Goodbye Elgin High: Growing up Elgin in the 1960s

by Mike Bailey

Goodbye Elgin High is a parallel story of growing up in Elgin, Ill. in the turbulent 1960s and the rise, maturation and diminution of an insular Midwestern city once known worldwide for the production of fine wrist and pocket watches. The book puts readers squarely in the 1960s through more than two dozen photographs of the city, lists of the top movies, television programs, records and world events during 1965-68, the approximate period covered in the book. Relive cruising the town center on Friday nights, the awkward sock hops, the unique and long-forgotten places we used to congregate with people we saw every day and then never saw again after high school. Elgin, Ill. was once a center of dairy products (the nation's butter prices were set in Elgin), manufacturing, innovation and the arts. At the center of it all was the city's high school which graduated giants in entertainment, manufacturing and the arts, leaders in industry (including the president of General Motors) and other people of national prominence. But the social, political and economic upheaval of the late 1960s forever changed this mid-sized Midwestern city, as it did much of America. Whatever became of those people with whom we spent every day of our teen-age years? Did their lives turn out like they envisioned - like we envisioned - so long ago? Poignant, funny and compelling, Goodbye Elgin High offers readers an insight into a part of America that no longer exists in an era that many believe was the last, best time to live there. More than 1,000 copies have already been sold since the book was published a year ago.

174 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2015

About the author

Hi, I’m Mike Bailey—high school flunky extraordinaire and Navy-trained fixer.

Grew up in Illinois (good riddance), traveled half the world, bounced through Florida, washed up in Northern Wisconsin where winters drag, coffee bites, and toast is slathered in existential dread.

Started scribbling poetry in high school. Spent decades fixing gear, cranking out tech docs, business briefs, and Navy-grade justifications proving I can fake adulthood. Along the way, I developed a refined distrust of the usual suspects and a weaponized sense of sarcasm.

Debut novel: 10101 SOS: A Bit in Distress. Inspired by Queensrÿche’s song NM156 + Douglas Adams + unhinged early South Park = absurd roast of civilization in a universe that’s half mirror, half funhouse and half anti-reality. Immersive. Entertaining. Mildly infuriating. Exactly the point.

Off-duty, I still fix stuff—mechanical, electrical, philosophical, and the occasional cracked toenail. I only wear Hawaiian shirts and wear my socks inside out because comfort > conformity.

Also: certified Illinois Wastewater Operator because nothing says “I understand society” like a license to handle its output.

Cracked lens supplied. Bring your own conveyance.