Farewell to Steve Brantley of St. Charles

Steve Brantley was one of those interesting fellows who caught my attention seven years ago when he earned $2 tips for pumping gas, cleaning windows and checking oil for the cars of customers at the Citgo station on Main Street in St. Charles.

No stations were offering that service any longer, and Brantley didn't even work there. He just offered to do it after his similar job at Kevin's Service in St. Charles came to end when that station shut down its pumps.

Like so many folks in 2009, Brantley found himself unemployed. So he told the Citgo station owners he'd tell his customers to go there and he'd pump the gas just to feed his enjoyment of helping others.

"I wanted to continue to assist those folks who don't like pumping their own gas, for whatever reason," Brantley told me at that time.

Sadly, I learned last week that Brantley, at age 65, lost a battle with cancer and died on Sept. 23.

His friends tell me that their support and my 2009 article helped him find work as a handyman, gardener, lawn mower and snow plower. He also continued being a gas station clerk and delivered groceries for Blue Goose.

"He never asked for a handout from anyone and just wanted to live a simple and private life," said friend Phil Kessler.

His story should resonate with all of us. Could you imagine what sort of world this would be if everyone wanted to help others in the same manner?

Just as importantly, the Steve Brantley story says something about the town he lived in. He lived here only 12 years, but it did not take long for others in St. Charles to rally around this fellow, seeing that simple goodness and solid character should be rewarded in some fashion.

It didn't take a herculean effort on anyone's part to make that happen, but it has led to this: Here we are spreading the good word about a regular guy and his desire to help others. It doesn't always have to be about a prominent name or business to send that message.

He knows stamina:

While the presidential candidates go through some tit-for-tat about who has the stamina to lead the nation, Mike Dixon of St. Charles could tell them a thing or two about how to keep chugging along.

After long Peace Corps stints in Ukraine and Kosovo, Dixon is back in the U.S. for now. But he's not resting on his laurels.

He's taken a job with a 30-month commitment as the site architect and historic preservation consultant for a restoration project on the State Capitol Building in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The building restoration is part of an entire makeover of the Capitol campus in Cheyenne.

Dixon already has a deep admiration for the building.

"It is a glorious sight from my office window in Cheyenne," Dixon wrote in an email.

But he also knows what will help fuel his stamina for this project.

"My apartment is located just six short blocks from the Capitol, just past a Starbucks," he said.

He knows pizza:

Former St. Charles police officer Dan Klinkhamer is one of those guys who has a perpetually happy outlook on life. But why not? He works as a security guy at Kane County Cougars games and gets to all of the area festivals and key events with his wife, former Mayor Sue Klinkhamer.

But something else is at play here. And he told me what it was.

"As my arteries will attest, I am definitely a pizza connoisseur," Klinkhamer said. "From deep dish to stuffed to thin, I am constantly in search of the perfect pie."

Ah, yes, happiness personified.

After seeing my recent column highlighting some readers' favorite pizza spots, "Klink" felt it was important to put in his recommendation.

He's picked the special thin crust pizza at Geneva restaurant Riganato's.

"You will not believe," he said. That's a fairly powerful way of describing a pizza.

He's not alone. Other readers have mentioned Riganato's at various times.

Farewell, Sweet Tomatoes:

It was a favorite spot when I was on that side of town often, but alas, I don't work on the east side of St. Charles anymore.

Thus, it was tough to call the Sweet Tomatoes restaurant on East Main Street and have it confirmed that it was closing for good.

It makes me wonder what the status of these buffet-style setups will be in the near future.

Sure, Golden Corral in Batavia had all sorts of odd twists and turns in terms of it being opened or closed, but if it were such a popular format, wouldn't it be open again?

More importantly, St. Charles again has to grapple with what's ultimately in store for its east side. We can't put all of our eggs in the Cooper's Hawk basket, can we?

To ease the mind:

What better way to tolerate this particular political season than with a few visits to a place called a "mindfulness cafe?"

BG&me, short for Buddha, Gandhi and me, had its ribbon cutting ceremony last week at 11 E. Wilson St. in Batavia.

This place offers an open yoga room, meditation room, and reading lounge for a $2 entry fee.

This cafe plans to host complimentary groups to discuss stress-release meditation, beginner's yoga, dream yoga, mindfulness, barefoot running and other topics.

It all sounds good to me, other than the barefoot running. Heck, I get stones in my shoes when I am walking. Can you imagine what I'd encounter in bare feet?

Baseball nerves:

Are we nervous yet? I am asking this question a few days before the Chicago Cubs started their National League division series.

Things that happened just before this series started, that being some of the moves the team made to fill weak spots and all of the team executives being kept in place for the next five years, put me at ease a bit.

If we somehow come up short this year (and baseball can do that to you, as the Cubs well know), this is not our last October rodeo. We are armed and dangerous for many years to come.

dheun@sbcglobal.net