Beth Bassler

(DONNA LEE GULLEY): Good morning. Today is Friday, February 8th, 2013 and welcome to Northbrook Voices, an oral history project sponsored by the Northbrook Historical Society and the Northbrook Public Library. My name is Donna Lee Gulley, and I’m pleased to welcome Beth Bassler, who has lived and worked in Northbrook on and off since 1963, as she will tell us. A very special thing about her is her relationship with Glenbrook High School. She’ll tell us about being a student, being a teacher, being a parent, and now being a foundation member. I am so glad to have you. Welcome, Beth. 

(BETH BASSLER): Thank you.

(DLG): So, what brought you to Northbrook in 1963?

(BB): My parents lived in a home in the north side of Chicago, and it was too small. And we started looking for bigger homes. And my mom read about a little red farmhouse on Pfingsten Road. However, the street before it was Shannon Road, and there was a new development by the Kennedy Brothers called Innisfail, and we saw all of the model homes first. And so, when we saw the little farmhouse, she decided that farmhouse wasn’t going to be worth what we wanted. And we bought a home that was built on speculation.

(DLG): Wow. So, you were the first people to ever live in that home?

(BB): We were the first ones. And now my husband and I own the house. So basically, the same family has owned that house since 1963.

(DLG): Wow. Wow. So, in 1963, you were a student.

(BB): I came here at, in January of 1963. I was twelve and a half. And so, I was enrolled at Grove School when there was only a kindergarten through eighth grade there. There wasn’t any other part to District 27 besides Grove. It was a little bit farmish around here. In fact, we didn’t even have police service. We had a security service.

(DLG): That was very different from where you lived in the city.

(BB): It was amazingly different because every teacher I had in my previous school was about 100. And my first teacher when I walked in the door was the Chicago Bears football quarterback. His name was Rudy Bukich, and he was our core teacher. So, he taught history and english and geography things like that. And he was about probably 30, and he was tall and handsome and young and vital.

And I was like, wow. And there wasn’t a girl in my class. I wasn’t in love. And it was a wonderful beginning to living in Northbrook. I was extremely fortuitous to have had him as a teacher. He was really quite a guy.

(DLG): That’s really something. So, you finished at Grove and then went to Glenbrook? 

(BB): Yes.

(DLG): And place this in history for our listeners. At that time was it Glenbrook, total? North? South? What?

(BB): The school was called Glenbrook North by that time. They had gotten too big, and so Glenbrook South had been built. However, when I came to Glenbrook in ‘64, Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South was too small to handle the freshman class, so all of the Glenview freshmen came to Glenbrook North with the North Northbrook freshmen.

So, we were a class of 800, and the other classes were three to four hundred. So, we were just swarming everywhere. It was like ants. They didn’t quite know what to do with us, so we became friendly with the people from South. And I still have a friend or two that I know from Glenview that I grew up with from going there as a freshman.

(DLG): And was your class an anomaly, or were the classes all bigger after that?

(BB): I think it was the trend that people started discovering that Northbrook was a great little place. The train came there. It was in between the Edens Expressway and the Tri-State, and people were like, oh, good place. Good, Park District is now. Same thing and great school, although we didn’t know it at the time.

(DLG): Sounds wonderful. So, you went to Glenbrook North for four years?

(BB): Yes, ma’am.

(DLG): And in addition to taking classes, what were you active in?

(BB): I thought I wanted to be on the Aquinas swim team, but I didn’t make it, which was okay. And as a sophomore, I became a cheerleader because at that time, it was against the law for girls to participate in sports. I was in Girls Athletic Association, and I was a member of the choirs, and that was about all I was able to find time to do once I became a cheerleader because we cheered in the fall and the winter.

(DLG): I see, I see. So, you finished at the high school, and then I imagine you left the community for a while.

(BB): I went to college at Southern Illinois University and got married when I was a senior and had a son, and then quit school for a while. And then I went back, and I finished up in 1974 with a degree in Spanish and a minor in music, and I started looking around for jobs, and my first job was at Libertyville High School, and I taught there for three years.

And then I had another child, and then a couple of years later, I had another child. And then a few years after that, I got divorced, unfortunately. And due to the benevolence of my parents, they let me move back to my home with my three children and my dog. And I started looking for a job, and I put my name into substitute at Glenbrook North, Glenbrook South, and I started doing some substitute work there.

But most everybody was very healthy that year, and I couldn’t get much work. However, they remembered me, and in the spring of 1983, they called me in and said, we have an opening in Spanish, would you like to apply for the job? And I was beside myself, so excited. And I said, absolutely. And I interviewed for the job, and they offered me a full-time position in the fall of 1983.

(DLG): You had a guardian angel.

(BB): I must have. It did help that my father had been on the parent advisory board. The principal remembered my dad. The department chairman remembered me as being a substitute teacher for him. And my mother had a very good friend who was good friends with Jean McGrew, who was the superintendent. And so, I think that all those people had nice things to say about me, and that’s how I got the job.

(DLG): So, you started teaching in what year?

(BB): 1983 of the fall, September.

(DLG): And how many years did you teach at the high school?

(BB): I taught 26 years teaching all levels of Spanish, first through fourth year.

(DLG): And did they get you back into cheerleading or music?

(BB): Well, I was offered the job of assistant cheerleading sponsor, which meant that I was the freshman level. They’d decided to have freshman girls apply for being a cheerleader, and the principal had the thought that it was a good idea to let any girl that wanted to be a cheerleader, be a cheerleader. And that particular year, 110 girls came out for the squad.

So, I was the sponsor, all by myself, of 110 girls. And they all needed uniforms. And they, we had squads of 18 to 20, and we had them cheering for football, freshmen A freshman B. Soccer A, soccer B.

(DLG): You went to a lot of games.

(BB): I went to a jillion games, and then we had the winter sports, and we had to go cheer for that. I about lost my mind.

(DLG): I’m sure you did. And at that time, what were your kids doing?

(BB): Well, my children when I got divorced were three, five, and ten, and my mother hustled the little ones off to preschool. And then my son was over at Shabonee. And so, I was sort of the afternoon mom. My mom would get my kids off to school.

And when they came home, then I was home. And together we would cook meals and get things ready for the next day. But they started getting active in things. So, I was going to all of their ballgames, as well as going to every game I could see for the freshman cheerleaders. So, I was a very, very busy person. And then on the weekends I waitressed.

(DLG): And when did you find time to do lesson plans and grade your papers?

(BB): Late at night. I have a feeling all of us that were former single moms had to do a lot of things after the children went to bed.

(DLG): And did your, did your children go to Glenbrook North?

(BB): My children, the two younger ones, went to Grove and went through the District 27 Grove, Shabonee, Northbrook Junior High. And my older son started off at Shabonee, then he went to Wood Oaks. And then all three of them came through Glenbrook North and didn’t die by having their mother be a teacher there, although there were moments when they would see me in the hallway, and we didn’t always know how to act towards one another, but basically it was a good thing. There was only one regret about being a parent and a teacher at Glenbrook North, was I never made it to any of their parent teacher conferences because I was doing parent teacher conferences myself. 

(DLG): Absolutely. So, your kids, your kids went to the high school starting what year? 

(BB): Let’s see. My oldest son graduated in 1990. So, he started in ‘86. And then my daughter graduated in 1995. And my youngest son graduated in 1998.

(DLG): So, there’s a 20-year difference between when you were in high school and when they came to the high school.

(BB): Pretty much, yes.

(DLG): Tell us some differences in the 20 years.

(BB): Glenbrook got much bigger as far as size-wise. They added fieldhouse, they added the CPA, the beautiful theater that they have. They expanded in many different areas, so it was more sprawling so that there was a lot more building that had occurred from the time I left until I started again. And even once I started teaching, then there’s been improvements and additions, which make it an absolutely amazing place to teach, and to attend as a student.

(DLG): And did your kids follow in your footsteps and do music and cheerleading?

(BB): No, my two oldest children went to Knox College and became Spanish majors, which I was thrilled about, but not teachers. And my younger son started at Knox, ended up at Lake Forest, and he is a history major. None of them are teachers, and none of them are singers. They said that it has skipped a generation. My mother and father were both singers, are singers. And they’re all doing remarkable things. I’m very proud of them. And I’m a grandmother, which is even more wonderful.

(DLG): And does your grandchild live in Northbrook?

(BB): My oldest son has three children, and they all live here in Northbrook, and my daughter is expecting her first, and she’ll be moving to Northbrook this summer. So, I’m thrilled to see that we have some new Spartans moving into the area that I’m related to, which will make generation number three going through Glenbrook.

(DLG): Oh, that’s amazing. That’s amazing. I wonder how many people in Northbrook have that experience. Do you have some classmates who are still here?

(BB): I do have some classmates. I’m also active on the High School of ‘68 Class Reunion Committee, and we’re planning our 45th reunion, which will be occurring in September. And some of them had children that went to Glenbrook, which is really fun.

(DLG): Absolutely.

(BB): I actually had some of my classmates’ children as students.

(DLG): That must have been very interesting.

(BB): Definitely.

(DLG): You mentioned to me before we started the interview that you are a foundation member.

(BB): I believe that all of us are aware of financial constraints coming on the horizon, not only those of us that are former teachers and our pensions, but we see less and less money coming from the government to help fund our schools, and we are conscientious enough to realize that we may have to do something to help enhance our educational system in the future.

And so, we, as well as many of the schools around here, have a foundation hoping that we can tap into our alumni and possibly the businesses in the area to start finding monies to ensure that the quality of education that has occurred between Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South will continue on forever.

(DLG): So, the foundation is primarily a fundraising organization?

(BB): At the moment, we are looking to raise funds, but we are also dispersing funds. For instance, we are granting teacher grants so that if there’s things that they have ideas for that are not necessarily budgeted for, that we can find the money for that. We have an evening school, and in the past the foundation has helped underwrite their prom.

And one particular grant we gave was to the debate club, where they were trying to go paperless, and we helped them with monies so that they could travel to their various debate things and not have to bring huge curtains and bales of paper, and they could go paperless. And it has caught on across the United States, from what I hear. Many, many other schools are copying us. We were probably the first to go paperless. So, we’re very proud of those things. And it’s a small step, but we hope to do more things.

(DLG): When did the foundation begin?

(BB): I’m a little rusty on that, but I would say maybe four, four years ago or so.

(DLG): So, it’s fairly new. Were you a founding member?

(BB): I was a founding member. I was, I talked to my principal and said, you’re missing the boat. You’re not getting any use out of your retirees. And I think that’s a, you know, we need to go and get the people that have retired, maybe more active in doing things around the school. He said, you know, I absolutely have this great idea. How would you like to be a trustee? You know, start the foundation for Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South. And I said, I think I’d like that. I know a lot of people. And so that’s how I got started.

(DLG): So, you really are the founder.

(BB): I’m one of them. Yes. And I was asked to serve once the foundation became an actuality. And I happily do so.

(DLG): And are you an officer?

(BB): I would not say that I’m an officer. I’m an Indian, I’m not a chief.

(DLG): I like that, I like that. Well, do you have some special memories about our Glenbrook High School?

(BB): I think that being there back in the 60s, I was in school when they won their first championship for the state, and that was in baseball, and they played Maine South. And that was the first time in high school history, annals of two schools in the same conference playing each other for the state championship. And we were fortunate or maybe better than the team of Maine South. And we beat them 15 to 2, which sort of stuck out in my mind. We really kind of annihilated them, which I liked.

I was also in 1983 a member of the faculty when it won its first United States government best teacher. I mean, best school award. And so, I was there when they had big, you know, big assemblies, getting this Blue Ribbon Award, and that was very exciting. And that fall, 1983, I believe, or 1984, I’m a little rusty.

They won the state soccer championship, and one of my colleagues in my department was the head coach at the time. So, I went to see those games. So that was very exciting. And I was there when they won the basketball championship. So, I’ve been there for some big things. I was a member of a number of Variety Shows, and I sang with the former choir director, Judy Moe. We did some duets, and I sang with other people, and that was very exciting.

(DLG): Are you still involved with the Variety Shows?

(BB): My only claim to fame right now is a great attender, which I did last night, and I saw a wonderful show last night again, and I’m very happy to be a part of that. I guess maybe one of the things I should say is that after about five years of the cheerleading experience and not being home much for my children and them needing me, I went to the student activities director and I said, I have to have a different job.

I can’t do this anymore. And he says, well, funny you should say that. The junior class board advisor is retiring. How would you like that job? And I said, well, what does that entail? And he says, well, you have to put on the proms. I think I can do that. And so, I took that job for 21 years, and I put on 21 proms.

So that was a very, every year it became a learning experience because you think you have everything handled, and things crop up that you cannot, you can’t account for. People getting chicken pox or limos breaking down or children, you know, leaving early, food not arriving the way you liked it. You learn to wear many hats as a prom sponsor.

(DLG): I imagine you do. So, you were, you were the sponsor when your kids went to the prom?

(BB): Yes, I was, and I guess one of my biggest heartaches was that my son, his senior year, asked a young lady, and she had already accepted an invitation from someone else, and he did not go his senior year to prom, which I was heartbroken, but I got past that.

Other than that, my children came to the proms, and they stayed on the other side of the room, and once in a while they’d come over and say, how are you doing, Mom? And, I’m fine. And they were very comfortable by the time they were seniors with me being at school. I also went with Jim McFerrin on a number of school trips in the spring, and we went and took a number of field trips over to Europe, and I took students.

(DLG): Where in Europe did you go?

(BB): We went to Spain and Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland. Not the same place each time, but different trips each time with a wonderful group called ACIS.

(DLG): What a wonderful experience.

(BB): I had the most wonderful time being a part of Glenbrook North.

(DLG): And you still are.

(BB): And I absolutely found it so great to be a part of the foundation so I can make sure that everybody that goes there has the opportunity to have the kind of experiences I did, which were wonderful.

(DLG): Hearing you tell stories about the high school, it doesn’t surprise me that yesterday’s newspaper had an article that Northbrook is one of the 100 safest communities in the United States.

(BB): I have to address that because many years ago, my classroom was on the first floor in one of the front doors, facing out towards Shermer, and there was a horrible experience over in Wilmette or Winnetka where a young woman went in and shot people.

I had three doors into my classroom, so I was probably ten, twenty feet from the front door, and I never thought about that being kind of a scary thing, but it was terribly frightening. And then we had Columbine, and we all had to learn how to keep our children safe, and we’ve practiced that. I think that Glenbrook is very much aware of all the things that it needs to do to keep the children safe.

I know that there are policemen that walk around the building. I know that there are paraprofessionals that walk around the building. I think children are a lot more aware. The awareness is heightened because of the things that have been occurring. They know not to let a stranger in the door. If you don’t, you have to walk into locked doors to come into Glenbrook now, and you get a name tag, and they check it out through your driver’s license.

And that’s a very comforting thing to know: there’s an adult, and he’s got a name tag on. He belongs here. I like that. I think we all have to be mindful of our children and making sure that they know not to trust people they don’t recognize.

(DLG): Right, right. Let’s talk about some of the activities that you’ve been involved in in Northbrook, some of the organizations.

(BB): I haven’t had a lot of time. Went to a million games, I think. I used to think that I had clothes in my trunk for any occasion, for football, soccer. My son played football and baseball, and basketball. My daughter played volleyball and basketball and soccer for a few years. I went to a number of plays, and so I really didn’t have a lot of time.

(DLG): Squeezed in the choir.

(BB): I love to sing because that was my minor in college. I became interested in the Y’all Come choir, which was run by a woman named Sue Young. It has now been morphed into the Northbrook Community Choir, which I think is a great title, and we have a wonderful new director, and I’ve been doing that for about 4 or 5 years, which has been so fun.

(DLG): And did that group get to go to Carnegie Hall?

(BB): When it, before I joined it went to Carnegie Hall. However, our last big event I was very proud to be a part of. We sang at the Techny Chapel with the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra, and I was privileged to be allowed to sing a solo or two during that.

(DLG): What did you sing?

(BB): We sang a John Rutter number that I got to sing the solo part for, but that has been a great deal of joy in my life, is singing, and to have this outlet in the Park District sponsoring it all is just huge.

I wish we could get more people to come because really, it’s a wonderful experience. There’s lovely people, and they all come with the same purpose in mind, making beautiful music. And we also sing here at the library. I forgot to mention that, that’s important.

(DLG): Thank you for your contribution.

(BB): It has been a pleasure.

(DLG): And you just mentioned the library. Do I know, have I heard a story about your connection to the library?

(BB): Well, I guess I should kind of chuckle and say that in 1966, and I don’t know how many years before that, my mother actually worked in the library before it was in this big, huge, beautiful location. It was across the street on Shermer from the Village Church, and my mother worked there.

And so, my mom was a, I don’t know what her job title was, but she worked part-time for the library. So, we’ve been very involved in using the facilities of the library because we find it to be an amazing place.

(DLG): I agree, and I’m wondering, is that building still here?

(BB): The building is a little orange brick building that houses a lot of medical offices and things. It’s right on the corner, next to Jacqueline’s Jewelry, and that was the original library. So, you can imagine those of us in Northbrook getting to have this place that has a theater and so many amenities. I’ve even tutored students here besides taking out books. It has a store. I mean, the library is remarkable, and the only reason you know that is if you’ve lived in other communities, there aren’t as many libraries that can compare.

(DLG): We’re really fortunate here.

(BB): Yes, we are. Living in Northbrook is an amazing place.

(DLG): How would you describe Northbrook to somebody who was looking for a community to move to?

(BB): Well, I believe that I could quote some of our real estate agents. Not only do we have wonderful neighborhoods and beautiful homes, it’s well maintained. There are so many great things. The schools, our park district, our library facilities. The downtown area is quite convenient. How about our public works? The streets are well maintained. Everybody cares about this place. People are educated and lovely and hospitable. The trains here. It’s close to the expressways. I can’t imagine anybody not wanting to live here once they come. And I think we have a lot of surprised people because once you get here and you start finding out about all the amenities, you go, well, I thought it was a good place to come because I have children and the schools are good, but there’s many more things that I, would be a draw to people. And I believe that’s the reason why it was started back in the late 1800s, was because it was not so far from Chicago, not so far from Milwaukee.

And nowadays, those of us that are traveling around, we like it that we’re close to the airport. We like it that we can jump on the train and go downtown. We don’t have to drive downtown. We can, but we don’t have to. And we have the Village Green and, you know, all these cute little stores, and I’m excited about what the village is planning for the future to make our community even more lucrative for people that move here or visit and spend their money.

(DLG): Thank you. Let’s talk a little bit about the changes that you’ve seen in the 50 years that you’ve been around Northbrook.

(BB): Oh, my. When I moved in, Northbrook had 11,000 people. So, everybody knew everybody.

(DLG): And today it’s just under 35,000.

(BB): Something like that. There were lots of places that I would, that I’m near that were just fields. When we moved into our house, we were the second family in that neighborhood that was a development. And the street that they had made ended at the end of our sidewalk by our house. It had been a farm. And so, we could see from our house all the way to Dundee, all the way to Landwehr, all the way to Walters and all the way to Western. And Cherry stopped. It went from Landwehr to Pfingsten and stopped at Pfingsten.

And then it started again at Western. So, it was just a big field of mud. When we first moved in, there were no houses. The Lutheran Church was there, but that was pretty much it. So, there was a lot of vacant, vacant area of Northbrook where Shabonee is and Pheasant Creek and all of that. Nothing. A friend I went to grade school and high school with, his parents owned Sportsman’s, and at that time Sportsman’s was a huge golf course and it encompassed a lot of property.

And they sold off sections a little at a time. I mean, it still has a great golf course, but there weren’t homes there. It was just golf course. And one of my friends, his family had a horse farm off of Sanders and Dundee, where there’s a big community by Butterfield’s over there. That was just a big horse farm, and there weren’t any sidewalks.

We really had a very rural area that was just starting to explode. And explode is the word because when my brother went to high school in ‘70, in the late 60s, early 70s, I think that they had 2,700 students at Glenbrook North. So that was the height of the big, huge push into Northbrook. I think there’s about 2,100 students at Glenbrook North now.

So, I know that things have kind of leveled out, but Northbrook just exploded after that, and everybody seems to have kept up. And I guess that’s the thing I want to say, is everybody that’s sort of in village planning is very aware of what they should be looking for in trends and how can we make this a better community and what can we do for the future. And, you know, when I think of internet, we’re very spoiled with all of that. We have all that amenity, all of that.

(DLG): You’re a wonderful spokesperson for Northbrook.

(BB): I think so. I love this community. I love the people in it. I love all of the things that make it charming.

(DLG): It certainly shows, it certainly shows. We have just one minute left. So, is there something that we haven’t talked about that you’d like to add?

(BB): I wish everybody had the rich, and I guess that’s the word I can use the rich experiences that I’ve had, being part of Glenbrook and Northbrook. It’s been wonderful.

(DLG): And Northbrook, Northbrook is fortunate that you’ve been here and you feel fortunate to be here.

(BB): Absolutely.

(DLG): So, I thank you very much for your time today. It’s been a wonderful interview. Thank you, Beth.

(BB): It’s been a pleasure.

(DLG): And that concludes our interview for today.