Lincolnwood Schools – A Trip Down Memory Lane

  Reading posts on the Lincolnwood Time Machine Facebook page and unearthing Lincoln Hall yearbooks I thought were long gone inspired this blog. Many of you already read my blogs on Lincolnwood, although the first one has more views than part 2. I would like this one to serve as a forum for people who went to Todd, Rutledge, and/or Lincoln Hall to share their own memories of Lincolnwood Schools. In retrospect, my personal experiences and education at Lincolnwood Schools was more positive overall than Niles West. I couldn’t wait to graduate from high school early in January 1976, although I did attend the June 6, 1976 graduation ceremonies with my classmates. At Lincoln Hall, I had a few phenomenal teachers I count among the best ever, even including the professors I had at the Rhode Island School of Design. At the end of this blog, I included a tribute to some Lincolnwood classmates (Lincoln Hall class of 1972 only) we lost too soon. Random Memories from Todd Hall to Lincoln Hall I remember sitting on top of the slide in Miss Musgrove’s kindergarten class when they announced that JFK had died, but at age 5, didn’t understand the enormity of this tragedy. I clearly remember when Bobby Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles because my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Schatzman canceled the regular lesson and turned the television on in her Rutledge Hall classroom that morning and periodically throughout the afternoon. I can picture myself sitting on the floor with my classmates watching the broadcast and remember the touch-and-go gravity of the situation. By age 10, I was better able to comprehend the enormity of this Kennedy tragedy and recall crying.     Todd Hall Steve Morton injured himself goofing around outside Todd Hall…

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The Village Next to Lincolnwood – Greetings From Skokie, Illinois

Skokie, as it is known today was incorporated as Niles Centre in 1888. Around 1910, the spelling was Americanized to Niles Center. A village-renaming campaign began in the 1930s and residents chose the Indian name Skokie over Devonshire in a November 15, 1940 referendum. Its population today hovers around 65,000, but it’s been higher. In the mid-1960s, 58% of the population was Jewish, the largest percentage of any Chicago suburb. An estimated 7,000 to 8,000 pf those residents were Holocaust survivors who started life anew after suffering immeasurable pain. Infamous History   In a November 27, 1934 shootout dubbed the Battle of Barrington, infamous bank robber Baby Face Nelson and his gang killed two FBI agents. Nelson was severely injured and his body was brought to Winnetka where he died. According to history, his accomplices either dumped his bullet-riddled body at the north end of St. Paul Lutheran Church Cemetery on Harms Road or in a ditch adjacent to St. Peter Catholic Cemetery in downtown Skokie. In 1977, a neo-Nazi group led by Frank Collin announced plans to march in Skokie. The news set off a rhetorical firestorm and residents filed a court order to prevent this on the grounds it would “incite or promote hatred against persons of Jewish faith or ancestry.” This Skokie controversy triggered a rare, remarkable moment in American history when citizens throughout the nation vigorously debated the meaning of the U.S. Constitution. The American Civil Liberties Union represented the First Amendment rights of the neo-Nazi group. The Supreme Court ruling on June 14, 1977 stated the group could march wearing uniforms with swastikas under the constitutional protections of freedom of speech and assembly. Ultimately, they decided to march in Chicago, which was met by derision and little turnout. In the summer of 1978, in response…

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