Get Ready for More of This

The casualty count of businesses closing has only just begun:

• Like so many families in Chicago and beyond, Dick Cagney has made countless memories over the years at White Pines Resort, a rustic retreat nestled in a state park roughly 100 miles west of the city.
  
  The Wilmette resident started going to White Pines some 35 years ago, when his oldest son was just 7. Visits with all four of his kids became an almost annual ritual. They’d stay in a log cabin and tell stories around the campfire. After a long day’s hike, they’d dine on chicken pot pie and peach cobbler in the lodge’s restaurant.
  
  “Sometimes we’d sit on the hood of the car and just look up at the stars,” Cagney recalled.
  
  He was thinking about making another visit to the Mount Morris property later this year, this time with his grandchildren in tow. But on Wednesday, Cagney heard the news that came like a gut punch to so many of White Pines’ loyal guests: The resort’s longtime owner, Beth George, said she has no choice but to close and file for bankruptcy because of the prolonged shutdowns tied to the pandemic.

We are going to see a lot more family run, old time business endeavors go under in the months ahead.