Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

Pullman Labor Day Parade

I am not going to pretend that I know everything about the Labor History of Chicago, so I will simply copy-paste the information from the Pullman website about today’s event. I want to mention that the event was poorly advertised, and the participation was not so great. Igor and I went thee and took a decent amount of pictures, which I will ty to post tomorrow. But for now – just the information:

Official records vary, but one can be certain that Chicago’s first Labor Day Parade took place in the 1880s. Labor Day parades in Chicago before the turn of the 20th century regularly involved upwards of 30,000 working men and women and drew thousands more onlookers. Roughly 75,000 workers turned out to march in the 1903 parade.​

Early parades were massive and aimed to show the solidarity and sheer size of the labor movement. Parades were often followed by picnics where workers could enjoy a relaxing day off with their families after marching with their union. However, support for the parade waned in the 1940s and would eventually be discontinued in the 1950s.

In 1959, the East Side Labor Day Parade was established. Chicago’s Southeast Side has always had a strong connection to labor, and with the steel mills in operation and working families employed at U.S, Wisconsin, Republic, and Pressed Steel, the booming economy of the neighborhood gave rise to the celebration of union and labor achievements. The parade ran strong for over 30 years until its retirement in 1993.

The Chicago Federation of Labor revived the Labor Day Parade that traditionally marched through downtown Chicago in the 1980s. Iterations of the parade through the 80s and 90s often included a festival and picnic component, held in Grant Park. The 1982 parade and festival was held over several days and included musical performances by Count Basie and Glen Campbell. But the “downtown parade” once again went by the wayside in the 2000s.​

Years later the tradition was revived by former 10th Ward Alderwoman Susan Sadlowski Garza in September 2015 with the support of local businesses, unions, and community members. The new parade ran down Ewing Avenue on the Southeast Side and was followed by Eddie Fest, featuring live music, food and fun for the whole family. Eddie Fest was named after Sadlowski Garza’s father, the legendary United Steelworkers activist Edward ‘Oilcan’ Sadlowski.

The 2023 Chicago Labor Day Parade and Eddie Fest is moving from the East Side, but not far. After Sadlowski Garza’s retirement in 2023, the parade and festival will move to the Pullman Historic District, which has been developing and highlighting its ties to the Chicago labor movement and labor history over the past few years.

Labor Day is an American holiday that celebrates and honors the contributions of working-class people. Organized and run by the Chicago Federation of Labor, the parade seeks to celebrate union pride, solidarity, and community togetherness. We look forward to hosting another successful event that families can enjoy for years to come.

Since 1896, the CFL has fought for economic, social, and racial justice for all working people. The CFL proudly represents 300 unions, who in turn represent approximately 500,000 working people in Chicago and Cook County.

MJ Musical

this musical was a part of my Boadway in Chicago subscription, and my neighbor with whom we share this subscription had a conflict, and then her conflict ran into my conflict, and finally, the only show we could see was the last one. And then she got COVID. And then she recovered but was still too weak to do things. And finally, she said she could make it!

We went on Friday night, and that was the beginning of my long weekend. The day at work was unbelievably quiet (after the end of the month, the end of the quarter, and before the long weekend, there was virtually nobody in the office). We were dismissed about 3-30, and I spent the next two and a half hours doing my things and picking up loose ends.

And then we went to the show, and it was fantastic!

The music was extremely moving and energizing, and since we sat very closely, we weree so absorbed by the music that we could not even talk after the show ended. We just repeated to each other: It was so good!

Weekend Plans

The long weekend has started, and I have a lot of plans for it! I am finally not three weeks behind on everything, and I want to make the most out of it.

In some sense, it feels like the beginning of the new year: one more time, I want to make an effort and be more assertive about which things are really important to me and make sure I have time for them. And not to let things drop.

Ukrainian March Pictures

More pictures from Igor. He took tons, and I wanted to show as many as reasonable. Going through these pictures again, i can’t stop thinking about whether all these marches make any difference, but I hope they do…

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Continue reading “Ukrainian March Pictures” →

:)

On Tuesday, I was on a very crowded train on my way back home (who is still saying people are not back to the office?!). The conductor walked into our car, and walking all the way through the car, he was saying: Take out your phones, open your apps, let’s make it quick. When he reached the other end of the car, he turned back and said: And now, everybody, raise your phones!

Everybody laughed and raised their phones, and he waved: OK, everybody’s fine!

Girls’ Weekend – Sunday

Just a couple of days before the weekend, Vlad called me and said that he was going to be in Chicago on Sunday. He had a work event on Tuesday but decided to come earlier to catch up with friends and family. Because of that, our beach day was naturally divided into two parts: in the morning, we went to the big playground in Loyola Park, then we went to meet Vlad for lunch, (and stopped at the Glenwood Sunday Market for fruit popsicles) and in the afternoon, we went to the beach again.

The weather on Sunday was … interesting. Very strong winds with temperatures barely above 70F, but the lake was as warm as the Midetarranian Sea. And the waves! The lifeguards were not supposed to let anybody into the water, but how can you control the force of nature?! They were making sure, however, that everybody stays really close to the shore.

There was an outdoor class of rhythmical dances, and I sent Anna to have fun 🙂

I bought a new set of beach toys, so not only Nadia and Kira were having fun, but Anna was equally (if not more) enjoying building the sand Tallinn Castle.

Granted, Vlad’s surprise visit was a treat, and we all had a very good conversation. Too often, it happens that when we do not talk for a long time, we start to feel like strangers, not knowing what to talk about. It was not the case this time 🙂

Both Anna and I agreed that it was the perfect Chicago/Rogers Pak weekend, and without it, summer would be incomplete.

Girl’s Weekend – Saturday

We planned this last August weekend as a “summer in Chicago” thing because, last summer, things ended up so busy that we didn’t have a single beach day together. Also, we wanted to go together to Chalk Howard and create a picture on asphalt together.

We had that and much more, and it was overall a very happy weekend without which the summer would be incomplete.

Initially, we wanted to go to Chalk Howard twice: to draw our own thing in the beginning and then to see what other people had created in the evening, but we ended up doing just the afternoon because everybody was tired by that time.

Continue reading “Girl’s Weekend – Saturday” →

Mega March Unbreakable Nation

More From Greenfield Village

I still wanted to post more photos from our last weekend’s visit to Greenfield Village. We saw more houses than we had seen last year with Lena. Boris said he didn’t care that much about famous people’s houses, but as for me, 1) I do if I know something about this person, 2) there were a lot of houses which showed in great detail how people had lived two hundred years ago, and unlike many other museums of that kind, they had not just “some artifacts,” but a very detailed reconstruction of how people actually lived. For example, not just a washing pitch, but a complete set of teeth hygiene pieces, chamber pots under each bed, and so on.

Dugget Farmhouse

Henry Fords’ house, Wright’s house or boarding house – does not really matter 🙂

Ukraine Says Thank You

Can’t watch these videos without tears in my eyes
“Ukraine Says Thank You”