Hey now, it's Curious City's Jason Mark.

Well, the sun is out, or at least it appears we've moved past what many of us call third winter here in Chicago, and the end of the school year's coming up fast.

That means students are blowing and bowing, strumming, and thrumming their way through year-end band concerts.

And green things are sprouting from the trees, and yes, even the sidewalks.

So this week, we're revisiting two stories from the archives with those themes in mind.

In a few minutes, does this sound familiar?

Oof. Reporter Monica Ang shows us how a breakthrough in mid-century manufacturing affected the way

many school kids learned to play their first musical instrument, the recorder.

The recorder was a very serious instrument in the Renaissance and in the broke, but it fell

out of favor.

It was silent for many, many, many years, and people haven't really taken as seriously

as an instrument since then.

But first, Chicago's official motto is herbs in Horto, which means city in a garden.

Well, how about Horto in herbs?

Garden in a city.

You always see those little plants and weeds springing up everywhere from construction

sites to sidewalk cracks in the middle of the loop.

How did they get there?

And how do they survive?

We'll answer both those questions.

Next.

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