Monday, March 16, 2009

Easter Egg Hunt At Wunder's Cemetery

Not quite in Uptown, but just across the street from our southern border. Sounds like a fun free event for the kids:

From Ald. Tom Tunney: Wunder's Cemetery is celebrating its Sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary with this free event open to all neighborhood children and parents. Hunt for eggs and have fun with local history. Parents are asked to attend with their children for the duration of the easter egg hunt. Refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP with name and number of children at wunders_cemetery@sbcglobal.net or 773-525-4038.

Saturday, April 4, 10 am - Noon
(Rain Date) Saturday, April 11, 10 am - Noon
Wunder's Cemetery - 3963 N. Clark Street

12 comments:

  1. Skipping amongst the gravestones looking for Eaaster eggs. What a perfect day

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  2. yeah...I have to agree...Easter egg hunt in a cemetary just doesn't sound right..oh well.

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  3. I have to put on my history nerd hat for a second here...

    About the time Wunder's was founded, cemeteries were moving away in tone from gloomy, dark, crowded churchyards to large public cemeteries. The Victorians wanted big, grand, light, airy places surrounding them, and that included cemeteries.

    The "new" designs were park-like settings where families could enjoy an afternoon. They were landscaped with trees, flowers, ponds and fountains. The monuments became small versions of Victorian homes and architecture.

    Just look at Graceland across the street from Wunder to see a grand version of what was then considered to be a modern cemetery.

    Looking at Wunder's from an historic POV, holding a family event on its 150th anniversary is completely appropriate.

    And let's face it, from a practical sense, where else can urban Uptown kids experience an Easter Egg roll? It would be great if Graceland, Wrigley Field or Challenger Park offered their facilities, but since they apparently haven't, I think it's great that Wunder's has.

    Taking the history nerd hat off now...

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  4. I remember it well. Hunting for easter eggs amongst the tombstones. I had just reached for the yellow spotted purple plastic egg with a boney hand reached out from the grave. The grasp on my wrist nearly ripped my arm from its socket.

    I shrieked. Suddenly the big guy with the floppy ears appeared. His nose twitched. He clobbered the boney hand with his basket.

    I felt safe as I ate my chocolate covered marshmallow thinggy.

    I never forget it. Now I can take my kids.

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  5. It's just plain creepy. Green grass and flowers or not, there are dead people buried there. Seems more appropriate for a halloween party. I would agree that it's nice that Wunder is sponsoring the event in any case. I think I would pick up my eggs with one of those metal grabber deals. Don't want to get to close to someones resting place.

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  6. Oh, c'mon, upsboy. Every single place you walk, every single day, someone's died there at some point. Man up! ;-)

    If it makes you feel any better about Wunder, people who were buried there 150 years ago... aren't there anymore. Enjoy the flowers and grass, and have a chocolate Easter egg for me!

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  7. Does anybody think it's weird that part of the cemetary is a designated exclusively for Jewish burials? I hope out of respect they only do that easter thing over non-Jewish graves.

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  8. Toto, there are separate cemeteries in that area. Wunder's is one of them, and is German Lutheran.

    There's another completely different cemetery, separated by a fence, for Jewish burials. It's called Jewish Graceland, and is actually four adjoining cemeteries run by the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery, Anshe Mayrev, Cemetery of the Congregation of the Sons of Peace, and Chebra Kadisha Ubikar Cholm.

    It's not "weird," it's consecrated ground for different religions, and completely separate plots of land.

    Many Uptown residents and UCC have been volunteering their time over the past few years to help clean up and beautify Jewish Graceland, as it's fallen on hard times and is usually overgrown.

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  9. I remember when we recovered a DOA at Wunders Cemetary some yrs back. The discovered deceased was not on the list of residents for that particular plot. He was unearthed about 2.5 ft below the surface as the gravediggers were geting ready for a burial the next day. He was in a black plastic bag wearing polyester clothes, wide collared shirt and leather shoes. I think he ran afoul of "da boys".

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  10. Did not mean to sound disrespectful. Just curious.

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  11. The Enforcer, that's jaw-dropping! Sounds like something from a movie. I remember when Wrigleyville itself was a pretty dicey neighborhood, so I bet you've got a lot of stories to tell...

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  12. This was a great Easter egg hunt and all kids had a great time. They did a nice job with it and had a sweet Easter bunny passing out eggs,candy and little toys for the children.
    Wonderful hot chocolate, lemonade and donuts. Balloons and bags were given out to the children as well.
    It was so nice of them to do this for them. There was nothing creepy about it at all! Peaceful and refreshing :)

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