David McGrath – Page 7

David McGrath: Turning back the clock to 1962: The redemption of a shoplifting middle school benchwarmer

November 29, 2022 at 1:58 p.m.

At the end of every October, I grow anxious. Irritated. The reason, I tell everybody, is that it will take a month of restless sleep before I acclimate to the...

Pets take shelter in advance of the arrival of Hurricane Ian at Erwin Technical College, a pet-friendly shelter for people with special needs, on Sept. 28, 2022, in Tampa, Florida.

David McGrath: Lessons from surviving Hurricane Ian

October 5, 2022 at 1:53 p.m.

Meteorologists can predict hurricanes as soon as they're born and gauge their size, speed and time of arrival with increasing accuracy — though ascertaining their precise route remains a work...

David McGrath: What changed my mind about going to school reunions

September 13, 2022 at 9:26 a.m.

After reading the invitation to my Evergreen Park High School reunion, I forwarded it to my wife for laughs, just before deleting it. The prospect of attending a gathering of...

David and Marianne McGrath in a DuPage County forest preserve in 2012.

David McGrath: A winning formula for a loving marriage? Communication and compromise.

August 20, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

When my wife and I got married in August of 1972, I was a substitute teacher for Chicago Public Schools earning $40 a day. Marianne had a permanent gig as...

President Gerald Ford signs a document Sept. 8, 1974, at the White House granting former President Richard M. Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon" for all "offenses against the United States" during his presidency.

David McGrath: Biden should consider pardoning Trump — for the sake of our nation

August 5, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Among my earliest attempts at fiction was "The Misfit," a short story about a brilliant, competitive, though anti-social and paranoid college student. The writing was amateurish, but the story was...

A cyclist rides along a dedicated bike lane in Chicago.

David McGrath: I didn’t take wearing a bike helmet seriously. Then a car hit me.

July 15, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

It was a weekday morning, and the car hit me while I was riding my bike without a helmet. The cliche is that your whole life flashes in front of...

Students join a protest on Feb. 14, 2022, at Gaither High School in Tampa, Florida, against what critics call the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

David McGrath: I feel imprisoned in Ron DeSantis’ Florida on the Fourth of July

July 1, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

Prior to the Fourth of July holiday, I checked my rearview mirror to see if I had been followed into the post office parking lot. I was there to mail...

David McGrath: My father had courage to spare for his anxious 13-year-old son

June 17, 2022 at 10:29 a.m.

Probably because I thought it was personal, and even a little embarrassing, I had always kept quiet about that day with my father. It was the year I stopped going...

Wheaties is selling a limited-edition gold foil box in celebration of Bulls legend Michael Jordan.

David McGrath: Wheaties, thanks for celebrating Michael Jordan again. But ease up on the idol worship.

May 20, 2022 at 2:37 p.m.

To celebrate 100 years of displaying sports champions on the front of its Wheaties cereal box, General Mills is once again featuring Michael Jordan for a record 19th time since...

David McGrath: Sometimes Mom was a piece of work. But all for the sake of family.

May 6, 2022 at 5:00 a.m.

She was one of a kind, my mom. She once phoned to tell me about Chicago's weather of clear skies, balmy temperatures and low humidity and then wondered out loud...

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