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Thanks for taking time out to read this column in the midst of your National Newspaper Week celebrations! What? You haven't been attending countless cocktail parties and dinners to celebrate this momentous week? Well, I will forgive you. Newspaper Week hasn't quite gained the traction of everyone's favorite fall holiday (perhaps because it's tough to decorate for), but we do observe it here at The Hinsdalean. And in honor of this week, I'd like to present my Top 10 list of rea...
Whew! When we sent the 120-page special section commemorating the village's 150th anniversary to our printer Tuesday morning, I felt a sigh of relief. The section has consumed a lot of time and energy since early this summer, not just for me, but for everyone who worked on it. We wanted, as we state in the introduction on Page 5, to create a truly special section that would celebrate the village's sesquicentennial. And we created, I think it's fair to say, a pretty ambitious...
I am jumping the gun a bit with that headline. Fall doesn't officially start until the autumnal equinox occurs at 1:49 a.m. Saturday. But we're close enough (especially when TV folk started observing "meteorological fall" Sept. 1). Fall, as many of you know, is my favorite season. I frankly don't understand why that's not true for everyone, given all there is to recommend it. I will admit I have warmed up to summer since my daughter was born 14 years ago. I think it has...
People commemorate 9/11 in their own way. My husband and I always make sure our American flag is on display near our front door. Monday morning we watched news coverage of family members reading the names of those lost in the attacks, including their loved ones. One of the readers was a young boy there to honor the grandfather he never had the chance to meet. Hinsdalean Dave Pequet sent out the annual "Remembering Sept. 11" email from his company, MPI Wealth Management. "The...
At my last book club gathering, one member said she wants to live to be 120. “I’ll be dead,” I replied, knowing she’s about 20 years older than I am. I couldn’t understand why she would want to live that long. But then I went to a presentation at the Hinsdale Public Library last week and learned all about the secrets to living to 100. Adult service librarian Doug Nye told us about five Blue Zones, or places with a high concentration of centenarians. They are Sardinia,...
Were it not for my summer sabbatical from column writing, each one of these probably would have been its own column. Instead, I offer an abbreviated look at summer 2023. Since June, I ... • saw my birth mom and birth dad reunite for the first time in more than 50 years when they traveled here for Ainsley’s eighth-grade graduation. Not long after I connected with them in 2020, someone asked me if I ever thought they would meet. “I hope not!” I replied, thinking it would b...
You might recall from previous columns how much I detest the use of June 1 and Sept. 1 as the start of summer and fall, given the existence of actual events that mark the seasons. That said, the summer solstice and autumn equinox are not always the most pragmatic dates to use. Autumn won’t officially start until Sept. 23, but practically speaking, summer is over here at The Hinsdalean. I know because my summer column-writing sabbatical has ended. I’ve spent the past 10 wee...
Sometimes a piece of writing will make you laugh. Or cry. Or think about something in a completely new way. Our contributing writers have crafted columns that do all of those things. And as much as I’d like to have all of them continue writing for us, we have a practice of rotating out writers who have been with us for two years so we can expose readers to new voices every year. This summer, Bill Barre, John Bourjaily, Lisa Seplak and Lex Silberberg are retiring, so to s...
By the time you read this - or soon after - I will officially be the parent of a high school student. I believe the technical term these days is "rising freshman," but I think that sounds weird. No matter what words you use, Ainsley's days as a middle schooler are over. She graduates tonight with a cheering section comprised of her father and I, my birth mom, and my birth dad and his wife. On Saturday, friends, family and neighbors will join us for a bigger celebration -...
Today, May 18, in the commons at Hinsdale Central, the yearbook is coming. The 80th edition, to be precise, of El Diablo. I learned this from a very dramatic video, presumably made for Tik Tok and then re-posted on Facebook with the hope that Central parents and teachers (i.e. people too old for Tik Tok) would see it. Although we did not have Tik Tok when I was in high school (phones were still mounted on the wall and you could only walk as far as the cord attached to the rece...
Each of us had a mother. Whether we knew that woman, loved - or even liked - her, still have her or lost her to death or estrangement, we all are born to a mother. Those of us who are very, very fortunate have multiple women who have offered some kind of mothering to us in our lives. I feel lucky to count myself in this group. First, of course, was my Mom. In a way, she was a study of opposites. She could be very emotional at times, but she also could be unbelievably strong....
One of the things that has always impressed me about Hinsdale is how philanthropic its residents are - and I'm not just talking about adults. Kids at two District 181 schools are in the midst of fundraising drives this month. The Madison School Kids Care Club is holding its third annual summer camp supply drive, looking for markers, paint, paper and more to donate to the summer camp at Anne M. Jeans School in Willowbrook. And at The Lane, a group of fourth-graders is...
I had months to work on my very first column. The Doings had recently been purchased by Pioneer Press and we were reformatting the paper. Editors at other Pioneer titles wrote weekly columns. Jim Slonoff said I should write one, too. Fortunately, a guy named Tom Lauricella gave me all the material I needed when he penned a piece called "Deconstructing Hinsdale" for SmartMoney magazine's July 1999 issue. I still remember the headline, which remains one of my favorites -...
When the District 181 Foundation sets out to celebrate writing, it doesn't cut corners. I was fortunate to be able to play a very small role in the foundation's Young Writers Night at Hinsdale Middle School last week, hosting one of the nine workshops offered. I enjoy my job and enjoy talking about writing, so those two 30-minute sessions were fun for me - and I hope for the students and parents who attended. The highlight of the night, though, was listening to the keynote...
As I have explained before, I am not a fan of the term "meteorological summer." I mean, there's an actual summer - which begins with the solstice on June 21. Changing the start date to June 1 just to make things easy seems lazy to me. But when I look at my calendar, June 1 - the day Ainsley will graduate from eighth grade - does mark the start of my summer. And it will be here before I know it. A quick look at my calendar shows I'll barely have time to breathe over the next...
My senior year in college, as part of a January "short term" group trip to France and England, we traveled by bus to Wales to read William Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" at Tintern Abbey. I'm not a huge fan of poetry in general or Wordsworth in particular, but the memory of that day has stayed with me. Last week I had a similar experience - this time, set to catchy tunes. Dan and I took Ainsley to Liverpool and London to see the stomping grounds of her favorite band, The...
I first discovered Charles Mackesy in November 2020 when CBS Sunday Morning was doing a piece on him and his book, "The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse." We were enjoying our annual Thanksgiving weekend getaway in Saugatuck, so I had time to sit down with my coffee and enjoy the show. "In a quaint barn in the English countryside, there's a man, with a dog, documenting the human condition in its simplest form, through sketches about kindness and empathy, as we all...
Ann Grube didn’t intend to make history when she started volunteering with The Community House in 1983. She and her husband, John, had just moved to Hinsdale from Manhattan. “Someone said, ‘If you really want to meet people, you need to get involved at the Antiques Show at The Community House and you’ll meet hundreds of people,’ and that’s exactly how it began,” Grube recalled. Margaret Guido assigned her the job of public relations for the show, which used to be one of the...
Therese Moraleda of Hinsdale likely will make history as the first girl to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout with Hinsdale's BSA Troop 10. Moraleda, a sophomore at Hinsdale Central, joined the 100-year-old troop in September. A former member of Pathfinders, she was recruited by fellow Troop 10 member and good friend Shreemann Patel. "He told me all about his camping experience and showed me photos," Moraleda said. "I like being outdoors, and I have been camping before, but I...
Every year in grad school when we taught the short story "The Yellow Wall-paper" to our freshman writing classes, my friend David would use the opportunity to include a quick lesson on modern-day feminism. He'd ask his students to raise their hands if they were feminists. Few did. Then he would ask them a series of questions - should women be allowed to hold any job they wanted, should they earn the same pay as men for the same job, etc. - and asked the students to raise...
I spent many years confused by Lent. I’d watch my Catholic friends and acquaintances give up something they either wanted to give up, like chocolate, or thought they needed to give up, like alcohol, only to indulge/over-indulge on Easter Sunday. Or I’d attend a fish fry scheduled on a Friday night during Lent, with platters of food and dessert tables that said anything but “abstinence.” It made no sense to me. I don’t know if I am older and wiser or the thinking around Le...
When my dad died almost 21 years ago, I had only a handful of friends who had lost a parent. My husband joined what I've heard described as "the club no one wants to be in" when his mom died in February 2017. We lost my mom in November 2020. And last week we said goodbye to my father-in-law, John. At 93, he outlived his wife and my parents by decades (my dad died at 67 and my mom and mother-in-law each lived to 79). We credit John's longevity to all the walking he did during...
I've been thinking a lot about love lately - and not because Valentine's Day is only a few days away. I've been thinking about love because Dan Harris keeps bringing it up on 10 Percent Happier, one of my favorite apps. He's not a mushy guy, and he's not talking about sappy romantic love - or even sappy self-love, although self-love is an important part of his message. Here's what he has to say about it: "Self-love, properly understood, not as narcissism, but as having your ow...
Next week we will begin our coverage of the Tuesday, April 4, election. Unlike most years, we have a single contested race to cover — the Hinsdale High School District 86 board, in which five candidates are running for three open seats. Election season is one of my favorite times of the year. I firmly believe that helping readers learn more about the individuals who want to represent them in local government is one of the most important things community newspapers can do. Y...
I had every intention of getting my COVID booster. Really, I did. But I couldn't seem to find space in my schedule for a day-long recovery period - as I needed after my previous inoculations. Plus, COVID now is just a mild cold, right? And so I never scheduled the appointment. Ahhh, hindsight. I felt some very minor cold symptoms Jan. 15 and thought I should take a home test just to be on the safe side. Within three minutes, I could see a clearly defined positive line. An...
