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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...
I have frequently observed people playing “chicken” with vehicles on our Hinsdale streets, trying to be first to get around other parked vehicles. We have congestion due to landscape, construction and repair trucks serving our community. We also have parents lining up to transport students to and from school. Illinois Rules of The Road, Chapter 4, Page 29, states regarding lane usage that vehicles must stay in the right lane and cannot cross over to the left lane until they yield to oncoming traffic. Clearly, this has not...
Funny how a pandemic can mess with a person's sense of time. It seems like those days in mid-March were last week and also 10 years ago. I have a close friend who said that now "every day is Tuesday": not days to be anticipated like weekend days, nor days to be dreaded like Mondays. Every day indistinct enough to be a Tuesday. Time confusion isn't unique to 2020 though. Those of us with children have always known about the time warp known as parenthood. When our kids were...
I oppose the proposed D86 integrated math proposal that the D86 board of education will approve on Oct. 29. For me, the primary reason is lack of data. As board member Turek knows, since he served with me on the D181 BOE that approved the failed Learning for All math plan, data matters. The D181 BOE relied on the administrators’ and teachers’ representation that “raising the floor” by accelerating every student one year in math would “raise the ceiling” and improve math outcomes for all students. There was no data to sup...
If you're lucky, you have a great pic of your kids in their Halloween costumes taken by Jim Slonoff at one of Hinsdale's Fall Family Fests. My favorite one of Ainsley is from 2009, when she was just 10 months old and dressed as an adorable pink bunny. She's sitting by a pint-sized pumpkin with her cloth carrot resting in her lap and one of her silly little half smiles on her face. She's had some great costumes over the years - Minnie Mouse, a witch, Cinderella and Laura Ingall...
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...
I enjoy seeing the giant spider climbing up the American Eagle roller coaster at Six Flags Great America while driving up to Lake Geneva for a fall get-away each year. And taking Ainsley to trick or treat with her favorite Looney Tunes character through the Character Candy Trail or seeing The Wiggles' Halloween Show probably would be fun. But there ends my interest in the theme park's 20th annual Fright Fest. The mere thought of the "Saw Live" haunted house makes me tense...
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We probably don’t need to tell you that. With one in eight women in the U.S. battling breast cancer at some point in her life, you most likely have a friend or loved one who has faced that diagnosis. What is important to be aware of this month? The statistics are staggering. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the U.S., accounting for 30 percent of newly diagnosed cancers. In 2020, more than 276,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed i...
Before my husband and I chose to build our home in Hinsdale, we checked out the school systems in the surrounding suburbs. The deciding factor would be the legacy for our children of their educational opportunities. Our son became a full actuary at age 23 and our daughter chose a six-year medical program, becoming an M.D. directly from high school, both graduating from Central. Both will attest their high school was harder than their colleges. Our daughter started the advanced math program at Elm, which helped build a firm...
Picture this: you're walking into Wrigley Field and see the Sox playing. You check your tickets and nope, it's not the Cross Town Classic. That is the same feeling every single junior across Illinois felt when they received email after email, month after month with the subject: ACT CANCELED FOR APRIL. Then, the same thing two months later, ACT CANCELED FOR JUNE. We were walking into the stadium completely blindsided. Only this time, the stadium was our college admissions...
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires and home fire injuries in the United States, mostly from the ignition of food or other cooking materials, according to the National Fire Protection Association. The majority of those incidents occur when the cooking is unattended. Those alarming statistics has prompted the NFPA to theme 2020 Fire Prevention Week, “Serve Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen!” This year’s observance of the annual nationwide campaign started Sunday and runs through Saturday. Almost half — 44 percent — of re...
