Harold (Hal) Berger:  

AN UPDATE -- TODAY I FIGURE SKATE 4-5 DAYS A WEEK AND HAVE A TRAINER, WHAT’S NEW? – At my age and retired I am pleased that I am in incredible physical shape, totally insane, and as a result I have taken up no light and easy hobby. – I am currently a modest level freestyle figure skater working on spins, jumps, and ice dance – I joined U.S. Figure Skating after retirement and train 4-5 days per week in both figure skating and ballet for figure skating with my 2 coaches. Sue Schmidt one of the top synchro skating coaches in the U.S. and Elinor Milos also an Olympic gymnastics and figure skating ballet coach. As strange as it may be I am looking forward competing the spring of 2019 at the Southport Skate Club open USAF competition where I will also be a rink side announcer again. As my skill improved I became a USFSA registered therapeutic coach working with disabled children helping them to learn to skate. Interestingly I train at one of the two rinks that some of the top U.S. Figure Skaters train at in Lake County Illinois. – Alexis and Chris Kinerman (pairs), Bradie Tennel Freestyle womens), Nathan Chen (FS Mens), etc. etc. they are incredible and to see them up close and be on the ice with th is just amazing. There is always at least one or two in every class, I was that kid. A kind of a toss up between a nerd and a greaser, I looked like a greaser and had the mind of a nerd, clearly to others I was either a great friend or someone to be ignored and avoided. Most just assumed I didn't care and was bored with high school. It may have seemed that way because I did sleep through many classes, and missed a few as well, OK more than a few --- that is except art and science. During HS, and for whatever reason, I went by the name of Harold, thank Goodness I have gone by Hal not Harold ever since. Oh yes, as time went by things did change, a lot!!! I actually went from an apparent lost soul and loser to now a prime target for Barack Obamas top 1%. As it was, it seemed that no one, except for my Mother, cared very much that I was 2nd to last in the 1965 Niles West class. Niles West administrators said they would let me graduate if I promised not to come back. So much for notorious personalities! However, there is a rest of the story; At least the rest of the story the way 45+/- years tempers reality and my memories of HS. Of course they are my memories so I get to see my past the way I prefer. My best kept secret in HS was that my IQ was just a bit higher than some, well Ok, higher than most, at +/-140, (technically after a 2 day testing cycle early in life it was estimated at no less than 137. The reality; I was bored. In 3rd grade I had already had Algebra and the first year of HS French and in 4th grade we started calculus, etc. My test scores in 4th grade placed me as a HS senior. There was no chance anyone in high school could have ever figured that out, and actually no one ever bothered to ask except Mr. Blackburn who turned out to be an incredible friend and who got two of my works placed in a temporary exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. What fun that was !!! I still paint and draw and love art. But no one ever knew, you see in our HS if you were not a college prep major from Lincolnwood - well you were simply invisible or just must be a loser !!! Go figure, today most of them can’t even change a light bulb. I had transferred in from an exceptional private school for gifted children - North Shore School. After that experience I just never really fit into public school again. As for my dress code in high school - that would be what dress code? My parents move from Chicago’s Near North to Morton Grove an interesting shock in both budget and life style. At Niles West it took very little time -- I was clearly labeled "an MG/Niles outsider". So, I didn't care, "that's a lie". I did care, but it didn't make a difference because the clicks didn't care. During HS I was socially immature and had girl-a-phobia, I was so very afraid of girls I couldn’t talk. In the U.S. Air Force I finally matured, I was now responsible for a B52 bomber and the lives of those who flew them, including my own. ( I think it takes most of us boys until we are at least 35-50 to mature.--"some of us never mature"). In college things changed and finally a hidden thinking person with a sex drive came out of the shadows. College - I was now 2nd from the top of the class (try as I may I couldn't catch #1) -- for those who knew my Mother - you already know that she was shocked and amazed - for her just my graduating high school was a wonder, and now graduating Magna Cum and later to become a professional - that was almost beyond her wildest dreams and expectations! A side note - It wasn't very easy to get back on track --- during the first semester or two of college I had to learn everything that I didn't learn when I slept through HS. My IQ did not substitute for the missing knowledge. Studying for my first finals - WoW, no double WoW -- you have no idea how hard that was. My first Rhetoric papers took about a week to write. That was "each one" and they were only a page or two long. I had so much to learn in so little time. My first college was Northern Michigan University where one of my friends Doug Christensen also went to school. Doug got in easily. However, they let me in my first year on double probation because I was in my 2nd of 4 years in the Air Force and they could see I was #2 in HS (from the end). They allowed me to take two courses the first semester, the terms of entrance -- even one "C" and I would be out. To my surprise, and everyone who knew me, the next seven years were to be almost all A's finishing with three full undergraduate majors; psychology, economics, and math, and a post graduate specialization in financial accounting. I sat for the CPA in 1976 and then never practiced accounting and secured my CFP in 1992. On to the rest of the story: During HS I was one tough kid to raise. For me, HS was a rough time, or some may recall, it was a very rebellious and truant time. The personal side of HS --- For those who knew me well, they knew of my endless attempts in the first years of HS to try to get to know and my crush, (well for a while at least I thought I was in love with Jill Nelson, she never knew that.). Jill the girl I never did get a chance to know. Looking back I would say that my fantasy had grown to something even that wonderful girl in reality probably could not match. In HS, the best relationships occurred in my mind. Every time I saw her she made my heart skip a beat- Actually 3 or 4 beats. She was an absolutely brilliant, well dressed, beautiful and a vibrant young woman and as a bonus, every HS boys fantasy, she was a really good cheerleader. We actually had met in my freshman year she sat directly in front of me, in what I think was a social studies class. At that time, as it is today, HS was built upon this ridiculous social structure, the clicks and groups from the various schools that fed Niles West were almost unbreakable. Those of us who remember the split as Niles West opened remember that for many of us our friends went to Niles East. As we know image in MS and HS is so important. - I think it continues because at that age most of us are so insecure to begin with. Anyway, I had no image at that point and all of my friends from middle school went to Niles East - what a bummer - even my Freshman girl friend Jane Kenner (hi Jane if you are out there???). By senior year Jill had figured out that I had a four year crush. However, it was to remain one of those great youthful dreams. Even now with the fantasy long gone, every now and then, I think how nice it would be to just talk with her now that we’re not 16. By Junior year I had developed a crush on another girl in my own neighborhood Jennifer Rice. The result was better I did get to know her, but the end result was the same. Nada!!! Now we can talk, and learn the other persons views, it has turned out that getting through our teens and HS was not the easiest thing for most of us. It has been so interesting to see that almost no one became what they dreamed of. More than a few HS losers become winners and more than a few HS winners become losers. Today life after high school has changed and for me has been incredible - I achieved a life of dreams. I have a great family, and in an interesting twist I was later to be my daughters cheerleader coach in MS. It was a great fun - but - Go figure!!! She also became a HS cheerleader - but one thing was so very different - I had taught her from birth to respect and give everyone a reasonable chance. Both of my daughters became the smart popular girls in HS that almost anyone could talk with. They had so many friends in so many groups. I am so proud of what they have done as people because they didn't prejudge or exclude other people based on image or social setting. Their friends include, even to this day, every level including people who were just like me in HS. I am incredibly proud of that. My greatest challenge and joy in HS, was building race cars with the also underrated Tom Adams and Bill Briar. (Both very, very brilliant and all so very much underrated.) One thing has not changed, even now I drive race cars –an A7 Audi and my wife drives a 450HP Mustang GT. I can do that because I worked hard and have owned my own businesses ever since, well except for one or two years, just about most of the time since +/-1974. It started with what became two restaurants that I opened in Lincoln Park. The second next to the Biograph theatre was much more successful. During the 1974 to 1...Expand for more