Still Afraid of the One-Armed Man

In 1967, we moved from our house on 14th Street to a new home in another suburb.  We moved with about a month left in the school year, so our routine changed up a bit.  My dad worked at a local clothing store, Hayman-Hawkins Clothiers.  They sold high-end mens' and womens' clothing.  Since he was a manager, he opened the store.  For that last month my brother and I accompanied him to work in the morning where he opened up and got things rolling before dropping us off at school.  Every morning he'd unlock the door and we would cover our ears since the alarm went off every time.  If you read this blog yesterday, you know that I watched "The Fugitive" on television for the four years that it was on.  I never got over the feeling that the One-Armed Man was lurking somewhere in that store.  It was actually more fun than it was scary but it definitely got the morning off to an exciting start.  I saw a dress today at a rummage sale which was tagged "Made Exclusively for Hayman-Hawkins Clothiers", and it got me thinking about those very exciting days when a lot of things were changing. At age six, to be able to walk around a store with no one else there felt pretty important.  At that time, the store was located on 14th and Wentworth.  A few months later the store burned down.  It was on the news...my dad's store was on the news!  What I remember most about that night was learning the meaning of the word "looting".  See, you really do learn something new every day!

I found a 2004 Tribune article about the store and it was pretty cool reading.  Joseph Hawkins, the store owner was my dad's employer and friend for many years:

Selling his last suit this month after nearly 50 years will be a fitting end to the career of Joseph Hawkins, who will close the Hayman-HawHawkins came north from Biloxi, Miss., in 1936. He became a door-to-door salesman for the Hayman brothers store in Chicago in 1942.

His sales record impressed owner Harry Hayman, who was seeking a location and manager for a store in Chicago Heights. But the owners of a prime Halsted Street location didn't want a store with an African-American manager.

That hurt.

They finally secured a location on Wentworth Avenue in early 1954. Not long afterward, however, Hayman died.

Hayman's widow kept Hawkins as manager, and he did well, selling suits primarily to African-American and Hispanic men, and in 1961 he moved into the space at 326 E. 14th St.

"Fourteenth and Wentworth was State and Madison for Chicago Heights, and man, my business took off," he said. In 1965, he became full owner.

A bit of luck gave him a hand on his way to Halsted Street. He had ordered his 1968 fall line, but it hadn't been delivered before fire damaged his Wentworth store. By that October, he was in business on Halsted.kins clothing store at 1542 Halsted St.

When he does, a chapter in Chicago Heights' history will come to an end. Hawkins, 86, was the first African-American businessman on the block where his store was a mainstay for more than three decades.  

Every town, big and small has it's own history.  It's all interesting but even more so if it's YOUR history.  Seeing that dress, with a handwritten tag attached which read "A Piece of Chicago Heights History" made me smile.  I don't know how many other people there got what that meant, but I not only got it, I loved it.