Dennis McCullum did what he figured any right-thinking, White Sox-loving uncle should do.
He pulled his two young nephews, Lance and Landon, out of school Friday for a celebration so historic, so mind-bogglingly important, that it trumped anything they could learn in class.
“I was just telling them that you can’t forget it,” said McCullum, 49, after watching the World Champion White Sox’s victory parade and rally.
“I’m going to remember this until I die,” said Lance, a 5th grader at Burnside Scholastic Academy on the South Side.
All along the parade route and throughout the crowd at the downtown rally, parents hoisted their children on their shoulders or lifted them atop roadside planters to get better views. For many parents, Friday’s celebration was more educational than anything their children could learn in history class, andcertainly a lot more fun.
Those who showed up unchaperoned, such as Ayla Olvera, Allison Yurjko and Jen Baluk, were prepared to pay the consequences.
The 17-year-olds ditched school at Queen of the Peace High School in Burbank to attend. They made a sign, which they affixed to a security fence:
“Calculus Test: D-
English Paper: Late
College Apps: Incomplete
Missing School for the Sox …
Priceless.”
Some teachers and principals played along, letting students skip out early or not show up at all, essentially creating a White Sox school holiday.
Others weren’t so forgiving.
“It will not be an excused absence,” said Antoinette LaBosco, assistant principal at Lane Tech College Prep High School on the North Side, which LaBosco described as a “Cubs school,” not a White Sox school.
“We will definitely have to talk to the parents and ask if the parents knew,” LaBosco said. “It will be [handled] on a case-by-case basis with input from the parents.”
In most cases, the parents were right there with their children, sharing the moment.
Victoria Zaragoza, 16, a Lane Tech student, stood with her mother, Anita Ibanez, as the parade swept through their old neighborhood in Pilsen.
“They’re not just going straight to downtown,” Ibanez said as the two soaked up the grandeur of the Sox’s first victory celebration in 88 years. “It shows that they care about each and every kind of person out there that supported them.”
For many parents, the parade was a passing of the torch. Or, in this case, a passing of the bat.
“The way I look at it is, it’s a bridge from something that’s a passion of mine” to them, said Mary Foster, 44, of Elmhurst, who watched the parade along Upper Wacker Drive with son Alex, 8, and daughter Nicole, 11. “I can pass it on to the next generation.”
For Chicago Public Schools, Friday officially was a school day, but schools spokesman Tim Tuten said students wouldn’t necessarily be punished for skipping classes.
“It is up to the individual school principals to determine how they will handle any students who are not in class today,” he said.
At some points along the parade route, it seemed that everyone in the crowd had a child in tow.
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Michelle Suits, 38, brought her daughter, Rachel, from Crown Point, Ind., after getting the OK from Rachel’s school the night before.
Suits said she had attended a parent-teacher conference, at which the teacher asked if they were going to the parade. Suits initially hesitated.
“The teacher’s like `Oh no, take her. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,'” Suits said.
Rachel, 9, understood.
“I think it’s awesome,” she said surveying the crowd. “I really wanted to come here because I might get an autograph and I get to see them live.”
Others, such as Patrick Cassidy, sounded wise beyond their years.
“It’s great,” said Patrick, 13, of Chicago, who attended with his father. “It might not ever happen again.”
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