Fall begins Saturday and to us it feels like the most wonderful time of the year.
There’s so much to do in and around Chicago: Apple and pumpkin picking, cider slurping, leaf peeping, enjoying a challenging run with thousands of friends or snuggling with a loved one near the lakefront.
And there’s so much to look forward to: Trick-or-treating, gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving (or Friendsgiving) and, dare we say, bundling up to welcome the first snowfall.
It’s all so exciting that it almost makes us forget that our favorite football team will probably be disappointing for yet another season.
So, get outside and celebrate all fall has to offer. But before you do, grab a pumpkin-spiced donut or coffee and check out these photos pulled from the Tribune’s archives to help set the mood.
Chicago history | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
When the leaves start to fall and the temperature turns crisp, Chicago area residents of decades past did the same thing we do now —head outdoors.
Chicagohenge 2023: Here’s how it works and where to see it during sunrise and sunset
Photo gallery: Chicagohenge through the years
Apple picking near Chicago: 20 orchards within 100 miles of the city to visit
My son and I went apple picking at 5 new-to-us places near Chicago. Here are our thoughts and tips.
Pumpkin picking near Chicago: 50 farms, patches and you-pick places within 100 miles of the city
It is a flat, fast course considered one of the world’s six major marathons.
But the Chicago Marathon didn’t start out that way. Heck, the first race wasn’t even 26.2 miles long. Yet, it’s become more inclusive for a variety of people — including wheelchair racers — throughout the decades and has only been canceled twice (due to lack of a sponsor in 1987 and the coronavirus pandemic in 2020).
Ron Grossman: Catch ’em if you can — Chicago’s marathons
What’s neat about Halloween is its ability to offer something for everyone: candy for the sweet-toothed, guts and gore to appease horror enthusiasts, and costumes that can send up peals of laughter or fright, depending on your personal Halloween ethos.
And Chicago, as always, loves an excuse to celebrate and have some fun.
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Retro recipes for Halloween from Mary Meade’s archives
Christopher Borrelli: The rise and fall of Halloween trick-or-treating
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Celebrate spooky season — with a cemetery walk before Halloween
Flashback: Touring the Bohemian National Cemetery grounds with ‘Cemetery Lady’ Helen Sclair
How Day of the Dead is celebrated in Chicago (explained in English and Spanish)
The scariest town in Illinois does not exist. But you can visit in ‘Halloween Ends.’
Founding father Benjamin Franklin didn’t call for the turkey to be the national emblem, but he did extol the virtues of turkeys as “more respectable” than eagles, a “true original native of America,” and a “bird of courage.”
There are six subspecies of turkeys, with those in Illinois typically being eastern turkeys.
Letters: Thanksgiving thoughts from our readers
How to keep politics off the table at Thanksgiving
The Windy City has seen its fair share of chilly days — we have the photos to prove it.
Mary Schmich: Remembering your first Chicago coat, and the other mistakes after it
Here’s when Chicago received its first snow of the fall season, going back more than 135 years
Chicago weather: How our 2022-23 seasonal snowfall compares with previous winters
Want more vintage Chicago?
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Follow us on Instagram: @vintagetribune
And, catch me Monday mornings on WLS-AM’s “The Steve Cochran Show” for a look at “This week in Chicago history.”
Thanks for reading!
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Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.
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