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Andrew Flor

Attention all Lane Hockey Alumni. There will be a Lane Hockey reunion at Moretti's in Edison Park on Friday November 24th @ 12 noon. $30 per person. We're looking to get at least 25 guys together so we can get our own room upstairs. Come out and have some pizza, pasta and salad. Open bar. 

Edward Mc Carthy

Congratulations to the girls of Lane Tech's flag football team.  They won the state championship today.  Well done ladies!

Now, can ya help..... da Bears?

Robert Cole

Da Bears are playing girls flag football, aren't they?

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Hmmm...  lots of women from '76 were the "first" on teams and other school activities, so having these young athletes pioneer a new sport, (it was just introduced last year), go undefeated, win CIty and then win State (in the first official year of competition), continues a legacy we started. The fact that they won State at Halas Hall is where any comparison to the Bears should end. Pulleeeease!

On a serious note... got word today that Lori Johnson '77 passed away on Friday. Don't know any details but here's the obit:

Lori Johnson Obituary (tributearchive.com)

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Ride on Randy!

We've lost another Bicentennial.  Sad to report that Randy Raven passed away on November 14th from a heart attack in Pinellas Park, Florida. Many of us remember him as a classmate and fellow art major. RIP friend.

Andrew Flor

Oh my God. This is horrible news. Randy, was a real nice guy and human being. He was always a positive person to be around. From my memory, he was a pretty talented fellow artist. Does anyone know if he was involved in art and design after his days at Lane?

Andrew Flor

From Danny Hartnett Class of '73, founding member of the Lane Tech Hockey Club. Thanks to Danny. Being a part of the club changed my life forever!

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

So far four Bicentennials have signed up for the Crosstown Classic in Mesa on March 1st.  Milan... are you in?  Steve and June? Arnie? Who else?

Ken Ortiz

Hello all,

Thank you all very much for your advice and suggestions about my approaching Medicare enrollment. What made this more complicated was that our company annual enrollment for 2024 was in early November and to make it even additionally more complicated was that our company selected a different health care provider for our 2024 health plans. But, even MORE wrenches were thrown in as my current PCP (primary care physician who I have had for several years) took another position in September and my Optometrist retired earlier this year. So I will be starting 2024 with a whole new crew. As of now, I will be staying with my company health insurance. The good thing is that my clinic is in the network for our new provider. But it looks like I will still have to get on my SS website when the time comes to say I have employer insurance. YIKES! My brain cells are overloaded.

Ah, yes...music in our day...I was exposed to all the different genres growing up. We had an Aunt living with us for a few years when I was in grade school so I got to listen to her collection of 45’s. And since I was raised by my grandparents, I also was exposed to their music and LP’s. And since I am of Spanish heritage, there were Spanish LP's in our family collection. So, here you go Ed, I am finally chiming in.

My own collection started when I was just a a wee lad as I remember having Puff The Magic Dragon and The Little Engine That Could LP’s. When I got a bit older, I started collecting 45’s (of course I bought them  at Shapiros). My best friend growing up had 2 older brothers so we would listen to their 45’s. I think it was in 6^th grade when I got my very own small record player for my bedroom. Before that, I would use the family stereo. It was a Knight console cabinet with a phonograph, a separate radio tuner and a separate amplifier with tubes in the back and knobs for volume, bass, treble and switches to turn on/off loudness, hi-cut, low-cut, etc. I was already becoming the junior sound engineer, fiddling with our stereo. I think our radio unit had AM, FM, and also other bands like shortwave. We had 2 big speakers with separate woofers, tweeters, etc, and I also learned how to plug/unplug all those components. It had the spindle for LP’S, but we had to put those red (were there other colors?) plastic adapters for 45’s to go on the spindle. We eventually got a 45 adapter that we could put in our spindle to use 45’s without the adapters.

One thing I learned in our older age…I may not remember where my cell phone is (“Oh crap! It’s in my hand! I am holding it!”, like that never happened to you), but when I hear a song from the past that I remember, the lyrics come to me. What a vault our mind is! So here is a small sampling of song lyrics I remember growing up and how many do you recall? Can you recall the rest of the lyrics? I limited it to the music before we got to Lane:

• Puff the magic dragon...
• In the year 2525…
• Guitarzan…and his jungle band…
• Betcha by golly wow…
• Good morning, Starshine…
• If you don’t know me by now…
• Saturday, in the park…
• Hey there, lonely girl…
• One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch girl…
• Got to be there…
• Bye bye miss american pie…
• If I fell in love with you…
• She…she told me that she loved me…
• Break up, to make up…
• Just an old fashioned love song…
• So let the sideshow begin…hurry hurry…
• One less, bell to answer…
• Oh I hear her voice as the cold winds blow, on the sweet music on my radio…
• I want to go outside, in the rain…
• Why do you build me up, build me up, buttercup baby…
• If I could, I’d like to be, a great big movie star…

The good thing is you can go to U-tube (or Alexa, etc,) and listen to these songs and even with lyrics. But, there were a couple of instrumentals in our younger days like:

• Love is blue
• Midnight Cowboy theme
• Scorpio (where we did the Funky Penguin)
• Theme from Shaft (somewhat instrumental, plus, this is one where I would crank up the bass and loudness on the stereo and drive my parents and my downstairs Aunt crazy along with Zeppelin’s Black Dog)

So, one more thing that I was puzzled about, I went to see my mom for her 82^nd birthday at my sister’s house in Berwyn last month. We had a good time with cake and stuff and I noticed the sippy cup that my Mom uses as we encourage her to drink more water. My sister got it at a thrift store and it says: “Lane Staff” (with a paw print). So how come it is blue? Does the Lane Tech in an alternate universe have blue and white instead of myrtle and gold? Did it come from the quantum realm? Help me please! By the way, I recently read “Look out for the little guy" by Scott Lang (Ant Man) and I really enjoyed it (for all you Marvel lovers out there). Yes, I grew up with all things Marvel, comics, TV shows, even Not Brand Echh comics, etc. I got all those comics and also MAD magazines at Shapiro’s too. Too bad I did not save them because I had a decent collection.

Here is the mystery sippy cup:

So, here is a Mad Magazine book I came across a while ago. From 1964 (Front and back):

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

In the mid-sixties I only recall these three albums in my mom's very thin  "record collection".  Ecelectic and certainly weird for any first or second-grader, but I read the liner notes like they were great literature and still love R&B and Herb Alpert.

The Dr. Zhivago album had a multi-page insert of glossy photos from the film that I thought were so incredible and romantic. To this day I haven't seen the film.

June K Hori (Yamasaki)

Sorry, we won't be able to make it to Spring Training this year after all.  I'm so sad, but the timing does not work out for us. Hopefully next year!

Edward Mc Carthy

Ken.......you do NOT have to enroll in Medicare if you are covered by an employer provided plan with a company of more than 20 employees.  When you are no longer covered or retire from that coverage, enroll then.  If you choose to enroll now, your primary insurance is your employer plan.  There would be no benefit to enrolling now nor would there be any penalties later on when you eventually do when you must when you are no longer are covered by a bonified plan..  Go to medicare.gov.  TONS of info there.  Or, if like me, you are getting 100's of calls a day from these insurance hockers.......spend a minute and ask a few questions. Some of them are full of sh*t and some actually are legit. Hope this helped Ken.

Happy holidays all.  

Gregory Calvimontes

Gregory Calvimontes

Robert Cole

Regarding Kevin's comments...

True.If you're covered by an employer medical plan you do not have to enroll in Medicare. However, I can't say there is no benefit to. You may find that Medicare, plus a Medicare Supplement, or Part C plan, can provide coverage just as good as your employer plan, but a lot cheaper. That's the case I'm in. I couldn't wait to turn 65 because my employer plan was way expensive. Plus, I just changed jobs and negotiated a higher salary because I told them I would waive employer medical coverage so they weren't going to have to pay the employer part of my premiums.

So, it's confusing and varies a lot based on you individual situation.  

John Bliss

Medicare IS very confusing -- and we're Lane Tech graduates! I can imagine how the "average Joe" struggles with these options. I didn't sign up, because my employer coverage is very good -- one of the few benefits of being a state employee -- FOR NOW. But I REALLY appreciate all these posts. I'm saving them and will return to them in the future. 

Of course, my retirement plan is to die in the classroom, because that's one of the drawbacks of being a state employee. 

Robert Cole

I agree John. When I worked for Marion County the benefits were great. And, we got off every little holiday you could think of... including Election Day every spring and fall! Columbus Day. You name it. 

But, the pay sucked. You could see from looking at the staff. They were either right out of college or pushing retirement. Anyone in the middle realized they could do better elsewhere. 
It was easy to be a high-flyer working for government. Because there are so many morons working there.

And, they were sneaky in the way they offered you a job. They always quoted your "total compensation". Never your salary. So, they could inflate the number and make it look good by including their portion of your medical premiums. Employer matching to your 403(b). Their contribution to your HSA. Their cost of any other benefit you received, whether you used it or not. Made it look REAL GOOD when, in fact, you were taking home squat.

And, being a public employee, all this is public knowledge. Anyone could look up any public employee's compensation on the Internet. Plus, you couldn't negotiate anything becaue your management has no control over anything. When I started I tried to negotiate an extra week's vacation. They couldn't because it would take the City/County Council passing a law to give Bob Cole an extra week vacation!

Government has it's perqs. You can do very little and take home a paycheck. Or, you can do a lot and be a STAR. Nothing the private sector would ever let you get away with.

When I was in consulting working with two big hospital organizations here the difference was incredible. Although they were both non-profit. The one associated with a university sat around on their asses and did very little. Like a public employee or a university professor with tenure. The other was run like a private sector business. They humped for a living! And, the university hospital was operated like a university. Every department head skimmed a little off everyone's salary to create their own private slush fund they could control. That was the way the university operated, so so did the university hospital.

That's government for you. Home of the $1,000 toilet seats!
But, it was a FUN job. I got to slide down the pole at fire stations!

And shoot on the police firing range. And play with the animals at the shelter. And play with the piles of heroin in the Crime Lab. And hang out in jail. And witness autopsies. And go on police and ambulance runs in the middle of the night.. seeing all the fun. 

Robert E Ciessau

Just went to the Patriots/ Steelers game on Thursday in Pittsburgh and guess who sang the nation anthem?? Styx did!!! And one of the members did the celebrity game at halftime. Let's just say it was a good thing he chose music.

Andrew Flor

Deborah "Debbie" Tono

So sorry kids - Nuggets ruled over the Bulls last night!!!

Robert Cole

What is this about the Mayor and CPS wanting to eliminate "selective enrollment" at all of those high schools in Chicago??? And how did this not get play with the LTHS Alumni Association??? 

I just read an article that the Mayor has BACKPEDALED on his campaign promise to keep Chicago's selective enrollment schools, like Lane, and is now backing the CPS Board with a proposal to eliminate them all! 

There was apparently a CPS Board meeting last night where they were going to vote on a proposal to eliminate selective enrollment at all 11 of those schools in the city and open them up to anyone. No longer would it take any requirements to get into Lane at all. 

Chicago has 11 selective enrollment high schools, with Lane being one of them. And 4 other non-high school selective schools. These schools are among some of the best IN THE NATION, not just in Chicago. Many of them being consistently ranked in the top 100 high schools in the entire country. This proposal would put an end to that forever!

The CEO of CPS' board, backed by your Mayor, put forward a proposal with a 5-year plan to get rid of selective enrollment altogether. Kids would be limited to schools in their neighborhood, without the opportunity to compete for a better education elsewhere. Not sure about that part. Is Chicago going back to neighborhood schools only? The article said that "8th graders would automatically be enrolled in their neighborhood high school." I don't know if that means they couldn't still choose to go somewhere else. 

Does anyone know how the Board voted on this resolution last night and what are the LTHS alumni doing to protest! LOUD AND PROUD! I don't know if my voice matters.. not having lived in Chicago since 1981. (Although I'm probably still voting in the elections... along with the traditional Chicago "cemetery vote") But, everyone needs to contact their alderman and SHOUT!

And, what is the LTHS Alumni Association doing to mobilize it's force? I was shocked to read about this from the Trib and not have heard about it through LTHS Alumni. We've got a pretty large, strong and vocal group! 

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Ready

Shoot

Aim

Last night’s Chicago Board of Ed Meeting didn’t pass a resolution to eliminate all selective enrollment schools. They passed a resolution to proceed with a 5-year strategic plan that includes a ton of initiatives including an emphasis on re-invigorating neighborhood schools. And despite all the rhetoric at the meeting, (and rhetoric isn’t legislation), no one knows how that will be interpreted. Does it mean more resources to neighborhoods, does it mean eliminating Charter schools, does it mean changing Selective Enrollment or God forbid, phasing it out? 

Here are the people who don’t know: The Governor, The IL General Assembly and State Board of Ed, The Mayor, The City Council, (several of whom are graduates of Lane and Whitney Young), the yet-to-be-elected Board of Education, School District Chiefs, Principals, Local School Councils, members of the CTU, parents, students and … alumni.

No one knows.

In the coming weeks there will be all kinds of discussion, leverage applied, and strategy developed for the entire community of Lane to mobilize and influence what that CPS strategic plan will include.  In the meantime, there is no appetite to light everyone’s hair on fire and lead them into a dead-end alley like the marching band in the Animal House parade.

On a personal note… it sure would be great to hear something like, “As members of the alumni community… how can we help?”

Michelle Milkovic (Weiner)

Super-secret-squirrel-sneak-preview.

Shhhhhhh.....

Well done Tim!

Andrew Flor

Happy 95th Birthday  Mr. Szalinski and many more! We still exchange Christmas cards. I get his annual letter of ongoings and in exchange I send him recent design projects to get his "tough love critiques" which these days are accolades. He has immense pride, joy and respect for those of his students who went on to make careers and a living for themselves in various creative fields. I loved him as a teacher and consider him a friend now as adults. He told it like it was. Still does No sugar coating. No punches pulled. His advice made me not only a better designer but prepared me for the tough business that I have been in for almost 48 years from day one when I got into it in April of 1976!!! Yes, before I left Lane, I started my lifelong career with only a short detour in retail sales for a couple of years which was also invaluable experience in helping me develop other skills. Ted changed my life when he turned over a lead he got on a potential job as an apprentice graphic artist for a small local design company that was owned by a former student of his and Lane Alumni as was the graphic arts director. I was offered the position after much adieu and I jumped on it. The rest is history. I will be forever grateful to him for that opportunity he pased on to me. It impacted the course of my life in so many ways and all those that I came to know along my journey, including my wife of 41 years whom I met at that same company back in 1981. 

Robert Cole