Q. How old are you?
A. 86
Q. How long have you lived in Hinsdale?
A. “I have lived here since 1920. The population then was 5,000.” Norman and her family drove from their home in Germantown, a Philadelphia suburb, to their new home on Maple Street. “That was quite a ride in those days.”
Q. Was there a special place for you in Hinsdale when you were growing up?
A. “Burns Field was always where everything went on. That’s where the fireworks went off on the 4th of July. That’s where we had a wonderful ice skating rink. The tennis courts were there. It was sort of the center of activities.”
Q. Did you ever live anywhere else after you moved to Hinsdale?
A. “Well, I grew up here, and after my husband John and I were married we never really thought about living anywhere else.” John Norman’s family had moved to Hinsdale from Chicago. He and Emily met on a Hinsdale golf course.
Q. How has Hinsdale changed in your lifetime?
A. “The growth has been unbelievable, but I wouldn’t say downtown has changed as much as the residential areas. It’s really sad that they have torn down so many of the nice old houses in town. We had a lovely old Victorian house over on Hickory Street. It’s still there, but it’s been enlarged to about three times as big as it was when we lived there.”
Q. What do you think of these supersized houses?
A. “We call them `monstrous mansions.’ They are big, which I guess is what people want who have the money to put into a house–they want it big and impressive. But most of them are ostentatious, and a lot of them are just plain ugly.”
