Suburban history photos: The best of the best

July 19, 1959: The First National Bank of Mundelein’s float in the Jubilee parade in 1959, featuring oxen from Hawthorne-Mellody Farms.   (Ford Wilson / Chicago Tribune)

Sept. 12, 1959: Teaching a ball carrier to run low is one of Coach Vic Lesch’s duties at the new Willowbrook High School in Villa Park. Taking the hand-off is Mike Livermore, while Irving Topel steadies the tackling dummy.  (Tribune Archive Photo / Chicago Tribune)

Sept. 12, 1964: Probably the largest birthday cake she has ever seen towers over five-year-old Marilyn Walkowicz on the lawn of village hall in Mount Prospect. However, she can’t have any -- the 15-foot structure is made out of plastic and wood.   (Tribune archive photo / Chicago Tribune)

Aug. 15, 1965: A group of 12-year-olds from Northbrook’s hockey league board a plane at O’Hare to Agencourt, Ont., where they will spend two weeks learning the game from Harry Watson, a former hockey star. Chicago Blackhawks player Eric Nesterenko (right) accompanies them.   (Staff Photo / Chicago Tribune)

June 20, 1971: A Pontiac Grand Prix, which will go to the winner of the $100,000 added Grand Prix, attracts considerable attention in the paddock from a horse returning from its morning workout at Arlington Park.   (Tribune Archive Photo / Chicago Tribune)

Sept. 21, 1971: Frederick Gaede, area resident all his life, checks the condition of the dried up marsh adjoining Reed Park in West Chicago.   (Hardy Wieting / Chicago Tribune)

1971: The blue flag of the United Nations is burned in front of the Church of Christian Liberty, 203 E. Camp McDonald Rd in Prospect Heights. The Chinese flag was also burned as a protest to President Carter’s diplomatic recognition of China.

Sept. 24, 1972: The previous month, the ditch was responsible for the death of an 11-year-old boy who was swept up by the current while playing. Residents presented petitions with 1,700 signatures to the village board demanding the ditch be covered, but were told by officials that the petitions were not in correct form. The issue was not resolved until 1998, when work began to cover the ditch.   (Tribune Archive photo / Chicago Tribune)

Oct., 1972: The Village Tavern in Long Grove features singing waitress Grace Knowles.

June 9, 1973: A firefighter walks through the rubble left behind after the Worldwide Fireworks Co. warehouse exploded in McHenry.   (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune)

July 1973: Mike Kulpaka, 6, and Laurie Draudt, 8, get some shade from their award-winning corn at the Lake County Fair in Grayslake.

April 6, 1975: The Free Spirit Festival held at the College of DuPage. Sue Thomas (right) demonstrates physical postures designed to merge body, mind and spirit.   (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune)

Oct. 2, 1975: Youngsters watch delightedly as Jim Sarno, director of the Forest Park Park District, pours foot-long rainbow trout into the district’s swimming pool.   (Jack Dykinga / Chicago Tribune)

Jan. 8, 1982: Scott Smith reaches the end of the Norge Ski Club ramp in Fox River Grove, but his trip is just beginning. Next comes the second half of the trip -- the soaring and landing.   (David Nystrom / Chicago Tribune)

May 19, 1982: Morton Grove Police Officer Robert J. Jones, administrative assistant to the police chief, holds 12 handguns turned in by the town’s residents after the village banned their possession. “They are the most photographed guns in the world,” he said, speaking of the world-wide interest in the Morton Grove law.  (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

June 5, 1983: Fences guard against accidental falls from the south end of Lake Bluff’s lakefront city park, where the lake is slowly claiming the land.   (Arthur Walker / Chicago Tribune)

Oct. 6, 1984: Mannequins litter the sidewalk in front of the York Clothing Store, 161 N. Broadway in Melrose Park, as firefighters from five departments battle an extra-alarm blaze. Officials said the fire started when a car hit a gas main regulator on the two-story building.   (Phil Greer / Chicago Tribune)

Dec. 6, 1985: A 47-year-old Colorado blue spruce goes out in a blaze of holiday glory at the Botanic Gardens’ Christmas celebration in Glencoe.   (Chris Walker and Don Casper / Chicago Tribune)

Tina Stoltz makes an unlikely mailbox stop on Valley Road in unincorporated Lombard following a downpour that dumped up to four inches of rain on the suburbs.   (Chuck Berman / Chicago Tribune)

Jan. 22, 1986: David Burnette prunes the apple orchard of the Benedictine Sisters Convent in Lisle. The purpose of the pruning is to promote a larger crop of fruit in the fall.   (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune)

Nov. 20, 1986: At an emergency PTA meeting in Darien’s Fairview School, speech therapist Joan Thorsen tells how she had felt uneasy in the presence of arrested teacher’s aide Phillip K. Marshall, though not enough to tell school officials. Marshall was arrested by State Police the previous night on child pornography charges.   (Michael Fryer / Chicago Tribune)

April 14, 1987: Pupils get an uplifting lesson in air currents during a launch conducted by the Carol Stream Parent-Teacher Association. The previous year, cards attached to the balloons reached New York and Canada.   (James Mayo / Chicago Tribune)

June 4, 1987: John Corrigan (from left), Erik Van Buren and Mark Born prepare for their imminent 8th-grade graduation by spending an afternoon taking it to the hoop at Twin Lakes Park in Westmont.   (John Dziekan / Chicago Tribune)

May 15, 1988: Theophilus “Ted” Nachowitz, 75, sits with his grandson, Doug Nachowitz, 8, in Doug’s second grade classroom during Grandparent’s Day at Walker Elementary School in Clarendon Hills. The tag on the elder Nachowitz’s lapel reads, “I belong to Doug N. Grandpa Ted.”  (Don Casper / Chicago Tribune)

May 14, 1989: Kindergartener Elizabeth Romain, 5, races through a course made with used tires during Olympics Day at St. Mary’s School in Mokena.   (Walter Neal / Chicago Tribune)

July 12, 1989: Members of the Hoffman Estates Police Department’s undercover detail stand in full regalia for a Metallica concert at Poplar Creek Music Theatre.   (Michael Fryer / Chicago Tribune)

July 14, 1989: Patrons dive into the new Rand Park pool in Des Plaines; two 300-foot slides are visible in the background.   (Mario Pettiti / Chicago Tribune)

1990: A Plainfield Fire District firefighter rests after becoming overcome by the heat while fighting a blaze that destroyed a barn on the Day Brothers Farm.

March 13, 1992: A stairway is all that remains of a recreational facility destroyed by a fire at the Glenview Naval Air Station. No one was injured, and the fire’s cause was unknown. Damage was estimated at $10 million.   (Jose More / Chicago Tribune)

Dec. 25, 1992: Susie Andmon embraces stable worker Mario Luna as the rubble from a barn fire in Vernon Hills smolders in the background.   (Rod Lamkey Jr. / Chicago Tribune)

Sandy Demovsky (left) and Edie Cichowski, mother of a student who died in a drunk driving accident in 1992, attend the dedication of a memorial garden to students and teachers at Rolling Meadows High School. The idea for the garden arose when four students died in one year. The words of Lori Anderson, a student who died in a car accident in 1992 are set in a stone in the garden: “Love isn’t shown through tears, but through the memories that hold together a lost life.”  (Jim Prisching / Chicago Tribune)