Hampshire resident reflects on his half-century of driving a truck

Back in 1959, when some of the roads around Hampshire were still gravel and Bob Kudlicki's sons were still babies, the young father climbed into his four-year-old Chevy truck every day to pick up or drop off dry cleaning and laundry for his customers.

Today Kudlicki's children have children of their own, and Grandpa is still at it. These days he drives a 2002 Dodge van advertising Marberry Cleaners, but 50 years after buying a franchise delivery business, Kudlicki continues to log 60 to 75 miles each weekday in the service of clean dress shirts, suits and bed sheets.

In August, he celebrated 50 years on the job by - what else? - going to work. He didn't even tell customers it was his anniversary; if he had, he said, he wouldn't have gotten any work done.

His travel territory spans 20 miles. From Huntley to Elburn, Kudlicki crosses western Kane County to pick up dry cleaning and laundry bundles bound for the Marberry-Illinois Cleaners plant in St. Charles, or to return processed items fresh and clean. He's one of eight independent drivers who bring business to the no-perc (perchloroethylene-free) plant.

In the old days, people put "Illinois Cleaners" signs in their front windows to alert the routeman to make a stop. Kudlicki always has had regular accounts, too, mostly from enterprises like doctors' offices and medical facilities. He picks up over 500 lbs. of laundry a week, just from his largest commercial customer alone.

"It's plain work, is what it is," Kudlicki said. "You do your own bookkeeping, you do your own billing, you're your own businessman. It's been a one-man operation, with the help of the wife."

When Kudlicki and his bride, Theresa, married in 1953, a delivery business was not in the plan. Kudlicki was a printer; he still likes to linger under the scent of fresh ink. He'd gotten his start as a student pressman at Lane Technical High School in Chicago and thought that's what he always would do.

Two stints in the U.S. Marine Corps seemed to seal his future career. Kudlicki received top secret clearance as a printer at Marine headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he also had "the distinction of serving with the Marine honor guard," he said. "It was quite an experience."

After military service, he worked as a printer in Chicago for a few years, then moved his family to Kane County in 1956. He ran a letterpress and Linotype machine for the weekly Hampshire Register and later opened a lithography department for the newspaper's printing operation.

Kudlicki tried to buy his own print shop in a 1959 estate sale, but the deal fell through. He heard about the Illinois Cleaners territory and decided that might be just the thing until he could get behind a printing press again.

"I never figured it would be long-term," he said. "I just got to enjoy the people and the outdoors."

That's despite the fact that Mother Nature isn't always so friendly.

"It was the winters that were the worst, naturally," Kudlicki said. "Those were the times you wondered why you got into this."

Back when some country roads were still unpaved, Kudlicki's truck had to be pulled out of post-winter mud more than once by local farm tractors. Things are better now, but while the quality of roads and tires have improved the drive, one thing that's more challenging is traffic.

"I remember when Randall Road was just one lane one way and one lane the other," he said. "Look at it now."

The job isn't all driving, fortunately. Kudlicki uses a downtown office space, a corner of the Hampshire Chamber of Commerce office, part of each morning and afternoon, plus Saturdays, to keep the books, write invoices and receive orders from customers who would rather drop off their garments and flatwork - sheets and pillowcases - themselves.

He also sells Red Wing shoes, a holdover from the 30 years he owned a men's clothing store in Hampshire called the Village Toggery.

Kudlicki still writes out bills by hand, preferring the help of an adding machine to a computer. Despite the current economy, business is even better today than in the early years, he said.

"You've got a lot of professional people who need to be dressed up to go to work," he said. "People have more of a wardrobe than they did years ago."

He may not be interested in computers, but in one concession to technology, Kudlicki is quite happy to carry a cell phone.

Of course, a mobile phone helps him keep up with more than just his business. Kudlicki is in his seventh year as a member of the Kane County Board and as such also serves as a Kane County Forest Preserve commissioner. A Hampshire resident, he was a two-term mayor many years ago and still volunteers as treasurer for Boy Scout Troop 22 in Hampshire.

"They just won't let me quit," he said. "I don't know how many Scoutmasters I've been through. I've been doing it since 1967."

He also is active with the Hampshire Lions Club and American Legion and has membership in a number of other organizations. Retirement is not on the horizon, Kudlicki said.

"You just keep busy," he said. "I'm enjoying it so much I don't think I'll quit."