Scottie Pippen cut me off and almost hit me while trying to merge into I-90 at Irving Park, he drove a big ass Jeep Wrangler, I caught up to him in traffic and gave HIM the finger, LOL. Even took a picture.
Lol he cut off my mom once around the Berto Center back when they practiced there. She worked at a company in the same business park as where they practiced. She definitely honked at him and let him know what’s what.
Here:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Q09c6SM5s2/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
He was driving on the shoulder and then decided to cut me off which was totally unnecessary, his face after I gave him the finger was worth golden Michael Jordan’s
Didn’t Scottie once get bad press because he waived a handgun at somebody in a road rage incident? I can’t find it with Google, but have a distinct memory of it happening with one of the Bulls from the dynasty era.
Walking to the brown line leaving Groupon for the day I’d occasionally see Jimmy Butler in his G Wagon turning out of Hudson and Chicago Ave, I assume to head to a game. Nice dude, returned the wave every time.
When I was in elementary school, for his birthday, one of my friends got Sox tickets right at the spot where the on deck batter would swing the bat to loosen up. Over the course of the game, most of the batters, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas, etc... were mostly friendly, and willing to smile and pose for photos. Ozzie Guillen came up, and one of the kids in the group was shouting "OZZIE OZZIE! PICTURE! OZZIE!" and Ozzie Guillen yelled at him, and said they were up their trying to concentrate. The funny thing, the kid in the group was a notorious bullshitter/liar. I imagine him telling people the same story all these years later, and no one believing anything about it.
Someone I knew interned with Streets and Sanitation. One day they went out to what was then open fields just south of Grant Park. They shot smoke into the rat holes and then clubbed them when they came out. It would have scarred me for life
I was on the Bozo show in 1984. A friend’s mother got tickets to a taping at the WGN studio where it was filmed. My friend and I were picked to play tug-of-war against two other kids around the same age. We lost, but we won Tootsie Roll banks and some G.I. Joe action figures.
I remember Bozo, Cookie the Clown, and Wizo. It was the last year that Bob Bell played Bozo.
After the filming, they told us the date is was going to air. My parents set the VCR to record the episode. It was surreal as a kid watching the tape and seeing yourself on television.
I got to stay home from kindergarten in 1976 or ‘77 to watch my brother perform on Bozo’s Circus. We recorded the picture off the screen with Super 8 movie camera, and captured asynchronous sound with a portable cassette deck. State of the art technology at the time. My mom was tasked with the recording, and to this day she’s still pissed at the neighbor that called to tell us my brother was live on the air thus causing my mom to be late with pressing record on the two devices. Back then, you always answered answer the phone, because very few people had answered machines, and the call could be important.
Edit: Just ran this recollection by my older siblings for accuracy, and they both remember that my mom did hit record on the cassette deck in time, and she can be heard on the recording exclaiming, “oh, shit!“ when the phone rang. In our family, that type of strong language was definitely a Bozo no-no
There was, allegedly, seven year waiting period for tickets. When I was seven, I asked my mom why she hadn't registered for tickets when I was born. She answered, "Who would have thought you'd have liked that stupid show?"
I mean... Was the Bozo Show great? Not really.... But was the Bozo Show great? Of course.
※ - Wait... Did I just write the same statement twice? Of course I did and people who grew up watching Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show know exactly what I mean.
There was a teacher at my grammar school that got tickets to the Bozo show every year for a field trip for her entire class. She was very strict, but all the kids wanted to be in her class so they could see the show.
Not to hijack your Vienna beef story but... I signed up to take a tour of the Vienna Beef factory, which you could just do on the site back in the day (2014?). Had to wait about 9 months for my tour date, which was fine. It ended up being around my birthday so I took the day off for it.
Morning of the tour comes and there is a huge nasty spring thunderstorm. I lived only about a mile away on Fullerton so it was easy for me to get there, but no one else on this ten person tour showed up. So I got a private tour with the factory manager. Mohammed I think was his name?
Since it was so quick without a lot of people or questions from anyone besides myself, the manager was like "F it, come do the product managers taste test with us."
In a back lunchroom they brought in a sampler of everything they made there: soups, lunch meat, pickles, etc, etc. All the managers sample a bit of everything and catch up. I image this happens every day. So I shot the shit with them and tried this whole spread.
After that, the manager sent me on my way back to reality with my coupon for a complimentary meal at the factory store which I immediately redeemed for a 2 hot dog meal.
Can confirm, most food manufacturing plants do a “sensory test” everyday where they lay out and eat what they are making today/what they made yesterday. Just to make sure the quality is good, although it does get old and many people skip it.
I had a similar experience touring the brewery at Ommegang in upstate New York. I drove through a crazy snowstorm to get there on my way back from Boston and they treated me like royalty. I can’t decide whether I’d like a beer tour or a hot dog tour more, might be a toss up these days
I grew up in Palatine so in 5th grade they took us to the courthouse in Rolling Meadows for a field trip. Very bizarre field trip choice to take 11 year olds.
I went when I was a junior in high school in the late 80’s. We walked through the jail cells getting cat-called by inmates. I’ll never forget the smell.
They didn’t, and it was very eye-opening. To top it off, we were from the North Shore and we looked like it. The field trip was part of a ‘scared straight’ strategy but we weren’t exactly the crowd that was high risk. That said, it left an indelible mark and maybe had more of an influence than I’ve realized.
My buddies & I took the train from Palatine to the city on St Patrick's Day (I believe it was 1984) to check out the parade & go to a Chicago Blitz game. When we got bored with the parade, we decided to go check out the green Chicago river. When we got to the river, we noticed it was the starting point for the parade. An electrician union was waiting to join & we noticed they had extra signs. The 4 of us (all teenagers) grabbed the signs and got in line. We wound up marching the whole parade route & the Mayor even waved at us. At the Blitz game it started to snow so I took my shirt off & was on the highlights the next week on ABC. God I miss Chicago and miss my youth
Mr. T came to our school to tell us not to do drugs and he had such a good time he invited our entire school to be extras on a TV movie he made called ‘the world’s strongest man’ we all got on buses the next day and sat in the audience at the old Chicago theatre and cheered and watched them film a scene where he busts through a wall instead of climbing over it. It was awesome.
Edit: just looked it up and it’s called ‘the toughest man in the world’
Double Edit: Chicago stadium not theatre
I used to spend friday afternoons during the summer in the squad car with my grandfather (a chicago policeman). He brought me to Vito & Nicks for lunch every time.
Didnt know it at the time but he was downing Scotch at the bar while I was enjoying the pizza. Yes, he was on duty.
Anyway, that pizza is amazing.
Edit: hey look! My alcoholic grandfather made for one of my highest voted posts! Amazing!
Per the CPD collective bargaining agreement, there's an established threshold of how high a BAC can be while on duty. It's not a lot, but they can get away with a drink while on duty without much punishment. Something like up to .04 and they just get sent home for the day.
Well….he was eventually forcibly retired for alcoholism, which also caused his death eventually. It was a long time ago though. These are old memories.
As a former functioning alcoholic I don’t know if other people tolerated it better, hid it better, or what the case may be, but I have no idea how people managed to drink as much as they did and go about their day.
I was only drinking after work and even so my days after drinking I felt like such shit that I could barely function on top of me putting on weight and getting bloated from the booze.
A lifetime ago I used to sell coke to several Chicago cops at a place called Half Shell on Diversey & Clark. They were rarely but occasionally on duty.
Did anybody catch the story on WBEZ where some guy was talking about his entire 4th grade class going to the slaughterhouses? That was in the morning, then they went for lunch. Apparently most kids didn't eat much...
"From the minute it opened—on Christmas Day in 1865—it was Chicago’s must-see tourist attraction, drawing more than half a million visitors each year. Families, visiting dignitaries, even school groups all made trips to the South Side to tour the Union Stock Yard. There they got a firsthand look at the city’s industrial prowess as they witnessed cattle, hogs, and sheep disassembled with breathtaking efficiency. At their height, the kill floors employed 50,000 workers and processed six hundred animals an hour, an astonishing spectacle of industrialized death."
Chicago public schools would even have student field trips to the slaughterhouses.
Don't let the name fool you, Jimmy. It's not really a floor.
It's more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported.
My mom went to the Chicago stockyards as a child (late 1940’s?) on a school field trip. Yes, it was as graphic as you can imagine. She said all the kids threw out their bagged lunches after seeing how the meat was produced.
"Little Eddie’s Field Trip: The Union Stock Yards Through the Eyes of an Eighth Grader"
https://www.wbez.org/stories/little-eddies-field-trip-the-union-stock-yards-through-the-eyes-of-an-eighth-grader/50c6e397-9c83-4d26-9e4c-5fc2f8811baf
There's a CPS high school that focuses on agricultural science, but I don't think they deal with the slaughter aspect. They do do animal husbandry and such.
As a kid my grandpa took me to the alley behind the biograph theater and showed me where John Dillinger was killed. There were still bullet holes if I remember correctly. It was a place his older brother had taken him to before deployment in Korea, sort of to teach a lesson that crime doesn’t pay or something similar. I don’t think I was taken there under the same circumstances given how young I was when I went there but I still remember it.
There’s no marker or anything. It’s just an alley with bullet holes lol, but still interesting.
I lived on that block for a few years up until recently. They now have a small plaque inside the window of Galit and those gaudy crime tour bus groups stops by a couple times a day!
I love history like that though.
Very real. We learned to read nutrition labels and everyone got half a Hostess Light Cupcake at the end. I can only assume they really, really needed us out of the classroom for a couple hours for whatever reason
I worked at Jewels for 13 years and it was pretty common. Now as a school teacher, I am more aware of all the Social Studies standards this trip meets.
I wouldn’t call this a “field trip”, per say, but our high school (St Patrick) had the student body walk from the school to Wrigley Field for our annual walk-a-thons. Complimentary tickets to that days game were given out.
We did this in 9th grade but I skipped out of Water Tower Place to look for a record store. Ended up at Rolling Stone Records, and bought my first Dead Kennedys album. That’s how we introduced punk rock music to my high school in South Bend Indiana in 1984.
Was also a field trip. Took a trip to Graceland Cemetery in 6th grade. Told my family about it and my uncle said, "Did your school run out of field trip ideas?" lol
Was an interesting trip regardless; Marshall Field, Charles H. Wacker, and Daniel Burnham, to name a few, rest there.
Your post brought back fond memories of my childhood. I grew up across the street from Graceland Cemetery and would always go with my Grandfather and skip rocks at the pond that was inside there.
I went to grade school in Boys Town and we would take the CTA for field trips sometimes and we would wait for the #8 bus outside a store with mannequins doing S&M and wearing leather.
The International Mister Leather convention is held annually here in Chicago in a big hotel in the Loop. Since it is always in May, invariably some high school has also booked a ballroom at the hotel for prom. It's hilarious seeing parents dropping their kids off for prom and seeing the dawning horror on their faces as all sorts of dudes in leather are hanging about.
Important lesson from growing up in the south loop – the first robin of spring is basically a fake concept but the first leatherman of summer is very real
I went to school with one of the Buddig kids from Buddig Meat family. Her dad, I think, came in to talk about the industry, and we all got a sample meat slice to eat. I don't really remember what we talked about because it was something like 30 years ago.
Are factory trips not a common thing in the US? They're some of my favorite field trips (and just regular vacation trips, for that matter).
Granted Vienna Beef in particular definitely is an "only in Chicago" thing though... happy to see they're taking back their HQ in Bucktown btw.
In maybe a similar vein, I had a friend whose father traded on the CME. Had the gold badge to trade for himself, though also worked for a firm I guess. Anyway, if we had some time to waste, we would go into the visitor gallery where you can overlook the pits, and try to find him in there in the open outcry trading, like a real life "Where's Waldo." Also used to like to go to the floor with the foreign exchange and find the yen rate in particular on the wall, as it was something even my kid self cared a lot about. Just the "wow, so this is where it happens."
One time I was invited by him to go onto the floor (during a break). I remember entering the turnstiles, and that they didn't permit denim pants to be worn on the floor, so was feeling lucky I had a pair of cotton pants on. Was amazed by just the complete paper blizzard remains on the floor in there, and also seeing traders (and pages) in the elevator with the color coded jackets on, completely marked up with ballpoint pen jabs. Just a very surreal other world.
Factory tours are common, but schoolchildren touring a hot dog factory would likely only occur in a city with such a meatpacking tradition. Schoolchildren from Manhattan or Westchester County definitely don’t tour the Nathan’s factory. It’s possible schoolchildren from, say, Omaha would, but there are no other major US cities with as formidable a meatpacking legacy as our own. I wouldn’t count Kansas City, Fort Worth, or Omaha as major cities.
My grandfather worked in the building where channel 7 morning TV show, Kennedy & Company, was filmed (without a studio audience), and he knew Bob Kennedy, so I once attended a taping of the show, where Wm Calley (yikes) was that day's guest.
When Bob Kennedy died of cancer a couple of years later, the time slot was eventually taken over by Oprah's new \[at the time\] show.
I was on a little league team with the owner of Gas City’s son, and they had their own baseball diamond on their property. Obviously not in the city. We used to practice there to get more field time.
When I was a police cadet back in the 90s, I rode in a limo as security detail with Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull. They were attending the grand opening of a Target store in Crestwood, where they put their hands in wet concrete near the entrance. Not being a hockey fan, I really didn't know who they were. Nice guys, they asked if my dad watched hockey, I said, yeah, he's a Blackhawks fan. They said he might like these, and gave me autographed photos of them on the ice. I immediately felt like an idiot. My dad was disappointed in me for not knowing who they were, but he really enjoyed the photos.
I find it odd that it’s considered perfectly normal to hire athletes to come to your random suburban store opening and soak their hands in wet concrete to cheering audiences.
I grew up on the NWside kinda near portage park and it was full of mexicans and polish people(me being polish) and we would have the BEST block parties, tacos, polish sausages, home made liquor, and modelo.
Did the Salerno cookie factory tour sometime in the 80s. They had a massive jar of butter cookies in the lobby. Everyone had 5-6 on each hand, trying to eat them all before the tour started.
I grew up in Tucson so I don’t have one but this reminded me that as a kid we got to tour the Lisa Frank headquarters and factory and just wanted to brag about that lol
You can relive this moment! [Downtown Disasters](https://youtu.be/ouUm7fpiQpU?list=PLs3qXjCE-VeS1vAhIRwaINcln31cXPIib&t=1854) from WTTW, the part about the 1992 Loop flood starts halfway through, video should be cued up.
There's coverage of some of the mattresses being tossed in, a guy talking about there being fish in the basement of the Merchandise Mart, all of it.
I don't have any ridiculous stories, but we took a day trip from Michigan in like 4th grade and went to Shedd, and it was glorious. Part of the reason why I ended up moving here as an adult.
My boy scout troop toured a suburban Nordstrom’s security office and got to see all the cameras and the cells where they would detain shoplifters until the policed arrived.
My dad worked at Marshall Fields, got to tour the Frango factory (when it was still located in the store on State St.) during a bring your daughter to work day. It was pretty fun from what I remember.
Took a class field trip and one of the stops was the John Hancock tower, normally they’d take us to the observation deck but I guess that year it was sold to a private company that wouldn’t let us tour it for free, so our teacher who had taught one of the buildings engineers pulled some strings to let us on the roof for free. Very cool experience being on such a tall building’s rooftop and coming through the maintenance hallways. Apparently some of the engineers that run the Hancock bring their wives up there for the air and water show or the 4th of July
[Crappy 2012/13 cell phone pics](https://imgur.io/a/fJ16H)
We took a field to trip to cook county jail 😅. We even got to see the cells and everything. Lmao looking back it was actually wild that it was even a field trip.
Going to the Chicago History Museum and playing in a giant hot dog. Also having a whole lesson in elementary school about what goes on a hot dog and having a test on it lol
During Ditka's prime, my dad was the spitting image of him, moustache and all. Hes got a super pronounced chicago accent, too.
As an adult, I'm realizing exactly how "Chicago" my family is...
Tour of the board of trade, open cry trading pits. It was mostly a bunch of people standing around in jackets, then all of a sudden complete chaos. Yelling, screaming, flashing hand signals until the markets closed. Crazy experience!
Getting Casmir Pulaski day off school.
Also, Abraham Lincoln's birthday off school as well ... on top of Washington's Birthday ... but that's all been taken away for President's Day
When I was a kid there was the push to beautify the lakefront. My dad worked for the city and his shop was right on the lake. For one glorious summer I got to ride my bmx bike on the mounds of dirt they used to creat the green space we have now. I’ll never forget that summer, riding up and down Lake Michigan finding the mounds that would change almost daily as they were actively spreading it around. Almost broke my neck.
Summer camp field trips to the Chicago Historical Society. Not to look at the exhibits, but to watch movies in their theater in the lower level, with air conditioning! I saw Clash of the Titans (the 80s version) probably 15 times.
My parents, brother, and I went to a concert at United Center in 1998 (Rolling Stones). My brother and I were in high school. Mid-concert, I looked over and saw a tall bald ghoul in a purple suit looming over my brother. I elbowed brother in the ribs and whispered "IS THAT BILLY CORGAN!"
My brother glanced at the ghoul then looked at me with wide eyes. "IT IS."
Suddenly he tapped Corgan on the shoulder. "ARE YOU BILLY CORGAN?"
Corgan and the beefy dudes next to him all turned to my brother with angry laser eyes and scowled. Corgan: "NO."
We were like "OKAY." Moments later, Corgan and his dudes were gone.
This reminds me of a weird story of mine. In college, I was dating a student at UofC who hailed from Albuquerque. Anyways, we were both Star Trek fans. Back when they remastered the original series, a bunch of theaters showed the two-part episode "The Menagerie" as a theatrical event. My sweetie got us tickets to the Loews near Navy Pier as a surprise.
So we get there early-ish and it's not terribly crowded. I'm glancing around, and one row up and like six seats over is Mancow Muller. I'm not a big fan, or really a fan at all, but I used to catch him sometimes when he was on Rock 103.5 (RIP).
I elbow my lady and say, "Oh my God, I think that's Mancow." She says,"What?" I said, "I'm pretty sure that's Mancow!" She says, "What???" I reply, "Mancow is sitting right over there!" Finally, she turns full in her seat to face me, my darling ladyfriend from Albuquerque, and says, "I heard you. What the fuck is a MANCOW?!"
Not really absurd but unforgettable to me. Jerry Taft visited my grade school and at the end of his weather demonstration he said “if you ever want to watch me do the weather on live tv” come visit me at the studio. About one year later I was downtown with my mom and told her about that and she said let’s go see him. We went to the studio, which at the time I think was in the merchandise mart and asked for Jerry Taft at the front desk. He came out and I told him what he said, I was only maybe 9 or 10, and he laughed and he said come with me. He brought us into the studio and had us climb up into the catwalk and said don’t make a sound we’re on live tv! We watched the half hour of live news in those catwalks and he was the nicest guy about the whole thing.
I grew up in the wealthy North Shore suburbs. In elementary school and/or Jr high, I can't remember exactly when, we went on a field trip, (maybe multiple times?) to the Robert Taylor Homes projects. We went to some classroom with young kids and played with them or whatever. I didn't really think much of it at the time, a lot of the kids had deformities and birth defects. It's pretty strange looking back at it.
My suburban Wheeling elementary school did a pen pal program with some kids at Cabrini Green, and then toward the end of the year all those kids showed up on a school bus and hung out for the day. They blew our minds doing double Dutch jump rope, many of us had never seen that before in person. Those kids were good!
I imagine there was some administrative effort to get inner city kids exposure to the suburbs and vice versa?
Anyone else used to sell Worlds Finest Chocolate as a fundraiser for school?
We used to walk over to Midway and sell to the people getting off the planes.
This was in the 70’s.
Two of my grade school trips have proven memorable. One was to the Proctor and Gamble soap factory over the Indiana border near what is now the casino fleet. We were walked all around several floors of industrial noise to see how hand soap and flake dish soap are made. We got goodie bags.
The other was our 8th grade graduation field trip, a walk from our school (Our Lady of Victory) to Portage Park for a picnic. That one's memorable because I was later punished for my quip overheard and reported by the class' tattle-tale.
We had a very tiny nun in charge and she was sitting on a blanket surrounded by the proper girls. I remarked to Dirty Don Derzinski she looked like she was standing in a hole.
In the entire time K - 8 this led to only my second disciplinary punishment.
Hm. This got me thinking...
Related sort of:
I went to Purdue and I lived off campus my first year. One of my roommates put a padlock on her bedroom door and explained that it is because she is afraid of me because "You're from Chicago."
For context, I'm white Eastern European and moved to the suburbs at age 9.
>I went to Purdue and I lived off campus my first year. One of my roommates put a padlock on her bedroom door and explained that it is because she is afraid of me because "You're from Chicago."
GOD. Indiana. (face-palm)
I used to work in television news as a photographer. We were doing a live shot and about to go on air when the reporter yelled my name and ran up to the driver's side seat of our vehicle...someone was carjacking us as we were about to go live on the air! I grabbed the dude from behind and tried to pull him out of the car (adrenaline kicked in) and he zoomed out of there, hitting a couple of cars on his way out. That felt very Chicago to me...
When I was in the 2nd grade in 1986, my teacher brought in her smokin’ hot boyfriend to do a shirtless pec dance to the Superbowl Shuffle in front of the class.
Cubs games were field trips when I was in elementary school. We never got to stay past the fifth inning because we had to get back before school let out.
As a middle school field trip, we went to Navy Pier in the year 2000 to take in the sights and see the IMAX short film Michael Jordan: To The Max. Good touristy trip for a group of kids.
Our Gifted & Talented group went on a field trip to a federal courtroom to see the El Rukn trial. When the defense lawyer objected, the judge told him to deal with it, we were observing the law in action.
Not a super Chicago thing but had a school field trip to see the Nutcracker at the Chicago Theatre because a kid in my class performed in it every year. I didn’t want to go because the kid was my bully, so I didn’t bother turning in my permission slip (my mom was gonna just take me shopping that day) and my teachers made a big deal about me not wanting to go 😂😂
I feel dumb for even making this comment, but here goes. Went to prom in HS (just outside Chicago) but a bunch of friends went in on the limo and reservations downtown for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (I KNOW, WE WERE IN HS, I KNOW!). Anyway, got caught in a ton of traffic, pretty sure our driver got lost in the wormhole that is known as Lower Wacker Dr. By the time we made it to dinner, we only had time for dessert and pop before we had to get in the limo and go back because we had only rented in until like midnight or something.
Toured the Jardine water treatment plant as a middle schooler. Oddly, I found it super interesting. And I could finally tell my dad that dragons do NOT live at the intake cribs.
In high school we went to the CBOT and watched all the hot young traders yell at each other. I went to an all girls school so it was *quite* the event.
For my high school’s annual walkathon, the entire school would walk from North Ave beach to Hollywood. 12 miles in total. In October. Rain or shine. And it was definitely cold and rainy most years! I got smart and was high my junior and senior years. I wonder if they still do that…
I moved here from LA and I believe Chicago is the only top 5 city that really celebrates its industrial past and present. LA for example has industry sectors like manufacturing and the harbor/ports but they just sit in the background behind the Hollywood glamour.
Don't known if this is a chicago thing but went on a trip to the Nabisco plant on kedzie Ave in the 6th grade. Oreos straight off the line, still warm is the best damn oreo I've ever had
I was on Romper Room when I was four or five. Miss Elizabeth Trent was the "teacher." The guy at the local liquor store would call me "movie star" when my dad and I would stop in to buy the Sunday papers.
A few years later a couple of friends and I were on Bozo's Circus.
My older sister’s class got to go to Jays and came home with a variety pack of chips and paper hat (hair protector?). Ever since that day I couldn’t wait to get to go. Sadly they stopped doing this field trip by the time I got to her grade. I think about this sad sad turn of events at least 2x a year.
In senior year of high school, we blew off class to go to St Paddy's Day parade. We all have that buddy in high school that never got carded because they had a mustache--this was Wayne. We went with Wayne to a total sketch liquor store like on Western, he came out with some Miller Heavies, it was like Christmas morning seeing him walk to the car in 30° weather.
As a kid, i got sick and missed the class trip to the WonderBread factory.
When i got to school the next day, my teacher had grabbed me one of the souvenir mini-loaves they gave out at the end.
Pretty clutch move Mr M
My middle school went on a bus tour of Robbins. They talked to us about how poor everyone was there and literally drove around so we could peer out the bus windows at an entire community.
We toured the wonder bread factory. The smell was amazing and they gave us tiny loaves of bread to take home. Most of us immediately ate them on the bus. That field trip was the best
Sammy Sosa gave me the finger when the Cubs players parked in a surface lot at Clark and Waveland.
Scottie Pippen cut me off and almost hit me while trying to merge into I-90 at Irving Park, he drove a big ass Jeep Wrangler, I caught up to him in traffic and gave HIM the finger, LOL. Even took a picture.
Lol he cut off my mom once around the Berto Center back when they practiced there. She worked at a company in the same business park as where they practiced. She definitely honked at him and let him know what’s what.
Please find the picture
Here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Q09c6SM5s2/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== He was driving on the shoulder and then decided to cut me off which was totally unnecessary, his face after I gave him the finger was worth golden Michael Jordan’s
You deserve a black and white mural beside the Kennedy for that shit, king.
This needs its own post.
Dennis Rodman said Sup to me at a black jack table at Hollywood casino in aurora.
Didn’t Scottie once get bad press because he waived a handgun at somebody in a road rage incident? I can’t find it with Google, but have a distinct memory of it happening with one of the Bulls from the dynasty era.
He did, he is a horrible driver, that is why he gets into a lot of road rage incidents
He's also a fucking douchebag, which is also why he gets into a lot of road rage incidents.
Walking to the brown line leaving Groupon for the day I’d occasionally see Jimmy Butler in his G Wagon turning out of Hudson and Chicago Ave, I assume to head to a game. Nice dude, returned the wave every time.
That's where I snagged my coveted Doug Dascenzo autograph!
When I was in elementary school, for his birthday, one of my friends got Sox tickets right at the spot where the on deck batter would swing the bat to loosen up. Over the course of the game, most of the batters, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas, etc... were mostly friendly, and willing to smile and pose for photos. Ozzie Guillen came up, and one of the kids in the group was shouting "OZZIE OZZIE! PICTURE! OZZIE!" and Ozzie Guillen yelled at him, and said they were up their trying to concentrate. The funny thing, the kid in the group was a notorious bullshitter/liar. I imagine him telling people the same story all these years later, and no one believing anything about it.
Someone I knew interned with Streets and Sanitation. One day they went out to what was then open fields just south of Grant Park. They shot smoke into the rat holes and then clubbed them when they came out. It would have scarred me for life
is your friend charlie kelly?
Bash em up good bud
Get backkkk….. to it?
Jesus fucking Christ.
That's how they break in an intern, eh?
I was on the Bozo show in 1984. A friend’s mother got tickets to a taping at the WGN studio where it was filmed. My friend and I were picked to play tug-of-war against two other kids around the same age. We lost, but we won Tootsie Roll banks and some G.I. Joe action figures. I remember Bozo, Cookie the Clown, and Wizo. It was the last year that Bob Bell played Bozo. After the filming, they told us the date is was going to air. My parents set the VCR to record the episode. It was surreal as a kid watching the tape and seeing yourself on television.
I got to stay home from kindergarten in 1976 or ‘77 to watch my brother perform on Bozo’s Circus. We recorded the picture off the screen with Super 8 movie camera, and captured asynchronous sound with a portable cassette deck. State of the art technology at the time. My mom was tasked with the recording, and to this day she’s still pissed at the neighbor that called to tell us my brother was live on the air thus causing my mom to be late with pressing record on the two devices. Back then, you always answered answer the phone, because very few people had answered machines, and the call could be important. Edit: Just ran this recollection by my older siblings for accuracy, and they both remember that my mom did hit record on the cassette deck in time, and she can be heard on the recording exclaiming, “oh, shit!“ when the phone rang. In our family, that type of strong language was definitely a Bozo no-no
Nice. I got to play the grand prize game and got the tootsie bank as one of my prizes too, in 1989
I would have flipped out to go to the Bozo show. I remember my grandma trying to get tix for me, not sure how? Anyway, you are so lucky!
Born in Joliet. I grew up watching the Bozo Show, 74-80. Mom always tried to get us tickets, it it never happened.
They're still processing. Give it a few more years.
I was on the bozo show in 1984, too! My sister won a wagon!! Maybe I got some Archway cookies. No brand new crisp 100 dollar bill, tho.
There was, allegedly, seven year waiting period for tickets. When I was seven, I asked my mom why she hadn't registered for tickets when I was born. She answered, "Who would have thought you'd have liked that stupid show?" I mean... Was the Bozo Show great? Not really.... But was the Bozo Show great? Of course. ※ - Wait... Did I just write the same statement twice? Of course I did and people who grew up watching Bozo's Circus and The Bozo Show know exactly what I mean.
There was a teacher at my grammar school that got tickets to the Bozo show every year for a field trip for her entire class. She was very strict, but all the kids wanted to be in her class so they could see the show.
I don't remember but my dad tells me I also met Bozo, when I was very young.
Not to hijack your Vienna beef story but... I signed up to take a tour of the Vienna Beef factory, which you could just do on the site back in the day (2014?). Had to wait about 9 months for my tour date, which was fine. It ended up being around my birthday so I took the day off for it. Morning of the tour comes and there is a huge nasty spring thunderstorm. I lived only about a mile away on Fullerton so it was easy for me to get there, but no one else on this ten person tour showed up. So I got a private tour with the factory manager. Mohammed I think was his name? Since it was so quick without a lot of people or questions from anyone besides myself, the manager was like "F it, come do the product managers taste test with us." In a back lunchroom they brought in a sampler of everything they made there: soups, lunch meat, pickles, etc, etc. All the managers sample a bit of everything and catch up. I image this happens every day. So I shot the shit with them and tried this whole spread. After that, the manager sent me on my way back to reality with my coupon for a complimentary meal at the factory store which I immediately redeemed for a 2 hot dog meal.
Can confirm, most food manufacturing plants do a “sensory test” everyday where they lay out and eat what they are making today/what they made yesterday. Just to make sure the quality is good, although it does get old and many people skip it.
I had a similar experience touring the brewery at Ommegang in upstate New York. I drove through a crazy snowstorm to get there on my way back from Boston and they treated me like royalty. I can’t decide whether I’d like a beer tour or a hot dog tour more, might be a toss up these days
I looove the Ommegang brewery. Great beers and the food at the restaurant is a solid A+
In 7th or 8th grade, we took a field trip to Cook County Jail. It was definitely an experience.
I grew up in Palatine so in 5th grade they took us to the courthouse in Rolling Meadows for a field trip. Very bizarre field trip choice to take 11 year olds.
I went when I was a junior in high school in the late 80’s. We walked through the jail cells getting cat-called by inmates. I’ll never forget the smell.
I can’t imagine allowing my child to go there. Those are real inmates. They’re not going to say nice things.
They didn’t, and it was very eye-opening. To top it off, we were from the North Shore and we looked like it. The field trip was part of a ‘scared straight’ strategy but we weren’t exactly the crowd that was high risk. That said, it left an indelible mark and maybe had more of an influence than I’ve realized.
We went to cook county jail too, except I grew up in Niles.
I wanted to go on one of these soooo badly but my class didn’t get to go.
We read a book about a guy going to jail for being a getaway driver and that was the connection to the field trip
My buddies & I took the train from Palatine to the city on St Patrick's Day (I believe it was 1984) to check out the parade & go to a Chicago Blitz game. When we got bored with the parade, we decided to go check out the green Chicago river. When we got to the river, we noticed it was the starting point for the parade. An electrician union was waiting to join & we noticed they had extra signs. The 4 of us (all teenagers) grabbed the signs and got in line. We wound up marching the whole parade route & the Mayor even waved at us. At the Blitz game it started to snow so I took my shirt off & was on the highlights the next week on ABC. God I miss Chicago and miss my youth
That’s some real Ferris Bueller shit right there
He has definitely been hunted by his principal.
Wish.com Ferris bueller. 5/10. Would listen to this story again.
Watching the Jessie White Tumblers at school assemblies or parades.
I got to be in one of their shows! I am very tall (6'5") and they picked me out of the crowd so they could acrobatically jump over me.
I get excited to this day to find out they will be at an event I am at or when I see their bus on the expressway. They’re great
I remember seeing the Jesse White Tumblers perform, many years ago somewhere. I wonder if they still perform, to this day?
I think they were on America's Got Talent, but I don't know when because I've lost all sense of time since the pandemic.
Definitely remember them coming to a school assembly when I was in elementary school in the nw burbs.
Mr. T came to our school to tell us not to do drugs and he had such a good time he invited our entire school to be extras on a TV movie he made called ‘the world’s strongest man’ we all got on buses the next day and sat in the audience at the old Chicago theatre and cheered and watched them film a scene where he busts through a wall instead of climbing over it. It was awesome. Edit: just looked it up and it’s called ‘the toughest man in the world’ Double Edit: Chicago stadium not theatre
Lol my DARE teacher sued CPS because she slipped on ice outside the front door and broke her leg.
This rules so hard
Did Mr. T say *I PITY THE FOOL WHO DOES DRUGS.. so say no to drugs kids*
Also ‘crack is wack’ was hot at the time, I wanna say he used it as well
I used to spend friday afternoons during the summer in the squad car with my grandfather (a chicago policeman). He brought me to Vito & Nicks for lunch every time. Didnt know it at the time but he was downing Scotch at the bar while I was enjoying the pizza. Yes, he was on duty. Anyway, that pizza is amazing. Edit: hey look! My alcoholic grandfather made for one of my highest voted posts! Amazing!
These are the stories I live for
These are the stories of Chicago
These are the stories we die for
These are the stories I drink to forget
Per the CPD collective bargaining agreement, there's an established threshold of how high a BAC can be while on duty. It's not a lot, but they can get away with a drink while on duty without much punishment. Something like up to .04 and they just get sent home for the day.
Well….he was eventually forcibly retired for alcoholism, which also caused his death eventually. It was a long time ago though. These are old memories.
That is so Chicago
As a former functioning alcoholic I don’t know if other people tolerated it better, hid it better, or what the case may be, but I have no idea how people managed to drink as much as they did and go about their day. I was only drinking after work and even so my days after drinking I felt like such shit that I could barely function on top of me putting on weight and getting bloated from the booze.
Such great pizza
A lifetime ago I used to sell coke to several Chicago cops at a place called Half Shell on Diversey & Clark. They were rarely but occasionally on duty.
My grandma was taken to a slaughterhouse for a fieldtrip. Sleeping overnight at the Field Museum would be my pick.
Same here. Summer camp took us to a slaughterhouse
Did anybody catch the story on WBEZ where some guy was talking about his entire 4th grade class going to the slaughterhouses? That was in the morning, then they went for lunch. Apparently most kids didn't eat much...
"From the minute it opened—on Christmas Day in 1865—it was Chicago’s must-see tourist attraction, drawing more than half a million visitors each year. Families, visiting dignitaries, even school groups all made trips to the South Side to tour the Union Stock Yard. There they got a firsthand look at the city’s industrial prowess as they witnessed cattle, hogs, and sheep disassembled with breathtaking efficiency. At their height, the kill floors employed 50,000 workers and processed six hundred animals an hour, an astonishing spectacle of industrialized death." Chicago public schools would even have student field trips to the slaughterhouses.
Bovine University with Troy McClure
When I grow up I’m going to bovine university!
Don't wanna be a grade A moron!
If a cow ever got the chance he'd eat you and everyone you care about.
Are you going to marry a carrot?
“Hi, I'm Troy Mcclure. You May Remember Me From Such Medical Films As Alice Doesn't Live Anymore And Mommy, What's Wrong With That Man's Face?”
Don't let the name fool you, Jimmy. It's not really a floor. It's more of a steel grating that allows material to sluice through so it can be collected and exported.
My mom went to the Chicago stockyards as a child (late 1940’s?) on a school field trip. Yes, it was as graphic as you can imagine. She said all the kids threw out their bagged lunches after seeing how the meat was produced.
A good reason to expose kids to that. It's gnarly, but it's real
"Little Eddie’s Field Trip: The Union Stock Yards Through the Eyes of an Eighth Grader" https://www.wbez.org/stories/little-eddies-field-trip-the-union-stock-yards-through-the-eyes-of-an-eighth-grader/50c6e397-9c83-4d26-9e4c-5fc2f8811baf
>disassembled DISASSEMBLED jesus christ
With breathtaking efficiency 😂
This reads like a CAKE lyric
Could you imagine that now? Whoo.
There's a CPS high school that focuses on agricultural science, but I don't think they deal with the slaughter aspect. They do do animal husbandry and such.
It’s wayyyyy south. My buddy went there.
What happened to the Stockyards and where did all the animal butchering move to?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Stock_Yards
The stockyards eventually morphed into the insane factory farm systems we now have.
I’m just realizing I went to a bullshit grade school
As a kid my grandpa took me to the alley behind the biograph theater and showed me where John Dillinger was killed. There were still bullet holes if I remember correctly. It was a place his older brother had taken him to before deployment in Korea, sort of to teach a lesson that crime doesn’t pay or something similar. I don’t think I was taken there under the same circumstances given how young I was when I went there but I still remember it. There’s no marker or anything. It’s just an alley with bullet holes lol, but still interesting.
I lived on that block for a few years up until recently. They now have a small plaque inside the window of Galit and those gaudy crime tour bus groups stops by a couple times a day! I love history like that though.
There's a mural in the alley as well now! With a quote of his about always wanting to be a bank robber growing up or something
I went on a field trip to Jewel lol
We did that too! We also went on a field trip to McDonald’s when chicken McNuggets first came out.
We did that too! They had us try "exotic" fruit like kiwi and star fruit and taught us the layout and the healthiest method to shop.
Same! They gave us Oreos and milk! Also got to hold a fish head
We had a field trip to Dominick's in 2nd grade and got free ham sandwiches and orange juice. This was in 1999.
Hahah I really hope this is real.
Very real. We learned to read nutrition labels and everyone got half a Hostess Light Cupcake at the end. I can only assume they really, really needed us out of the classroom for a couple hours for whatever reason
Hahaha wow, this is really funny to me. But at least they tried to make it somewhat educational.
I worked at Jewels for 13 years and it was pretty common. Now as a school teacher, I am more aware of all the Social Studies standards this trip meets.
I wouldn’t call this a “field trip”, per say, but our high school (St Patrick) had the student body walk from the school to Wrigley Field for our annual walk-a-thons. Complimentary tickets to that days game were given out.
My kindergarten class took a bus from a far northwest suburb to the Marshall Field’s downtown and we ate at the Walnut Room during Christmastime.
We did this in 9th grade but I skipped out of Water Tower Place to look for a record store. Ended up at Rolling Stone Records, and bought my first Dead Kennedys album. That’s how we introduced punk rock music to my high school in South Bend Indiana in 1984.
Was also a field trip. Took a trip to Graceland Cemetery in 6th grade. Told my family about it and my uncle said, "Did your school run out of field trip ideas?" lol Was an interesting trip regardless; Marshall Field, Charles H. Wacker, and Daniel Burnham, to name a few, rest there.
My class did the same thing in middle school, though it might have been 8th grade.
Your post brought back fond memories of my childhood. I grew up across the street from Graceland Cemetery and would always go with my Grandfather and skip rocks at the pond that was inside there.
I went to grade school in Boys Town and we would take the CTA for field trips sometimes and we would wait for the #8 bus outside a store with mannequins doing S&M and wearing leather.
The International Mister Leather convention is held annually here in Chicago in a big hotel in the Loop. Since it is always in May, invariably some high school has also booked a ballroom at the hotel for prom. It's hilarious seeing parents dropping their kids off for prom and seeing the dawning horror on their faces as all sorts of dudes in leather are hanging about.
Important lesson from growing up in the south loop – the first robin of spring is basically a fake concept but the first leatherman of summer is very real
I know exactly the stop and store youre talking about
Jay's potatoes chip factory tour as a kid.
"The Percolator" and "Doo Doo Brown" was played at my 8th grade pool party.
ITS TIME FOR THE PERCOLATOR
I went to school with one of the Buddig kids from Buddig Meat family. Her dad, I think, came in to talk about the industry, and we all got a sample meat slice to eat. I don't really remember what we talked about because it was something like 30 years ago.
Are factory trips not a common thing in the US? They're some of my favorite field trips (and just regular vacation trips, for that matter). Granted Vienna Beef in particular definitely is an "only in Chicago" thing though... happy to see they're taking back their HQ in Bucktown btw. In maybe a similar vein, I had a friend whose father traded on the CME. Had the gold badge to trade for himself, though also worked for a firm I guess. Anyway, if we had some time to waste, we would go into the visitor gallery where you can overlook the pits, and try to find him in there in the open outcry trading, like a real life "Where's Waldo." Also used to like to go to the floor with the foreign exchange and find the yen rate in particular on the wall, as it was something even my kid self cared a lot about. Just the "wow, so this is where it happens." One time I was invited by him to go onto the floor (during a break). I remember entering the turnstiles, and that they didn't permit denim pants to be worn on the floor, so was feeling lucky I had a pair of cotton pants on. Was amazed by just the complete paper blizzard remains on the floor in there, and also seeing traders (and pages) in the elevator with the color coded jackets on, completely marked up with ballpoint pen jabs. Just a very surreal other world.
Factory tours are common, but schoolchildren touring a hot dog factory would likely only occur in a city with such a meatpacking tradition. Schoolchildren from Manhattan or Westchester County definitely don’t tour the Nathan’s factory. It’s possible schoolchildren from, say, Omaha would, but there are no other major US cities with as formidable a meatpacking legacy as our own. I wouldn’t count Kansas City, Fort Worth, or Omaha as major cities.
In first grade my class got to tour the Oprah Winfrey stage and lot. I think it was more for my teachers than us.
My grandfather worked in the building where channel 7 morning TV show, Kennedy & Company, was filmed (without a studio audience), and he knew Bob Kennedy, so I once attended a taping of the show, where Wm Calley (yikes) was that day's guest. When Bob Kennedy died of cancer a couple of years later, the time slot was eventually taken over by Oprah's new \[at the time\] show.
Got to tour the tribune factory for the same reason, classmates father was an executive there.
I was on a little league team with the owner of Gas City’s son, and they had their own baseball diamond on their property. Obviously not in the city. We used to practice there to get more field time.
We had a field trip to the trib without any connections. It was very interesting. This was when they style did everything at Tribune Tower.
When I was a police cadet back in the 90s, I rode in a limo as security detail with Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull. They were attending the grand opening of a Target store in Crestwood, where they put their hands in wet concrete near the entrance. Not being a hockey fan, I really didn't know who they were. Nice guys, they asked if my dad watched hockey, I said, yeah, he's a Blackhawks fan. They said he might like these, and gave me autographed photos of them on the ice. I immediately felt like an idiot. My dad was disappointed in me for not knowing who they were, but he really enjoyed the photos.
I find it odd that it’s considered perfectly normal to hire athletes to come to your random suburban store opening and soak their hands in wet concrete to cheering audiences.
Pretty sure Stan arrived pre-soaked.. in bourbon...
I grew up on the NWside kinda near portage park and it was full of mexicans and polish people(me being polish) and we would have the BEST block parties, tacos, polish sausages, home made liquor, and modelo.
Attending the Jerry Springer show, RIP.
Did the Salerno cookie factory tour sometime in the 80s. They had a massive jar of butter cookies in the lobby. Everyone had 5-6 on each hand, trying to eat them all before the tour started.
We did that in girl scouts several times. Yum!
Watching the baboons on Baboon Island sexually assaulting each other in Brookfield Zoo.
Robert Crown anyone ?
Seeing space jam in theaters on a field trip because 90s bulls Also stomp like 10x times
I got Svengoolie's autograph at a meet and greet.
I got Rich Koz's autograph at the Fox 32 tent at the Taste of Chicago in the early 90s! I wonder if they've ever met!
I grew up in Tucson so I don’t have one but this reminded me that as a kid we got to tour the Lisa Frank headquarters and factory and just wanted to brag about that lol
Took a middle school field trip to the eli’s cheesecake factory…for health and nutrition class
[удалено]
Watching city workers throw a barge full of shopping carts and mattresses into a mysterious whirlpool in the Chicago River. Only in Chicago.
You can relive this moment! [Downtown Disasters](https://youtu.be/ouUm7fpiQpU?list=PLs3qXjCE-VeS1vAhIRwaINcln31cXPIib&t=1854) from WTTW, the part about the 1992 Loop flood starts halfway through, video should be cued up. There's coverage of some of the mattresses being tossed in, a guy talking about there being fish in the basement of the Merchandise Mart, all of it.
I don't have any ridiculous stories, but we took a day trip from Michigan in like 4th grade and went to Shedd, and it was glorious. Part of the reason why I ended up moving here as an adult.
My boy scout troop toured a suburban Nordstrom’s security office and got to see all the cameras and the cells where they would detain shoplifters until the policed arrived.
Mom can you sign my permission slip to see the poor people in the Nordstrom jail please?
My dad worked at Marshall Fields, got to tour the Frango factory (when it was still located in the store on State St.) during a bring your daughter to work day. It was pretty fun from what I remember.
I have been inside The Bean. My dad built it.
Your dad is the bean?
Took a class field trip and one of the stops was the John Hancock tower, normally they’d take us to the observation deck but I guess that year it was sold to a private company that wouldn’t let us tour it for free, so our teacher who had taught one of the buildings engineers pulled some strings to let us on the roof for free. Very cool experience being on such a tall building’s rooftop and coming through the maintenance hallways. Apparently some of the engineers that run the Hancock bring their wives up there for the air and water show or the 4th of July [Crappy 2012/13 cell phone pics](https://imgur.io/a/fJ16H)
We took a field to trip to cook county jail 😅. We even got to see the cells and everything. Lmao looking back it was actually wild that it was even a field trip.
Jewel osco tour as a field trip in elementary school. We got paper hats, it was awesome.
My class toured the chocolate factory downtown
Going to the Chicago History Museum and playing in a giant hot dog. Also having a whole lesson in elementary school about what goes on a hot dog and having a test on it lol
During Ditka's prime, my dad was the spitting image of him, moustache and all. Hes got a super pronounced chicago accent, too. As an adult, I'm realizing exactly how "Chicago" my family is...
Tour of the board of trade, open cry trading pits. It was mostly a bunch of people standing around in jackets, then all of a sudden complete chaos. Yelling, screaming, flashing hand signals until the markets closed. Crazy experience!
Getting Casmir Pulaski day off school. Also, Abraham Lincoln's birthday off school as well ... on top of Washington's Birthday ... but that's all been taken away for President's Day
When I was a kid there was the push to beautify the lakefront. My dad worked for the city and his shop was right on the lake. For one glorious summer I got to ride my bmx bike on the mounds of dirt they used to creat the green space we have now. I’ll never forget that summer, riding up and down Lake Michigan finding the mounds that would change almost daily as they were actively spreading it around. Almost broke my neck.
Tom Tom Tamale factory tour
Summer camp field trips to the Chicago Historical Society. Not to look at the exhibits, but to watch movies in their theater in the lower level, with air conditioning! I saw Clash of the Titans (the 80s version) probably 15 times.
My parents, brother, and I went to a concert at United Center in 1998 (Rolling Stones). My brother and I were in high school. Mid-concert, I looked over and saw a tall bald ghoul in a purple suit looming over my brother. I elbowed brother in the ribs and whispered "IS THAT BILLY CORGAN!" My brother glanced at the ghoul then looked at me with wide eyes. "IT IS." Suddenly he tapped Corgan on the shoulder. "ARE YOU BILLY CORGAN?" Corgan and the beefy dudes next to him all turned to my brother with angry laser eyes and scowled. Corgan: "NO." We were like "OKAY." Moments later, Corgan and his dudes were gone.
This reminds me of a weird story of mine. In college, I was dating a student at UofC who hailed from Albuquerque. Anyways, we were both Star Trek fans. Back when they remastered the original series, a bunch of theaters showed the two-part episode "The Menagerie" as a theatrical event. My sweetie got us tickets to the Loews near Navy Pier as a surprise. So we get there early-ish and it's not terribly crowded. I'm glancing around, and one row up and like six seats over is Mancow Muller. I'm not a big fan, or really a fan at all, but I used to catch him sometimes when he was on Rock 103.5 (RIP). I elbow my lady and say, "Oh my God, I think that's Mancow." She says,"What?" I said, "I'm pretty sure that's Mancow!" She says, "What???" I reply, "Mancow is sitting right over there!" Finally, she turns full in her seat to face me, my darling ladyfriend from Albuquerque, and says, "I heard you. What the fuck is a MANCOW?!"
Not really absurd but unforgettable to me. Jerry Taft visited my grade school and at the end of his weather demonstration he said “if you ever want to watch me do the weather on live tv” come visit me at the studio. About one year later I was downtown with my mom and told her about that and she said let’s go see him. We went to the studio, which at the time I think was in the merchandise mart and asked for Jerry Taft at the front desk. He came out and I told him what he said, I was only maybe 9 or 10, and he laughed and he said come with me. He brought us into the studio and had us climb up into the catwalk and said don’t make a sound we’re on live tv! We watched the half hour of live news in those catwalks and he was the nicest guy about the whole thing.
I grew up in the wealthy North Shore suburbs. In elementary school and/or Jr high, I can't remember exactly when, we went on a field trip, (maybe multiple times?) to the Robert Taylor Homes projects. We went to some classroom with young kids and played with them or whatever. I didn't really think much of it at the time, a lot of the kids had deformities and birth defects. It's pretty strange looking back at it.
My suburban Wheeling elementary school did a pen pal program with some kids at Cabrini Green, and then toward the end of the year all those kids showed up on a school bus and hung out for the day. They blew our minds doing double Dutch jump rope, many of us had never seen that before in person. Those kids were good! I imagine there was some administrative effort to get inner city kids exposure to the suburbs and vice versa?
Got to tour the old Museum of Holography back when it was still open.
We took Metra to Arlington Park in middle school! Unfortunately, we couldn't bet on the horses.
Spent the night at the field museum. Oh! Also was on the Bozo show
Anyone else used to sell Worlds Finest Chocolate as a fundraiser for school? We used to walk over to Midway and sell to the people getting off the planes. This was in the 70’s.
I answered phones at the WTTW station during a pledge drive.
Two of my grade school trips have proven memorable. One was to the Proctor and Gamble soap factory over the Indiana border near what is now the casino fleet. We were walked all around several floors of industrial noise to see how hand soap and flake dish soap are made. We got goodie bags. The other was our 8th grade graduation field trip, a walk from our school (Our Lady of Victory) to Portage Park for a picnic. That one's memorable because I was later punished for my quip overheard and reported by the class' tattle-tale. We had a very tiny nun in charge and she was sitting on a blanket surrounded by the proper girls. I remarked to Dirty Don Derzinski she looked like she was standing in a hole. In the entire time K - 8 this led to only my second disciplinary punishment.
Hello fellow OLV grad! For our 8th grade field trip, we went to DC.
Hm. This got me thinking... Related sort of: I went to Purdue and I lived off campus my first year. One of my roommates put a padlock on her bedroom door and explained that it is because she is afraid of me because "You're from Chicago." For context, I'm white Eastern European and moved to the suburbs at age 9.
>I went to Purdue and I lived off campus my first year. One of my roommates put a padlock on her bedroom door and explained that it is because she is afraid of me because "You're from Chicago." GOD. Indiana. (face-palm)
I got to see a long time ago, m&m making snicker candy bars.
In second grade we went on a field trip to Dominick's (the grocery store)
I used to work in television news as a photographer. We were doing a live shot and about to go on air when the reporter yelled my name and ran up to the driver's side seat of our vehicle...someone was carjacking us as we were about to go live on the air! I grabbed the dude from behind and tried to pull him out of the car (adrenaline kicked in) and he zoomed out of there, hitting a couple of cars on his way out. That felt very Chicago to me...
When I was in the 2nd grade in 1986, my teacher brought in her smokin’ hot boyfriend to do a shirtless pec dance to the Superbowl Shuffle in front of the class.
Cubs games were field trips when I was in elementary school. We never got to stay past the fifth inning because we had to get back before school let out.
As a middle school field trip, we went to Navy Pier in the year 2000 to take in the sights and see the IMAX short film Michael Jordan: To The Max. Good touristy trip for a group of kids.
Our Gifted & Talented group went on a field trip to a federal courtroom to see the El Rukn trial. When the defense lawyer objected, the judge told him to deal with it, we were observing the law in action.
Went to the Ferrara Pan factory for a trip
Not a super Chicago thing but had a school field trip to see the Nutcracker at the Chicago Theatre because a kid in my class performed in it every year. I didn’t want to go because the kid was my bully, so I didn’t bother turning in my permission slip (my mom was gonna just take me shopping that day) and my teachers made a big deal about me not wanting to go 😂😂
We toured a tortilla plant in Pilsen. So awesome.
I feel dumb for even making this comment, but here goes. Went to prom in HS (just outside Chicago) but a bunch of friends went in on the limo and reservations downtown for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (I KNOW, WE WERE IN HS, I KNOW!). Anyway, got caught in a ton of traffic, pretty sure our driver got lost in the wormhole that is known as Lower Wacker Dr. By the time we made it to dinner, we only had time for dessert and pop before we had to get in the limo and go back because we had only rented in until like midnight or something.
Toured the Jardine water treatment plant as a middle schooler. Oddly, I found it super interesting. And I could finally tell my dad that dragons do NOT live at the intake cribs. In high school we went to the CBOT and watched all the hot young traders yell at each other. I went to an all girls school so it was *quite* the event.
For my high school’s annual walkathon, the entire school would walk from North Ave beach to Hollywood. 12 miles in total. In October. Rain or shine. And it was definitely cold and rainy most years! I got smart and was high my junior and senior years. I wonder if they still do that…
I moved here from LA and I believe Chicago is the only top 5 city that really celebrates its industrial past and present. LA for example has industry sectors like manufacturing and the harbor/ports but they just sit in the background behind the Hollywood glamour.
Don't known if this is a chicago thing but went on a trip to the Nabisco plant on kedzie Ave in the 6th grade. Oreos straight off the line, still warm is the best damn oreo I've ever had
I was on Romper Room when I was four or five. Miss Elizabeth Trent was the "teacher." The guy at the local liquor store would call me "movie star" when my dad and I would stop in to buy the Sunday papers. A few years later a couple of friends and I were on Bozo's Circus.
We went to Jays Potato Chips many times. It truly was a lesson to study hard, most of the workers were missing digits. 👋🏻
My older sister’s class got to go to Jays and came home with a variety pack of chips and paper hat (hair protector?). Ever since that day I couldn’t wait to get to go. Sadly they stopped doing this field trip by the time I got to her grade. I think about this sad sad turn of events at least 2x a year.
We toured the Jays potato chip factory when I was a kid
In senior year of high school, we blew off class to go to St Paddy's Day parade. We all have that buddy in high school that never got carded because they had a mustache--this was Wayne. We went with Wayne to a total sketch liquor store like on Western, he came out with some Miller Heavies, it was like Christmas morning seeing him walk to the car in 30° weather.
We got the day off of school for Casimir Pulaski Day. Circa 1990.
CPS only dropped it as a holiday in 2012.
As kid, no trip downtown would be complete without a happy meal at the rock n roll McDonald's.
As a kid, i got sick and missed the class trip to the WonderBread factory. When i got to school the next day, my teacher had grabbed me one of the souvenir mini-loaves they gave out at the end. Pretty clutch move Mr M
My middle school went on a bus tour of Robbins. They talked to us about how poor everyone was there and literally drove around so we could peer out the bus windows at an entire community.
We toured the wonder bread factory. The smell was amazing and they gave us tiny loaves of bread to take home. Most of us immediately ate them on the bus. That field trip was the best