Month: June 2025

On Monday June 30^th at 2:45 p.m. our summer school session will be over.  The staff at Parkland Preparatory Academy will flee for their cars as if we’re trying to catch the last chopper out of Saigon in 1975.   It’s been a very rough year but we’re almost to the finish line.  Whew!

To ensure my time off is as restful as possible, I’ve spent the last two weeks taking care of things around the house.  I put together a list of tasks and titled it, “Getting Shit Done.”  Doing these things now will help free up my time off.  Here’s what I’ve been ‘getting done.’

Got the good people at Jim Dhamer plumbing in to fix a slow running drain in my shower.  I hired a handyman to post up new address numbers on my house and fit one of my gutters with a new downspout.   My car’s oil got a changing at Jiffy Lube and I swept out the leaves and litter in my garage.  My PC got its annual clean-up from my computer expert Luis Corrado.  (Great guy, by the way) Add to this I finished my 40 GCN modules for school.  It’s an annual thing we school staffers have to endure and while not due until the end of September, it feels great to have that stuff done.

Another thing I did was re-new my membership to AARP because I want some assistance into looking for the right Medicare plan for me when I turn 65 on January 20^th 2026.  There was also a check sent to cover my admission into a WLS reunion event that I’ll be attending in July.  One appointment I still need to make in July is to have a new sleep study done.

My ‘To Do’ list was fully loaded and most tasks are done.

But wait, there’s more. Instead of calling a maid service (which I do a couple times a year) I did the top to bottom dusting, vacuuming and overall scrubbing of my house.  It’s best to start the vacation with a house smelling of Pine Sol.

I got my landscaper to do some weed whacking of growths by my garage, which he’s been missing and I clipped three garbage cans worth of shrub growth and weeds with a little more to go.  The wet spring and lack of cut maintenance had things grow a bit out of control.  

My front steps got a good scrubbing and new water sealing and I’ll get to the back steps in the next few days.  My driveway is about to get a new coat of sealant by a local business but first I need to cover over some cracks with this really effective tar-like tape. The only other job I have left is to do is scrape and paint the front trim on my garage. 

Actress Hilary Duff relaxing in her pool. She’s always welcome to be one of my guests at East End.

After that, it’s nothing but early morning lap swims at East End Pool, breakfast then writing and resting followed by mid-day swims with my ‘Summer Family’ at the pool and just taking it easy.  As I’ve often said, the best part of our time off is I am not on a clock.  I can do what I want, when I want.   And that’s exactly what I plan to do.

From the Elmhurst Park District Facebook page, some but not all of my summer family.

NEXT BLOG- Remembering the Great Chicago Heatwave of 1995 and the band I saw that wilted during their set.

This coming week will mark 50 years since the birth of the summer blockbuster movie arrived via the classic film “Jaws.” The thriller opened on June 20^th, 1975.   Before the release of “Jaws”, movie companies never gave much thought as to who would be seeing their celluloid products and when.  Me and my mom and dad saw the movie that first weekend, on a Sunday at the Yorktown Cinema.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s rewind back to a Sunday in late April of that year.  After church, my mother and I stopped at Dominick’s for a grocery load up.  While mom moved her cart around the store, I checked out the books and magazines stand.  I saw this paperback with a cool looking cover and the word “Jaws” splashed across the front.  I had not heard of this book when it was introduced in hardcover but after reading the synopsis on the back, I asked my mom to buy the book for me.  She agreed and ponied up the cash for it.

Who could blame me for wanting to read this book?

When we got home, I went to my bedroom to dive into this book.   Like Captain Quint hunting the great white shark, I was hooked on this tale and read half the story that day.  I was so into “Jaws” that the next morning I asked my parents if I could stay home from school to read the rest of this wild and tense book.  They let me do it.

Fast forward two months and while there was very little hype about “Jaws,” I heard a radio report saying folks were standing in line to see the premiere of the film.  They noted the sex side story that was in the book was not in the finished movie, so they could land the PG rating.  I urged my mom and dad to do a Sunday outing that weekend to see “Jaws” at the Yorktown Cinema and they were up for it.

That Sunday, I convinced my parents to get us to the theater an hour before the first showing.  They thought I was nuts but rolled with my request. After buying our tickets, we sat on a bench in the theater lobby while mom kept asking why we showed up so early for the movie.  I insisted a crowd was coming and twenty minutes later the whole lobby was filled with filmgoers.  Then mom stopped whining.  Ha!

This was the daily scene during the summer of ’75. Folks lined up to see “Jaws.”

The movie sold out, we got to our seats and for the next two hours were wrapped up in the tale of a great white shark terrorizing the resort town of Amity, Long Island, New York.  The hunt for the shark was a thrill and so was the tension between Rober Shaw as Captain Quint, Richard Dreyfus as shark expert Matt Hooper and water phobic Amity police chief Martin Brody played by Roy Scheider. 

For the rest of the summer of 1975, the American movie going public was caught up in the “Jaws” phenomenon.  Anything shark related was big news on TV and there was no stopping this crazy juggernaut.  Anytime we’d drive by the Yorktown theater all I saw were long lines of folks trying to get into every sold -out showing of the first ever summer blockbuster.  I didn’t end up seeing the movie for a second time until that fall when the York Theater finally got to show “Jaws” for a few weeks.  My dad wanted to see it again and we loved it as much as the first time we caught it back in June.

Chief Brody was about to get a peek at the hunted great white shark. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

As the years passed, we learned more about the making of this movie. Its director Stephen Spielberg made a major name for himself in Hollywood.  One irony to the “Jaws” explosion.  Actor Richard Dreyfus thought the movie was going to be a bomb and the end of his acting career.  Well, “Jaws” remains a classic film that made untold millions and Dreyfus did O.K. for himself. He only went on to star in films like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and win a Best Actor Oscar for “The Goodbye Girl.”

This all went down fifty years ago.  Yet my memories of Jaws-mania remain as clear as if they just happened yesterday. 

Next Blog: When I know, you’ll know. 

It’s weird that we lost two music icons who were incredible innovators in the same week. Sly Stone passed away a few days ago at age 82 and now Beach Boy genius Brian Wilson has passed, also at age 82.

I never saw Sly and the Family Stone in concert, (wish I had) but I remember one night back in the early 90’s when a Sly song rocked a crowd at a Chicago bar. I was out with my Q-101 morning show co-workers including Robert Murphy, our star and host for a night of bar hopping. So we end up at Weeds on Weed Street, late in the night. An unknown band was wrapping up their set onstage and they launched into Sly’s “Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again.” The whole club just lit into that fun tune of funkiness and after a long jam we were all left sweaty and hoarse from screaming along to that classic tune.

The following week a delivery guy dropped some items off at the Q-101 offices as Murf and I were leaving for the day. The delivery guy ended up being the lead singer of that unknown band we saw at Weeds! Murf and I said hey to the fella and he remembered us for being at his band’s set.

Any rocking funk musician who came after Sly Stone was no doubt influenced by his genius. From Prince to Bootsy Collins to George Clinton and hundreds of others. Sly, you made your mark!

Sly Stone, you done damn good. R.I.P.

Brian Wilson was a tortured musical genius with a family history of abuse and other nightmares. Yet, the joy he brought millions with his songs eclipses his own difficult life. Back in August of 1998 I attended an exclusive concert at a St. Charles high school auditorium that featured Brian and hot country star Deana Carter. Wilson played his hits and looked and sounded great. Deana did her set separately but was also well received. Innovators like Brian Wilson are rare these days but we still have his music to enjoy.

Brian Wilson enjoying a much deserved award.

For me, the summer song of 2025 comes from red hot country star Zach Top. His first hit “I Never Lie” brings country music back to a much pined for traditional sound. He IS the real deal. This summer song, “Good Times and Tan Lines” will remind you of Alan Jackson’s 1993 hit “Chattahoochee” but it’s fresh and new. Alan Jackson himself has anointed his approval of Zach’s music and Zach acknowledges A.J.’s influence on his songs.

My pick for THE summer song of 2025.

Back in my US*99 days, I was aware of Rascal Flatts’ but wasn’t a major fan of their tunes. With two exceptions, their wedding ballad “God Bless the Broken Road” and “Fast Cars and Freedom.” Recently I discovered a semi-remake of “Fast Cars” featuring Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts’ lead singer Gary Le Vox. These two guys breathe new and fresh life into a song from years ago. Well done guys!

Top notch re-do of a Rascal Flatts classic.

Summer Stuff. I still have a couple weeks of summer school to teach but sure am enjoying the weekend days at East End Pool. Full time swimming for the summer isn’t far away. With that said, call me crazy, but I’m not a fan of women sporting tiny bikinis and thongs. Those get-ups look too desperate. To catch my interest, give me a women in a well fitted one piece swimsuit.

Women in One Piece Swim Suits. Sounds like a good title for a song.

NEXT BLOG: Remembering the first ever Summer Blockbuster movie.

East End Pool is back open for the summer! Sadly, opening it was delayed a week due to the 60’s temperatures during Memorial Day weekend.  The maintenance staff needed to get the heated pool to a warmer temperature than 70 degrees and it wasn’t happening. But that’s in the past now.

Walking up to the East End entrance is always a pleasure!

Friday May 30^th, I got up early (5:30 a.m.) and swam at East End Pool, doing 40 laps in just over 30 minutes.  To be back in those waters felt so good as the sun came up over I-294. Then it was back home to clean up and be at school for parent-teacher conferences.  Not having kids in the building energized me to swim like that.

 East End looks great.  The pool’s bottom got a fresh patch up and a coat of powder blue paint, the lap lanes were re-striped. All depth markers have been re-posted and the steps leading to the water got new striped paint as well. This year there are also some Emergency Exits posted with new gates set up on the perimeter just in case the whole crowd of swimmers needs to scram ASAP.  The Elmhurst Park District does a fine job with landscaping around the facility and the guards are up in their chairs ready to monitor us pool goers.  

Saturday May 31^st The air temp barely got to 70 degrees but I still jumped in and knocked out a quick 44 laps along with some back floating and leg kicks in the  water before leaving.  Very few people braved the weather but I don’t want to waste a single day.

Sunday June 1^st Still cooler air temps but I still jumped in to do my laps.  Most of my fellow regulars (my summer family, if you will) were not on hand but I’ll catch up with them when the weather warms and we’re back as a group. I got in 50 laps and am starting to watch the time it takes to get my laps in. Today it only took me forty minutes which keeps me at a decent pace.

As luck would have it, air temps are expected to be in the high 80’s the next two days but I’ll be back in the classroom all week. Our required summer school session runs 5 days a week with the last day being June 30th. While I’d love to get in some water time after school, the only day that’s really feasible would be at the end of the week on Fridays.

But my limited time in the pool is O.K. in less than a month we’ll be on our break. Once on break, I plan to get my laps back up to 72 which is a mile and I’ll do all that in the morning, then do water walking and lounging in the sun in the afternoons. It’s not far away and I can wait it out doing weekend swim time until school is out.

Bottom line, it’s just good to be back in East End Pool!

NEXT BLOG- Remembering the first ever Summer blockbuster movie.