Negative-G - Old Chicago Shopping Center Á Amusement Park

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Old Chicago Shopping Center & Amusement Park, Bolingbrook Illinois

The Old Chicago News was the newspaper/guide for Old Chicago. This one is the Christmas 1975 edition which was Old Chicago's first holiday season.

As was/is standard practice Santa Claus was going to be spending some time at the mall with Christmas parades twice daily. In addition to that the jolly old elf would be posing for pictures with kids and of course hearing what every boy and girl wanted for that Christmas.

Old Chicago had its own post office as one was added to the facility. According to the article anything sent form there would have an Old Chicago postmark. I'll have to keep an eye out on the various auction sites for anything postmarked Old Chicago as that'd would be cool to add that to this collection.

Outside of the front and last page the Old Chicago News mostly consisted of advertisements for stores and restaurants with a little information about what's going on. Even though Old Chicago had been open for half a year there were still stores being added to the shopping center as according to the ad in the top right corner there was a B. Dalton Books, O'connor & Goldberg Schwinn Bikes, a SCUBA Diving Shop, Grandpa Charlie's Sausage Shop, the Old Chicago Beer Garden and Toys, Toys, and More Toys coming soon.

At the Old Chicago Town Arcade you could have fun playing Skee-Ball to the "Indy 800" video game by Atari. Indy 800 was a top down racing game where eight people could play at once which was a pretty big thing for 1975.

Old Chicago's Stroller/Wheelchair rental/coat check really wasn't in the best of spots at the bottom of the ramp in the Old Chicago Fairgrounds which was located all the way in the back of Old Chicago. That certainly made for a heck of a hike if you needed a stroller or wheelchair.