Fireworks, live music, pig roast planned for Northfield’s 100th birthday party

Charles Orth and Mary Rhodes have nearly spent their entire lives in the village of Northfield. So, it’s fitting that the two are teaming up to plan the village’s 100th birthday bash.

Fireworks, nostalgic bands and even a pig roast are in store for a Centennial Celebration on Aug. 22 at Clarkson Park. 

Beyond the celebration itself, Trustee Orth and village historian Rhodes are piecing together parts of Northfield’s history — places, people and even bands — for the village to look back on.

Piecing it together

In college, Rhodes wrote a history paper about Northfield and said the assignment has helped her create an exhibit for the community.

“If you could see my dining room table, you would say, ‘How does your husband live with this?’” Rhodes said. “So I have totally lived and breathed this. What a privilege to be able to go back to my own memories of this and to be able to synthesize it in the story of the village, which we had never really told before.”

Rhodes, alongside Orth and Village President Tracey Mendrek, put together a centennial website for information about the celebration and a comprehensive historical timeline.

Photographs, maps and newspaper clippings complete an archive of the town. In great detail, the website tells the story of how Northfield became the village it is today. 

Rhodes said rsidents of Northfield were once called the “swamp people” and “river folk,” but they all “pitched in” to make the community a better place. 

“This was a community of volunteers, so we all grew up with our parents modeling how a community worked,” Rhodes said. “They were all stakeholders, and the whole key to the community succeeding was clever. Talented volunteers stepping up and coming up with ideas, some of which were a little out of the box, but other towns didn’t have that.”

The website also has a “Memories” page to highlight individuals in the community.

Getting the band back together

To keep the Northfield pride going, a centennial planning committee booked a rock band with Northfield roots: Dick Holliday and the Bamboo Gang.

Lead vocalist Brad Nye grew up in Northfield before moving to Moline in middle school. He and a friend moved to Los Angeles together and started Dick Holliday and the Bamboo Gang. Years later, the band made its way back to Chicago.

The band was included more than 20 rotating members throughout the years, many of them from the North Shore. They haven’t performed together in nearly three years, and this special show will be their last.

“This will definitely be our last show ever,” Nye said. “It’s the centennial of Northfield, and we’re playing in Clarkson Park, where I used to ice skate (and) play hockey with my buddies.”

Nye said the band used to play 200 shows a year. All these years later, Northfield is still home for the band.

“We put five albums out, and Northfield always had our back,” Nye said. “We traveled the country, Cancun, St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands. We played everywhere, but there’s just nothing like playing the North Shore of Chicago for us. It’s our roots, so it’s very special.”

Celebrating together

Orth has coordinated many of the big day’s festivities, providing the Village Board with monthly updates.

“(I) just want to make sure people come away thinking, ‘Wow, this was a really great celebration,’” Orth said. “Get everyone from the community together, people that used to live here, people that live nearby and try to really show up.”

Besides music and fireworks, the day will include a Kids Zone with face painting and a magic show, a history display, and bingo. Food trucks from local spots Stormy’s, Taco Nano, Northshore Pizza, U Dawg U and Hofherr’s will serve food and drink at the event.

The festivities won’t end on Aug. 22 though. The village’s actual anniversiary is Oct. 23, and Orth is organizing another community birthday party. Before the Oct. 27 Village Board meeting, the village will celebrate once again with cake and live music. 

In the meantime, Orth said he is doing everything he can to make sure the community knows about the event through posters, media outlets and social media.

Like the community members before them, Rhodes and Orth are “pitching in” to make the celebration happen.

“I just had the most wonderful experience (growing up in Northfield), and I think it was because we always knew that we were a little different from everybody else,” Rhodes said. “We were a North Shore town, but we always knew there’s something different about Northfield, and it felt like the open prairie, it just felt like we were in a much more remote area, and it made it so much fun.”

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