Home sweet hometown: Winnetka, Ill.
Your childhood was in my hometown.
Your parents ignored you, your brother mocked you, and you wished you weren’t a part of your family. They even jetted off to France and forgot to bring you along! Luckily, you set up traps to protect the house from burglars and saved the day.
Your parents forgot your birthday. All they could think about was your older sister’s wedding. Then you found out that the boy of your dreams liked you back and suddenly everything was great.
You ditched school and had the day of a lifetime. You went to the Art Institute, watched a Cubs’ game, sang in a parade, and got home in time to trick your parents into thinking you had been there all along.
Winnetka is the quintessential hometown. With the shores of Lake Michigan, the shaded streets sided with oaks and willows one hundred years old and the cute little shops in downtown, it is the perfect place for someone to grow up. And you have seen my hometown before in dozens of movies. And you’ve done all the things that I did growing up. Winnetka, located just fifteen minutes north of here on Sheridan, is the stereotype of a hometown with all the good and bad included.
I’ll give you a little background about the movies filmed in Winnetka. The infamous brick house in Home Alone is filmed on Lincoln Avenue, just about a mile from my house, with scenes in my local grocery store and elementary school. Although Home Alone is probably the most famous movie filmed there, the list goes on. Scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are filmed around Winnetka. Uncle Buck features New Trier High School, the public high school in my town. And if we extend a little bit outside of Winnetka to the surrounding suburbs, we would find many of the locations for Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Risky Business.
This probably doesn’t mean very much to you. So what if I live a mile from the house in which Kevin McCallister set up booby traps? But it’s not about these movies so much as it is about what they represent. All of those movies remind me of a time when things were simpler. When the adventure of a lifetime did seem like playing hooky for a day. When being left at home was the worst thing that could happen. When getting high with kids in detention could change your perspective on life.
I have done all the things they did in those movies. They represent my childhood, not just because I watched them, but because I experienced them. I will admit my parents didn’t actually forget my birthday, and I didn’t actually hire a hooker when my parents were out of town. But you get the picture. Think back to the time in your life when everything was simple. When you didn’t have to worry about summer jobs or grades or financial aid.
But everyone has to grow up. Everyone I know from Winnetka is ready to get out, and I think that feeling is only natural. You should want to experience the world. But that doesn’t mean that we need to forget about where we came from, either. Winnetka may not be your hometown, but the movies set there represent our childhood. Next time the stress of midterms is getting you down or the pressure to find a job has you at your wits end, take a break and watch Home Alone. Who knows, watching Kevin go sledding down the stairs might remind you that there’s a little bit of kid left in you after all.
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Lousy summer job? It's the economy, stupid. Or you can return home.
way to get your facts straight, NBN…again. yes the movies you listed were filmed around wilmette, but they’re primarily set in Northbrook (or Shermerville as it was previously called) because the director of Ferris Bueller, Breakfast Club, 16 candles, etc. is from NORTHBROOK! just because scenes were filmed there doesnt mean wilmette can claim them. many of those films you mentioned are explicitly set in northbrook. don’t mislead your readers
muckraker
April 30, 2009 at 12:31 am
Don’t be a dick. It doesn’t matter if they were “set” in another suburb a few towns over, the movies still represent the area. Good job ruining the lightheartedness of the article by being overly literal.
Hey muckracker
April 30, 2009 at 12:49 am
“Winnetka is the quintessential hometown”
if you are a rich suburban WASP, then yes.
alphabetagaga
April 30, 2009 at 7:57 am
So what you really mean is “Winnetka is the quintessential hometown for John Hughes movies.”
Save Ferris
April 30, 2009 at 11:59 am
wilmette didn’t “claim” the movies. the writer is simply stating how the movies were filmed in wilnnetka, not that they were based off of winnetka.
Wilmette is not even even mentioned in the article. stop over-analyzing.
summer
April 30, 2009 at 2:35 pm
wilmette is never mentioned in this article. this piece is not implying that the movies are set in winnetka only filmed there. even though home alone is set there, and in feris bueller they walk the streets of winnetka, go into winnetka shops, and film the local high school.
leigh
April 30, 2009 at 7:53 pm
As a 25 year Winnetka resident, I am sad to see our fine educational system has failed Ms. Kukanza. Her grammar is terrible and her facts are wrong. Perhaps she “actually” doesn’t live here.
Kate
May 3, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Dear Kate,
1. You obviously do not know how the writing process works. After a reporter writes an article, several editors check it.
2. You are insinuating that Ms. Kukanza has nothing better to do than make up where she is from, just so she can get a good story. I highly doubt that a serious Northwestern student (because lets face it, as Northwestern students, we have more on our minds) spends her time thinking “what can I make up this time for my article?”
TO KATE
May 3, 2009 at 11:51 pm
I, and the entire NU student body, would like to thank you for covering our hometown.
or else I must have been confused: how much money my neighbors and i had, how good the schools are, how groomed the streets are…
it’s sad, of course, that such a small percentage of NU is from somewhere not fitting the mold of Winnetka (or even its urban analog) – but surely this can’t help.
thank you alphabetgaga
May 4, 2009 at 12:53 am
Perhaps her article was a bit idealistic, but I’m not sure that a series of articles titled “Home Sweet Hometown” was really intended to tackle issues like socioeconomic differences in the Northwestern undergraduate body. Winnetka is the quintessential hometown that we all think of when we think of mainstream coming-of-age flicks. And sometimes, though not wholly accurate, we do reflect back on our childhoods through the lens of pop culture. Oh well.
Ben
May 4, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I can assure that Ms. Kukanza grew up in Winnetka and attended the public schools in town until 8th grade. If her education and grammar are so poor, how did she get in NWU? The assignment for the article was for her hometown experience – whether or not it was your experience or you support or endorse towns in the North Shore. One should use caution when implying someone is fabricating their background.
Cindy
May 4, 2009 at 2:07 pm
To Kate,
One of the less appealing aspects of Winnetka is the haughtiness of many of it’s residents, a trait you seem to possess in abundance. (Another is an overly inflated view of it’s “fine” public education system.) Before you imply someone is fabricating their background, you should verify your facts. But of course, that’s stating the obvious to a long-term Winnetka resident.
Michael
May 4, 2009 at 2:18 pm
this is kind of poorly written.
co
May 4, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Well I just live in the UK and at the moment can only dream of living in Winnetka. Wanted to live there for a long time now, it’s like it has caught my heart, I can’t explain, very strange feeling. It must be bloody great (if you would excuse me) to walk past the Home Alone House, and think “wow, Macaulay Culkin once stood here as a kid in some distant, distant past year of the 20th century, now strongly something that is only a fading memory.” I just can’t get my head around that. Winnetka has made it for me, and I hope I can just make it to Winnetka one day..we’ll wait and see…………..
Thomas
May 16, 2009 at 7:09 pm