From drive-in to fly-in: A canopy’s quirky tale

Can a canopy have historic significance?

It can, if it’s the canopy that covered parked cars ordering and receiving food at Rex’s Driv-In on the east side of St. Charles in the 1960s.

Possibly long forgotten, considering restaurateur Rex Morrison closed his drive-in burger shop for the more upscale Rex’s Cork ‘n Fork in 1974, it turns out the canopy has remained with us a long time.

Or, at least, it’s been put to good use in providing cover and shelter for the Fox Valley Aero Club radio-controlled airplanes organization since the mid 1970s.

Cliff Fullhart, a member of the Fox Valley Aero Club, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, let me know that piece of St. Charles history has played an important role for the club.

When the club was initially establishing its first airfield north of Route 38 and west of Peck Road on a small parcel the St. Charles Park District allowed it to use for recreation, one of the club founders, Bob Walker of Walker’s Hobby Shop in St. Charles, became aware Rex was closing his drive-in and the canopy was no longer needed.

“Bob agreed to take it for use at our new field,” Fullhart said. “To move it, we had to cut it down the middle, which we did, and moved it on a flatbed truck.”

The club moved to a new location in 2004 at 3831 Karl Madsen Drive in St. Charles, south of Route 38 just across from its former location. The canopy came with the club.

“But we had to cut it in half again” to move it, Fullhart said. That meant another round of bolting and welding it back together, as the canopy had become vital to protect supplies and equipment as well as shelter spectators and club members during the winter or from hot sun.

It plays an important role at the new location, showcasing the club’s sign near the runway and field that club members had to build “from scratch,” Fullhart noted.

That process included an 800-by-50-foot asphalt runway, an entrance road, bleachers, playground equipment for kids, and a portable canopy enclosure to use the canopy during winter flying.

One might say the canopy is actually the club’s identity. When driving up to the airfield, past a city water treatment plant and a police training facility, it is the canopy that tells you this is the Fox Valley Aero Club.

“We are quite proud of our facility, one of the best flying sites in the Midwest,” Fullhart said. “So, now when a spectator comes to watch, he or she can connect with history. In the winter, we are able to enclose the canopy as we fly all year round.”

And there’s an outside chance some of those spectators through the years had that canopy over their cars as they ordered burgers at Rex’s.

Those familiar with Rex’s Driv-In have fond memories of the small building that touted “Hamburgers, Cheeseburgers, sodas and sundaes” along with a sign that noted the building was air-conditioned. That was an important factor in times when not everyone enjoyed air-conditioning in their homes.

In a blog for the St. Charles History Museum in 2021, Karen Morrison-Comstock, daughter of Rex Morrison, equated the history of Rex’s Driv-In with the classic image of teens enjoying snacks and milkshakes with their friends. In that sense, it was a Norman Rockwell image from yesteryear.

Rex’s brother-in-law, Wayne Locke, first operated the Locke’s Driv-In restaurant in 1946, a place where Rex worked during his high school years as a short-order cook. He purchased the business in 1954 after returning from service in the Korean War.

The canopy and electronic ordering devices were added in 1964, the blog noted. “It quickly became a popular and loved place in town,” Morrison-Comstock wrote.

In 1974, with a larger menu and expanded dining room, Rex opened Rex’s Cork ‘n Fork. He retired in 1994, but other restaurateurs operated at the site until 2009.

That site at 1317 E. Main St., considered the outskirts of town during the drive-in years, has since been a pet care center and, currently, the St. Charles Motorcycle Museum & Art Gallery.

But few will forget it was a drive-in restaurant for decades — with a canopy.

“The canopy is a big part of our field and history,” Fullhart said.

And it will be for some time, as the club recently renewed its lease with the city for the field, its third 10-year lease.

Wiffling for a cause

I never thought I’d write this next sentence again. I played Wiffle ball last weekend — with a bunch of fellows I played with nearly 50 years ago.

It was at the Y-noT Project Tournament in Libertyville, and St. Charles Mayor Clint Hull asked me to play.

It was a good cause, seeking an end to drunken boating accidents on Lake County lakes and others statewide. The tournament took place at JoAnn Eckmann Park, behind the home of the Borcia family.

That family created the event seven years ago to honor their 10-year-old son, Tony Borcia, who was killed in 2012 by a drunken boat driver when tubing near his family boat.

Hull was the judge who heard the legal case, eventually sentencing the boat driver to 10 years in prison. Hull did not want to participate in the past six Wiffle ball tournaments because he was still a judge. Upon retirement, he wanted to support the cause — and get his former Wiffle ball buddies back together.

How is it that he would bother to ask me? Because we had past Wiffle ball clashes when he and his friends on Fourth Street in St. Charles built a backyard stadium. I challenged those boys to a game against my newspaper team.

As the sports editor at the time, and a fairly decent softball player, I figured I could rekindle my old Wiffle ball skills.

The Wiffle Ball Classic became a summer fixture for years to come, sometimes against kids from other communities. The newspaper team did not win often.

By some miracle, I fared well during the Y-noT Project tournament with some pitching, a few hits and catches and, yes, some running. That was the hardest part.

As a team, we faltered, but the event, with numerous teams and hundreds of participants, couldn’t have been more uplifting.

In meeting the Borcia family and seeing the smiles on their faces, it was easy to see that they knew their son was looking upon them with much pride and joy.

This was an example of a community gathering to support a cause and a family, but it also was a picture of American spirit — how we feel, think and respond when we know it is the right thing to do.

There are many examples across all of our communities and it gives us hope during times when it doesn’t seem much exists.

In this case, it gave us Wiffle ball and, sore legs aside, a chance for a 72-year-old guy to recapture his glory days on a baseball field.

My thanks to those Fourth Street Wiffle ballers, and my best wishes to the Borcia family and its project which, over the years, raised enough money to provide the Lake County Sheriff’s Marine Unit with a new patrol boat.

The way for nonprofits

City councils follow a process in which city budgets include money for charitable causes in the community or to address a specific need.

There is some vetting regarding applications from organizations, and determining what the organization does to help the community as well as how long it has been providing services.

I bring this up because a recent social media post complained that one of our cities had given money to Aurora rather than to its own community.

Right away, I knew which Aurora entity might have received money, and that this person doesn’t know how city government works. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Many people don’t know that, especially if they have decided to drift away from local newspapers or engagement with their elected officials.

My guess is the money likely went to the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley, an Aurora-based organization that delivers funds to numerous organizations and manages that process.

I might have just let the Facebook thread slip by like many others that leave me wondering, but the foundation sent a notice to media last week about issuing more than $535,000 in grants to 40 local nonprofits this year, covering everything from mental health to food pantries, senior care and historical preservation.

This tells us the communities are generous, in addition to the process in which individual cities seek organizations that need funding.

The list of organizations receiving capital improvement grants would fill most of this column. Let’s just say it covers the entire Fox Valley region and every charitable organization or social service agency you can imagine.

The foundation’s grants include a Youth Engagement in Philanthropy segment, in which young people meet to review grant applications and award money to places like Lazarus House in St. Charles, CASA Kane County and Suicide Prevention Services of America.

Mostly, this tells us if someone complains on social media about funneling money toward Aurora, and not your own community, without details or context, you can likely ignore it. Or, given the opportunity, do some research and maybe explain how this all works in your own post.

dheun@sbcglobal.net