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October is my favorite month of the year. I love everything associated with it - and fall. Pumpkin spice lattes and other pumpkin treats. Corduroy and cashmere (not necessarily worn together.) Fall foliage. Our annual trip to the pumpkin farm and the arboretum. Halloween. It's just a great month. October 2020, I have to admit, it is a little less great. There is no high school football. No homecoming parade or pep rally. No Fire Prevention Week open house. A host of...
Ly Hart Hotchkin, 95, a community activist for more than 50 years, died peacefully Aug. 23, 2020. Ly attended Chicago Public Schools and the University of Chicago, Class of 1947. She was employed as executive director of The Community House in Hinsdale for 37 years. She was elected to two terms to the Community Consolidated Elementary District 181 Board and the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board. The Hinsdale Central High School Foundation inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 1999. Ly served on the following boards:...
I first met Ly Hotchkin some 30 years ago. If I remember correctly, I had just become managing editor of The Doings when I was sent to The Community House to meet her. Ly wanted someone from the organization to write a column about something or other, and I knew I was going to have to tell her no. I was still in my 20s and found Ly a bit intimidating. She seemed used to getting her own way, and the thought of refusing her request scared me a little. I remained slightly...
I'm often late to the party. I started listening to Steve and Garry on the Loop in August 1993, just about a month before the two ended their 15-year run. I became a fan of The Rolling Stones in the late 1980s, a good two decades after they had their first No. 1 hit. I currently own an iPhone 7, when the iPhone 11 has been out for almost nine months. I blame this deficiency on my parents, who did an even poorer job keeping up with the times than I do. I'm convinced they...
He was a fixture in Chicago journalism. His death was the second story on the 10 o’clock NBC news Tuesday night. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot tweeted about his loss. But to many of us here in Hinsdale, Dick Johnson was first and foremost a neighbor and a friend. To those of us in the Community Revue, he was our castmate. And what a castmate he was. Dick was the guy who would miss a million rehearsals (hard to argue with his excuse — he had to be on TV) and then come in and...
Sixteen years ago, seconds before the curtain rose on my first Community Revue, I received some great advice from our director. “Remember the moments,” he told me. I still have the list of memories I wrote after the 2004 show, “Hinsdale: The Reality Factor.” I have not been as diligent about recording the special moments from subsequent shows, but those three words from Dave Heilmann have stayed with me all these years. His advice reminds me of a piece I had read in the Trib a few years earlier. Michele Weldon wrote in the...
We all have those songs that transport us back to a particular moment in time. Play Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel" and I'm on the dance floor at the Hippodrome in London on one of the final days of a college short-term trip in January 1988. A few lines of "Some Enchanted Evening" and I'm back at James Hart Junior High School, watching the eighth-graders perform "South Pacific" and my closest friend's heartbreak (long story). And when Barack danced with Michelle...
Leap Day! That quadrennial quirk of our time-marking system — rendering the shortest month a little less short and making winter seem a LOT longer — is upon us. But we shouldn’t complain about more days on the calendar. It’s a gift, really, these extra 24 hours that open wide the doors to experiences and activities that would be unthinkable in a normal 8,760-hour span. Activities like The Community Revue that hits The Community House stage tomorrow and Saturday, for example. How many times over the last few decades have yo...
Even if you're not in the cast, you might see yourself on stage at this year's Community Revue. Hinsdale's spoof on itself returns Feb. 28-29 and March 6-7 to once again poke fun at Hinsdale happenings while supporting the important work of The Community House. Portraying properties and pieces from a Monopoly board, the 23-member cast of "Hinsdopoly" will sing, dance and spare almost no one as they explore and expose the village's notable developments, discussions and...
Back in the olden days, when I taught literature, I often began with a broad discussion of what "comedy" and "tragedy" mean. Broadly speaking, classical comedy is a structure; the stories may begin with mayhem, but they end by bringing people together. Song and dance are the most frequent-used symbols of this social harmony. Comedy, strictly speaking, is not necessarily funny; it can be humorous, but that's not what "makes" a comedy a comedy. When we laugh at something on a...
The Angel Harvey Family Health Center provides traditional health services to more than 13,000 patients annually in the Chicago area. But the access to vital resources and programming for those living with autism and other behavioral disorders is what makes one member of the Hinsdale Auxiliary of the Infant Welfare Society Chicago continue to give back. Kimberly O'Gorman's autistic nephew thrives, with access to behavioral, occupational and speech therapy. His success...
Four short weeks from tomorrow is opening night for “Hinsdopoloy,” the 2020 Community Revue. I’ve been part of the revue cast for 16 years now. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the revue, it’s a fundraiser for The Community House held just about every other year. A very talented group of writers and our esteemed director create an original script and rewrite the lyrics to Broadway and popular songs to create a show that pokes fun at all things Hinsdale (wealth,...
The last days of one year and the first days of the next are traditionally a time to analyze events of the past 12 months and set goals and expectations for those to come in the next 12 months. Today we offer a fusion of both, with a look at what we observed in 2019 and what we hope to see in 2020. 2019: Laurel Haarlow is elected to serve on the Hinsdale Village Board, becoming the first woman to join the group in two years. 2020: More women are elected to the board, creating a governing body that is more representative of...
’Twas the night after Christmas, when all through the town The streets were all quiet, the stores all shut down. The stockings were flung on the floor without care The spot where presents were piled now was bare. The merchants were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of full cash registers danced in their heads. For shoppers in Hinsdale had bought presents galore, Not at the mall or online — but in local stores. The residents, likewise, were content and fulfilled. Gifts they had purchased left recipients thr...
Has anyone seen my white go-go boots? Yes, I actually own white go-go boots. I acquired them a few years back when I had to dress up like a University of Illinois cheerleader for a scene in the Community Revue. I might need to wear them again in this year's show, and I have no idea where they are. They are not in the plastic bin that has been officially designated as The Spot to hold all revue and Halloween costume items. They are not in the guest room closet, which has been u...
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...
The Community Revue is the kind of benefit performance that could make the executive director of any nonprofit nervous. It's edgy, irreverent and sure to raise an eyebrow or two. But the last revue in 2017 sold more than 1,000 tickets and raised more than $50,000 for The Community House. And that's just one of 11 shows that have been performed since 1997. Each also represents an incredible investment of time in writing, rehearsing, set building and other activities. "This is...
Ly Hotchkin doesn't mind being 94. She misses having a drivers license and better eyesight, but she still enjoys laughing with people she loves over a good drink. That wasn't the case 18 months ago. At the time, she was ready to die - and she told her doctors as much. "I begged them to let me die because I was so lethargic I didn't want to do anything, and it was horrible," Hotchkin said. "Guess what they did? They put this pacemaker in." The device changed everything. "The...
