WHITING, IN.—-Life is like a mascot.
You have to look beneath the surface.
The new Mascot Hall of Fame, 1851 Front St, in Whiting is ripe with punchlines. Right off the bat, it’s a mascot museum for North American professional and collegiate sports, with more than a hundred items.
And it is on the industrial shores of Lake Michigan in Whiting (pop. 4, 900), two miles from the south side of Chicago. Whiting hosts an annual Pierogi Fest at the end of July. Local ladies parade around in babushkas and housecoats and there are mascots Mr. Pierogi and Miss Paczki.
The museum’s executive director is Orestes Hernandez. His parents fled [...]
Floyd Saunders (Courtesy of the Beer Nuts)
It is rare that I resurrect my Chicago Sun-Times stories, but these are thoughts from the print version of Nocturnal Journal (pre-WGN radio show.) Floyd Saunders died Sunday morning March 10 at the Grove of Fox Valley nursing home in Aurora. He was 92. With the time change, birds chirping and the afternoon sun, it felt like the first day of spring.
Floyd was a man for all seasons. He deserves to be remembered.
Sept. 27, 1996—
There’s something behind a sunset.
And Floyd Saunders intends to find out what it [...]
