Small Town Living- Winter 2017

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Amboy, Ashton, Franklin Grove, Paw Paw, Sublette, West Brooklyn

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WINTER 2017

Shop offers unique treats, warm drinks

Veteran spent years teaching in Amboy

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Inside

4 Amboy, Ashton, Franklin Grove, Paw Paw, Sublette, West Brooklyn

WINTER 2017

4 – Warehouse Boutique

Publisher Don T. Bricker

9 – Veteran Clark Morris

Advertising Director Jennifer Heintzelman

17 – Veteran John Glaser

12 – Local Cup & Cake 22 – Iron Tree

Editor Jeff Rogers

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Magazine Editors Lucas Pauley Rusty Schrader Page Design Lucas Pauley Published by

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Sauk Valley Media 3200 E. Lincolnway Sterling, IL 61081 815-625-3600 Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of Small Town Living Magazine may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

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A walk around the Warehouse Boutique offers a lot for small community

Story By Cody Cutter & Photos By Alex T. Paschal For Small Town Living

The large, metal peace sign has been a part of the Gertes family for years, and was brought out in November to make Warehouse Boutique in Amboy stand out a little bit. See what the shop’s all about on page 6.

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D

on’t let the plain, white, metal facade fool you.

There’s a lot going on behind it at Warehouse Boutique in Amboy.

Walk up five steps, step into the front door, and you’ll see there’s a lot more that graces a small, rustic showroom owned by Vicki Vinnedge-Gertes, originally from Forreston, and Bill Gertes of Amboy.

Vinnedge-Gertes, who operates the store’s day-to-day functions, is an artist by nature. She also teaches art classes at Sauk Valley Community College. The canvas drawings up on the store’s north wall are all drawn and designed by her.

Four years ago, the Gertes purchased the warehouse of the former F/S gas station at 24 N. Jefferson St., and Vinnedge-Gertes had an idea to sell some of her arts and crafts. ... Then came clothes. ...

Then jewelry. ... And then came a group of local hairstylists who wanted to set up shop in the warehouse.

The boutique is just part of an operation which also includes a hair and nail salon. VinnedgeGertes plans to open an art studio in the remaining space of the warehouse.

“Women can come and they can buy outfits to go out in the evening and get gifts for whatever,” she said. “They can get their hair done, get their nails done, and they can shop – all in one location.”

Warehouse Boutique opened Nov. 3 after more than 2 months of construction.

More than 300 people showed up during the grand opening.

Vinnedge-Gertes said a lot of her customers told her the Amboy area needed a shop like hers.

“It was unbelievable,” VinnedgeGertes said. “Our community really supports itself, and they really showed that. They came out and really supported us.”

Brown is a color seen throughout the store. Just a few feet past the front door is a large, old trunk, which is used to display merchandise. The trunk belonged to Bill’s sister, and Vinnedge-Gertes saved it from being thrown out one day.

Near the trunk is a clothes chest

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More information Warehouse Boutique is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Thursday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

The salon is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday. Call 815857-9273 to schedule an appointment.

Cash, check, credit card and debit card are accepted.

Go to thewarehouseboutique.com, find The Warehouse Boutique Amboy on Facebook, or email thewarehouseboutique@ outlook.com for more information. with drawers open, displaying more items. Turn around and find a brown case with different metal wine stoppers.

Weaving through the store can be a challenge when the store is packed, but it just means there’s a lot to get to see and touch.

Vinnedge-Gertes gets her items from different vendors, and has a consignment arrangement with local dealers from Amboy, Dixon and Oregon.

“We’re benefitting their small businesses in this small town as well,” Vinnedge-Gerdes said.

Part of the store’s design is also local, in the form of an old relic. The paneling and tin along the south wall in the salon were stripped from a pair of barns from Ashton and Franklin Grove.

The salon, which caters to both men and women, has five booths and one nail station. Stylists rent space from Vinnedge-Gerdes.

Regular manicures, gel manicures, dip gel manicures and pedicures are offered at the nail salon.

Vinnedge-Gerdes said dip gel nails are not done many places around here.

“In a gel process, it is actually painted on and the color can actually chip off eventually,” she

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TOP: Owner Vickie VinnedgeGerdes (left) and stylists Ashley Grim and Erika Taylor pose at Warehouse Boutique. Hair and nails are offered at the shop, which also has all sorts of items for sale.

said, “but with a dip gel, the gel is the color. It cannot chip the color because the gel is the color.”

If you can’t find the warehouse in town, look for a large, thin peace sign. It’s been a part of the Gertes

family for years, and was brought out in November to make the place stand out a little bit more.

Though, after one trip, it’s unlikely you’ll have a hard time finding it again. s

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Special salute to service After time in military, man spent time on the farm, in classroom

Veteran Clark “Ed” Morris poses for a photo at his home.

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STORY BY ANDREA MILLS & PHOTOS BY MIKE KRABBENHOEFT FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING

eing in the military is something of a family tradition in the Morris family.

“My great-grandfather was a surgeon in the Civil War,” Clark “Ed” Morris, 84, of rural Harmon, said.

He also had relatives serving in World War I and World War II. His father served by producing food on the farm. When the Korean War rolled around, Morris’ goal was college.

He started at the University of Illinois in 1951, and was in the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps for 3 years.

“I stopped attending in the spring of 1954,” Morris said. “I volunteered for induction into the Army. That’s where I got sent. I was talking to two fellows I went to high school with, who were older than I. ... On their way in, when they were inducted, one talked the other one

into joining the Marines, so he agreed. But when it came time to assign them, the one who was persuasive came later in the alphabet and the need was filled before they got to him, so the fellow he talked into it got into the Marines. I thought that was kind of funny.”

Morris’ basic training was at Camp Chaffee, now Fort Chaffee in Arkansas.

“I got there in December, so nothing much happened before Christmas,” he said. “I did [kitchen patrol] and that sort of thing. They didn’t have basic training during Christmas. It started in January.”

He stayed at Fort Chaffee and worked in the records holding area until going to finance school in 1956 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Then, he returned to Fort Chaffee.

“I worked in the finance office until Decem-

ber of 1956,” Morris said. “Then I was discharged.”

At that point, Morris was 1A for the draft, and as his wife, Ginny, said, “young and available.” The two married in 1964.

“I transferred then to the Air Force Reserves,” he said.”I went back to college a month later after I got out [of the Army].”

Back at the University of Illinois, he completed his senior year and went on to get a master’s degree.

Morris thinks his rank in the Air Force Reserves was airman first class. Someone told him that a commission was possible, so he applied and received it. He became a second lieutenant in 1958 or 1959, attending meetings for the first few years.

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Continued on page 11

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Continued from page 9

He advanced through the ranks to major 7 years before he retired.

Born in LaSalle County, his family moved to the area when he was 12, not far from where he lives now.

He and his wife first lived on his family farm where Morris farmed and did some substitute teaching in Amboy and area schools. He was encouraged to become certified for special education with the hope of a position in Amboy.

“I was debating about whether to do this,” he said.

Then one day while he was at school, the cattle got out and into the cornfield.

“It helped me decide what I wanted to do,” he said. “I think it was the next day then that I called the trucker and had him haul my livestock away. I signed up then at the school and went to NIU.” He taught at Amboy for about 14 years.

In the meantime, he was appointed as liaison officer for the Air Force Academy of Colorado Springs, Colorado, for 15 years before retiring as a major. He visited area schools to make students aware of the academy and what it had to offer.

“I had a problem, of course, when I was teaching,” he said about visiting other schools when he had his own classroom. “It was a little awkward.”

Later, the family of seven moved to the Wheaton area for 22 years before returning.

On Nov. 1, Morris was one of the veterans who took the trip with the Lee County Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. “I liked it fine,” he said. “They gave us three meals plus snacks. I didn’t spend anything that day.”

He was up early to get to Dixon at 4 a.m. and said he got back after midnight.

Morris in uniform during his service.

The veterans were given guardian volunteers. “My guardian’s mother was one of my schoolmates in a one-room country school,” he said.

Morris said two things he’ll remember most were viewing the Washington Monument and when an off-duty guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stopped to talk to the group and answer questions.

All in all, the veterans were well taken care of, he said.

“I appreciate it,” Morris said. “I think most of the vets did.” s

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Local Cup & Cake owner Haley Hanson does all the cupcake baking for the shop and enjoys coming up with unique treats.

Look out for Local Cup & Cake

STORY BY CODY CUTTER & PHOTOS BY ALEX T. PASCHAL FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING

K

elly Cicchetti parked out front of Local Cup & Cake in downtown Sublette on a windy Tuesday morning.

“Here comes Kelly,” said Chelsea Neave, the barista working the front counter.

Neave saw Cicchetti pull up through a window across the counter and immediately knew what to get: Large coffee. Cream. Sugar.

The full cup of coffee was waiting on the counter when Cicchetti walked through the front door.

“They know I’m running late sometimes,” Cicchetti said. She stops each day on her way from her home in Sublette to her work in Amboy. “I don’t have to spend time, I can put my sugar in and go.”

The window wasn’t part of the original business design at Local Cup and Cake, located in the Sublette Mini Mall at 100 S. Front St., but

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Shop gives town something new Neave and her sister, owner Haley Hanson, have learned to use it to their advantage. It helps the shop become a place where everyone knows everyone’s name.

“It’s a small-town coffee shop,” Hanson said. “We’re aiming to have the vibe of kind of a low-key hangout place for anybody of all ages, to relax or come get coffee. Just a friendly, inviting atmosphere. Not too busy.”

That’s something that sets the shop apart from its corporate competitors, Hanson said.

“It’s not crazy, and everything is fresh, from grounding the beans to making the espresso.

All done right when you order it,” she said.

When you walk into the building, it looks like a small living room, but walk through the first door on the right and the scents and smells of coffee and more will let you know you’re in the right spot.

What will it be? A coffee or a ground-toorder espresso? Does the muffin or the cupcake inside the glass dome seem tempting? Don’t know what it is? Go ahead and ask, because chances are, it’s something that isn’t found most places.

Continued on page 14

ABOVE: Chelsea Neave, barista and Hanson’s sister, steams milk for a customer’s hot chocolate.

BELOW: Each day brings new treats and new flavors, such as this grasshopper cupcake and lemon crumble.

For more information

Business hours vary for the shop, which accepts cash, check, and credit and debit cards.

Baked goods, in dozen and half-dozen counts can be pre-ordered, at least a few days in advance, by emailing localcupncake@ gmail.com or messaging Local Cup & Cake on Facebook.

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Continued from page 12

“I kind of just make stuff up,” said Hanson, who does all of the baking. “I’m like, ‘What sounds good?’ And I try to turn it into a cupcake.

I made a peach cobbler cupcake. I’ll try anything. You name it, I try to make it.”

Hanson and her husband, Josh, moved to Sublette in September 2016 to be closer to his family, who have lived in the area for generations.

Haley is from Salem, Wisconsin, and the admitted coffee lover grew up making baked goods with her aunt.

Once she settled into Sublette, she couldn’t find just the right coffee to please her palate.

“I was having to drive to Peru to get coffee,” Hanson said. “I didn’t know of any small places anywhere, and I just thought [Sublette] needed it. There really isn’t anything within 5 miles that I knew of.”

She found space in the mini mall to rent out, and started setting the business up from March to mid-September. Sublette Fest was 1 week away, and it took about that long to get the final touches done in time for a Sept. 9 opening during the festival.

Hanson wasn’t quite sure how the business hours would work out. She tried 6 a.m. once, but the coffee was 30 minutes old by the time the first customer came. So she adjusted the opening time to 6:30. Once Hanson gets a feel of when customers are coming in, she’ll set hours around them.

The business is very active on Facebook (at Local Cup & Cake), where Hanson makes a post each morning letting fans know her latest creations.

Usually, there is one cupcake flavor a day, and two on weekends.

Creations don’t stop with baked goods.

Hanson and Neave make their own coffee syrup flavors as well. Permanently on the menu are vanilla, caramel, and other typical flavors. Some depend on the season, including peppermint and maple cinnamon for winter, and pumpkin and brown sugar for Thanksgiving and Halloween.

The perfect thing to warm you up on a cool winter morning, a caramel latte.

“We started with buying one of the top brands,” Neave said, “and then we were exposed to all of the possible syrup flavors.”

Small gifts, such as T-shirts and necklaces, are also sold at the shop.

Unique blends of chap stick, including chocolate peppermint, apple cider, and chai tea, are made at the shop.

“We were thinking about what else we’d want to buy if we went to a small, local coffee shop,” Hanson said. “I don’t know, but we were like, ‘Let’s make our own chap stick.’ We tried it out, it went well, and so we have continued to make it.”

Two tables with chairs are available in the lobby, with additional seating just outside the door. That’s the mall’s own seating area, which customers can utilize to sip, eat, or read a John Grisham novel, or a paperback copy of “The Catcher in the Rye.” Children’s books are also available.

So, swing by for a sip and stay for a story. s

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Local man made it through war, family tragedy

Air Force veteran John Glaser of Amboy poses for a photo in his home.

He recently went on the Lee County Honor Flight.

J

STORY BY ANDREA MILLS & PORTRAIT BY ALEX T. PASCHAL FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING

ohn Glaser, 69, of Amboy, dreamed of playing college football, but it took him a while to fulfill his goal.

Born in Dixon, Glaser was raised and educated mostly in Amboy.

“I had visions of playing college football,” he said, “but I didn’t think I had the self-discipline to succeed athletically.”

He joined the Air Force 10 days out of Amboy High School in 1967. Of his 3½ years of service, he spent 20 months in Vietnam.

“I was an air policeman most of that time during that term,” he said.

His basic training was in San Antonio with 8 weeks of technical school to learn law enforcement and security.

“My first assignment was Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, which, as a site, had more men volunteer for Vietnam than any other air base in the country. It was so cold,” Glaser said. “Among my duties was walking around nuclear bomb-loaded B-52s making sure no one

attacked them when it was 70 below zero.”

He said the common saying was, “Summers are nice if you have that weekend off.”

In June 1968, he went to Vietnam. He served 13 months before going home for 30 days, and then returned for 6 months.

“It wasn’t all fear and anger and unhappiness,” Glaser said. “There were some very good times. I had some very good bonding with friends there.”

Continued on page 19

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He was stationed at Da Nang.

“My duty there was simply aircraft and air personnel security and perimeter work,” he said.

Da Nang was known as rocket city, Glaser said. He had 45 stars on his helmet for going through rocket attacks.

“You never knew when they were coming,” he said. “It could be one rocket or 30 rockets.”

Da Nang was in a valley with marine outposts in the mountains. He said they could observe the rockets launched and would radio.

The alert was a siren.

“It gave us somewhere between 7 and 10 seconds to get our rear-ends down if the guy who hit the siren was fast enough,” he said.

Another thing to contend with was the heavy bombing by fighter jets.

“We could just feel the rumble,” he said.

“Also our Navy ships fired over the air base.

You could hear the guns going off.”

Glaser came back to the U.S. in March 1970 to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. In February 1971, he received an early discharge to attend college at what’s now Truman University.

There, at long last, his dream came true.

“I finally played college football,” he said.

“I just played the spring training football and

John Glaser with kids in Vietnam, while stationed at Da Nang during the Vietnam War. He was in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970. (Submitted)

came back here and went to Sauk Valley for one semester.”

With his Air Force career seemingly behind him, he went to work.

One day, a friend mentioned his sister lived in Glenwood, Colorado, and he was going out there.

“I love Colorado,” Glaser said. “I’ve only been there once. Can I go?”

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So they left then – right then. He called his boss and they were off. He found construction work in Colorado and also his first wife – an Amboy woman.

“I met my wife-to-be 1,000 miles away from home,” he said.

Continued on page 20

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When things didn’t work out with his job, in 1972, he was job hunting in Denver and stopped at an Air Force recruiter’s office. The recruiter needed one prior-service member to sign up. He did.

Glaser chose to stay with the air police and asked to be stationed for at Lowry Air Force Base near Denver and to come back at his same rank.

That was approved. The next day, when he reported in, he had long hair, chopped sideburns and flared pants.

“I said, ‘Sgt. Glaser reporting for duty.’ The first sergeant replied, ‘What damn army are you in anyway?’ U.S. Air Force, Sergeant.”

He was in for 1½ years, spending 6 months in Korea.

In the summer of 1974, he came back for the birth of his oldest child, stayed 30 days and returned to Korea. A week later, he learned his brother had been killed in a car wreck.

“I came back for that,” Glaser said. He received a hardship discharge in December 1974.

He went on to earn a degree from Northern Illinois University in elementary education and special education, taught in the area and went into the credit insurance business in Plainfield.

On Aug. 28, 1990, a tornado went through Plainfield and the Glaser family lost their oldest son. The boy and his younger brother were on a paper route when he was swept up by the storm, Glaser said. The younger son and the couple’s two daughters survived.

While the loss may have brought the couple closer together for a time, they divorced in 1999. Glaser and his current wife, Isabel, were married in September 2012.

He ended up in Florida, but returned to Amboy, where he taught at Amboy High School until retiring in 2011. He works part time at Woodhaven Lakes.

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John Glaser (far right) stands behind Ray Fane while at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C, on Nov. 1 during the Lee County Honor Flight. (Submitted)

He said he thought the biggest problem with Vietnam was it was the first war where you could be shot at at 6 p.m.

Tuesday and be back home at your dinner table at 6 p.m.

Wednesday.

“Flight,” he said. “Flight made the difference. You had no time to reflect and recover.”

Glaser said he hasn’t had any flashbacks, but he has heard the siren. Amboy used to signal the firefighters with a loud siren that they tested every evening.

“It just happened to be the same sound we heard when we had incoming rockets,” he said. “The first time I heard that siren I was looking for some place, some hole to jump into.”

He said he has, however, had dreams of his war years, some good, some bad.

Glaser was among the veterans who traveled with the Lee County Honor Flight to Washington, D.C.. He was up at 3 a.m. Nov. 1.

When the group arrived at the airport in Moline at 9 a.m., he said the veterans were greeted by groups of people welcoming and thanking them. Then they were off to D.C. When they got back to Moline, that’s when Glaser was most impressed with the crowd.

“The most moving and largest group of greeters was [at the airport],” he said. “It was overwhelming. It was nothing I’d ever thought about returning from Vietnam. I had some mixed feelings. I was overwhelmed and emotional with the show of support, but I also was thinking, ‘Where were these people 40 years ago?’ They may not have been the protesters and spitters and the ones that were calling us bad names, but they weren’t sticking up for us either. But there they were and Airman Third Class John Glaser is shown here, circa 1967. thank God they were. I was so happy they were there.” s

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A lot to see at Iron Tree

Trio gives new life to old pieces in Amboy store Gina McCoy of Amboy, one of three owners of Iron Tree in Amboy, makes a table out of an old door at the store. She and longtime friends Rachel Albright of Sheridan and Maria Lowe of Naperville opened the store that sells refurbished furniture and homemade fixtures on Feb. 11 in a historic building at 205 N. Jefferson Ave.

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trio of friends with a shared passion for finding new uses for old materials has found their repurpose in life, and it’s called the Iron Tree home decor shop.

Amboy resident Gina McCoy and longtime friends Rachel Albright of Sheridan and Maria Lowe of Naperville opened the store that sells refurbished furniture and homemade fixtures on Feb. 11 in a historic building at 205 N. Jefferson Ave. The trio salvage a variety of materials and antiques – barn wood, iron pieces, old windows and the like – and repurpose them as tables, shelves, home art and other decorations.

“When you salvage and remake something, it makes it one of a kind,” said McCoy, 51.

Work to transform the materials take anywhere from a few hours to a week, depending on the project.

“It all starts with having an idea, coming across the right wood and other materials, and then being patient,” she said.

The shop is filled with nature-inspired pieces, as well as jewelry made locally out of silverware by Detour Designs, handmade clay pottery from Ocken’s Pottery, and a line of Blue Flame candles hand-poured in Florida.

Opening the store was a way for the three to pool their passions, McCoy said.

“All my life, I have enjoyed a love of antiques and home decor.”

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