Month: September 2025

The summer is just about over…

With the sun setting on this current season, here’s how I spent my summer. 

I taught ESY (Extended School Year) from June 2^nd thru Monday June 30.^th Once we got sprung for our break, my days were spent at East End with my “Summer Family” of friends.  Early morning lap swims were done, then home to rest & write and then back for the mid—day water walking with a group of great folks. Our conversations ran from good places to shop and eat to TV shows, movies, sports, local goings on and anything else under the summer sun.  That sun left me well tanned as I used up two tubes of Banana Boat Sunscreen SPF 30.  My hours spent at the pool were the very best part of my summer.

One downside. Every year I invite a select group of friends to join me at East End Pool at their convenience as my guest via freebie passes that we get. Several said they were up for this but none took me up on that offer.  Oh well, maybe next year.  Then again, probably not.

Lap swimming at East End Pool was a daily thing for me, once I was on my 6 week break.

 I read two very good books.  “Mixed Blessings” written by William Christopher (he was Father Mulcahy on M*A*S*H) and his wife. The book was their history of raising an adopted son with Autism. This was many years ago, before much was known about Autism diagnosis and treatment.

My second book read was “When the Night Comes Falling” by Howard Blum.  This excellent true crime story covers almost everything tied to the murders of the four college students in Idaho.  Chilling and heartbreaking material from page one to the end. That book then got passed on to several of my swim pals.

Speaking of those young murder victims, the four part “One Night in Idaho” documentary series on Amazon Prime was equally gripping.  It was hard to watch, but I felt awful for those bright young murder victims. Their heartbroken families and friends deserved to be heard and yes, mourned.

A tragic real life story told so well.

I drifted into watching the raunchy eight-part series “The Hunting Wives” on Netflix along with “Trainwreck” documentaries “The Poop Cruise” and “The Balloon Boy.” “Amy Bradley is Missing” was another interesting documentary. CNN’s four-episode docuseries on the 40^th anniversary of “Live Aid: was well done and HBO’s two-part documentary on Billy Joel was so detailed and well told.  If you get the chance, check out “Billy Joel: And So it Goes” you’ll learn more about the Piano Man than was ever shared before.

Of course I watched loads of baseball. Mostly the Cubs and some White Sox contests along with a fun homerun derby and the mid—season All—Star Game. Somehow, I let a swim friend get me interested in “The Bachelor in Paradise” series.  Lots of lost dignity among the men and women on that show not to mention shamed viewers like me. 

Call it junk food for my brain, I will never get sucked into watching this cringeworthy series again.

The movie scene was weak.   I’m so done with sequels, re-makes, spin-offs and super hero movies.  There doesn’t seem to be any original ideas coming out of Hollywood.  I prefer films that are not made by computers and in front of green screens.  I did see a premiere of the popular movie “Weapons” which had a great premise but the film nose-dived into a slasher horror movie.

Cuisine wise, I enjoyed the new Steak—Burrito Mexican restaurant in Elmhurst a few times.  Fair prices and generous portions there.  I also made it to the new Yorky’s restaurant on St. Charles Road in Elmhurst and had a couple of great take-outs there including my first Yorky’s gyro in years which was incredible. Bad for the heart but good for the soul.

Thanks to talk-ups by my swim pals, I got reacquainted with two good stops in Villa Park; Kuppie’s Bakery and Mike’s Meat Market.  More tasty stuff from both places, reminded me to go there more often.

The late July reunion of us WLS AM 890 staffers was fantastic!  It was for those of us who worked there from 1960 thru 1985.  Great old stories, memories and reflections were on tap for the gathering.  Any of us who worked at the Rock of Chicago in its music heyday enjoyed a very rare privilege back then and at the reunion. 

Catching up with former co-worker John Records Landecker was just one highlight of being at the WLS reunion. Great fun for sure!

I did some tweaks to my media memoir “Raised on the Radio” and hope to self-publish that book next spring. (But you’ve heard that song before, so who the hell knows?) 

The summer time off goes too fast but this year it REALLY zipped by. There were things around the house I wanted to do but didn’t. There were changes in my personal habits that started to take place and then I quickly backslid and did not bounce back.

There’s an old saying that says teachers aren’t on summer break, they are in recovery.  I never believed that phrase but for me, this idea of just “recovering” from a very tough 24-25 school year was true!  Between my health issues (Detached retina, COVID, kidney stone) and a year that saw nine different students of mine get bounced from our school due to awful behaviors, recovery was as good as I could expect.  

Being a mainstay at East End Pool during the summer is a habit I’ll never break.

Overall, I’d great my whole summer as a ‘C+’. As I write this blog, there are 101 days left in 2025. I hope to make the best of them with better choices and possibly a good springboard into 2026.  And maybe next summer will be a better one for me.  We’ll see.

Mick Out

NEXT BLOG- When I know, you’ll know.

Whenever folks argue which band was better, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, I always answer The Who.  While I liked the Fab Four and Stones just fine, since middle school, the foursome from the Shepherd’s Bush section of London, England were my favorites.    

Fast forward to the fall of 1979 and The Who announced a U.S. concert tour.  For the Chicago date, 12/8/79, there was no sleeping out all night to line up for tickets as fans had to send in money orders and hope to be one of those who scored seats.  Those not selected in this lottery got their money orders sent back.  My friend Frank Bombino and I put in our money for a pair of tickets, followed the mailing directions and landed seats on the lower level of the Amphitheatre, twelve rows to the side of the stage.  I was pumped.  Earlier that summer, I saw “The Kids Are Alright” movie which showed lots of Who concert footage dating from the early 60’s through 1978 but now I was going to see the band live.  I could not wait for Saturday December 8^th.

Besides the mail-in lottery for tickets, this Chicago Who concert had an extra twist.  After the show easily sold out, plans were put in place for closed circuit simulcasts of the show in selected movie theatres in Chicago and the outlying suburbs. This was pretty much ‘pay per view’ before pay per view became a home TV operation.  After the concert-cast from the Amphitheatre, those who went to theatres were also shown the movie “Tommy.” 

ACTUAL PHOTO FROM THAT CONCERT ON 12/8/79. 

Five days before the Chicago concert, the tragedy in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Coliseum made national news. Eleven Who fans died and twenty-eight others were injured in what was a stampede of people rushing to get into the arena before the concert. Cincinnati’s show featured festival seating or a ‘first come, first serve’ situation and when not enough doors were opened to accommodate the crowd, tragic consequences took place.  Concern for the same thing happening in Chicago was alleviated by the fact that every one of the twelve thousand seats was reserved.  Still, the night of the show officials made sure every possible gate and door for entry was opened to prevent any crowd problems. 

 That night Frank and I took our seats in the raised part of the lower level which had a perfect side view of the stage about forty feet from the band.  We could also see part of the backstage area where a large video screen was set up to show folks hanging there what was being broadcast to the movie theatres.  This was a major event and years later I read it was one of Who manager Bill Curbishly’s proudest moments.  A chance to play one show but get it out to more than just the twelve thousand fans in the arena.  WLUP FM 97.9, or “The Loop” was the rock station presenting this show and well known air personality Mitch Michaels was the emcee for the night.

There was no opening act (no need for these guys) and as the house lights went dark you could hear thousands of fans screaming “Whooo!””Whooo!.”   From our vantage point, Frank and I could see the foursome make their way up the stage stairs before most others did and they got in position to kick the night off.  Lead singer Roger Daltrey stood in his center spot, leaned his torso back and waited for Pete Townshend to open with the chords to “Substitute” and the concert was up and running.  Daltrey swung his microphone hard and fast as “Substitute” segued into “Can’t Explain” and as that song ended Roger introduced the next by yelling “Out Here in the Fields!” With that they launched into an angry stomp of “Baba O’Riley.”  Name me any band that can match those three songs to start a show.  And good luck with that.

For the first time on a tour, The Who featured a keyboard player, John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick and playing on “Baba” was where we first heard and saw him. Townsend started up his trademark windmill swipes at his Fender telecaster and the place went bananas.  Entwistle’s bass thundered and Kenny Jones slammed away at his drums.  A couple of songs later Pete introduced a three piece brass section (saxophone, trombone and trumpet) which helped the group play more songs from “Quadrophenia” like “5:15” and a strong version of “Music Must Change” from “Who Are You.”  We also heard other classics like “Behind Blue Eyes”, “My Wife”, “My Generation”, “I Can See for Miles” and “Long Live Rock” to name a few. Keith Moon was gone and people argue that Kenny Jones wasn’t a great replacement for him but I thought the group as a whole was in great form. 

 During breaks between songs, band members took time to say hi to the fans watching the show in the movie theatres.  Daltrey, Townsend and Entwistle would give a shout out to a couple of locales each but they did a good job of focusing on the crowd in the Amphitheatre while camera operators kept positioning themselves to get the best views of the band in action.  At one point I saw Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen standing behind a stack of amps and handing Townsend one guitar while taking one that Pete handed to him.  Pete did a little in between song clowning acting as if the closed circuit was broadcast to the world and saying hi to family and friends back in England, including an uncle whom was “having his balls operated on.”  

 “Won’t get Fooled Again” closed the band’s set which included a large flash stage explosion as Daltrey belted out his last scream of that classic. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” live is one of those chaotic blow-outs with all players going full bore crazy.  The foursome came out for an extended encore with highlights being the brass backed “The Real Me” and a killer cover of Martha and the Vandellas “Dancing in the Street”.  Then Townsend led a medley of snippets that included “Dance it Away”, “Young Man Blues”, “I’m a Man” and a yet to be released “How Can You Do It Alone.”  The Who rocked out a total of twenty eight songs and as the four members stood together at the front of the stage to wave goodbye Roger Daltrey told the crowd, “We had a great time tonight, we REALLY did!”  I’m sure he often says this to fans but these guys really looked like they were having a blast doing this show.  I’ve seen The Who many times since but this virgin experience remains my favorite. 

The good news is because of the simulcast into movie theaterss, someone was smart enough to tap into that video feed and record the entire concert.  It’s one of the easiest to find video ‘bootlegs’ and I believe the whole night can still be watched on You Tube.  Trust me, fans of The Who will love seeing the whole group looking so young and vibrant as they played these classic songs with strong passion.  It’s great to watch on video but for a few lucky fans like me, there was nothing like seeing it in person.  Long live rock!  

  Next Blog- My Summer Review.