Geneva wants your Blizzard of '67 pics

Is there anything that gets our attention more than a disaster? How about a local disaster? There have been a few in the Tri-Cities throughout its history, and Geneva History Center archivist Ron Rawson is planning a slide presentation in a few months about those that have struck Geneva.

He's got plenty of mayhem to share in his slide show, but the history center is discovering it has no photos of the Blizzard of 1967.

As part of his task, Rawson is asking that residents let him know if they have any photos that he can copy of that now infamous 20-some inches of snow that pounded the area on Jan. 26 and 27, 1967. If so, contact Rawson at (630) 232-4951.

Here's a side benefit - Who wouldn't mind at least glancing at pictures of snow to take their mind off this hot and muggy summer?

A different skill level: It was nice catching up with Chris Kanute last week when I wrote about his family's longtime real estate business in St. Charles.

You have to talk about golf when talking to Kanute, who was a member of the St. Charles High School state championship team in the mid 1980s.

Kanute mentioned that he used PGA star Steve Stricker, his former teammate at the University of Illinois, as a measuring stick for his own progress as a golfer.

"You know, I used to shoot a 70 or 71 for my round, and was feeling pretty good about myself, and then Steve would come in at 62 or 63 on a consistent basis," Kanute said. "You start wondering what the heck you had to do to get to that level, and it was an eye-opening experience."

Pops doing fine: I was in the Carol Stream area last week, so I stopped in at Pop's Place for an Italian beef sandwich.

I hadn't seen owner Nick "Pops" Koutsonicolis since he closed his restaurant on East Main Street in St. Charles last February to move into a retail strip center at 184 N. Gary Ave. in Carol Stream.

"Pops" said business has been OK and slowly picking up. Like any other restaurant owner during this recession, he'd like to see more customers.

He enjoys seeing his customers from St. Charles who stop out to see him. He also doesn't mind getting to work nearly 20 minutes quicker from his Norridge home than when he was coming to St. Charles six days a week.

Reunions fly by: When you reach the age in which your high school reunions start hitting numbers like 30th, 40th or 50th, you get a pretty good idea of how fast time flies by.

So, do the organizers of the Class of 1995 Batavia High School reunion feel the same way as us older folks? Does it seem possible that a graduating class from the mid 1990s is already planning a 15th reunion?

Perfect timing: With the number of bugs swarming our area this summer, the Fox Valley Park District is picking a good time to introduce its first "Bug Fest" Saturday at Red Oak Nature Center in Batavia.

dheun@sbcglobal.net