'No frowns, all smiles' at touch-a-truck

It wasn't hard to find the touch-a-truck event Saturday in the parking lot of the field house at Mooseheart Child City and School off Route 31 just south of Batavia.

You could hear the blare of horns sounding every 10 seconds or so from miles away. (Imagine your car on steroids.)

It wasn't road rage. The horns were honked by the tiny hands of children who had the chance to sit in the driver's seat and experiment.

The event, part of North Aurora Days, featured about 20 vehicles, including two fire engines, an ambulance, a ladder truck, a police squadron and trucks that serve the village of North Aurora. There were also transport trucks, a cement mixer and a bulldozer with tires nearly 6 feet in diameter.

Toddlers were carefully lifted up into driver's seats that were taller than they. Parents used digital cameras and cell phones to snap photos of tykes smiling behind giant steering wheels.

"We come every year. They love it," said Greg Weindorf of North Aurora, with his daughters Molly, 6, and Amy, 4.

"They like this truck because there's a bed in it," he said, referring to an enormous 18-wheeler. Molly enjoyed standing inside the rear of the truck but it was a bit high for Amy.

"Did you ever see so many people enjoying themselves?" said Roy Kautz of North Aurora. He and his wife Sue brought their 16-month-old grandson Kyle. "You see a lot of trucks on the road, but not everyone has the chance for the 'hands on.' There's a lot of joy here. You don't even hear any kids crying. There are no frowns, all smiles."

Lt. Scott Mayhew of the North Aurora Fire Department was busy helping kids climb into the driver's seat of the ladder truck and explaining its use, when he wasn't handing out plastic fire helmets and coloring books on fire safety.

"The ladder reaches 100 feet into the air," he told a group of families. "There's a pipe that runs along the ladder that can pump 2,000 gallons of water every minute."

Mayhew works the event every year.

"It gives people a chance to see the rigs, and it gives us a chance to be out in the community," he said.

North Aurora Days concludes today with a summer celebration at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on Oak Street, (outdoor worship is at 10 a.m.) and a pet parade from 1 to 3 p.m. starting at the North Aurora Activity Center, 1 N. Lincolnway.