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Several years ago I found a reprint of a vintage Betty Crocker cookie cookbook at Yankee Peddler - the very same one my mom had when I was a kid. I later regretted not purchasing it. But then I found my mom's old volume, which is even better. The "Cooky Book," as it's titled, was first published in 1963. My mom was not much of a baker, so we got out the book exactly once a year, at Christmastime. My favorite part of the cookbook then (and now!) is the photos - full-page...
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me — a Hinsdale shopping spree! Yes, yes, we know the song is really about the 12 days between Christmas and epiphany. Forgive us for this slightly corny set-up for a message we present on this page each December: Shop local. This year more than ever Hinsdale merchants need our support. The coronavirus pandemic not only closed many shops in the spring, it has affected business since. And this is the time — the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas — when merchants expec...
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." - the 14th Dalai Lama Did you ever learn a new word and then start to see it everywhere? Or encounter the same message or theme emanating from a variety of sources? I've experienced both, and - as you might guess - am currently doing so right now. I keep discovering the same message from different people and places. It's simple and straightforward: Be kind. While I was home in quarantine with a sick husband, I counted on...
The Hinsdale Fire Department is once again participating in the annual statewide Keep the Wreath Red fire safety program. A wreath will be hung outside the station at 121 Symonds Drive. For each fire caused by holiday decorations, a red bulb will be replace with a white bulb. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to discourage people from traveling at the levels usually seen around the holidays, meaning more people will be spending the season at home. That shift, experts say, will lead to increased cooking activity and greater...
It's time to look back at the year that was and reflect on lessons learned. Of course, learning a lesson is not the same as applying it, and I am far from skilled at practicing what I'm preaching. While I never got around to picking up a new language or learning a new instrument, I think I've developed an important skill: the ability to listen. People at work and in my personal life have often told me to listen more. I would try, but actually I was basically still engaging...
With politics dominating the headlines, I am consciously - but maybe not subconsciously - steering well clear of any partisan chatter. You'll get your share of that during Thanksgiving with the crazy relative who's convinced there is still a path to victory in a race already declared lost. Instead, this commentary is on a fall decluttering project. Recently, I elected to make a change and began a task of discarding things that I desperately wanted gone from the House. Back in...
Last Monday I was supposed to start the week with a 90-minute gratitude walk at Mayslake Forest Preserve. Instead, I was home in quarantine while my COVID-19 positive husband was upstairs in isolation. I know that the best antidote to focusing too much on my troubles is to think about the things for which I am grateful. And so - without the benefit of the gratitude walk - I embarked on a list. Despite all the reasons I had to complain, I found plenty to be grateful for. • B...
We would like to thank everyone that supported the just1mike foundation’s sudden cardiac arrest fundraiser. We had set out raise $2,100 in honor of Michael Brindley’s 21st birthday, but we far exceeded our goal due to the generosity of our community. We raised a grand total of $9,700. Your generous donations will allow the foundation to provide in school cardiac screening. In addition, we want to thank the The Hinsdalean for publishing the article spotlighting Michael, his family and the just1mike Foundation. We know tha...
No matter what challenges we’ve faced this year as individuals, family members, business owners and community members, we still have countless reasons to be thankful. Here’s our list — one for each day of the month leading up to and including Thanksgiving. Nov. 1 — the health care workers whose professional and personal lives have been so much more difficult since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March Nov. 2 — Sammy Hanzel and Heather Bereckis, the creative minds at the village’s parks and recreation department,...
I've been playing a little game with fate lately. I'll accept that I couldn't be with my mom when she took her last breath because I had the chance to say goodbye to her the day before. I'll accept that Dan's cold prevented us from having an outdoor prayer service for her, as long as he doesn't have COVID-19. Guess what? He does. We were convinced he didn't. After all, I had the same cold - with the very same symptoms - the week before and I had tested negative. He received...
The pandemic may have disrupted a lot of our regular routines, but it did not diminish Hinsdaleans’ commitment for giving back. We’ve documented that bounty of benevolence in our Good News section over the past year, and, as we approach Thanksgiving, wanted to highlight a few of them as an expression of gratitude for those gifts: • The 2020 Pillars Ball raised $242,000 for Pillars Community Health to support medical, dental, mental health and substance use disorder services along with domestic and sexual violence services to...
The happy frenzy of the holiday cooking season is coming. It would seem that Thanksgiving is all about the traditional turkey, but in our house I know better. Everything I make is just a lead-in to arguably the best part of our holiday meal - pie! Every year I make multiple pies for just four people, because choosing one pie is far too difficult. It's a delicious dilemma because there are so many wonderful possibilities. Last year, our usual holiday plans were suddenly...
On behalf of the Hinsdale Historical Society, our deepest sympathy to the Walton family on the passing of Stanley “Sandy” Walton, a two-time Hinsdale Historical Society president and important contributor to the organization and our community. Sandy’s leadership was paramount in preserving two important historically significant buildings in our village — Immanuel Hall and the R. Harold Zook Home and Studio. Those who worked with Sandy enjoyed his dedication, love for Hinsdale’s history and his incredible sense of humor. Sa...
Growing up, I always believed that attaining higher education and possessing an above-average IQ were strong indicators of success. I believed that a class schedule full of AP classes would lead to a top-rated university, which in turn would lead to a life of prosperity and achievement. Study hard, work hard and all of your dreams will come true. The reality is that's not always the case. While it's true that some people with fancy degrees go on to live highly successful...
"The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." - Ivy Baker Priest I've used that quote many times since I first read it in a book gifted to me by a friend more than 20 years ago. I find it even more poignant this week as I cope with the loss of my mom. She passed away last Wednesday from cancer, which had spread throughout her body, unchecked by new medication she began taking in January. When we learned of her condition after...
No matter how many ways the question was asked, the answer was the same. Let the public speak. Maryam Judar, executive director and community lawyer for the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, attended the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board meeting Oct. 29 to speak on “Public Comment: Good for Democracy.” Her presentation was part of a settlement agreement reached earlier this year with several district residents over alleged First Amendment and Open Meetings Act violations stemming from a Dec. 12, 2019, board mee...
As the color guard marched into the gym to open the Veterans Day assembly at Madison School Monday, the students rose to their feet and one Boy Scout snapped his hand to his fore-head in a salute. He and the other kindergartners through fifth-graders then sat at attention for close to an hour, listening to veterans from many branches of services who served during peace and war discuss their experiences. Of course the students are too young to comprehend the horrors some of the...
On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, we pause to give thanks to those who have served both to defend our nation’s liberty and to aid in protecting the flame of freedom around the world. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 18 million veterans living across the country and about 600,000 in Illinois. The Veteran’s Health Administration is the largest integrated health care network in the United States, with 1,255 health care facilities serving 9 million people each year. But the level of care accorded to veterans has...
Kevin Camden has taken his short tenure as D86 president and board member straight to the ditch. At the Oct. 29, 2020, meeting, President Camden uttered homophobic slurs, including the pejorative use of “Jew” in his outlandish hypotheticals as justification of D86’s suppression of residents’ First Amendment rights. The ease in which he used these words and his depiction of a father’s accusation that his son is a “f----t” (homophobic slur) and he won’t be playing, even in the hypothetical sense, reveals Camden’s thinki...
Early into the school shutdowns this past spring, I got reassured by the two girls next door. Not missing a beat, Caroline began Zooming ballet, younger Julia hip hop. Caroline took violin, Julia the clarinet, and both took piano - also virtually. While I doubted this to be as effective as in-person learning, I was much impressed by their resilience, enthusiasm and optimism. I pondered all this more, weeks later. News of the California fires brought video of adults and...
Among the list of casualties of COVID-19 this year is my family's annual Spooky Dinner. For years, we've invited neighbors over to dine on dishes like mummy hot dogs, cheesy Crescent ghosts, pumpkin spice spread with bat wing dippers and chicken enchilada mummies. Last year I outdid myself, offering a menu featuring mashed potato snakes and "feetloaf." I knew the dinner was a success when our neighbor's son, 8 at the time, looked at the bloody bone (leek with tomato sauce)...
It seemed like 2020 just couldn't stop dishing out nasty surprises, so this summer I went rogue and took a 1,400-hundred mile road trip to Arizona with the kids and the dog. I'd not driven across country since I was maybe 12, but there I was, toting teenaged children and a stubborn, 70-pound (shedding!) Basset hound through six different states during a global pandemic. Long car trips were a summer staple for my family in the '70s and early '80s. Airplane rides were strictly f...
It takes a village. We would like to profess our love and appreciation for our town! Having grown up here, I’ve benefited from many aspects of Hinsdale, and cherish wonderful memories like: buying candy at Jimmy’s, French fries at Picadilly, making jewelry with Lavinia at Eye on Design, weighing ourselves on the big scale with the fortune at Barth’s, mining for gold in the basement of the old bank building, buying chocolate doughnuts at Burtons, hardware at Soukup’s, ribbons in the basement of Olsen’s, 25 cent ice cream at...
It’s hard to imagine 2020 could get any scarier than it already is. But the never-ending pandemic will not deter us from our annual Halloween tradition of imagining a Hinsdale that is significantly more frightening than the one we know and love. So, with Oct. 31 just two days away, we share our visions of events we would be scared to see in town. • the U.S. Department of Education discontinues the National Blue Ribbon School program before all nine schools in Community Consolidated District 181 are able to earn the honor (th...
The Nov. 3 election is less than two weeks away. Of course, many reading this have joined with millions across the country in already casting ballots. The unprecedented number of early voters suggests the possibility of a record turnout this year. Perhaps an exhortation to vote in 2020 comes off more like preaching to the choir than in years past. But we believe that advocating for citizens to exercise their Constitutional right to select their government representatives is never superfluous. We have provided charts...
