Downer's Grove

I'm interrupting the Crucible Connections series for some of my own banter. It's my blog and I get to schedule the programming how I wish.

The city of Chicago has a suburb called Downer's Grove. This town used to be home to a Sears Outlet Store before there were such things as Outlet Malls. At the beginning and middle of every school year, my mom would herd my brother and I together, and we'd head to Downer's Grove for clothes shopping.

Because i was five, six, seven years old, I had some irrational fears. Specifically pertaining to Downer's Grove, I was terrified of the place. Why? Because I thought that's where they kept everyone who had Down Syndrome, and I didn't want to catch it. Yeah, I know, you can't catch Down Syndrome. Try to explain that to a six year old. We'd drive into town, and I'd duck below the window line of the car, I'd fight with my mom when we got to the Sears because I didn't want to get out, I'd scream exactly like the little bastard that I was. The worst was the time I actually saw a kid who had Down's at the Sears Outlet.

ANYWAY, there's a reason I'm posting this. Not because it's funny, which you gotta admit, it kind of is, and not to make myself look bad, which it kind of does. I'm posting this because two people you may be familiar with after the first (and hopefully perennial) Crucible Connections series, M-Town Mikey and Bobby Fair Housing don't believe it. They think it's some sort of elaborate ploy. The inroads to my secret and cunningly insidious plan to lure them into my cult of personality, I guess.

M-Town Mikey doesn't believe that a six year old would even know about Down Syndrome. Clearly, I didn't know all that much about it because I was terrified I was going to catch it. But I knew it existed. Which is too hard to believe.

Bobby Fair Housing thinks it's a stretch that a six-year-old would come up with it on their own. Maybe, he suggests, it would be easier to believe if my brother or father told me that to scare me. Apparently, six-year-olds are incapable of abstract thought. I suppose this is possibly a legitimate point.

Whatever the case may be, it's true, and I'm still kind of scared of Downer's Grove, and I'm about to turn 30. So, like, that's that. Although, my cult of personality is open to anyone who wants to join.

Library hosts The Day of the Children

This one was on the Front Page of the May 7 Round Lake Journal. Front page, baby!
Click Here

Library hosts The Day of the Children to promote literacy

By DAN MORRIS

ROUND LAKE – More than 30 families gathered at the Round Lake Area Public Library on April 27 to participate in El Día de los Niños (also referred to as Día), which means The Day of the Children, a national celebration to promote literacy.

Toddlers to 10-year-olds gathered to hear Kay Elmsley Weeden tell stories, and they also sang songs in Spanish and English. The crowd listened to tales of Ferdinando, the bull who preferred sniffing flowers to bullfighting, and sang about elephants balancing on spider webs.

As the children sang and listened, Weeden invited them to become bulls and elephants, stamping the ground and swaying on gossamer. Thirty pendulous pachyderms perched precipitously in the spider’s web, then became a herd of Ferdinandos sniffing forget-me-nots.

Weeden, a professional storyteller for more than 20 years, began her involvement with Día six years ago. Her specialty is presenting bilingual programs in Spanish and English to promote learning multiple languages and foster respect for diversity.

“Día focuses on promoting the culture and heritage of a family,” Weeden said. “Whether Spanish speaking or English speaking, it’s about bringing families together around books.”

The event began with a traditional song called “Un Elefante se Balanceaba” (“A Balancing Elephant”) followed by a classic children’s story, “El Cuento de Ferdinando” (“The Story of Ferdinand”) by Munro Leaf. Weeden then led the children in the song “Flaquita Mosquita” (“Skinny Fly”) and handed out drums, maracas, castanets and tambourines until the room seemed to be full of rather large and loud mosquitoes.

The first Día event took place April 30, 1997. Children’s author Pat Mora learned of the Mexican tradition of celebrating April 30 as The Day of the Children during a radio interview at the University of Arizona in Tucson in March 1996 and wanted to celebrate the event.

According to Mora’s Web site, www.patmora.com/dia/dia_history.htm, the Mexican tradition grew out of the 1925 World Conference for the Wellbeing of Children, which took place in Switzerland.

Mora, along with some faculty members of the University of Arizona and other organizations planned an event to celebrate Día throughout 1996. The inaugural Día took place in Santa Fe, N.M. Events also took place in Arizona and Texas.

Día sprouted from Mora’s passion for literature and writing, as well as her desire to spread “bookjoy” to kids and families throughout the country and across cultural lines.

Since then, Día has expanded across the United States, reaching more communities each year.

“It has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the country,” Weeden said.

Elena Lara and Maggie Rodriguez of the Round Lake Area Public Library organized the local event, which is sanctioned by the American Library Association. The Library hosts several child and family oriented programs, including Día.

“It's about the kids,” Lara said. “[And it's about] getting the parents involved and to read to their children. This is one of the biggest events that promotes that.”