Earth Day

Open House at Egerman Woods

This picture is of my neighbor Tina and me from a really long time ago! The pic is so old that when it was taken many of you weren't even born yet!

It was early 1970's when my friends, our family and many neighbors in our country neighborhood in Naperville, went to bat (through the legal system and a court case) to preserve our neighborhood woods named Egerman Woods.

I imagine it was (and is) called Egerman because of a family that once lived here, who owned the woods and nearby land. A small house, years ago, sat just up -what's now called 'old' -College Rd, and I'd be willing to bet whoever owned that little house owned the woods, too.

Remembering back in time rumors were spreading about an apartment complex someone wanted to sink into the middle of the woods (pictured just beyond the BLACK OAK tree my sign and I are pointing at!)  I really can't remember much about this picture except that as the rumors went from gossip to reality we kicked into hyper-drive action and quickly held what you might call 'Egerman Open House!'...for the woods that bordered our backyard.

Caring about trees, grasses, wetlands, and native creatures wasn't part of the developers concern, that’s where we came into play! Developers, their concern had only to do with man-made things like blacktop roads, concrete basements and wooden structures. Lots of details I probably never understood; what I did totally get was that the horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach, from the whole thing, made me sick.

With the woods just steps from my backyard, to me it was my very own sanctuary. Egerman Woods with its trails, low water areas and triple-crown oak trees were more than a bunch of trees and dirt. This area was a 'pre-settlement' oak forest meaning it's practically one of a kind in these days of massive cities and towns! 

My fascination with trees began about the time I was four years old when my family and I moved to northern Illinois. Dad and I were making trips to the local nursery to study the possibilities for plantings in our new yard.  At four years old I was growing my own mini veggie garden, studying wild onions, drawing landscape plans for the backyard and growing flowers. Then there were the silver maple seeds.  One easy to grow silver maple soon became a fixture in our backyard so that when we moved to Kammes Dr. near Egerman Woods my dad and I transplanted that silver maple onto our property. (Last time I visited my old house that transplanted silver maple was still there, too!)

Loving trees was one thing, but suddenly it was about legal rights, court cases, and, well, finding the right outfits to wear during the week of court proceedings we went through to save the woods!  Funny, I remember more about the clothes I wore for these events than some of the actually events of the day! I guess that's how life goes!

Today my old house that borders Egerman is still there, but its no longer considered to be in Naperville, it is officially Lisle, IL. Lots of things have changed but not EGERMAN WOODS! Check it out:

http://www.recreationparks.net/IL/du-page/eggerman-woods-county-forest-preserve-farmsted

If you look closely you'll find the small pond that I mentioned yesterday in my blog post, the pond where we skated!

There's a connection between Jackie Robinson, Reading and Ice!

*Recently I was out at Midway Heights Elementary for their 'Stampede'. I was a guest reader and that was all I was expecting to do: read!

Since I was there to represent Kona Ice I had on my new Kona Ice groovy-grape t-shirt but, because of my passion for teaching about dyslexia I was promoting awareness for learning difficulties, too.

Before starting to read I asked the kiddos to forgive me if I made any mistakes. Not that I was expecting to make mistakes (but aren't mistakes something we're not expecting to make!) my point was, I'm dyslexic and know that even adults make mistakes. Backing me up, the classroom teacher chimed in and said that her first graders love to help each other out when the reading gets tough. Perfect introduction!

Then she handed me a book, Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson. Little did I know but this book would prove to have lots of connections to my life!

I first thought about Jackie Robinson, a true hero, who debuted in major league baseball on April 15, 1947. His baseball appearance broke Major League Baseball's color barrier. Then I thought about the Dodgers, who in a roundabout way, helped my father become a reader.

Growing up in the 1930's my dad had many dyslexic traits that his teachers didn't understand; one of those was that he hated really disliked reading. In-spite of his reading difficulty he'd frequently stop in his school's library looking at the new books hoping for an interesting one. On one special day when dad was in 3rd grade, it happened; a brand new book that looked interesting enough to read! That book just happened to be about major league baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers!

From that time forward dad was a reader, and a loyal Dodger baseball fan.

Baseball and reading... but Testing the Ice: A True Story About Jackie Robinson also has ice in the title! At Kona Ice we use lots of ice, and the kids were making that connection, but now we're talking about the ice you skate on!

As I'm reading to the kiddos (and trying to not make any mistakes!) the story turns to Jackie Robinson's children who love to skate on their family's lake in the winter. As the story progresses the children begin to realize that their father is actually afraid of the ice. Isn't that crazy to think that one of the best baseball players of all time, who was not afraid of facing difficult trials in his life, was afraid of the ice. (Reminds me how some don't understand why reading is so hard, because it's so easy for them!)

As I'm reading my mind wanders to the time my family got started in the ice business when I was young. It was the winter my dad flooded our backyard to make a small ice rink for my 5-year-old brother and his hockey friends. When we moved to the country a few years later we didn't flood our yard anymore because a pond became our 'rink'. Out there on frigid winter days I'd clear the surface of the ice with my 'Zamboni'  -our electric riding lawn mower!

Memories of maneuvering our 'Zamboni' over the frozen pond (knowing it was solidly frozen) and then spending hours skating with friends and family over the bumpy surface, filled my thoughts!

After I finished reading the book the children asked question after question about the story and the connection they'd made from that story. All I had expected to do was read aloud to some sweet children but I got so much more!

So many life connections, right there in a book about Jackie Robinson. I called my dad when I left the school to share with him the impact of reading aloud to a first grade class. It thrilled him to know how meaningful it had been!

All I was expecting to do was read...but I got so much more!

*Thanks to Midway Heights Elementary School for allowing me to read at their event and to Michele Spry of Midway Electric for coordinating the event and for taking the pictures!