When a name isn't just a name

My father had a peculiar habit of calling a place by its previous name. The bakery in our Chicago neighborhood was called "Fluffy Flake," and he called it that the rest of his life, even though it changed names several times. Any bakery we encountered when we moved to the suburbs automatically became "Fluffy Flake."

There's a lot of buzz about Sears Tower having its name changed, and how we'll likely continue to call it Sears Tower.

So does this phenomenon of a name remaining the same take place in the Tri-Cities? I have discovered it is quite common and have many examples - restaurants, buildings and stores - in today's column. Readers who think of others can send an e-mail to dheun@sbcglobal.net and I'll share them.

I also have examples of places you'd never mention by a previous name, which will help those new to the area learn about what used to be at a certain location.

For example, it's not likely that the new Skippy's Gyros in St. Charles will be confused with Krispy Kreme in the future, even though it is moving into the former doughnut business location on Randall Road.

These names won't change: How many of us still call the restaurant near St. Patrick's Church in St. Charles the "Old Church Inn," even though it has had several different names in the past few decades, including the current Onesti Dinner Club?

Do you still say, "The State Bank of St. Charles" when you really mean the Harris Bank, which has been in the State Bank location on Main Street for years? Is there any way we still refer to the Private Bank as the St. Charles Savings and Loan just because it has been in that same location?

How about the Sage Bistro restaurant in St. Charles? Is it still "Erik and Me" in our hearts and minds?

Even when long gone: We won't be calling the former Manor Restaurant site anything, because there won't be a building there as part of the First Street renovation in St. Charles. But did you know that some in St. Charles called The Manor by its previous tenant, the "Log Cabin," even though the Log Cabin had been gone for more than 30 years?

Along those same lines, many in Geneva still think of Mel's Diner as the Colonial restaurant, which was in the State Street location that Mel's now occupies.

The Twin Dor restaurant has the same staying power in Geneva as the Old Church Inn does in St. Charles. No matter which restaurant is in that location on Third Street, and it just happens to be Niche at this time, people will still refer to it as Twin Dor, or at least "where the Twin Dor used to be."

The same could be said of the former State Bank of Geneva building at the corner of Third and State streets, which is now empty but recently housed the Tuscana Italian restaurant. But it's likely to be known as the 302 West restaurant for some time, since that had some staying power at that site for many years.

Though you may not get the businesses mixed up, there is no doubt Batavians still think of the current Prairie Path Cycles shop on Wilson Street as Swanson's Hardware Store.

Gas stations aren't quite as popular in this name game, but I came to realize that many folks still consider the Kicks 66 station on the corner of Fabyan Parkway and Route 25 as "the Pride station."

You won't confuse these: At the opposite end of the spectrum are those locations you'd never confuse with their previous names - mostly because entirely different businesses exist there, or the current location has simply built its own lasting legacy.

You're not going to refer to Francesca's by the River as "Rocky and Bullwinkle's" by mistake in St. Charles. Francesca's has enjoyed the staying power Rocky's never had.

No one is going to call the Best Buy location on Randall Road an Eagle grocery store, even though that's what originally housed that site. And you might even say the same about Butera grocery store on the east side of St. Charles, which also used to be an Eagle.

Does anyone mistakenly refer to the Old Towne Pub in Geneva as the "Geneva Mining Company," which was a restaurant/pub at that location in the late 1970s and early 1980s? I doubt that as well. But some longtime Genevans fondly call that entire block "Kaiser's block" in memory of the Kaiser's store.

Even though the Ace Hardware location in Geneva used to be a Jewel Food store, no one is going to keep calling that store a Jewel.

And because Erday's, the longtime and popular clothing store at State and Third streets in Geneva remains just to the north of that intersection, no one is going to mistakenly call the Kiss the Sky music shop Erday's. But people still remember what used to be there.

It's quite common: I know you have a few of your own examples, so send them along. Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke told me it is so common in his town that for years firefighters would take fire or emergency calls from people who would use the former names of locations when telling emergency personnel where a fire was unfolding.

"It would be the same if they used people's nicknames or the names of people who formerly lived in a house," Schielke said. "If the firefighter was new to the department or new in town, they wouldn't know who or what the person was talking about."

dheun@sbcglobal.net