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Constable: From landmarks like Arlington Park to Dr. Seuss, losing favorites is part of change

Change is a powerful concept that can deliver a devastating demise or provide promising progress - or both. During the losses and growth of this pandemic, we've made rewarding connections online and in bubbles, and we've lost loved ones, seen jobs and businesses disappear, canceled vacations, and been forced to forgo funerals, weddings and graduations.

As history plugs along, with change as its eternal passenger, we often gaze at the rearview mirror.

"Throughout history, in times of stress and challenges, it's human nature to look back on the past as a place of solace, a place where you can step away from the challenges," says Dan Schoeneberg, museum administrator for the Arlington Heights Historical Museum. "You compound that with COVID and a global pandemic we haven't seen in a century."

For many of us, the "good old days" may be as recent as the halcyon days of January 2020, when masks were for Halloween, social distancing referred only to a close-talker at work, and you might not have realized that some Dr. Seuss books contain racist images.

Now, Arlington Park, the legendary horse racetrack that has been part of the Arlington Heights community since 1927, is for sale. The property is sure to change into something much different, and that hits hard for people for whom the track was part of their salad days.

"This was not just a place that people went to. It was an experience like much of the things we all remember about growing up in Arlington Heights," 61-year-old Ginger Johnson Fulara wrote on the Facebook page for alumni of the old Arlington High School, who reminisce fondly about the school that closed in 1984. "It is embedded in our brain like a groove in a record."

We heard similar comments in 1994 when the Poplar Creek Music Theater in Hoffman Estates closed, and many suburbanites recounted good times there watching acts ranging from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers to Bob Hope and Barbara Eden.

Regular diners mourn the demise of restaurants, such as the Olde North Pancake House near West Chicago and the Kampai Japanese Steakhouse in Mount Prospect.

Lots of folks are anguished about the closing of bowling alleys, like Wheaton Bowl, Lombard Lanes and Hoffman Estates Lanes. Some wish the Orbit Ice Arena in Palatine were still a roller skating rink. Others long for the days when Maine West, Naperville Central, Huntley and other high schools still had their offensive mascots.

The end of longtime family businesses such as Soukup's Hardware in Glen Ellyn, the Soup to Nuts store in Geneva, and Zimmer Hardware in Palatine brings out customers sorry to see them go.

Arlington Park's pending sale brought to mind other Arlington Heights landmarks.

"I'm still reeling from Svoboda's closing!" lamented one Facebook poster, recalling fond memories of a legendary men's clothing store along Dunton Avenue in a space now occupied by condos. Others miss The Cellar, a rocking music venue that closed in 1970; Jimmy's Place, where kids went for hot dogs; Uncle Albert's, where some bought their first Led Zeppelin record; Cunningham-Reilly sporting goods; and the iconic Arlington Cake Box Bakery, which closed last year and once provided treats for many newsroom celebrations.

I miss the old Daily Herald newsroom at 217 W. Campbell St. in downtown Arlington Heights, where reporters who worked nights could see ripples in their vending machine coffee when the presses roared to life. But the newsroom has moved twice since then, and I haven't worked out of our newest newsroom since March 2020.

"We want to look back at the past because they had it better," Schoeneberg says. "The caveat would be that the past had its own problems."

What seems to be a sad or shocking change to one generation becomes part of the good old days for a newer generation.

When Asa Dunton, a Yankee stonecutter, established the town of Dunton in 1844 with son William as the first homeowner, the Duntons must have figured they would always have a spot in history. And they do at the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, where Schoeneberg notes that some Dunton residents longed for the old days, before a new group of developers 30 years later persuaded the residents of Dunton to change the name to Arlington Heights.

On what would have been the author's 117th birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced it would cease publication of several books because they contain insensitive and racist imagery. Associated Press
As the 1983 concert season opened at Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates, the enthusiastic crowd couldn't have anticipated that the music and entertainment venue would close in 1994. Daily Herald File Photo
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