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Archive for the ‘Nostalgia’ Category

One big reason it’s hard to track Illinois’ educational failures. Officials keep changing the standardized tests.

Posted in 220, 300, Barrington Education Association, Clown Car, Deception, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Education, Ethics, FUBAR, Look For The Union Label, New Normal?, Nostalgia, Politics, Pritzker’s Rules of Order, Property Taxes, School Districts, Springfield, Topics Of Interest, Unions, What the Ficke (Bradford)? on March 25, 2024| 1 Comment »

By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints

Wirepoints is continuously asked by parents and educational groups for long-term student outcome data for their districts and schools. They are looking for trends to understand how badly outcomes have stagnated or worsened.

The problem is, we can’t provide good long-term trends. The Illinois State Board of Education has a history of switching up its standardized tests every half-decade or so, making it impossible for us to track long-term outcomes at the school and district level. And national tests, which do provide long-term data, only cover top-level state and Chicago data.

Unsurprisingly, ISBE is about to make another change. They’ve announced a switch to the ACT from the SAT. Whether by chance or design, they’re making it more difficult to hold individual schools and districts accountable. And given the dismal student outcomes and spiking education costs in Illinois, one can’t be blamed for thinking they’re switching it up on purpose.

The ACT was the test of choice from 2009 to 2017. Then ISBE switched to the SAT from 2018 through 2024. Now it’s apparently going to switch back to the ACT.

From Chalkbeat:

“Next year, Illinois high school juniors could take the ACT instead of the SAT as the federally-mandated state test. The Illinois State Board of Education has started the process of awarding a three-year, $53 million contract to ACT Inc.

The College Board’s contract to administer the SAT for 11th graders and PSAT for ninth and 10 graders is set to expire June 30.

Illinois education officials are essentially resetting the baseline for student performance by changing the test high schoolers take. Results in 2025 and beyond won’t be directly comparable to the 2017-2024 period because the ACT and SAT are different tests.

Read more here.

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McGonigals Pub 4 Day Liquidation Sale By Appointment

Posted in DARCHED, Nostalgia, Politics, Press Release, Topics Of Interest on March 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“This sale is the total and only liquidation of McGonigals Pub in Barrington. Everything in pub is for sale by appointment only.

3/19 3pm to 6pm (Today)
3/20 9am to 4pm (Wednesday)
3/21 9am to 4pm (Thursday)
3/22 9am to 4pm (Friday)

From kitchen equipment to bar decor will be for sale. McGonigals Pub is housed in a 100 year old building in the heart of downtown Barrington. This traditional Irish pub contains a treasure trove of great item.

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to get some great finds or quality equipment for your restaurant or bar. PLEASE CALL 847-393-6715 TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT.”

Read more here.

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60 Years Later: How The Beatles Met the Moment on Ed Sullivan

Posted in Nostalgia, Topics Of Interest on February 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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On Feb. 9, 1964, Americans witnessed the first truly seismic television event. What stands out most 60 years later, is just how ready The Beatles were for their invasion. | Bettmann/Getty Images

By Colin Fleming | The Daily Beast

In the days before everyone cut their cable because no one had cable yet, there were these things called networks. Only a handful of these networks existed, which meant that people couldn’t help but watch the same things. Sometimes there was a very big thing, and just about everyone who was able to would sit down to watch.

The Beatles’ debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on Feb. 9, 1964, is the first seismic event in American television history. Americans had been wedded to their sets the previous November in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but there hadn’t been an event like this, one that people knew was coming.

So people gathered. And gathered. People of all ages. Kids tended to be frenzied with excitement for something novel and new, as kids always have been. Whereas, members of the older crowd seemed determined to practice tolerance for the follies of youth and set the good example, or perhaps conjure an anecdote for how things were better in their day.

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Ed Sullivan talks with The Beatles, on the set of The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. | Bettmann/Getty Images

Certain things will simply never change. Popular culture, though—and, really, the world—did change on that winter night when most of America met these four young men from Liverpool.

The Beatles had touched down at New York’s Kennedy Airport two days prior. Only one of them—George Harrison—had been to America before. These were guys who worshiped American culture. This was where the gods, in their view, had originated: Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and, most of all, the god of the gods, Elvis Presley.

Think about this for a moment: You come to this place, all eyes are on you thanks to one of the most successful, buzz-generating marketing campaigns in history. You’ve never played a note in this new land, and then you appear on TV to perform for seemingly everyone across four dozen states.

We know what happens next. The Beatles became as huge as any entertainment act in history, though they would not have done so without being able to deliver the goods—never underestimate the staying power of those who are both given a chance and able to deliver the goods.

Read more here.

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What’s That Building? Prudential Plaza

Posted in Nostalgia, Topics Of Interest on January 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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By Dennis Rodkin | WBEZ

The Prudential Insurance Company is planning to leave the Randolph Street skyscraper it built seven decades ago — and taking the name with it.

The Prudential name has been on the 41-story Loop building since it opened in 1955. The name has also been on the 64-story younger sibling, Prudential Plaza Two or Pru Two, since that building opened in 1990.

The departure is momentous. Prudential stuck with its namesake skyscraper long after Sears, Wrigley, the Chicago Tribune, Montgomery Ward, Kemper and other big corporations left their buildings.

There is more than just a change in name. When Prudential goes, the company leaves behind a lot of the legacy it embedded in that building. The tower was the first high-rise in Chicago built since the Great Depression and the first built on air rights over a vast Illinois Central rail yard that filled what’s now 15 square blocks of high-rises and park land — Illinois Center and Lakeshore East. It helped pave the way for Millennium Park, the Pedway week and between 1955 and 1965 was the city’s tallest building.

The Prudential name isn’t just “on the building” — it’s prominently displayed 200 feet long across the top of the older building’s façade in blue letters, and carved into the façade beneath a sculpted rendering of its Rock of Gibraltar logo.

Prudential sold the two buildings in 2000 but has held onto office space and the naming rights. Prudential is planning to move out of its 50,000 square feet in Prudential Plaza and move to a 28,000 square feet space clear across the Loop at 150 N. Riverside Plaza.

Read more here.

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Editorial: On 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, a fresh look at the day that changed everything

Posted in Nostalgia, Politics, Resident Spotlights, Topics Of Interest on November 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

JFK

President John F. Kennedy waves from his car in a motorcade approximately one minute before he was shot, Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Riding with President Kennedy are first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, right, Nellie Connally, second from left, and her husband, Texas Gov. John Connally, far left. The 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination, marked on Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, finds his family, and the country, at a moment many would not have imagined in JFK’s lifetime. (Jim Altgens/AP)

By The Editorial Board | Chicago Tribune

Sixty years ago today, Americans of all stripes were shocked when Walter Cronkite told them, wiping away tears, that John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas.

It verges on trite to say everything changed after that. It also happens to be true. As Stephen Sondheim famously wrote in a song lyric, “Something Just Broke.”

But, that truth has taken on new forms as time has passed. The legacy of JFK has evolved as has its lessons for America.

For the first few decades after the tragedy, the narrative was one of before and after. For many, JFK’s death marked the loss of the country’s innocence, as manifested in the turbulent 1960s, the sexual revolution and a litany of cultural changes.

Where were you when you found out? Virtually every American old enough to remember could tell you.

JFK in those early decades was put on a pedestal. He was seen as inspirational (“Ask not what your country can do for you,” “We choose to go to the moon”) and a symbol of a nation on the rise — of a younger, vigorous, forward-looking country.

In more recent times, the legacy has morphed into something more complicated and in some respects worrisome.

The theorizing rampant on the internet — a technological advancement JFK no doubt would find mind-boggling — in some ways has its origins in the still-raging debate over who was responsible for the assassination.

Read more here.

Related: “Resident pens revealing book on the Kennedys”

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Farewell forever to Netflix DVDs

Posted in Entertainment, Nostalgia, Topics Of Interest on September 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Home movies
On Friday, Netflix is shutting down its mail-order DVD service. Customers who still receive physical DVDs can hold on to the ones they have. “Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like!” the company wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. I misread this as “Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you live!,” a chirpy and morbid send-off, conjuring images of a devoted Luddite breathing his last in a room littered with faded red envelopes and dusty remote controls.

This is not a eulogy for the DVD. I stopped receiving DVDs by mail more than a decade ago with little remorse. Or at least I think I did. I tried recently to access my complete Netflix viewing history only to discover that all DVD data is deleted 10 months after your subscription ends. Now I’m left with just my streaming history, which begins in 2009 with “Party Down,” a show which, for many reasons, feels recent and very much of the streaming era.

If I’m forlorn about anything, it’s the lost data. I can’t remember a single movie I watched on DVD from Netflix. I remember the first rentals my parents brought home to play on our hulking faux-bois VCR (Billy Wilder’s 1960 film “The Apartment,” “A Little Romance,” with Laurence Olivier and a teenage Diane Lane). I remember borrowing the comically gigantic laser disc of “Koyaanisqatsi” in the college library and renting “Say Anything” from Tower Video in the East Village.

These movies, these moments, are the pegs that threads of memory wind around. Who I was, what I did, how I felt at a moment in time. I rented Jim Jarmusch’s “Down by Law” from Kim’s Video, then I went and got steamed eggs at a cafe. I can see the video on the cafe table. I remember the winter coat I had. I wish I could recall the Netflix rentals, summon the memories that accompany them.

For a short time, Netflix had a feature that I loved called “Netflix Friends.” It allowed you to share your queue with friends and to see their star ratings for movies they’d watched. I remember adding ratings and comments to movies I’d seen before the launch of Netflix, so I could recommend them to friends.

Netflix canceled the Friends feature in 2010. I wish I’d kept track of each movie I watched and the ratings I gave them. Why did I give away the information? Why didn’t I save what could be a log of prompts to help spur memories of other eras, an archive of how I spent my time?

At the end of each year, the filmmaker Steven Soderbergh posts a list of everything he watched and read in the previous 12 months. I’ve been envious of this record, but for whatever reason, maybe because my intake seemed so feeble compared to Soderbergh’s, I’ve never kept a list of my own. That changes now. I downloaded my Netflix streaming history and plan to do so for all the streaming platforms that allow it. I’ll log my viewing in a notebook, be my own data collector, the custodian of my own cultural history.

Source

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Reminder: The Barrington High School Homecoming parade is this morning

Posted in 220, Barrington High School, Board of Education, Nostalgia, Resident Spotlights, School Districts on September 23, 2023| 1 Comment »

Fick This

District 220 Board of Education President Sandra Fick-Bradford was seen leading a cheer during the 2022 Barrington Homecoming Parade. Hopefully District 220 purchased a LARGER selection of t-shirts sizes this year…

“The parade will begin promptly at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday, September 23, We will all meet in the COMMUTER LOT AT THE BARRINGTON TRAIN STATION IN DOWNTOWN BARRINGTON.

The parade will follow the traditional route from past years from Wool Street to Main Street, and west on Main Street toward BHS. If you have a float, please be at the commuter lot at 9:00 a.m.

THERE WILL BE NO CARS ALLOWED IN THE PARKING LOT THAT ARE NOT IN THE ACTUAL PARADE–please communicate this to all members of your group! When arriving the day of the parade, you will be designated a waiting area for your group and float (if applicable).”

Photos from the 2022 BHS Homecoming parade can be seen here.

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Barrington High School Homecoming is this weekend

Posted in Barrington High School, Nostalgia on September 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

BHS Homecoming

The Barrington High School Homecoming is Saturday, September 23rd. Some of the scheduled events are as follows:

Wednesday, Sept. 20

  • Dodgeball Tournament at the BHS Gym at 7 PM. Open to 9-12th grade boys in teams of 6-8. Sign-up deadline is Tuesday, Sept. 19. Winners will receive champion t-shirts and a trophy displayed in the HS trophy case.

Friday, Sept. 22

  • Friday evening acts as a welcome night for all alumni who come in for the entire weekend. While there is not typically anything ‘official’ on Friday, the local venues listed in this packet are typically buzzing with alumni!

Saturday, Sept. 22 (Day)

  • Pancake Breakfast: Annual “Andy Anderson Pancake Breakfast” in the BHS Cafeteria goes from 7:00 AM – 12:00 PM
  • Homecoming Parade: The BHS Homecoming Parade leaves from the Metra station at around 10:15 AM and marches to BHS
  • Barrington High School Tour: BHS has undergone some major renovations over the past year. If you want to check out the new spaces, join in on a tour of the school following the parade. Meet at Door 45 (Main Street side of the building).
  • Tailgate: Join us for the BHSAA Tailgate Party in the Chessie’s parking lot. There will be good food, drink, and music from 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM. This year’s musical entertainment is The Rolling Blackouts, a local Barrington-based band featuring two alumni.
  • Football Game: The Broncos take on Fremd High School at Barrington Community Stadium starting at 1:00 PM. There will be a shuttle from the Chessie’s tailgate and the halftime celebration will honor the class of 1973!

Saturday, Sept. 22 (Evening)

  • Reunion Night: Saturday evening is when each class celebrates their reunion individually. Enjoy!

The 2023 Reunion Chairs webpage can be found here, and the Barrington High School Alumni Facebook page is here.

Editorial note: We took the liberty of signing Leah Collister-Lazzari and Barry Altshuler up for the Dodgeball Tournament.  It should be a good sport (Two men enter, one man leaves).

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‘Perfect fit’: New owners of state’s oldest bar are ready to build on establishment’s traditions

Posted in Entertainment, Nostalgia on August 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Village Tavern

Long Grove’s The Village Tavern, the oldest continuously operating tavern in Illinois, is in the hands of new owners, which say they hope to maintain the tradition that goes back to 1847. (Brian Hill | Staff Photographer)

Before the advent of the automobile, motion pictures or radio, The Village Tavern wet the whistles of those living in or passing through what would become the Northwest suburbs.

The oldest tavern in Illinois opened in modern-day Long Grove in 1847 as the Zimmer Tavern and Wagon Shop. Later renamed The Village Tavern, the establishment at 135 Old McHenry Road received Long Grove’s first liquor license — signed by Village President Robert Parker Coffin — after the village’s 1956 incorporation.

Ownership has changed hands over the years, but one thing has remained the same: It’s a family operation.

Now, following in the tradition of the Zimmer, Didier, Sayles and Ullrich families before them, the Jarvis family of Arlington Heights has acquired the historic tavern.

Will and Elaine Jarvis, daughter Nicole Jarvis and her husband, Scott Wallace, say they are ready to build on old traditions and add to the tavern’s lore

“We loved the history,” Nicole Jarvis said. “And we loved the fact that it has been family owned for 176 years.”

Read more here.

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Kelsey Road House to host 50th anniversary celebration Aug 18-20

Posted in Entertainment, Nostalgia, Topics Of Interest on August 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Kelsey

Kelsey Road House, 352 Kelsey Road, in Lake Barrington, is set to celebrate 50 years as a landmark destination in the Northwest suburbs. Opened in 1973 (with servers wearing white go-go boots) by Art and Judy Carlson, Kelsey Road House has served generations of residents of Barrington and the surrounding communities.

Recently acquired in April 2023 by the partnership team of Paul Maloney, Karolina Maloney and Paul Brubacher, Kelsey Road House has undergone extensive renovation and refurbishment to its indoor and outdoor spaces. Among the improvements are a revitalized beer garden, large full-service lawn area, improved bar program including seasonal cocktails and craft beer and live music weekly.

Kelsey Road House is hosting a weekend of special events on Aug 18 to 20, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Details and a schedule of events can be found on Facebook and Instagram.

Source

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