Monday’s storms left a familiar trail of destruction as rain pounded Chicagoland — downed power lines, flooded basements and damaged roofs.
Then there was Marge Simpson.
“She was just on the sidewalk, her and her little baby Maggie,” said James Farber, co-owner of JL Vintage Odds and Ends. “They had been pulled off our concrete ledge and torn in half.”
Farber said the towering fiberglass Marge Simpson, an unofficial mascot of South Park Avenue in Lombard, was ripped from the ledge above his vintage resale shop during Monday’s storms. Complete with the TV character’s signature blue beehive and red pearl necklace, she’d watched over the neighborhood for years.
So when Georgette Finnie looked out the window of Shannon’s Deli and saw twisted metal jutting from what was left of Marge, she knew something was wrong. A quick scan of the street revealed the statue’s bright yellow torso lying a few feet away.
Another employee waited for a break in the storms before dashing outside, hoisting Marge’s torso off the pavement and carrying it into the deli.
“We set her up at the bar,” said Finnie, a bartender at Shannon’s. “Marge went through a lot, she deserved a drink.”
Marge sat at the bar for a few hours until Farber came to pick her up, the pair sharing a corned beef sandwich and a bag of chips before heading back across the street. Customers who braved the storms for a drink stopped to snap photos with the battered replica, laughing as strong winds shook the eatery.
Even after a summer marked by wildfire smoke, flooding and tornadoes, Finnie and Farber said Monday’s storms were unlike anything they’d seen in years.
“It was terrifying, really,” said Finnie, who saw patio furniture from neighboring businesses skidding down the street. “But Marge brought a smile to people’s faces when it was such a crappy day.”
By early evening, between 1.5 and 3 inches of rain had fallen across much of the region, the Tribune reported, with damage mounting throughout the south and southwest suburbs. An apartment building roof collapsed in Ford Heights, fallen trees crisscrossed neighborhoods in Homewood, and two contractors were trapped in a storm sewer in Downers Grove.
Across the region, the storms grounded flights, disrupted public transportation and left nearly 320,000 customers without power. Chicago logged hundreds of tree emergency reports and dozens more involving downed wires, malfunctioning traffic signals and streetlight outages, according to city data.
As for Lombard’s Marge, Farber said the damage is mostly cosmetic — chipped paint on her head and a few fiberglass cracks that need patching. Armed with a ladder and a few tubes of caulk, he expects to have her back atop the shop by the end of the week.
Until then, Marge’s torso will remain propped in a chair outside JL Vintage, ready to pose for selfies with anyone passing by.
“She’s a focal point of downtown Lombard now,” he said. “Luckily, we have the sweetest neighborhood and the business community all looks out for each other.”
