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04/26/23 03:43 PM

#377

Don Comfort

P.S. The Dairy Queen is still very much there. I stop a couple times a month for the M & M Blizzard. The DQ opened in 1952. I was 7 years old and remember my parents taking me there for Cherry Sundaes...I have expanded my taste buds. BTW...we moved to Lombard in 1950.

Don

04/27/23 10:49 AM

#378

Thomas L. Bakos

Don: For me when, probably, pre-teen, it was the Dilly Bar. Always hoping for a FREE Dilly which I got occassionally. When older, it was the Slurppy.

05/03/23 09:54 PM

#379

Mark Wieting

For all of you fondly remembering Lilac Time in Lombard, it's May 6-21 this year, centering, of course, on Lilacia Park.

The parade is on the 21st at 1:30 pm, starting from Wilson and Main, either at East or close by. The official website is www.lombardlilactime.com.

One question for everyone that I stay up at night wondering about: do you pronounce it "Lie-lacks" or "Lie-locks"? Please weigh in on this forum to establish a consensus on this important question. If you don't want to write a touching memory of Lilac Time [totally permitted], just respond with lacks or locks.

Happy Lilac Time to all.

05/03/23 11:21 PM

#380

Bruce F. Burianek

I remember helping to build and riding in two parades with "IT" Club. I always prounced it Lilac.

05/04/23 12:50 PM

#381

Linda Louise Crissey (Cotten)

We had lie-lack bushes in our yard on Maple Street

We participated in all the lie-lock time festivities.

We visited France where we were introduced to lay-lee-lahs.

05/04/23 02:15 PM

#382

Gerard 'Bud' Melto

My Lilac Festval memories....marching in junior high and high school bands. Six years of playing one song for what seemed like miles. Hated it almost as much as performing in football half time shows. Was accepted into Indiana University music school my freshman year....when I got my schedule 19 hours of marching band practice a week. Major went from music to English.

05/04/23 03:50 PM

#383

Karen Kluender (Sewell)

Wow! That brings back memories!

05/04/23 10:43 PM

#384

Don Comfort

Lie-locks

05/08/23 07:26 AM

#385

William Gibson Heller

Lacks or Locks, never thought about it before. Guess I must be multi-lingual as I understand both. Locks is closer to my pronunciation.

05/09/23 01:20 PM

#386

Judith Rae Long (Reinking)

I love Lilacia Park - such fond memories! I Walked there often from W. Potomac where I grew up. My brother Jeff Long - class of '70 - had a brick engraved with my parents names at the entrance of the park. I Haven't been there in a while, but Jeff, who lives in Naperville does get to the park once a year. I'd love to scoot back and see all my favorite places! (Dairy Queen, especially!!)

Hi to everyone on this forum! Hugs

05/15/23 04:47 PM

#387

James Alan Bullard

I had the pleasure last Spring to visit the park with my Sister and Brother in law.

In '68, my last year living in Lombard, I would take my Sunday school class to the park on nice days. What a great place!

05/23/23 10:53 AM

#388

Mark Wieting

Okay, someone sent me this, but it is interesting, even though none of us is 80 yet. I do recall that WWII was, in certain ways, close to us. Not only was Victory at Sea on TV [and another that emphasized the ground war, whose name I can't remember right now], but war surplus items were readily available--canteens, belts, shovels, helmets, all the stuff you needed to "play war" with your friends. Anyway, here goes:

The 1% Age Group

This special group was born between 1930 & 1946 = a 16 year span.
In 2023 the age range is between 77 & 93.
Interesting Facts:
You are the smallest group of children born since the early 1900's.
You are the last generation, climbing out of the depression, who can remember the winds of war and the impact of a world at war that rattled the structure of our daily lives for years. You are the last to remember ration books for everything from gas to sugar to shoes to stoves.
You saved tin foil and poured fried meat fat into tin cans.
You can remember milk being delivered to your house early in the morning and placed in the "milk box" on the porch.
You are the last generation who spent childhood without television; instead, you "imagined" what you heard on the radio.
With no TV until the 1950's, you spent your childhood "playing outside." There was no Little League.
There was no city playground for kids.
The lack of television in your early years meant that you had little real understanding of what the world was like. Telephones were one to a house, often shared (party lines), and hung on the wall in the kitchen (no cares about privacy). Computers were called calculators; they were hand-cranked. Typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon.
'INTERNET' and 'GOOGLE' were words that did not exist. Newspapers and magazines were written for adults and the news was broadcast on your radio in the evening.
New highways would bring jobs and mobility.
The radio network expanded from 3 stations to thousands. Your parents were suddenly free from the confines of the depression and the war, and they threw themselves into working hard to make a living for their families.
You weren't neglected, but you weren't today's all-consuming family focus.
They were glad you played by yourselves.

They were busy discovering the postwar world.
You entered a world of overflowing plenty and opportunity; a world where you were welcomed, enjoyed yourselves, felt secure in your future although the depression and poverty was deeply remembered.
Polio was still a crippler.
You came of age in the '50s and '60s.
You are the last generation to experience an interlude where there were no threats to our homeland.
The second world war was over and the cold war, terrorism, global warming, and perpetual economic insecurity had yet to haunt life with unease.
Only your generation can remember both a time of great war and a time when our world was secure and full of bright promise and plenty...
You grew up at the best possible time, a time when the world was getting better...
More than 99% of you are retired and you should feel privileged to have "lived in the best of times!"
If you have already reached the age of 80 years old, you have outlived 99% of all the other people currently in the world! "You are a 1%'er"

05/24/23 09:58 AM

#389

Thomas L. Bakos

Hey Mark - I'm looking forward to the .5% club.

07/04/23 07:13 AM

#390

Mark Wieting

Probably most of us who live in God's country [ie, the Chicago area] already know this, but for the benefit of the Glenbard East diaspora, I relate the sad news that Dick Biondi died June 26 at age 90. Is there anyone who did not listen to him [on WLS?]?

On a more positive note, there's an article in today's Tribune about the closure of a beloved Dairy Queen in Carbondale, but the [I'm sure] more beloved one in Lombard is still going strong. Not me, but did any of us work there?

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

07/04/23 03:51 PM

#391

Don Comfort

Mark...did I miss something? I thought you moved to HI.

Don

07/05/23 11:02 AM

#392

Bob Dove

Loved DQ, but eventually gravitated towards Cock Robin. Where else could you get ice cream in cubes?

07/05/23 02:38 PM

#393

Thomas L. Bakos

Yes, I remember Dick Biondi - WLS. Pre-music streaming, way pre-! We are trying to get over how fast our grandchildren are growing and you have put it ll in perspective with the passing of a young high school student's legend. I paid $35 for a portable trnsister radio so I could listen to WLS on my walks to the Dairy Queen. Pretty soon, all we will have is memories. Better than nothing, I guess.

07/06/23 03:42 PM

#394

Mark Wieting

With the passing of AM radio in automobiles [if not right now, eventually], I remember trying to get faraway radio stations late at night, partly to extend my bedtime "illegally" and partly to be thrilled with hearing something between 890 and 1000 on the dial: Denver! Pittsburgh! Cleveland! Or maybe between 670 and 780: Memphis! Indianapolis! St. Louis! Reception improved if there was widespread cloud cover between there and here. Still not sure how that works. Maybe Bob D can enlighten us all.

But, truly, it was a much simpler time.

07/07/23 05:18 AM

#395

Lawrence Wayne Price

Mark, I did the same thing at night, mostly weekends. I could listen to radio stations anywhere in north america. At night, AM radio waves would bounce off the ionosphere, but it was very unstable, a station would come in very clear but in a few minutes it would fade away....

07/07/23 07:01 AM

#396

Bob Dove

As Larry says (hi Larry), radio wave propagation can travel or skip long distances by bouncing off the ionosphere. This long-distance transmission was greatly enhanced in 1941 with the creation of clear channel radio stations. At night, many lower power stations were required to go off the air. This cleared the way for designated clear channel stations to significantly raise their transmitter power, enabling them to have much greater reach. More from Wikipedia:

07/07/23 08:00 AM

#397

Bob Dove

BTW Mark, at least three of the frequencies you mentioned, WMAQ, WGN, and WLS, were clear channel stations. If he were still with us, classmate Don Geiger would be able to expound at length on this topic. He was an amateur ham radio operator, and for many years, Engineer-in-Charge of the WTTW transmitter atop "Sears Tower."

07/07/23 09:05 AM

#398

Thomas L. Bakos

See, we had advanced science back then.

07/27/23 02:40 PM

#399

Mary Lou Schmidt (Brunner)

Hi Fellow Classmates,

We received some sad news last night. We have found out that our daughter-in-law Kristyn has breast cancer. Please keep our son Doug, Kristyn, their two boys and 3 grandchildren in your prayers. She will be having a biopsy Friday afternoon and we'll see what the next step will be. The ironic part is that she has been an x-ray tech for over 30 years-most of those years doing mamograms. She has always insisted that both her mom and I have yearly mamograms. Unfortunately she waited for over 1 1/2 years to get hers. Kristyn's dad also has dementia, is rapidly getting worse. Her mom has several health issues also. Unfortunately, they refuse to sell their home and move into a life care facility.

07/28/23 09:14 AM

#400

Mark Wieting

Sorry to hear this, Mary Lou. I'll hope for the best for you and your family.

I was going to post something funny about getting older but this makes me pause--many life circumstances are way too serious for jokes.

07/28/23 11:46 AM

#401

Mary Lou Schmidt (Brunner)

Thank you Mark.

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