That’s right, my friends, our sweet home celebrates 185 years as a city Friday, March 4.
If it were the late 1990s and Chicago were a person, then I imagine its call into WGCI-FM 107.5 to do the infamous “Birthday Song” — something I ALWAYS wanted to do, but was too nervous to attempt — would go something like this:
WGCI’s The Bad Boys (Mike Love and Victor “The Dizz” Blackful): “Are you ready to throw down?”
Chicago: “Yes I am.”
“Who’s this on the birthday line?”
“It’s Chicago! It’s Chicago!”
“Hey Chicago, what’s your zodiac sign?”
“It’s Pisces! It’s Pisces!”
“What is today your birthday?”
“Yes it is, you know it is!”
“And how old are you on this day?”
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“I’m 185! But, it’s complicated!”
“Go Chicago! It’s your birthday! Go Chicago! It’s your birthday! Hey, where you from?”
“Chi-town!”
“Where you from?”
“Chi-town!”
“Bad Boys gotta say bye bye, happy birthday from WGCI!!”
(Chance the Rapper put together a GREAT version for his 25th birthday back in 2018, btw.)
Today, let’s toast our beautiful city — and many more birthdays ahead of it — while looking back at how we’ve celebrated the occasion through the decades. Special thanks to my colleagues, Ariel Cheung, Louisa Chu, Sarah Freishtat, Anne Halston, Marianne Mather, Nina Metz and Nara Schoenberg for their help with this week’s newsletter!
As always, check out @vintagetribune on Instagram and give us a follow @vintagetribune on Twitter.
See you next week!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
Chicago history | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
How old is Chicago, really?
Spoiler alert: Older than you may think it is, party people.
Photos: All the ways we’ve celebrated Chicago’s birthday
Pac-Man — and Ms. Pac-Man — attended the city’s 150th anniversary, for example.
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These 30 classic Chicago foods and drinks — from Original Rainbow Cone to a Chicago Handshake — are some of the most-loved essential experiences amongst my colleagues.
Let them eat Atomic Cake
Past observations of the city’s birthday have included a 120-gun salute, a cannon boom and — always — cake. Atomic Cake is purely a South Side creation and, in my humble opinion, is the only acceptable birthday cake. (My husband prefers pie to cake for his birthday — he’s clearly not from here.)
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We’re sure we’ve overlooked a few, but we gave it our best shot. There are so many more!
March 5, 1966: It was Chicago’s party — and it could cry if it wanted
Some city birthday celebrations missed the mark, including an abandoned plan to recreate Fort Dearborn and a late arrival by some 780 British sailors aboard two warships docked at Navy Pier (the first visit to Chicago of the Royal Navy by boat since Queen Elizabeth II landed near Buckingham Fountain in 1959). Then, there was the year almost nobody went to Chicago’s official birthday party.
Singing ‘Happy Birthday’ makes me wonder — where have all da Chicawgo accents gone?
Dennis Farina might have been the most famous actor to maintain his Chicago accent throughout his career, regardless of the role. But since his death in 2013, who else is there?
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