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Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Oh the HUB!!!!  Pom poms on our skates and Mrs. Murphy's burgers across the street and the Maurice Lenell cookie factory and in later years... the drive-in movie theater!  Ooh-lah-lah!

We won't get into town until Sunday Arnie, but I'd break my neck if I tried roller skating anyway!

John Todesco

No worries Michelle, I think you can get them with training wheels now.

Janet Peterson (Ingraffia)

Arnie, we aren't getting to town till late Saturday. Quite honestly, I was never good at roller skating. I used to go only when my boyfriend made me, so I would need a pair with the training wheels too! Too funny, John! 

Arnold Smith

That's ok , the rink is open Sunday afternoon and Monday Night. I skate 5 days a week, so I am usually there.

Arnold Smith

Looking forward to seeing everybody at the game Monday, but the weather may not cooperate.

Georgette Mihalko (Rath)

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday!! 👍😉<>>

Ken Ortiz

Some random thoughts:

To the 76'ers who went to Arizona: I hope you all had a good time in Mesa over the last few days and I hope to see updates and pictures of the festivities on our forum. Did you all get to see the Cubs trophy rally out there? Can't wait for the updates.

With the talk about roller skating lately, I also want to know how the Lane Arizona "roller derby reunion" went out there too. That brings back memories of my skating days at the HUB and then AXLE roller rink in the late 70's and early 80's. The Harlem and Irving area (Harwood heights)  had several places that I frequented, but no longer there, like the original Norridge theater and Holiday Bowl. I also skated at the AXLE roller rink in Niles back in the day.

The HUB had friday nights with more of a rock program of music and crowd and saturday nights were more of a disco crowd and music flavor. I would hit both nights as I had friends from both worlds. I recall the board that showed what was currently the skate, like "all-skate, couples only, special (like fox trot and the Hokey Pokey), reverse (backward skate), guys only, gals only, etc". There were also certain songs that were "skating" songs that were played frequently. Songs like "Whip it" - usually played on Friday nights with guys only, "Good times" and "Do it tonight"- Saturday night favorites. "Hollywood swinger" - backward skate song.

I am hoping others here can add some more info and details about those days at the HUB. If we had a Lane reunion roller skating meet in Chicago, is there a place around that still does that?

Lastly, didn't the Stones do a concert in the area back in 75/76? I thought there was lots of discussion about what went on at their concert, like Mick Jagger riding on top of a big "balloon shaped object". Or was I just imagining that?

Can't wait till the next meet, it will be great to see the gang again. Welcome back Kristy!

P.S. - I found this link that shows pictures of a lot of the old amusement places in the Chicagoland area. I am sure you all remember some of them and went to some of them. I did.

http://www.craigslostchicago.com/lost-amusement.php

Marie Costa (McJilton)

Welcome back Ken!  It's been a while since you have posted anything!  Enjoy all your stories!  Keep them coming!  By the way, thanks for sharing the link.  It brought back lots of memories!  Too many great places are gone.  :(   

It would be great to have a get together!  I will contact Michelle and set a date. We can call it the 76er's Spring Fling! lol

John Todesco

Found this write up on the HUB.

http://www.taftreunion1959.com/Hub_Roller_Rink_Story_082310.pdf

Andrea M Adam

Ken and All,

     Thanks for the memories. I was at the Stones concert in 1976 with my sister and, I think Micki (Monica McAvinney). Yes Jagger did ride on a big phalic balloon. I believe it was at the old stadium and I remember it was the one and only time I was ever grounded because we got in so late that night. I remember getting to The Flip Side to buy tickets before it was light out and there were already a ton of people in line. I wonder what we paid for those tix. It probably seemed like a lot at the time.

          Keep the stories coming, All.

Peter Ingraffia

Andrea, I too was at the Stones concert. Jagger rode up in what we all thought was a giant flower as when the flower opened, there he was. Janet and I have many of our ticket stubs from the many concerts we went to throughout the years. Tickets back then were typically $7.50 for the better seats. I'll have to dig up my Stones ticket stubs to see if they were any more expensive. 

Peter Ingraffia

Big shout-out to Michelle and Jim Guerin (72) for a great day at the Cubs Spring Training game. Really nice event, well organized, and lots of fun. Thanks for doing all you do to make our alumni association stand out from other schools. 

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

I think that might have been the "first annual" spring training alumni event!  Everyone seemed to have a good time and I heard so many great stories from the older alums, (as opposed to the young whippersnappers like us).  Thanks to Peter, Janet, Arnie and Georgette, (and Johannes) for making the Class of '76 the best-represented class at the event.  They did the Bicentennials proud!

John Simmers

Oh yes …….. Michelle!!!  

I know this comes a little delayed, but, the Drive-In picture you posted has conjured my inner car-geek and I can't resist.

Set  aside the 1950’ish Studebaker Land Cruiser (last car far right column) – it was built in South Bend, it had rear ‘suicide-doors’ (like the later 1960’s Lincolns made-famous), and, it had a split rear-window, because – just before producing the car, they realized they had no-way to curve the glass the way it was designed (so – two pieces was the only way to go).

So – the real-tell in the photo is about the 1951’ish Nash Ambassador Airflyte (last car middle column) seen innocently-lumbering its way into the Drive-In. In the day, these cars were in-fact often restricted from drive-in movies (are the two security guards converging on the Airflyte in Michelle's pic above?), and, “many a mom feared their daughter dating someone with a Nash [Ambassador]”.

The car was mostly built in Kenosha (some – in California), and, while its new-car sales were initially hurt by the fender design that made people think there was no way to change a front flat-tire (see pic below), sales of used  Ambassador Airflytes to a younger crowd were driven by Nash’s having advertised its interior feature of seats that could fold dead-flat. 

Nash called the interior feature “Airliner Recliner Seating” - it was touted to "sleep three adults" and there were also accessory air-mattresses and a "bug-screen" that allowed for rolling down the windows to let fresh night-air in (keeping bugs out).

Though, I'd suspect that sleeping "three" was not always a necessity for the used-Ambassador owner - maybe, just room for "two" would suffice - I'll leave that here for each to draw your own conclusion .... [Hint Too: No good could ever come from finding if your parents drove or had access to such a car for some 'date-night' .... 'round 1957, 1958, 1959 ... ]

Ken Ortiz

Now that I had a few days to ponder my recent post and those of others, I have more to add to my random thoughts and musings. I apologize in advance for any segues and digressions that may occur here.

Thank you John for that link about the HUB. That brought up more memories of skating there that I will be posting here in the future.

I did not realize what an impact roller skating made in the 60's, 70's and 80's. And that was all in our heyday. What percentage of our 76 class do you think went to a roller rink at least once during that time period? Roller derby was also popular during those times. My family and I used to watch roller derby on TV regularly. We rooted for the Bay Area Bombers, with big bad Joannie Weston and Charlie O'Connell. Then there was Roller games with the Los Angeles Thunderbirds. We even had the Chicago Pioneers and my family and I went to their event at Comiskey park which was the first ever outdoor Roller derby event. There were also movies about skating like Rollerball (with James Caan) and Kansas City Bomber (with Raquel Welch). I even remember a Charlie's Angels episode where the angels were undercover skaters.

In regards to the Rolling Stones posts, I will add that one of my favorite album (12" vinyl LP 33 1/3 rpm) covers was the "Sticky Fingers" one with the fully functional zipper on it. Of course I HAD to unzip it to see what was behind it. Good thing I was not caught in the store by staff or by my parents unzipping the zipper.

Michelle, now that you mention Maurice Lenell cookies, they were the sponsor for Cartoon Town with Bill Jackson. It was shown in the afternoons on good ol UHF channel 32 (WFLD) in the beginning. I watched that show whenever I could. It had Wally and Weird and Dirty Dragon and the Blob among the characters. Jackson would tout the cookies during the show. The funny thing was I do not recall what cartoons they played.

Stay tuned for future posts about those wacky times skating at the HUB.

Monica McAvinney

June K Hori (Yamasaki)

I remember Cartoon Town! Bill Jackson was a very talented man. He made all the puppets for the show, as well as providing their voices

Maja Wiesinger (Ramirez)

Hello all.

As did so many, I took Woodshop and Foundry my freshman year. Sophomore year I wanted to take Auto shop, I know I had Electrical shop but can't remember what other. I know for a fact it was NOT Auto shop. I had a sense "It's because I'm a girl they won't put me in Auto," although I'm sure no teacher said that on the record/to my face.

Did this happen to anyone else? Thoughts? Tips?

Donald Adams

WXRT still at Belmont and Cicero, but who could forget Super CFL with Larry Lujack  and Little Tommy.  The hustle and Kung Fu Fighting!

Donald Adams

I know I wasn't the only one from Lane to do this but anyone out there who would get to school real early to avoid bus traffic and go over to WGN to watch Ray Rayner do his show. They would let you in if you behaved and sit in the Bozo bleachers and watch the show. I did that about three times a year. He was scared of all animals but he hated Chelviston the Duck the most and the duck knew it and would peck at his ankles if he didn't get fed right away.

Ken Ortiz

Hello again all,

Last fall when the Cubs won the World Series, we talked about how awesome 2016 was with that and with our 40th year reunion. Add to that the fact that our graduation class was the bi-centennial class and the only class to have that distinction, and it really makes us 76'ers very unique and special.

So, what could top that you ask?

Well, with myself being a Sci/Math major at Lane, my fascination with numbers, and with my moments of deep thinking and pondering, coupled with it being my birthday last Saturday the 4th (the BIG five-eight), I came up with this:

The Cubs won the World Series in 2016 (after a 100+ year drought). So, what was so special about our class of 76 in 2016? Let me ask you all, "How many of you turned 58 in 2016?". I would guess that at least 80% of our class did. I was one of the few who did not as I turned 57 in 2016. So what is so cool abour turning 58 in 2016, the year the Cubs won the World Series? Well, that means that you were born in 1958, which means that you had a Beddian Birthday (your age is the same as your birth year). Now lots of people have had Beddian birthdays throughout the years (mine will be in 2018, born in 1959, celebrating my 59th birthday).

So 80% (plus or minus) of our 1976 graduating class had their Beddian birthday in 2016, the year the Cubs won the World Series and therefore became the:

FIRST EVER Lane Tech Alumni to celebrate their Beddian birthday in a year the Cubs won the World Series!

​Congratulations class of 1976! Well done!

Hopefully with that analysis and conclusion, I am continuing to uphold my "Sporty Nerd" image.

Andrea M Adam

Not too many people think like you Ken. Not only do you think outside the box, you think outside this world. We love it. Keep 'em coming.

Timmy Wong

Ken, where do you come up with these?? I have to say thank you for enlightening me as I really feel SPECIAL now! After all these years, I remember what a special guy you are!

Marie Costa (McJilton)

Ken, I just love it! Thank goodness we have you to figure that stuff out!  You sure know how to make a 58 year old feel very special! Thank you!!! 

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

So a few female Bicentennials got together for margaritas, and this happened...