Tributes, memorials, and memories of another day.

If there is one thing about Glen Ellyn, we are an area rich in history and a village that does not forget.

Walk practically anywhere within its boundaries and you will find tributes and plaques honoring or thanking someone for their effort of making the community a better place to live. That’s what makes Glen Ellyn…Glen Ellyn.

This past year, Memorial Field became state of the art when new turf was added creating a first-class all-purpose field for Glenbard West competing teams and physical education classes. That’s all in good, but the story does not stop there.

In the 1920’s the Glen Ellyn Reds baseball team and Glen Ellyn Bears football team used the field for games. (The turf was a bit different than it is today.) In the latter part of the decade, the Glen Ellyn Women’s Club planted 170 crabapple trees to create what is known as the “Soldiers Pathway”---a memorial for those who served in World War I. Since that time, the field would later be used to memorialize veterans of several wars including the Civil War and the Vietnam War.

The photo above was taken a few weeks after Memorial Field opened this fall---Glenbard West’s field hockey team put it to use against Loyola. By the way, it's a big field for a photographer trying to capture what’s going on during the game---but it is beautiful.

When you head to Memorial Field next spring, and you should just to see this incredible space, you will see a monument honoring the veterans ­that is placed at the beginning of the walkway. Although a story in itself, it has been placed in several areas; at one point it was supposed to be tossed away---luckily a former park district Facility Safety Inspector, Jim Rafferty, had other ideas for the monument. He placed it in his parents backyard until the day someone asked, “Where is the monument?

So, the next time you sit on a chair, rock, or walk on bricks etched with writing on them, it’s fitting to remember that without someone wanting to say “thanks,” you probably would be standing or walking on dirt.

Thanks for stopping by.