Posted by hawk3ye on Jan 22, 2009 in
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4635 N Elston Ave. Much more spacious than the Roscoe Village store. Clothes can actually be pushed a few inches apart on the rack.
However, the staff is really grumpy and uncooperative. I bought 2 books and a packet of note cards, and as they were refusing to open a second line, a pre-recorded message advised that the store would be HAPPY to open another register if more than 3 people were in line… argh. Then I slipped on the ice outside.
Somehow though I still came away happy. I got a funny pop-up book for Miss Annalee about making caterpillar pizza.
Posted by hawk3ye on Jan 14, 2009 in
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Any Photoshop pro can see I did a pretty quick and dirty job on this, but my family and friends were impressed anyway! By the way, I’m really excited about a potential spike in “Malia” and “Sasha” baby names.
Posted by hawk3ye on Jan 11, 2009 in
Secondhand I reeeeeeeally love this little clock!. It is from a garage sale we hit circa 2007 on the way home from brunch at Victory’s Banner in Roscoe Village. It was clear that this people had a garage sale at least once a year b/c everything was boxed by category and there were old price stickers. Jim passed up a reel-to-reel 3″ tape player that he still talks about. So we hope to run into these folks again.
But the clock – it was 50¢! There were about 4 in a box and this was the cutest. I really just thought it was going to be a prop but lo and behold, the clock and alarm actually work fine. Another plus – the clock does not go tick tick tick. That is good because this guest room also functions as a refuge from snoring (Jim’s refuge, my snoring).
I mentioned this particular sale in a previous post because I rode home with an awkward under-bed storage box in my basket and it was really windy. God I wish there could be yard sales in January. I guess it’s thrift store time!
Posted by hawk3ye on Nov 11, 2008 in
History Jim and Toni and I went to the 2nd play in our subscription series at Illinois Theatre Center this week—”The Subject Was Roses.” Great acting in a family drama about the blame game. ITC is a unique small suburban Equity theater that has been in their town for 30+ years, headed by producing director Etel Billig, who always entertains. On the back side of the theater, which is in the old downtown shopping center, is a mural that has a cool painting of the Billigs.
There is also an art gallery adjoining the lobby of the theater which we had a few minutes to explore. There were sculptures of clay, rope, and waxed index cards from a library card catalog. Really worth stopping by if you are ever in Park Forest.
We talked about how the times have left this downtown shopping center behind, and it never really recovered from the advent of Lincoln mall (1973) & Orland Square mall (1976). Many of the spaces are empty and others house village offices, such as the Rich Township Senior Center where Toni works. In another bit of trivia, Jim’s step-grandfather’s old family farm is now the site of Lincoln Mall in Matteson. A little tidbit for future genealogical research.
It reminds me of the older Meadowview shopping center in Bradley we went to when I was young, and how it suffered when Sears and Penney’s moved to Northfield Square mall (1990). Meadowview had a great bookstore called the Little Professor where I bought my treasured editions of Frances Hodgkins Burnett and Shel Silverstein. I would buy shaker-knit sweaters off the clearance rack at Sears with my babysitting money. On the far side of Sears there was also a whole store devoted to stickers! And there was a Baskin Robbins as well (one scoop French Vanilla, one scoop Chocolate Fudge Brownie on a sugar cone please). Meadowview also had a big Woolworth’s complete with soda shop counter. I think I ate a BLT there once with my grandma, although it was rare to be in Kankakee/Bradley with grandma. We made the 35-mile trip with mom almost every weekend to this town where she grew up.
Posted by hawk3ye on Oct 20, 2008 in
Travels I had a totally different “rural” experience this weekend when Jim and I drove up to Aimee & Jeremy’s house near Green Bay. The whole place just has a different feel than Illinois… more woods, colorful aspens and birches, red and white dairy farm barns, hay fields, rolling hills, fluffy clouds, and the soft musk of an occasional skunk along the highway. It just doesn’t pack the same level of dread that Iroquois County IL does for me.
This is a neighbor’s house viewed from Aimee’s backyard in Wrightstown. You can see Aimee’s aspen tree, birdbath, birdhouse & little ditch of prairie grasses on the property line. The out of doors smelled great, and I wish I’d had my own laundry to hang out and capture a bit of fall.
Tags: autumn, clothesline, fall, family, flickr, iroquois county, wisconsin
Posted by hawk3ye on Oct 14, 2008 in
Travels One thing about life in rural Illinois… the sky is so damn much bigger. Few buildings or even trees block your view of the horizon. The sun and rain beat down on your lonely person. Telephone lines abound. The whole place gives me ennui.
I’m a city girl now.
Tags: ennui, flickr, illinois, iroquois county, wasteland
Posted by hawk3ye on Oct 14, 2008 in
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Jim bought me flowers! What an awesome surprise. These are from the farmer’s market and the open wider each day. The vase is from a glass-blowing studio we visited on a whim in Volcano, HI.
Why are the flowers on the windowsill in the bathroom, you may ask? This is one of the few spots in the house that Tomas cannot reach. At least not right away. He will eat almost any plant or flower arrangement.
One of the very few things I miss about living on a farm is being able to kick the cat outside when he’s being an asshole. (Maybe the only thing I miss?)
Posted by hawk3ye on Sep 20, 2008 in
Doings 
Photo: Hideout Block Party 2008. Inset: Why yes, that *IS* Howe Gelb.
This morning Jim and I fueled up on brunch at Dunlay’s and rode our bikes over to the Hideout Block Party, just in time for the end of the KatJonBand set, when John Langford switched from “child entertainer” to “angry old punk,” he announced. Then the fabulous Howe Gelb and Giant Sand played a great set! Gelb was funny and did some great keyboard stuff. Spookiness & guitar from Tuscon. My grandparents lived there for awhile. I think this prompted me to think that an Arizona souvenier ashtray would be a good present for my grandma. Turns out she had just quit smoking. Anyway… great show. 
We decided to skip some of the sets in the middle and head home for a bit, stopping on the way for a bathroom break and extremely decadent Margie’s sundaes: One turtle sundae with one scoop chocolate and one vanilla, and one banana nut sundae with pistachio ice cream, raspberries and hot caramel on the side.
I really should have had a little camera with me today because the phone just doesn’t cut it (inset). I am thinking of bringing my olympus 35mm tonight when we take in the evening sets.
Tags: hideout, howe gelb, jim, music
Posted by hawk3ye on Aug 6, 2008 in
History Monday night we had the rare treat of hearing the tornado sirens sounded in our Chicago neighborhood of Logan Square. National Weather Service bulletins were sure to include the addendum THIS TORNADO WARNING INCLUDES THE CITY OF CHICAGO for any remaining disbelievers.
That’s because we in Chicago don’t commonly expect tornadoes to hit us. But where I grew up, on a farm halfway between Donovan, Illinois and Morocco, Indiana, we definitely did. I’ve seen the term “tornado alley” used when referring to the Great Plains states in general, but at home I commonly heard this term used to refer specifically to the Donovan-Morocco corridor. And yesterday I began to wonder why this was.
My mom once told me a story that may have originated from my step-dad’s grandfather, Grandpa Lyle, who lived across the road from us. But my mom was also the bookkeeper for the local Ford dealer, one of the only businesses in town, where Grandpa Lyle and other retired farmers frequently gathered to drink coffee and gossip—so it could have come from any one of them. For many years these were my mom’s primary circle of friends, from whom she collected stories, amusing expressions (”well for cry-eye!”), surplus corn and zucchini, and recipes for window wash. She is now buried in the same cemetery with most of these old guys.
But the story… A family was passing in their wagon by the old church than once stood 1/2 mile to the west of our house. A storm was coming and people in the churchyard called to the family to take shelter there. But as the family lived just a short distance away (1/2 mile to the east of our house as I remember it) they thought they could make it easily. In fact they did get home, but a tornado hit as they were trying to get in the cellar, demolishing their house and killing all of them. My kid’s mind always imagined the family being partway down the cellar steps and getting halved by the flying house. It was a gruesome and sad story.
In the 80s I remember two major tornado incidents witnessed by my parents. My mom left her office at Hewson Ford to make her daily walk 2 blocks west to the post office, on an average breezy day. Halfway there the sky darkened, the wind whipped down the block, and she looked up to see a tornado on the horizon, framed neatly by the buildings on either side of the street. She was able to scurry back to the office without peeing her pants, and the tornado did not hit town after all.
My dad, whose work on gas wells frequently took him to Indiana, was driving back to Illinois when a tornado formed near Morocco. He followed it for quite a few miles along his route. I think that tornado did some damage that year, and possibly involved a guy saving himself by hanging on to a refrigerator. I remember that the “Welcome to Morocco” sign on the north side of town featured a tornado, as well as a major league baseball player born there, which I always thought was a funny juxtaposition.
Anyway, I thought I would toodle about the Internet yesterday and see if Donovan and Morocco really do form a sinister path of death and destruction. These towns have somehow escaped Web chronicles outside of some perfunctory entries in Wikipedia and City-data. So here’s what City-data has on the tornado occurrence rates:
Donovan-area historical tornado activity is near Illinois state average. It is 93% greater than the overall U.S. average. On 3/12/1976, a category 3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 9.9 miles away from the Donovan village center killed one person and injured 15 people and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages. On 5/15/1968, a category 3 tornado 16.5 miles away from the village center caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.
Morocco-area historical tornado activity is near Indiana state average. It is 93% greater than the overall U.S. average. On 4/3/1974, a category 4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 38.0 miles away from the Morocco town center killed 18 people and injured 285 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages. On 4/23/1961, a category 3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 16.9 miles away from the town center injured 4 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages.
Chicago-area historical tornado activity is slightly below Illinois state average. It is 58% greater than the overall U.S. average. On 6/13/1976, a category 4 tornado 18.2 miles away from the city center killed 2 people and injured 23 people and caused between $500,000 and $5,000,000 in damages. On 4/21/1967, a category 4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 11.7 miles away from the Chicago city center killed 33 people and injured 500 people and caused between $5,000,000 and $50,000,000 in damages.
Hm… so rates in Donovan and Morocco are higher than Chicago, but still on par with the IL and IN averages. And in Morocco, 17 or 38 miles from the town center means, um, not in Morocco. Those tornadoes indicated above would be past other towns. So perhaps some narrative data would be more useful:
From gendisasters.com (yes, who knew?) Morocco, Indiana Tornado – April 21, 1912 – Nine persons were killed, five others so severely injured that they are expected to die, half a hundred others bruised by flying debris, and thousands of dollars’ worth of property destroyed in and around Morocco, Newton County, when a tornado swept out of the West this evening. The dead are: Mrs. Charles Rice, Morocco, Ind.; four young children of Mrs. Rice; Frank Rice, a son; Mrs. Frank Rice, his wife; Miss Cassie Smart of Morocco; infant sister of Miss Smart. Those who may die are: Charles Smart, Charles Rice, Bruce Hanger, Medde Hammell, Miss Conn. As near as can be judged here, the tornado started in Iroquois county, Ill., and then swept eastward. Stock was killed when farm buildings went down. – The Washington Post, Washington, DC, 22 Apr 1912
From Wikipedia entry on Sam Rice: Rice grew up in various towns near Morocco, Indiana, on the Indiana-Illinois border, and considered Watseka, Illinois, his hometown. In 1912, Rice was playing with a low-level minor-league baseball team in Galesburg, Illinois, near the Iowa-Illinois border, when his wife, two children, mother and two younger siblings, along with a hired hand on the family farm, were all killed in a tornado that swept through the area. Rice’s father Charles died from injuries sustained in the storm a few days later. Rice left the area shortly afterward, working various odd jobs and eventually joining the United States Navy and fighting in the ill-fated Occupation of Veracruz in Mexico. Rice never publicly revealed the family tragedy in his past. He married twice more.
A comment on another site: P.J. Clark wrote on Feb 14, 2008 – Edgar Rice lived in Donovan Illinois at the time with his wife and children. They were buried in The Praire Dell Cemetery just west of the town of Iroquois. The father and family were buried in The Beaver Cemetery just across the road from their farm. Charles and his family are in unmarked graves. I’ve been to the farm and I think it is in Illinois.
Based on these articles, it seems that the Rice family was likely the one from my mom’s story. Beaver Cemetery (in fact the one where my mom and her cronies are buried) is 1/2 mile east and 1 mile north of our house. It is only 1 mile from the Indiana border, and a household there could easily have family in both states, causing a little confusion over whether the Rices lived in Donovan or Morocco townships.
It also seems that Morocco put their one famous resident, major league baseball player Edgar “Sam” Rice, on the Welcome to Morocco sign along with a TORNADO which had famously killed his whole family and which he’d been trying ever since to forget. That’s really kinda jerky. Anyway, there are more gruesome details here http://tinyurl.com/58trna that may shed some light on why my mom always ran to put on clean underwear in a tornado warning.
Tags: illinois, indiana, mom, stories, tornados
Posted by hawk3ye on May 30, 2008 in
Travels Last weekend was so nice, finally getting to enjoy the out-of-doors again here in Chicago. We made a little trek over to the Indiana Dunes to visit Monica and her friends Tricia and John. Sunday our local farmer’s market starts up again too.
But the best thing about summer is of course Garage Sales! I can’t wait to get my bike oiled up so I can tool around town collecting goodies. I remember last year bringing some rather large stuff home in my bike basket, and the 50¢ “underbed storage box” kept trying to blow away as Jim and I rode back from that particularly profitable post-brunch sale. I also got an awesome “dialite” dresser clock that I must photograph sometime!
So, this pic can go in my Secondhand Sleuth blog, as the blue jacket Jim is wearing was a thrift-store find of Monica’s several years ago. The uke, however, is brand new.
Tags: blue, jacket, jim, ukulele
