Barrington, Illinois is my hometown -- just an hour outside of Chicago. It has seven elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school. Us locals call it B-Town. Whether you loved it or you hated it, here are 15 signs you grew up in Barrington and went to Barrington High School.
1. The social scene during your middle school years were off the chain.
From the first time your parents let you go shopping at Deer Park Town Center without an adult to the St. Anne's dances to the annual Grove Carnival, Barrington was an awesome place to be for middler schoolers. Also, we all know how life-changing Snowflake was each year.
2. You always dreaded the half-hour drive from North Barrington to South Barrington.
Before you could drive, your mom would hate having to drop you off and pick you up from a friend's house on the opposite side of the town.
3. If you went to Woodfield Mall on the weekends you knew you would run into 10 of your classmates.
Same goes for Target in Lake Zurich. These were arguably the biggest hot spots for socializing.
4. After finals during high school, you could expect to see everyone at Egg Harbor.
Or Cook Street Coffee, on any given day really. And you swore by your loyalty to Cook Street over Starbucks. Screw corporate America!
5. You probably went on a first date at Century Theaters.
You also probably got Noodles & Company for dinner and ice cream at Cold Stone afterwards. The romance was off the charts.
6. Wednesday was always the best day of the week because you got out of school a full half hour earlier.
What was more amazing than each class period being five minutes shorter? Nothing. Leaving school on a Wednesday always felt like I had so much freedom.
7. Navigating Barrington Hills was more difficult than Narnia, even if you lived there.
All of those narrow roads, huge houses, and poor street lighting did not make driving through here an easy task.
8. Trying to leave the senior lot at the end of the school day was always the most stressful thing ever.
Also, having "B" parking during the winter and having to walk from Field of Dreams was terrible.
9. All of your friends drove Jeeps.
Or there was a pretty good chance they had a horse stable and a couple of horses in their backyard. It was all pretty casual.
10. Tuesdays and Thursdays. The $1 for three cookies deal in the lunch line made Tuesdays and Thursdays just a little more bearable.
God bless Otis and Spunkmeyer.
11. The shops on Cook Street were the place to get your best friend's birthday gift.
And you would always either go to Pl8 or Francesca's to celebrate said birthday.
12. Having fourth period lunch was the absolute worst.
I mean who eats lunch at 10 a.m.? It was cruel BHS.
13. Ice House Mall was probably the most bizarre place you've ever been to.
Half abandoned, half a still functioning mall. No one really understood what purpose it served or how it's managed to stay in business.
14. Filly Football was all that you looked forward to as an underclassmen.
You idolized all those senior and junior girls and how awesome their jerseys were. When you finally got the chance to be a part of the tradition, you realized it was actually just ridiculously stressful.
15. You had some pretty amazing memories.
You complained and often called it Borrington, but in the end you'll always have a special place in your heart for Barrington and all the great times you had growing up there.