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Many in the community began the school year with attending curriculum night in District 181. We were welcomed by enthusiastic, caring, smart professionals who excel in the craft of teaching. We entrust these teachers each day with laying a solid foundation of academic excellence. We relied on these same teachers to guide us all through a global pandemic and expected our tradition of excellence to continue. It did. Yet, as we begin the 2023-24 school year, teachers in 181 are working without a contract and federal mediators...
The last time I wrote an article for the paper, I was headed off to study travel writing in Prague, Czech Republic. Two months later, I can confidently say that my time abroad was life changing. While I was in Prague, I experienced gratitude and excitement for life like never before. I formed connections with the other students on the program, and we all went from strangers to friends in no time at all. I made memories that will live in my mind forever- swimming in a pond at...
You'd be hard pressed to find Buncombe, Illinois, on a map. Buncombe is a five-hour drive straight south from Hinsdale as the crow flies, as my dad would say. I dreaded visiting Buncombe as a kid. In the early 1970s there was nothing there. Miles and miles of farmland interrupted by old farmhouses and grain silos. Maybe an occasional Stuckey's along the way. My paternal grandfather grew up near Buncombe before he made his way to Chicago in 1920. However, a few distant...
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...
As students get acclimated to their class schedules, locker combinations and homework, adults also have some adjusting to do now that school is back in session. Traffic patterns have changed dramatically since the first day at Hinsdale Central Aug. 21 and District 181 schools Aug. 22. More students are heading to and from school on foot or on their bikes — or getting a ride from mom or dad or even a classmate. They might not be paying as much attention as they should be, so drivers need to be extra vigilant. To that end, w...
In contrast to a recent guest commentary, I posit the case is overwhelmingly for dogs. Not against dogs. On behalf of dogs everywhere, I humbly offer this partial inventory and recount. Seeing-eye dogs. Bomb-sniffing dogs. Guard dogs. Hunting dogs. Police dogs. Seizure-sensing dogs. Service dogs. Sheep herding dogs. Sled dogs. Search and rescue dogs. Drug-sniffing dogs. And these are just the top-of-mind jobs dogs perform for us. We ask and dogs willingly meet the challenge. They love us more than they love themselves,...
Hinsdale owes a thank you to Burdi Clothing and the other organizers of the car show held several weeks ago. Notwithstanding the rainy weather, a sizable crowd enjoyed walking among the many exotic and collectible supercars. The sheer number of collector cars in attendance, the majority of which have never seen rain, was a testament to the organizers’ influence in the small community of supercar owners. The interest and reach of this show were far from local and attracted visitors from across the country, as it was the s...
This summer while browsing in a used bookstore in Michigan with aisles upon aisles of books stacked floor to ceiling, I stumbled upon a devotional entitled "100 Days to Brave." I'm not sure what drew me to this particular book. Perhaps these days we all need a nudge toward courage, a boost out of our comfort zones. Picking it up, the jacket read: "For the next 100 days, let Annie F. Downs show you that you are braver than you know, and with that knowledge in your back pocket,...
Of course motorists need to be aware and use caution regarding kids on electric scooters and bikes and the writer (July 13 letter) correctly points out that a parent’s worst nightmare is losing a child and parents should be teaching safety to their kids. This misses a most important element: Why do parents purchase these electric bikes and scooters and leave their kids unsupervised? Senior citizens have had close encounters with riders on sidewalks crossing storefronts. Kids are observed riding fast the wrong way on First S...
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...
Hinsdale youth are back in class! Stepping up a grade means a higher level of academic rigor — and a greater need for effective study habits. Here are some tips from “The Princeton Review” to help make the year a success. 1. Have multiple study spaces. A quiet place at home is key, but variety can help, too. Libraries, parks or even just moving from the bedroom to the kitchen table can stimulate the brain to retain information better. 2. Keep a catch-all calendar. In addition to jotting down homework assignments, mark extra...
I wrote a column for The Hinsdalean in 2018 called "Superhero Moms and Dads" that was about all of the many cool things we do for our kids as they grow up and how we parents should feel like superheroes because our kids see us that way. It's been about five years since I wrote that article. My husband and I are about to send our firstborn off to college and see our younger son begin senior year of high school. Seemingly overnight, we've gone from superheroes to ordinary...
The beautiful historic buildings in the central business district, the Robbins Park subdivision and many other neighborhoods in Hinsdale. That delicious smell when you walk into Kramer Foods. The crowds that line the streets the morning of July 4, waiting for the parade to begin. These and so many other things make Hinsdale the wonderful town that it is. We celebrated almost a dozen of them in our summer series, Quintessential Hinsdale. It is not a coincidence that we chose this topic in 2023, the year the village is...
Those back-to-school emails and football season previews are coming fast and furious right about now. But that doesn’t mean we have to rush summer off the stage. Check out these seasonal attractions and activities — both in town and around the Hinsdale area — before the summer bids adieu. Tomorrow, Aug. 11, is the last of the village’s Movies in the Park series with a screening of “Despicable Me” in Robbins Park starting at dusk. Pack blankets and lawn chairs to watch the film under the stars while munching on the free (a...
Lately, no matter where you look, it’s Barbie, Barbie, Barbie. The hugely popular new “Barbie” movie has scores of people writing and speaking a name that is so deeply rooted in the mid-century that you probably can’t think of a single baby named Barbara. Not now, and more than likely, not in the past several decades. That doesn’t matter, though, because the movie has made my name (at least in a diminutive form) and the toy that also bears it wildly relevant again. And that...
Dear Colleagues, It is with great excitement that I write to tender my resignation from our organization, effective immediately. While I've enjoyed my tenure among you, I've decided to accept a more appealing offer from the competition. This other group offers a looser, more lively corporate culture and a free-flowing, collaborative working style. What's more, they've eschewed much of the red tape that defines the working experience for so many of us. I've been watching them...
We’ve written a number of editorials about areas of improvement for the Hinsdale High School District 86 Board. So we thought it only fair to highlight a handful of shining moments from the last regular board meeting July 27. 1. A 7-0 vote to hire School Exec Connect to help the board find a permanent replacement for Superintendent Tammy Prentiss, who is on paid leave through March 31. Two firms made presentations to the board July 20. All seven board members not only agreed on which firm to hire, they chose the firm The H...
I've often said that in another life, I'd be a sociologist. I'm fascinated by how people live behind their front doors. Years ago, a young me would jog in the city and look into people's apartment windows as I went by. Ultimately, it was this behavior that led me to, well, fall down. Repeatedly. I was so busy pondering the lives of the people whose windows I passed that I didn't pay attention to the cracks in the sidewalks, or the curbs, or my feet. And so down I'd go....
Tuesday, Aug. 1, is National Night Out, an annual event designed to build bonds between neighbors and law enforcement, according to the National Association of Town Watch, which sponsors the event. “National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. F...
You might enjoy watching Falcon Football games at Brook Park in the fall, ice skating at Burns Field in the winter or taking a run through KLM in the spring. But summer is when the Hinsdale Parks and Recreation Department shines, so it seems fitting that July is Park and Recreation Month. And Hinsdaleans have plenty to celebrate. Residents can enjoy 122 acres of dedicated parkland at 18 sites, with opportunities for baseball, football, jogging, ice skating, tennis, pickleball, picnicking, platform tennis, soccer and...
When your child leaves for college, there is plenty of advice on how to handle the transition, ranging from gentle comedy to true grief counseling. It is an adjustment period for the whole family. What no one warns you about, though, is when they come back. By the time I went to collect my oldest this past May for his first summer home, I was desperate just to have his physical presence in my orbit. It had been months with no visits or breaks. My inner dialogue was manic....
The swarms of kids on Go Trax scooters and Suron electric bikes are out in full force. The speed of these electric vehicles can go anywhere from 8 to 15 mph and can create the strong possibility of a parent’s/child’s worst nightmare or a driver’s worst nightmare. I have noticed these children (with or without helmets), mostly middle school age, riding all over town — on sidewalks, in the streets, in the neighborhoods. They also ride in downtown Hinsdale, where traffic can be tricky to navigate for drivers, let alone kids. D...
On May 9 I was visiting my daughter and her family from Wyoming. I was enjoying the beautiful spring morning when I encountered a uneven sidewalk and went flying through the air, hit my skull on the cement and broke my hand. When I got up and started to gather my thoughts, I shakily tried to dial my daughter and son-in-law for help. I finally located their number on my phone, got a hold of them and tried to describe my location and situation. They were about 5 miles away. I told them I was somewhere on Madison Street in...
Summer is the season so many of us in the Midwest look forward to, with sun-drenched warm days lasting well into the evening, and an array of outdoor activities to keep us going from morning to sundown — and beyond. To ensure everyone’s enjoyment this time of year, follow these basic safety guidelines from the American Red Cross, available at www.redcross.org. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an average of 11 people die every day from drowning, many of them children. Here are ways to guard against such tragedy: ...
According to news reports, this past July 4 was the hottest the Earth has ever been. Here at home, it was indeed hot, but that still did not stop the wonderful Fourth of July parade, which celebrated not only our nation's birth but also our town's 150th year (the Sesquicentennial...one of my new favorite words). Personally, summer is my absolute favorite season: the days are long and bright; the weather is warm; and there is so much opportunity to enjoy the outdoors with...
