immediately attracted to a quaint subdivision of a unique type, which was called, “Burr Oak”. The houses on Burr Oak, which were well-designed and improved with large surrounding yards and attractive landscaping, were near the downtown with controlled traffic. It contained a decent number of neighborhood stores and restaurants that were easy to get to. Lake Forest had its share of schools, libraries, and churches of many denominations to pick from. We loved the place. This was our new home and we hoped it could be forever.