Taking a good look at changing scenery

You might say that a double-take is the theme of this column. I find myself doing double-takes like a modern-day Oliver Hardy when I see things that remind me of how fast this area is changing.

If you were just passing through St. Charles from somewhere outside the Tri-Cities region, you might think that it was definitely a Blue Goose kind of town. With the new Blue Goose facility under construction standing out quite noticeably between First and Second streets, a quick double-take would make one believe there are two Blue Goose supermarkets in town.

He doesn't need two stores in one downtown, but Blue Goose owner Dave Lencioni had entertained thoughts of a Blue Goose in Elburn nearly 10 years ago. He may not have given serious thought to property where Country House restaurant and the Comfort Inn Geneva motel now sit along Kirk Road and Fabyan Parkway, but many folks in the region felt a Blue Goose could do well in that area for east-side Geneva and Batavia shoppers who didn't have a nearby grocery store at the time.

Lencioni was in lock-step in the early 1990s with the late Jimmy Kacheres in opposing the first proposal for a Jewel and Target on the far east side, near the Regole property, mainly because he wanted to protect his downtown grocery store.

As time passed, it was clear that the wave of big-box stores was going to eventually hit all of the Tri-Cities. And it also became clear that there would always be a niche for a downtown grocery store with the history and loyal patrons that a place like Blue Goose has developed.

Another double-take

If you haven't driven past the Lincoln Inn in Batavia on Route 31 in some time, get ready to do another double-take.

The renovation taking place has given the longtime banquet hall/restaurant a new look. So much so, in fact, that if you didn't know better, you wouldn't recognize it as Lincoln Inn at all.

Neighbors near the Lincoln Inn certainly figure the renovated site is a better option than a plan about 10 years ago that called for a hotel to be built there.

The idea made sense in terms of boosting business at the restaurant, but the hotel was way too close to nearby homes for aldermen to support the concept.

Still more double-takes

It still is quite odd to drive through downtown Elburn and not see Anderson's Grocery Store and the Gliddon's Drug Store both front-and-center on Main Street.

The Grocery Store has been turned into a Sears hardware store, and now the former Gliddon's site houses an investment firm.

Anyone who lived in Elburn years ago and was just coming back for a first visit would be surprised at the changes near the routes 47 and 38 intersection, but the downtown's changing face would also get that double-take.

As a young reporter in the late 1970s, working out of an office in Elburn, I had many "dinners" at the Grocery Store while waiting for school board or township meetings to start. That is, if you consider a bag of Cheetos and a can of 7-Up as a "dinner." But that was usually a key part of my menu.

Just a mystery

Talk about doing double-takes! Just look at gasoline prices in various towns in your travels.

I wondered last year why those of us in Kane County were paying almost 20 cents more for a gallon of gasoline than our neighbors in DeKalb County.

Now the tables are reversed. I filled my tank in Kane County last week for $2.95 a gallon, and had to drive into DeKalb, where gas was posted at $3.22 a gallon.

The fluctuation of gas prices remain one of life's great mysteries, but it is getting easier to predict a quick price increase -- like when a pro-American leader in the Middle East is assassinated.

Impressive trees

Here's another thought on the holiday season, one worthy of a double-take. A rural home on Hughes Road, west of Mill Creek, had some of the largest decorated trees I have seen in the area.

If these trees were in a downtown setting for a tree-lighting ceremony, they'd certainly be the "talk of the town."