Tour historic Geneva site, formerly a grocery store, on Saturday, May 4

If it's May, it means the Geneva History Museum is engaged in its annual membership push - and showcasing a city building that has an interesting history behind it.

This year, it's a throwback to when groceries were much cheaper when the museum celebrates the 65th birthday of the 25 N. Third St. building that currently houses Ashland Center, which provides office rental space.

The public is invited to tour the site from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 4, to learn about its history as National Food Store in the 1950s and '60s, and then a U.S. Bank facility and 25 N. Co-Working, which eventually moved to North River Lane.

Those who visit Ashland Center also have free access to the museum that day, including tours of the archives and collections.

“Every May, we try to choose a different building to highlight its anniversary, and in other years we did a 100-year anniversary of the telephone building at First Street (Route 31) and last year it was the 90th anniversary of the TriCity Garage Building,” said museum Executive Director Terry Emma.

“This year, we wanted to pick something that people might still remember and not pick something that was so old,” Emma said.

Thus, the building that once operated as the main grocery store in town was chosen.

Ashland Center owner Paul Kawalek has worked with the history museum in the past in researching that building, so the museum wanted to return the favor and host the party at his site.

“He is doing such great things with that building,” Emma said of Kawalek.

But the museum also doesn't lose sight of its key mission in May to lure new members.

“The nice thing is we have been able to raise money during May because of the membership drive,” Emma said. “Some people will become a $100 donor instead of buying a $35 membership, and that helps the museum.”

A new feature that has become popular for the museum is for those donors of $100 or more having access to links on the museum website to watch recordings of museum programs, specifically the popular lunchtime Brown Bag series of lectures and presentations.

“A lot of people can't come to our Brown Bag programs because they work, but this gives them a chance to watch the programs,” Emma said.

It's also helpful for those who no longer live in Geneva, or spend several months away during the winter. In those instances, the museum recordings allow the museum to continue doing what it is supposed to do - connect current residents with information about their past.

<h3 class="leadin">This piano player:

It will be a St. Charles East High School homecoming for Jeff LaDeur Sunday, May 12, when the 2004 graduate comes from his home in the San Francisco Bay Area to play the piano in a “Music in the Gallery” concert at the Norris Cultural Arts Center.

LaDeur has made quite a name for himself in music since his days at St. Charles East, earning degrees in piano performance and chamber music from Eastman School of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

He's performed in places like the Kennedy Center and Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and various other places across the country and globe.

Of course, any accomplished pianist would point to a key career moment, and LaDeur had his in March of 2018 when performing a solo debut at Weill Hall in New York's Carnegie Hall.

He'll be accompanied by mezzo soprano Kindra Scharich for the 6:30 p.m. St. Charles performance in the Norris gallery. Tickets are available on the Norris Cultural Arts Center website.

<h3 class="leadin">That piano player:

Anyone who has seen piano player Mike Sigman and his band of excellent musicians perform the “Piano Man” tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John can't help but walk out humming the tunes of these music legends.

The Carpentersville pianist/singer makes a lot of rounds during the summer with his tribute band, and they are definitely worth keeping on your radar.

It seems fitting for an Elton John tribute concert, considering the film about his life, titled “Rocketman,” will be in theaters later this month.

In turning his looks and his voice into Billy Joel or Elton John, Sigman is uncanny and this band is so tight you can tell they've been doing this a long time.

We saw the tribute performance last weekend at Pheasant Run and noticed he was bringing his band in its “Dancing Queen” form for an Abba tribute at Swedish Days next month. They are scheduled to perform the Friday night concert, June 21, during the festival.

<h3 class="leadin">It relies on Ma Nature:

The notices for the 58th annual Mid-American Canoe & Kayak Race on June 2 on the Fox River are starting to pop into my email again.

I am a bit nostalgic about the canoe race. It was one of the first events I wrote about after becoming a sports editor in the Tri-Cities area in 1978, after a little less than a year of news reporting in Elburn.

It was fun to learn about how it was organized, how the safety officials worked through a ham radio system to communicate, and to talk to contestants who had interesting stories to share.

The canoe race stands out for another reason. Other events, like golf outings, graduations, festivals and 5K runs certainly need the weather to cooperate. But they generally don't have to deal with the variables of a canoe race.

As such, canoe race planners have to keep their fingers crossed over what Mother Nature has in mind for the actual day of the race, and maybe even the weeks leading up to it.

If it's been extremely dry, then the Fox River might be way too low for the canoes to safely navigate the route. If it's been raining a lot and the river is high, that also may be unsafe for paddlers.

If a nasty storm - one with lightning and thunder - is being forecast for the actual day of the race, that would not be conducive to hundreds of people being out in the open.

Even though the event would not be canceled because of hot and sunny weather, that's not a favorite of the paddlers. That would force them to gauge what that heat will do to their stamina as well as how much sunscreen is needed.

<h3 class="leadin">Crowded movie theaters:

We didn't get a chance to see what was happening at the Charlestowne 18 theater on the east side of St. Charles last weekend, but it had to be crowded for “Avengers: Endgame.”

But, for the first time ever it seemed, we did see the cars backed up on Randall Road and the parking lot full at the Randall 15 complex in Batavia as it appears moviegoers in this area certainly did their part in making it the most successful film opening ever.

Both theaters had the film playing on at least five screens, and we'd have to guess that there likely wasn't an empty seat in any of those screenings.

dheun@sbcglobal.net