Antiques dealer to show off her hearts
Sandy Deutsch admits Valentine's Day is one of her favorite holidays, but it at least partly has to do with antique furnishings from the 1800s.
"I save anything with hearts on it," said Deutsch, who will show her various antiques for the first time as a member of the Northern Illinois Antique Dealers Association at the organization's 56th annual show Feb. 20 and 21 at Forest Hills Lodge in Rockford.
"Hearts really are a 'thing' from that 1800s era," Deutsch added. "Everything had a heart motif."
For the 57-year-old Maple Park resident, an admitted lifelong antiques collector, one could say there's another connection between a heart and antiques.
"I just love to do this, and to share the compassion and knowledge about antiques," she said.
Growing up on a dairy farm, Deutsch would often find herself cleaning and mounting an old horseshoe or other items she found while working in the field.
Deutsch estimates she has been selling antiques for 30 years, storing and cleaning them in a one-room schoolhouse on her farm property that she uses as her workshop.
She and a friend load up her antiques in a trailer when it is time to attend a show.
"I'm married to a great farmer, but he told me I could do whatever I want with the antiques, but he would never have time to help me," Deutsch said.
Deutsch has been attending the Northern Illinois dealers show in Rockford for 15 years and always dreamed about showing her items. So she finally joined the organization a couple of months ago and is preparing to display her wares.
"Hopefully, I am bringing some one-of-a-kind items," said Deutsch. "That's the neat part about this show, it has a wide variety of items."
Antique lovers who attend this show will enjoy every one of the 40-plus booths on display, Deutsch said. "This is a great organization that has been operating since 1960."
A Daddio's goodbye
Nothing makes a visit to a restaurant better than having a pleasant waitress or server.
Patrons of Daddio's Diner in Batavia know all about this, especially if Sue Dean has waited on them at any time in the past 40 years. We suspect she has surely waited on any loyal customer during her time at the diner.
The diner hosted a farewell party yesterday for Dean, who is retiring after all of these years on her feet in a restaurant setting.
Her retirement should remind all of us that one need not be a politician, business leader, prominent actor or musician to play a key role and get attention in a community.
It can be a teacher, a crossing guard, a maintenance employee, or, yes, a waitress. The late Ellen Johnsen of St. Charles, a longtime waitress at Hotel Baker, comes to mind as one who touched so many lives.
It comes from hard work and a pleasant demeanor. To her customers, Sue Dean was all of that and more at Daddio's.
That gravel road
I wasn't around these parts when Randall Road was just a gravel road. Growing up in Naperville, my gravel road in the late 1950s was 75th Street, which also eventually became a busy thoroughfare down near the Westfield Fox Valley Mall.
Some old movies my late mother-in-law showed us featured some guys doing impromptu drag races along the dusty Randall Road. It was so strange to see, compared to what it has become.
I have been around here long enough to remember a stop sign at Fargo and Randall, but that actually came when Randall Square development was built. More importantly, there were stop signs and an odd jog in Kaneville Road off Randall. If you were traveling west on Kaneville and approaching Randall, you had to turn left and get back on Kaneville with a right turn at another point, which is now a shopping area. This was all pre-Delnor Hospital stuff, of course.
For those new to the area, that is why when you cross Randall now on Kaneville, it quickly becomes Keslinger Road. Kaneville Road comes back into play along Fargo Boulevard, west of Randall, and jogs around to its connection of Fabyan Parkway.
If you can sing …
… then it's always nice to have someone acknowledge that with some financial support.
The St. Charles Singers group is likely singing an even happier tune these days in the wake of a $4,835 grant from the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley to help manufacture a new CD called "Bushes & Briars."
The foundation has come through for the St. Charles Singers in the past, delivering funds to help pay for the concert ticketing software used at the choir's box office.
The St. Charles Singers, operating out of Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in downtown St. Charles, have been entertaining music lovers for 32 years now under the guidance of founder and music director Jeffrey Hunt.
Helping the poor
An organization called Hope for Haitians is planning a 5K fundraiser for May 7 in Geneva, but if you want to find out more about this group sooner you can attend an event this week at Two Brothers Roundhouse in Aurora.
Hope for Haitians has been building villages and helping kids get to school in the poorest areas of Haiti for 10 years.
The group is hosting a night of music by Drew Doepke and the Red Delicious from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Roundhouse. Donations will be accepted at the event.
dheun@sbcglobal.net