“Wauconda forever!”
Thursday, Feb 22, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This is great story…
On Tuesday, Wauconda village hall got its first phone call from somebody yelling “Wakanda Forever.”
It’s the thrilling battle cry from the smash hit movie “Black Panther,” which opened over the weekend.
“We had a guy call and [he] was shouting that. I was a little confused,” said Alise Homola, who works at the village hall in the far northwest suburb.
“He was joking around about it,’’ she said. “He just said that ‘I was searching the Wakanda from the movie, and your village came up, so I thought I’d call you and give you a hard time.’ ” […]
To be clear, Wauconda is not the futuristic vibranium-filled African utopia of “Black Panther.” It’s a town in Lake County with a landmark nature bog.
But that hasn’t stopped comic book geeks and fans from joking on social media that the smash hit film about Wakanda might make Wauconda seem cooler than it is.
* Not a bad idea…
Any suggestions for such a visitors’ center?
- Real - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:46 am:
That movie contained a lot of coded messages and suppressed truth on who black people really are. The chariots in the movie are even referred to in scripture.
The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
- RealTalk - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:50 am:
@Real — Whatever!
For everyone else this is a great idea and a great marketing idea. I would definitely pay to visit Wakanda in Wauconda.
- Man with a Plan - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:55 am:
Chariots of God aside, I think a shuffleboard table would be pretty great.
- Perrid - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:56 am:
Do you think there would be any kind of legal trouble, like copyright or trademark issues, if they had a theme going? And Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wauconda,_Illinois#Demographics ) says 0.4% of Wauconda residents are African American, so I don’t know how well that would go over… I can hear the screams about cultural appropriation already.
- Dee Lay - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:57 am:
They could easily do a smart and quirky video to compare their town with Wakanda, but if done wrong would seriously backfire on them HARD.
Unfortunately, there are not a lot of diverse voices in 90% white Wauconda.
- PJ - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:59 am:
They … should not do this.
- Ray del Camino - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 10:59 am:
If tiny Metropolis, IL, can be home to Superman, why not?
- allknowingmasterofracoondom - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:01 am:
They already have a famous movie tie in - The Blues Brothers movie filmed many scenes in town, including a beach scene at the old Phil’s beach where they rode their old cop car along the sand…..
- Team America - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:01 am:
The high-speed transport tube in the movie was pretty hot. Maybe Wauconda could built one for super-speedy transport to another Lake County Metropolis, say Round Lake Beach.
- Leigh John-Ella - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:03 am:
There’s a better chance of Makanda embracing this than Wauconda.
- Roger Ebert - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:04 am:
Wauconda is a five (5) square mile area with 33 police officers, a police budget of $5.47M (2018), not including a $1M annual police pension payment, with an unfunded police pension liability of $22M. That comes out to about $1.00 per square foot of land in the “village.” I would suggest a donation box at the visitor’s center.
- City Zen - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:07 am:
==Unfortunately, there are not a lot of diverse voices in 90% white Wauconda.==
I see more of an Asgard tie-in.
- NoGifts - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:08 am:
Having grown up near Wauconda, I had to laugh about it being a super advanced civilization.
- Fixer - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:14 am:
My son wants to go visit. I don’t have the heart to tell him that it’s about as boring there as where we live.
- JB13 - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:22 am:
In a more sane environment, I would say Wauconda should milk a comic book movie for as much as it can.
This is not a sane environment. Stay away.
- Real - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:25 am:
@RealTalk Some just won’t be able to handle the truth, but even in your Bible it contains a description of someone with hair of wool. Not many have hair of wool but black people do.
Daniel 7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
- Amalia - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:47 am:
my husband, who had to ask me what woke means, thinks this is dangerously close to cultural appropriation even if the idea was not started by Wauconda.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:50 am:
From my experiences years ago taking Oak Park youth football teams up to Wauconda, it would be amazingly refreshing to learn the folks up there would now embrace T’Challa.
- lake county democrat - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 11:54 am:
I think Wauconda Orchards has closed shop, but I’ll say it anyway: “Wauconda Forever - how you like them apples?!”
- A Jack - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 12:37 pm:
Rauner could dress up as all four members of the Fantastic Four (also in the Marvel Universe). Stretch since he stretches the truth, the Invisible Girl when he gets blamed for something, the human torch when someone mentions the Speaker, and the Thing because he clobbered any attempt for a Grand Bargain.
- Veil of Ignorance - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 2:37 pm:
I laughed pretty hard on the subway reading this one. Wauconda may want to rethink their spelling and work on that diversity issue…2% African American isn’t great.
- I Miss Bentohs - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 4:22 pm:
Not to sound too much like a sexist pig but if they could get some of those beautiful warriors walking around, I’d visit regularly.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Feb 22, 18 @ 4:23 pm:
I love it!
- Jerry - Friday, Feb 23, 18 @ 8:26 am:
Wauconda should throw a Black Panther Party, invite the cast and make an event out of it. Aurora did that with Harry Potter Fest and the dumb movie with Dana Carvey.