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And in the blink of an eye, it’s over. Summer 2019 is in the books. I know, I know. Summer will continue until the autumnal equinox marks its official end Sept. 23. But summer — for the purposes I discuss here — ended this week with the start of school. And this year — as it has every August since Ainsley was in preschool — its unofficial conclusion has taken me by surprise. We are somewhat prepared, with a large box of school supplies sitting in our living room. With any...
I was going through my inbox the other day, trying to clear out some old emails. This is some of what I found. • Recipes from Epicurious for 63 work lunches that don’t need refrigeration. • A link to download photos from Ainsley’s summer theater camp. • Eddie Bauer’s reminder that I have a $20 reward to spend by Oct. 7. • A request from a student looking for feedback on her work. • An invitation to pitch in a retirement gift for one of Ainsley’s former preschool teacher...
We had a special guest take up residence outside our back door for several weeks this summer. We didn’t notice her at first. We simply woke one July morning to find a large, intricate spider web extending from the side of the house to a post outside our back door. My husband grabbed a broom and cleared the web away so we wouldn’t accidentally lean into it while tossing recyclables in our bin. The next day, when the web reappeared, we knocked it down again. On day three, the...
Every September I have the bittersweet task of bidding a group of contributing columnists farewell and welcoming a new group of writers to our paper. This year three writers have finished their terms — Rob Johnson, Laura LaPlaca and student columnist (and now Hinsdale Central graduate!) Annika Agrawal. We also are saying a premature goodbye to Jim Hutchinson, who is moving with his wife, Donna, to Oberlin, Ohio, to be closer to his daughter, son-in-law and grandson. H...
Just a few days into fifth grade and the daily petitions have begun. Ainsley NEEDS a cellphone, she tells me. EVERYONE else in her grade has one. Ainsley clearly wants a cellphone, and I know for a fact several kids in her grade have one. But that isn’t a strong enough argument for me to get her one — not when she’s 10 years old. I had hoped to find some fellow parents who would be willing to take the “Wait Until Eighth” pledge with me, but I’ve been too frightened...
I was listening to the radio in the car the other day and all of the sudden realized I was singing along. “Believe it or not, I’m walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free.” How did I know this song? “Flying away on a wing and a prayer. Who could it be? Believe it or not it’s just me.” And then it hit me. “The Greatest American Hero.” I had an immediate visual of the guy who starred in the show, with his curly blond hair and his red superhero costume. The sh...
A young man rang our doorbell Tuesday night last week, interrupting one of my less successful parenting moments. As soon as I opened the door and saw his clipboard, I knew what he wanted. He was selling subscriptions to the Wall Street Journal — for a mere $100 — so he could get his degree from Northwestern University. He had graduated from Lane Tech, gone to community college for two years and already raised $14,000, he told me. He was very friendly and very chatty, com...
We are very concerned to hear that a large wireless company is potentially installing a significant number of small cell antennas throughout Hinsdale as part of their 5G network development, without any planned public forum to discuss the potential benefits and risks to our community. While small cell antennas are great for wireless companies, they could have a significant negative effect on the aesthetics of our town as well as our property values. The potential new cell antennas would be installed mostly on residential...
A young man came to your door. He asked you to make a purchase. You could have said no and closed the door. End of story. But you didn’t. You chose to shame him instead. During your brief interaction you assessed his skin tone, hair style and his vernacular and decided he couldn’t possibly attend an elite university. If that wasn’t enough, you chose to continue your shaming with your commentary in The Hinsdalean (Pamela Lannom’s Sept. 26 column). You blame him for interrupting your day. You and your white privilege should...
Have you ever longed for a flavor? A favorite food you remember from childhood or a particular dish? A little over three years ago, my family made an unexpected cross-country move from Texas to Chicago. After years of training, my husband was offered a job as a cardiologist and medical professor at UIC. It was a great position but it meant moving nearly 1,000 miles away from our friends and family. Suddenly my familiar life changed. Our old home sold in days. I left my job as...
Hinsdale Tuesday joined a list of Chicago-area suburbs that have decided to prevent recreational marijuana dispensaries from operating within village boundaries. LaGrange Park, Naperville, Libertyville and Bloomingdale already have prohibited these businesses, which will become legal in the state as of Jan. 1, 2020. We imagine more will do the same. We’re pleased to see Hinsdale trustees are not lured by the promise of tax dollars that others have found so intoxicating. Revenue estimates range wildly, from $440 million to a...
Oct. 2 is National Walk or Bike to School Day, the 22nd annual observance of the campaign promoting healthier student lifestyles and safer streets and neighborhoods. Hinsdale schools are encouraging their families to make car-free commutes on Wednesday, a wonderful advantage to being in a town with neighborhood schools. Various activities are planned for staff and families will gather to kick off the day together. The National Center for Safe Routes to School on its website (https://www.walkbiketoschool.org) unpacks the...
“Wow, you look warm,” someone comments. This is a frequent occurrence for me. Neither dewy nor glowing, I simply appear uncomfortably hot. Which, in fact, I am. But there’s a lot more than sweat going on; allow me to discuss it. Menopause is, of course, a natural phenomenon, and it’s hardly life-threatening. It can be awful, though, and frankly becomes worse because no one wants to talk about it. We often perceive menopause as embarrassing, a painful acknowledgment of aging,...
My teenage son, who runs cross country, shrugs and cringes slightly when I invite him to run with me these days. Once a junior Olympian and collegiate runner myself, I'm no slouch, but there's no denying that my speed and my cool-ness have faded with time. When I look in the mirror, I sometimes see my 18-year-old self with endless energy and a mischievous grin, but sometimes, I imagine I see one of my grandmas - shrunken, crotchety and glowering back at me. It's hard to see my...
I have long dreamed about backpacking the Appalachian Trail and in July, that dream became reality. I've gone on organized hiking trips in the past, but this adventure would be different. No guide or timeline - just fly in, strap on my pack and head north. I found a hiking partner, bought a one-way ticket to Dulles, took an Uber to Harper's Ferry, W.V., and started walking. Our daily routine consisted of hiking, eating and sleeping. The distance we hiked depended on the sorene...
The classic film "Gaslight" (1944), starring Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman, has been a favorite of mine for years. (Spoiler alert: Set in Victorian London, the dashing, dastardly Boyer manipulates his wife, Bergman, into believing she's going mad. Meanwhile, he surreptitiously searches for her jewels.) I first watched this movie on TV while home sick from school. The plot was irresistible, as was the Beethoven sonata prominently featured in the soundtrack - a piece I was...
Sometimes in life you just have to move on. For me, this time, it happened suddenly. In fact, if you had asked me just a month ago if I was excited to go to college, I'd have said something like, "No, it's still only summer. I have all of senior year left. I just am not ready." The idea of college is a scary thing to a 17-year-old girl whose heart is still set on being a 17-year-old girl and whose mind has told her she still has lots of time to be one. But recently it feels...
When we see tragedies taking place in other communities or other parts of the country, it’s not unusual to think “That wouldn’t happen here.” Of course as wonderful a community as Hinsdale is, it offers no real protection from loss. No one knows that better than the family of Hinsdale’s Lauren Wilson, whose life was cut short when the car she was riding in on March 2, 1994, was hit by a train at the village’s Monroe Street crossing. Her father, Dr. Lanny Wilson, has spent the quarter century since working as chair of th...
Trustees are throwing the Hinsdale Economic Development Commission a lifeline. The village board Tuesday is expected to approve changes designed to boost the commission’s membership, making it easier to find members and setting a more convenient time for them to meet. Eight meetings already have been canceled this year due to lack of a quorum — and it’s only September. Multiple meetings have been canceled each year since 2015 for the same reason. When trustees discussed the proposed changes last week, they questioned wheth...
Two important concepts should determine how to get the most benefit from the proceeds of the April referendum for our two high schools. First, I imagine very few people could enumerate the dollar amount originally designated for each area of spending at each school. So let’s assume there is a general pot of money to be spent in our two schools approximately in the proportion originally envisioned. If value engineering can free up additional funds, then I imagine most voters don’t care what aspect of the budget gets a boo...
After reading in last week’s Hinsdalean the D86 BOE decided to lengthen Hinsdale South and Central’s new pools to 40 yards, I was very pleased. After reviewing new information that six-lane by 25 yard pools were going to require cost-prohibitive movable floors to meet adaptive PE and diving and water polo competition requirements, the BOE made the prudent decision to extend both pools to 40 yards allowing for all curricular and athletic needs to be meet, as well as those of the D86 community’s learn-to-swim and age-g...
I would like to encourage the D86 Board to continue to do the right thing for the student body and not succumb to political theatrics. The school referendum did not solely pass because the originally proposed 10-lane pool for Hinsdale Central was scaled down to six lanes. A clear majority (60-40) voted in favor of the $140 million referendum because facilities at both schools need to be fully upgraded after decades of underinvestment. Although the $140 million referendum included too small of a pool for Central, I believe the...
Eighteen typically isn’t a big anniversary. But for family and friends of the 2,977 men, women and children who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — including some fellow Hinsdaleans — next Wednesday will not pass unnoticed. But many do not remember the horrors that unfolded that beautiful September morning. Most Hinsdale Central High School seniors were not yet born when the Twin Towers fell. College freshman were infants when the Pentagon burned. Even those who earned a bachelor’s degree in May wer...
After two failed referendums to pay for large-scale upgrades at Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South high schools, it didn’t take a deep dive by officials to identify a major obstacle to success. The plan to construct a brand new 10-lane pool facility at Central while keeping South’s pool at six lanes was spotlighted by opponents as an inequitable distribution of resources and simply reinforced the perception of some that South had second-class status. District 86 board members decided that, to ensure the third and $140 mil...
Before long, everyone will be completely acclimated to the back-to-school routine. Students at Hinsdale Central High School, who began classes eight days ago, already may be settling in to the new schedule. Kids in Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 students have their first day of school tomorrow, Aug. 23. But the start of the 2019-20 school year doesn’t affect only students and staff. Those of us who are dropping kids off, picking kids up or even driving through town on the way to work or running an errand need...
