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Savor both the flavor and the scenery at riverfront restaurant in Albany

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New boutique in Fulton celebrates the small blessings in life

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Publisher/Ad Director Jennifer Heintzelman Magazine editor Rusty Schrader Page design Julie Barichello Published by Sauk Valley Media 113 S. Peoria Ave. | Dixon, IL 61021 815-284-2222 Have a story idea for River City Living? Let us know ... Call 815-632-2531 or e-mail news@saukvalley.com Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of River City Living 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.

View and chew

When a Thomson couple was looking for a place to open a business, they decided to go with the flow to Albany, where their customers can savor both the flavors and the scenery at their riverfront restaurant.

A museum with a familiar ring to it Let your fingers do the walking to downtown Fulton and you’ll find a connection to the past, thanks to a family with an affinity for phones and the stories they tell.

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BY CODY CUTTER | SAUK VALLEY MEDIA

any of life’s necessities have evolved over time, and telephones are no different — starting with their earliest days of wood and wires hung on a wall and turning in to today’s pocket-sized computers that put a world of information at your fingertips. From the first words carried through the wires by telephone pioneer Alexander Graham Bell — “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you” — to a company’s commercial catchphrase that’s become ubiquitous with cell phones — “Can you hear me now?” — telephones have been revolutionizing communication for more than 150 years, and some of that history can be found inside an unassuming little storefront in downtown Fulton that’s not only become a home to that history, but a labor of love for three generations of the Salter family: the S&S Telephone Museum.

Let your fingers do the walking to downtown Fulton and you’ll find a connection to the past, thanks to a family with an affinity for phones and the stories they tell

MUSEUM cont’d to page 6

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Eric Salter talks about some of the vintage phone equipment at the S&S Telephone Museum. Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com

The S&S Telephone Museum, 1003 Fourth St. in downtown Fulton, is open by appointment. Email sstelephone@outlook.com or call Eric Salter at 563-559-6501 to schedule a tour or for more information. The museum also has an open house during the annual Dutch Days Festival; the next weekend will be May 5-6, 2023.

MUSEUM cont’d from page 4 Phones of various shapes, makes, dates and sizes are displayed in the front of the museum’s two rooms, and they all still work. Each phone is connected to another one to give visitors an idea of what it was like to carry on a conversation through these pieces from the past. The family/curators behind the museum have lived through their fair share of the telephone’s evolution, from the revolutions of rotary dials to the beeps of buttons to cell

phones that bounce billions of messages from tower to tower. Larry Salter, 73, made his first phone calls on a rotary phone; son, Eric, 33, grew up when push button models had pushed rotary phones aside; and Eric’s daughter, Kaitlyn, 12, is growing up in a cell-phone world where landlines are becoming more of a novelty than a necessity — but that doesn’t mean the youngest member of the phone family doesn’t know how to let her fingers do the walking.

While a phone booth or a rotary phone may seem foreign most people her age, Kaitlyn feels right at home with a rotary phone, can crank up a call on an early century model, and even knows her way around the inner workings of how calls are made. “I grew up around the collection,” Kaitlyn said. “It’s affected me in multiple ways by wanting to help them and coming over here and working on the different phones that we have.”

MUSEUM cont’d to pages 8-9

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MUSEUM cont’d from page 6 While the countless calls that come and go today bounce off satellites and cell phone towers, landlines used to carry signals across the miles, stopping off at switchboards and crossbars that clicked and clanged through a maze of wires to make their connections. As the digital divide between the old and the new grew wider, equipment was dismantled and disposed of, but phone enthusiasts such as the Salters are keeping them intact to preserve their history. One large board, about 8 feet

tall by 10 feet wide, came from a Chicago collector’s basement, where it once served the city; now serves as a history lesson. “If you were in a city the size of Chicago, you would have rows and rows and rows and rows of these,” Eric said. “It’s pretty neat that in the modernera, in this century, we took some of this out of a working telephone company.” One of Eric’s current projects is a crossbar intercom from 1968 that once was in a bunker in Boone, Iowa. The military funded some of these bunkers that AT&T had, so that “if World War 3 were to

At one time, phones were like Model T’s: You could get any color you like, as long as it was black. But as phones became more of a focal point in people’s homes, different colors became an option. After all, what self-respecting mid-century homeowner wouldn’t want their phones to color coordinate with their furnishings? Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com

happen, we could still communicate across the country,” Eric said. When they were finally decommissioned, they were split into halves and removed; a friend of Eric’s in Pennsylvania has the other half. “Not many people do the switching,” Eric said. “Lots of people collect the instruments and collect the phones, but not very many people do the switching equipment, too.” Those switchboards and crossbars fill the museum’s other room, which also doubles as a work area to restore old machinery. “Most of the tours we give are based on what people have questions about,” Eric said. “We can go all different directions with it. I could talk about this stuff for hours, all different aspects of it. Whatever you guys see that looks interesting, they can tell me and I can give some more detail about it.” Larry’s childhood revolved around a fascination of how telephones work. That led to an

interest in two-way radio and other forms of communication. To this day, he’ll tell you — and show you — how the phones of yesteryear still have an advantage over today’s devices. “We can demonstrate how much better sound quality comes out of one of those, as opposed to a cell phone,” Larry said. Technology is just one way phones have changed through the years. Like they say, age is just a number, and you can tell a lot of about the age of telephones by the way numbers are dialed. In the early years, phone numbers could be anywhere from 1 to 3 numbers and callers would pick up the phone and tell switchboard operators who they wanted to reach. As the number of phones increased, so too did the length of numbers. The way we diale has changed, too.

MUSEUM cont’d to page 10

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BELOW: In an age when phones can fit in your pocket, it’s hard to believe phones like these were once considered compact, but they were. Western Electric Space Saver models were designed to take up less room when they were made during the 1920s to 1960s. Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com

Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com

ABOVE: Before technology took over, operators used to route calls via telephone switchboards like this one, on display at the S&S Telephone Museum.

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Kaitlyn Salter (below) is too young to remember the kinds of phones on display at her family’s phone museum, but she has an appreciation for them. “I grew up around the collection,” she said. “It’s affected me in multiple ways by wanting to help them and coming over here and working on the different phones that we have.” Alex T. Paschal/apaschal@shawmedia.com

MUSEUM cont’d from page 8 For decades, people would refer to telephone exchanges by a combination of names and numbers — Ethel would call Lucy at Murray Hill 5-9975, or Junior Samples would lure customers to buy his lemons by calling BR-549. These days, seven-digit numbers have become the norm, but even those have their limits, as the number of cell phones continues to increase. More often than not, people have to dial area codes with their sevendigit numbers. Visitors to the museum can

learn how that number game has been played through the years. “It used to be that the middle digit of an area code had to be a zero or a one, and the prefix could not be a zero or a one,” Eric said. “The equipment could tell from the first three digits if it was a local number or a long distance number, so they knew how to route the call.” When Eric was growing up, he would always come over to his father’s shop to help work on something telephone related. As with any task, you find the right tool for the job, and for phone work, patience was one of those tools. Tackling technical tasks can take time, and working with his dad, Eric learned the virtues of patience, the skills it took to read and interpret manuals, and how to decipher technical jargon. “Him talking about

Phone design has evolved through the years, from utilitarian models of wood and wire to mid-century modern, like this Swedish-designed Ericofon, which began production in the 1950s.

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it a lot, I just thought it was interesting,” Eric said. “Something prompted us to go to yard sales and thrift stores to buy some old telephones, and learn how to restore them, clean them up and make them work again. Things just snowballed from there.” As phones evolved, some concepts have survived and others haven’t. It’s those others that the Salters have helped keep from becoming lost to time, giving them a home among their displays, each one telling a story — and some of those stories are rather colorful. As phones became more commonplace, color became a selling point. Phones went from

black to a host of hues. Early efforts were made of a soft tenite plastic made by Eastman Kodak, but there was one problem: it was hard to remove women’s makeup and lipstick from the plastic. When acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) came along in 1959, it solved that problem. Finding an old tenite phone is hard enough, but finding one that’s not stained is even harder, but there are a couple on display at the museum. Phone designs have evolved through the years too, with hundreds of different styles finding their place among phone fashions.

MUSEUM cont’d to page 11

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Whiteside Remember these? If you grew up using cell phones, you’ve probably never even seen a pay phone, but visitors to the S&S Telephone Museum can get a hands-on lesson in how people used to call each other in public. Alex T. Paschal/ apaschal@shawmedia.com

MUSEUM cont’d from page 10 As the country ushered in the space age in the 1960s, the Ericsson Company of Sweden created the first Ericofon telephone: a one-piece phone with a rotary dial in the bottom of the phone. Visitors can see one at the museum. “It’s a fancy space-age design from the late 1960s,” Eric said. “If you watch ‘Men in Black,’ at the beginning, every desk has a white one of those.” S&S’s mint green Ericofon was made by a company in Ohio, and actually has a story behind it, a connection to the building the museum calls home. For several decades, the building was the Fulton branch

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of the Morrison Telephone Company. The area’s first cross-river connections via telephone came with the formation of the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, which established links that began service on Feb. 7, 1882 among Clinton, Lyons (at that time its own city), Camanche and DeWitt in Iowa to Fulton, Morrison, Sterling and Mount Carroll in Illinois. Cities eventually had their own telephone companies after technological improvements, and Morrison’s included Fulton. Phone bills were paid in the building, and then-new phones, such as the Ericofon, were sold there.

MUSEUM cont’d to pages 12-13

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body would want to see it.” The response has been overwhelming, Eric said, and he’s thankful for people’s interest in the family’s hobby. “I thought it would be just a niche interest and that nobody would care to see a bunch of old telephones,” Eric said. “The kids don’t have any idea how to dial with a rotary phone, but they get to learn.” Like any collector, the Salters dream about striking gold — and they did. Eric found an unusual phone in a Davenport thrift store one day: a gold-colored rotary phone from the late 1970s. “There is a lot of stuff that we have that we are very fortunate to have,” Eric said. “A lot of people like the gold phone. That’s the only one of those that I’ve ever seen. It’s one of the rarest phones we have.” Even Clark Kent would feel at home at the museum, where he’d find old phone booths among the collection. Some of them come from shopping malls, and one was even installed along a river lock in

MUSEUM cont’d from page 11 The Salters received their Ericofon from a woman who bought it at the Fulton office decades ago. Larry later acquired the building to use as a shop. The museum began in 2011 after a neighbor wanted to check out what was inside, and noticed all of the phones there. “We had all of this phone stuff everywhere, and he just thought it was amazing. [He said] we just had to start showing it all during Dutch Days, doing an open house and all of that. I was like, ‘Why would anybody want to see a bunch of old phones?’ We had all of these display cases for the phones. We just did it for ourselves. We never thought any-

Phone design has evolved through the years, from utilitarian models of wood and wire to mid-century modern, like this Swedish-designed Ericofon, which began production in the 1950s. A mint green model, like this one, is on display at the S&S Telephone Museum.

Dubuque for barge workers to use — or to take shelter in high wind. “When families come in here, it’s always an interesting thing,” Eric said. “The kids get to go inside, shut the door, and when the light comes on you get to see their face light up.” Kaitlyn is learning more about how the wires all link up and loves showing people how the old switchboards work. While those mammoth machines may have gone the way of the Mickey Mouse phone, the thrill of learning about phones is something Eric and Larry hopes that Kaitlyn will carry on one day to another generation of Salters. “As time goes on, she’s become more and more interested in helping, especially with the open houses with getting to see people and explaining the switchboard and talk about the old phones,” Eric said. “Someday it’ll be hers, I’m sure.” “She’s learning all kinds of things about it and to help keep it going,” Larry added.

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Kaitlyn Salter flips through a phone book at the S&S Telephone Museum. Alex T. Paschal/ apaschal@shawmedia.com

The Ericofon was the first commercially marketed telephone to incorporate the dial and handset into a single unit, and is considered one of the more significant industrial designs of the 20th century.

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In his book, “Life on the Mississippi,” Mark Twain spoke fondly of the sunsets he saw while living in the Mississippi River town of Muscatine, Iowa. “I have never seen any, on either side of the ocean, that equaled them,” he wrote. If Twain were still around, he might feel the same way about the view of the river, like this one, from Benson’s on the Mississippi. Photo: Benson’s Facebook page

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BY CODY CUTTER | SAUK VALLEY MEDIA

hen the owners of an Albany restaurant were looking for something that would set their menu apart, they found it in a state. When they were looking for something to set their business apart, they found it in a river — and they were both called Mississippi. Today, Bud and Stephanie Benson are bringing their flair for southern fare to the menu at Benson’s on the Mississippi, a riverfront restaurant in Albany that gives people a place where they can sit down and soak in the views of the Mississippi River, and savor the flavors of a menu the celebrates the confluence of the South’s cultures and cuisine. VIEW cont’d to page 16

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VIEW cont’d from page 15

Benson’s on the Mississippi is located at 108 S. Main St. in Albany. The front half (below left) dates back to the 1800s, and the rear addition (below right), which offers seating with a prime view of the Mississippi River (left), was added later.

Photos: Cody Cutter/ ccutter@saukvalley.com

“I have family down south in Mississippi and I moved down there for a quite a while,” Bud said. “I learned how to cook, and there’s so much good food there. I moved back up here, and after several years, I was like, ‘There are not a lot of food options here.’” The Bensons set out to change that, and they did, bringing fine dining back to the riverfront village after it went through a brief period without a restaurant. Now, locals have a place where they can grab a bite to eat, and area food-lovers have another day trip destination as they wend their along the river roads that lead to Albany. Even boaters have a place to pull in during a day on the water — lunch and a launch, anyone? The North and the South come together at Benson’s, where diners can try a variety of traditional Midwest and southerninspired dishes.

VIEW cont’d to page 17

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VIEW cont’d from page 16 The Bensons bring hickorysmoked meats, burgers, fish and other dishes to diners in a relaxed family-friendly setting — and to top it all off: a gorgeous view, courtesy of the panoramic windows that look out over the mighty Mississippi. “That’s kind of what we’re winning on,” Bud said. “That and the atmosphere and the view, and those two things make the building interesting.” The lunch menu offers a variety of appetizers, sandwiches (which they call “sangwiches”), salads and barbecue. Among the offerings: Pulled pork nachos drizzled with nacho cheese, barbecue sauce and ranch dressing, with the option of adding house-made jalapeños, banana peppers and onions; a Pressed Cuban with roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard and sliced pickles on sweet bread — all smashed and fried in butter; and The Dave, with Braunschweiger, onions and baby Swiss cheese. The Bensons also brought a taste of Mexico back home, with

their own twist: Their tacos come with pulled pork or chicken, topped with smoked Gouda, lettuce, tomato, onion and adobo ranch. Salad choices include grilled shrimp and sirloin, fried goat cheese, and a house salad that can be topped with shrimp, pulled pork, chicken or turkey. Weekly lunch specials include an open-face brisket on Thursday, a Delta catfish sangwich (with cathfish from 1,000-plus miles downstream on the Mississippi) on Friday, and a Burger of the Week every Saturday. Speaking of burgers, Benson’s puts its own twist on the menu classic. It’s called the Juicy Lucy and it comes with American cheese stuffed inside the patty, which is topped with sautéed onions; for an additional charge, Bleu cheese can be substituted. Benson’s closes between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. for a break before opening back up for dinner, with a menu that offers some favorites from the lunch menu, along more dinner-type fare.

LEFT: Benson’s chicken tenders are dipped in batter made with Busch Beer, and you can wash it down with a bottle of Wisconsin’s Potosi Root Beer. BELOW: Benson’s offers seating at the bar as well as at the rear of the restaurant, with scenic views of the Mississippi River. Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

VIEW cont’d to page 18

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VIEW cont’d from page 17

Photos submitted

ABOVE: Bud Benson, owner of Benson’s on the Mississippi, prepares dishes during a recent seafood event at the restaurant. OPPOSITE PAGE: Benson’s on the Mississippi serves (from left) 8-ounce sirloin or 10-ounce filet mignon, seafood such as gulf oysters on the half shell and stuffed oysters on the half shell and the Juicy Lucy with American cheese stuffed inside the patty and topped with sautéed onions.

Lunch hours began a couple of months ago, and it’s worked out well, giving the Bensons an opportunity to find out what people want on the dinner menu. Dinner specials include a low country shrimp boil on Thursday consisting of shrimp, corn on the cob, red potatoes and Andouille sausage; Fridays are smoked prime rib, Saturdays serve up hickory smoked ribs, full- or half-rack; and the pan-fried walleye doubles as a special for Friday and Saturday, with grilled asparagus, wild rice and sautéed mushrooms with their own tartar sauce. Other dinner dishes include smoked barbecue plates of pulled pork, brisket, turkey breast and pulled chicken, along with a sampler plate of them; seafood plates of blue gill, cod, Delta catfish, and a sampler plate; sirloin and filet mignon; and a lobster macaroni and cheese with smoked gouda. Looking for a brew with your

view? Benson’s has a variety of bottled and tap beers available at the bar, including some from area breweries, such as Chocolate Cherry Coffee Stout from Green Tree Brewery in LeClaire, Iowa, and Cherry Bomb Blonde from Front Street Brewery in Davenport, Iowa. Mixed drinks are also available. For those who enjoy a little brew and chew at the same time, Benson’s breaks out the Busch beer for the batter on one of their shrimp and chicken-and-spaghetti dinners, and Potosi beer for the batter on the sweet yellow onion rings. Bud said he’s not a food guru or chef, but “just a cook. I just try to make good food, and we’re just filling a hole, really. Saw a need and filled it.” While the menu ideas are largely his own concoctions, some also are influenced by customers. One such hungry visitor suggested that Bud add a filet mignon to the menu.

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VIEW cont’d from page 18 At first, Bud wasn’t sure about adding such a prime cut to the menu, given the current prices on the meat market, but took a chance. It paid off, and it’s proven a popular choice with customers. “Everything here comes out of a lot of years doing different things,” Bud said. “A lot of it is finding out what people want. It doesn’t really matter what I like or what I want to have. When we

started up in Thomson, I put a lot of things that I liked, but I found out that if you wanted to be profitable, you had to make what the people like.” The Thomson couple is no stranger to the restaurant business. They used to run a restaurant back home, and also own Benson’s on Lake Carlton at Morrison-Rockwood State Park, which opened for the season on May 5. Bud, a carpenter by trade, spent plenty of time renovating the Albany location,

which was formerly home to Julie’s Cafe. During about a year’s worth of work, Bud learned a lot about the building’s history and came to appreciate it. The front part of the building, where the bar sits, was originally built in the mid-1880s and was a grocery store for many years before becoming a cafe. The wood floor from that portion has been restored and repainted. The back of the building, which was added in later years,

has a Quonset hut-style ceiling that was originally covered by drop flooring when the Bensons bought it. That ceiling didn’t fly with Bud, who wanted restore the whole arc-like effect. “It didn’t look like this at all,” Bud said. “We gutted it to the bone. The Quonset hut was steel and they added a drop ceiling to it. I was like, ‘Man, I got to get that out and get the arch back.’ So we did.”

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Benson’s on the Mississippi, 108 South Main St. in Albany, is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and dinner from 4:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. Find it on Facebook, go to bensonsonthemississippi.com (where lunch and dinner menus are posted) or call 309-514-2046 to make a reservation or for more information. Parties can also be planned in advance. Catering services are available. Call Stephanie Benson at 815-631-5341 or email stheid@gmail.com for more information.

VIEW cont’d from page 19 After delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Benson’s opened its bar area in the summer of 2020, and seating area with the river view opened up months later. One of the wood tables is a heirloom from Bud’s family, complete with the original wood chairs. That’s not the only family touch at the restaurant; family members also painted the restored arc ceiling to resemble a sky, and provided some of the cherrywood to restore some interior decor. The building’s history can be found elsewhere, too. The bar is made from old planks and beams salvaged from the building during its remodel. “We tried to save whatever we could from the original building,” Bud said. “I try to make little stories about everything.” It’s all part of the couple’s goal of making Benson’s more than just another restaurant, but a dining destination. “We’re trying to give you a real good experience, otherwise we’re going to be like everyone else,” Bud said. “I hope they have a good time, have good food and want to come back.”

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TOP: Customers can pull up a chair and enjoy a view of the Mississippi River at Benson’s. ABOVE: Looking for a brew with your view? The bar has a variety of bottled and tap beers available, including some from area breweries, such as Chocolate Cherry Coffee Stout from Green Tree Brewery in LeClaire, Iowa, and Cherry Bomb Blonde from Front Street Brewery in Davenport, Iowa.

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BY CODY CUTTER | SAUK VALLEY MEDIA

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Michelle Snyder, owner of Blessings Boutique in downtown Fulton, loves helping parents get their babyies started off on the right footie. Cody Cutter/ ccutter@saukvalley.com

Michelle Synder has had to buy baby clothes for her own children, but she’s still buying them — and a lot more than she ever did before. That’s because Snyder has to fill the racks and stock the shelves at her new store, Blessings Boutique in Fulton, where she’s putting clothes on kids and smiles on their parents’ faces at the onestop shop for baby clothes, accessories, toys, and other infant items — and it’s putting a smile on her face, too.

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“Children are the biggest blessing that there is,” Snyder said, and she never gets tired of seeing a toddler take to something in the store that catches their eye and rush to it with glee. “I want to offer that unique, personalized shopping experience. I’m really, really enjoying the people that I’m meeting, getting to know about them and their families, and watching their little ones grow,” she said.

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 23 “I’ve been open long enough now that, when I first opened, people who just found out they were going to be a grandma for the first time, or found out they were going to be a mom, have now had those babies. The excitement when they come in and share pictures and tell me all about the new one and getting to watch those babies grow has just been a lot of fun for me.” Though the store’s been around for almost a year now, the idea was born before that. For years, she’d wanted to start a business of her own, but wasn’t quite sure what kind. Then a Christmas fundraiser came along. Twas the season for giving, and Snyder wanted to donate some nice, quality baby clothes, but couldn’t find what she was looking for nearby. She didn’t want to donate hand-medowns, and the nearest store dedicated to new baby clothing was close to the Quad Cities. That’s when things started to click, and she asked herself: Why not open a business that sells quality baby clothes? The answer: There’s no reason why not, so that’s just what she did. “I thought: ‘Why couldn’t I do something like that?” Snyder said. “I started looking into it. Babies and kids are something that I’ve always been passionate about, and they bring a smile to my face. I did it. I took a chance, and here I am.”

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 24 Blessings Boutique puts the focus on the “new” in newborn. Snyder steers clear of secondhand clothes, selling only new merchandise. She stocks fashions for newborns up to size 5T. Snyder opened the store in July and it wasn’t long after that she left her sales and marketing job at Agri-King in Fulton after 16 years so that she could dedicate her time to guiding her store through its own infancy. One thing she’s found is that owning a business is like being a first-time parent. People are more than willing to offer advice — but that’s just fine as far as Snyder is concerned. “I’ve been getting great feedback,” she said. “I’ve been very open with my customers, asking them what maybe I don’t have that they would like to see, or if there are other brands that they would like to see me carry if I can get my hands on them. People have been very helpful.” “Getting to know my customers, you start to hear about what they like, what colors they’re looking for, what styles they like or don’t like,” Snyder said. “There are times when I’m shopping that I have a handful of customers in mind when I buy it, and once they find out it’s here, then they’re here to buy it. It’s been fun learning about my customers and being able to give them a personal shopping experience.”

1. Blessings Boutique owner Michelle Snyder prides herself on being able to offer quality baby clothes that can be fashionable and fun, like the junior doctor and firefighter outfits shown here. 2. Even some of Blessings Boutique’s displays make a fashion statement, like this log from a birch tree that doubles as a clothing rack. 3. Want your baby to look like a young Tom Cruise? “Babiators” shades are inspired by the popular 1986 movie “Top Gun.” 4. Onesies and all kinds of clothes for baby are available at Blessings Boutique. 5. The EZPZ first foods set helps eliminate flipped plates and flung food. The silicone-based dish set has a suction feature that keeps the plate/bowl in place. 6. The shop also carries other items that can help make parents’ lives a little easier. Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 25 Figuring out what sells and what doesn’t is key to any business, and baby clothes are no exception. Stock needs to be rotated. Seasonal items need to be ordered in plenty of time. There’s trial and error to learn from and trends to learn about. Synder’s done her best to keep an eye on all of those fashion factors, jotting down ideas and making mental notes. Things have changed a lot in the baby world since her children were little, including clothes, both their look and feel. Not only have they changed to reflect adult fashions, fabrics have changed too. Manufactures are focusing on comfort as well as looks. Some brands at the store are made of organic cotton and bamboo. “We know better, we’re evolving and we learn,” Snyder said.

Blessings Boutique, 1006 Fourth St. in Fulton, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. Hours are subject to change later in the summer months. Find Bessings Boutique Fulton on Facebook and Instagram, email blessingsboutiquellc21@gmail.com or call 815-208-7308 for more or updated information.

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“We know better and we do better.” Always striving to do better is Snyder’s focus too, and being able to focus on one market — baby goods — gives her an edge over other stores where baby clothes are just one item in a larger inventory. “I thought there was a need in the area,” Snyder said. “I think I found a unique market. I get people from quite a ways to come in and shop from all directions.” The shop also carries other items, such as books and games. The books are suitable for ages 10 and under. Reading holds a special place in Snyder’s heart. She loved sharing stories with her own children. “I love the fact that people are still buying books and reading them to their kids,” she said.

BLESSINGS cont’d to page 27

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 26 “Personally, I love turning the page of the book and the motion, and the brightness of the illustrations. Most times when you are reading a book to a child, you’re holding them on your lap. You can’t replace that physical contact. That, and hearing your voice. You can’t replace that with a screen. Just can’t.” Some books can stimulate more than just the mind. They can tap in to kids’ sense of touch, too. The Slumberkins line, which Blessings carries, is a book and plush animal combo that help kids visualize the story they’re hearing and connect in a tactile way. The book and toy are sold as a package and stories deal with social or emotional learning concepts.

BLESSINGS cont’d to page 28

Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 27 The story about gratitude, for example, has a honey bear toy; another about family bonding has an otter; and other combinations include a yeti (mindfulness), sloth (relaxation and sleep), ibex (emotional courage) and sprite (grief and loss). “They’re researched based and are very well done,” Snyder said. “They’re illustrated very nicely, and the words are very good. They reinforce whatever the concept is that they’re dealing with.” Other gifts include wooden toys and games that are both educational and fun. The shop also carries items that can make parents’ lives easier, like a macramé hanging toy basket, diaper bags and stroller caddies. Another item can even help keep more food on the plate and less on the floor. EZPZ (“easy peasy”) dishes and utensils are made of silicone rubber. The dishes are designed with a suction feature that keeps them planted firmly in place so that a rambunctious youngster doesn’t flip them over or send them flying off the high chair.

BLESSINGS cont’d to page 29

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BLESSINGS cont’d from page 28

1. Snyder invited some young artists to let their fingers do the painting, and the toddlers’ work is on display at her shop. 2. Blessings Boutique carries a variety of clothes from newborn sizes up to 5T. 3. Blessings carries educational toys for toddlers. 4. When Snyder opened Blessings Boutique, she knew she wanted to make sure and leave some shelf space for books. “I love the fact that people are still buying books and reading them to their kids,” she said. “Personally, I love turning the page of the book and the motion, and the brightness of the illustrations.” Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

When Snyder was coming up with a look for the store, she decided to let her customers have a hand in it. Displayed throughout the store are canvases featuring art by children she’s met in recent years. She gave kids an opportunity to paint whatever they wanted, letting them bring their young imagination to life on the canvas. The mini-masterpieces aren’t for sale, though. “They’re too special for me,” Snyder said. There’s another mini-masterpiece that’s special to Snyder, too. As it turns out, she’s not quite done yet with buying new baby clothes for her family. She welcomed a new grandson, Charlie, in November and the little tyke even has a part-time job already: modeling the boutique’s baby clothes on the store’s Faceboo page. Who knows: Before long, he could be crawling down the catwalk — and you can be sure he’ll be doing it with Gramma’s Blessings.

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Freckled Frog, 2309 N. Second St. in Clinton, is open from noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Find Freckled Frog on Facebook for more information.

ike Drury is like any small business owner looking for that winning combination that will make their business a success: Find products that’ll make a profit and sell enough of them to make a living. But Drury is adding one more ingredient to his formula for success: Make his customers smile. You might call it his grinning combination. Drury is the man behind the counter at Freckled Frog in Clinton’s Lyons District, and for more than a year now, he’s been putting some cash in his pocket by putting a smile on his customers faces. “I like to sell stuff cheap enough to where people can afford to buy it, give them a quality product and put a smile on their face,” Drury said. “I like to see the customers enjoying what they get.” He enjoys providing people with a lift or a laugh when they need it — and that starts before they even walk through the door, with the store’s name. With a moniker like Freckled Frog, it’s hard not to smile. And like the merchandise in his store, the name is a unique combination: words that provide a little amusing alliteration — but if you come looking to buy a frog, you’ll be disappointed. That’s OK, though, there’s plenty of other things that’ll give you a grin. The store specializes in bringing together an eclectic mix of merchandise, whether it’s jewelry, wind chimes, home decor, signs, frames, food products, knickknacks and doo-dads. If you’re on a treasure hunt, you’ll likely hit paydirt at Drury’s shop.

Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

If you love your nurse more than bacon, you’ll find not one, but two signs at Freckled Frog that’ll tell the world how you feel.

GRIN cont’d to pages 32-33

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GRIN cont’d from page 31 One of his favorite items is also music to his ears: Freckled Frog has a large selection of wind chimes, big and small — from less than 12 inches to nearly 6-feet long. On a day when the wind is just right, they’ll chime in with a song when a customers walks through the door, and no two songs are ever the same. Some tinkle, some ring out like a bell, but Drury says they all have one thing in common. “They bring a lot of joy to people,” he said. “They bring a lot of peace and a lot of joy. They can put a little music in some people’s life.” It’s in-person interactions like that that Drury enjoys. After all, it’s kind of hard to ring a wind chime online. The chimes come in different designs, some with a pet theme, featuring dogs and cats with angel wings. Some customers have bought models to honor a pet that’s passed away, Drury said. As much as Drury likes to see people smile, he also knows the importance of working through the tough times, too. Freckled Frog also carries bereavement

gifts for people as well as pets, such as picture frames, remembrance stones and driftwood branches engraved with Bible verses that bring comfort and keep the memories of loved ones alive, giving people something to smile about during a time of sadness. “It makes you happy to know when someone sees something that puts a smile on their face,” Drury said.

Drury can arrange to have items delivered to funeral homes in Clinton and Fulton. Elsewhere in the store, handmade signs serve up whimsical words of wisdom and inspirational, like: “If my dog doesn’t like you, I don’t like you,” “So, I just found out I’m awesome. You might want to get yourself tested,” and, “The best part

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about grandma’s house is grandpa.” Most of the signs come from a vendor in Wisconsin. One of Drury’s favorite signs is, “I love you more than bacon.” “People get the biggest kick out of that,” he said. Drury picks out all the items himself, and he likes to stock American-made products. “I’ll go through catalogs, and if I see something I like, I’ll get it,” Drury said. Freckled Frog is one of two businesses Drury owns. He’s also the Drury behind Drury’s Fire Equipment, selling and servicing fire extinguishers, carbon dioxide containers and welding gases. That’s his morning job before he hangs out with his freckled friend. He started the store with his own money, with no loans or any other assistance, and plans for it to be his sole gig when he decides to retire from the fire equipment industry. The Freckled Frog can also help keep people safe, with a line of small tasers, pepper sprays and personal alarms. One of the alarms is flashlight key chain: “If you’re in a parking lot, you pull it and it draws attention to you,” Drury said.

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Sun Closed

Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

Owner Mike Drury’s dog Dixie (top left) has become a sort of mascot for the store. The poodle enjoys sitting on her favorite spot to keep an eye on what’s going on: an old barber’s chair next to the cash register. Freckled Frog carries a variety of gifts and goods, such as wind chimes (top right), glass tree-of-life globes (bottom right), bereavement gifts (bottom left) and more.

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GRIN cont’d from page 32 Sometimes, customers may look at what’s in store and be surprised at what actually sells — and sometimes Drury is too. One such pick was hand-warmers made from alpaca fur, which is softer than cashmere and warmer than wool. The whole box sold out sooner than even Drury expected. Socks are still in stock. Drury is the only one on the Frog’s payroll, but he does have a helper. His 3-year-old black stan-

dard poodle, Dixie, will quietly wander around the shop and keep him company. When Dixie isn’t perched on her favorite spot — an old barber’s chair next to the cash register — she’s on the lookout for the day’s mail at the store’s front steps, ready to greet her postal pal. “It’s been nice meeting all of the different people in town and around the area,” Drury said. “You meet some new people and make some new friends. It’s relaxing for me, and Dixie likes it too.” If you’re hungry for something that’ll dress up your food, Drury can help there, too. The store carries dips, sauces, salsa, glazes, dressings, condiments and jellies and more. Selections include boysenberry jam, mint jam with leaves, bacon-flavored queso dip, black bean salsa, ginger Thai sauce,

Looking for some Alpaca socks? Freckled Frog has got you covered — well, at least your feet anyway. Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

onion blossom horseradish dip and smokey maple glaze, just to name a few. “What’s nice is that someone can buy the bottle and give that as a gift, and it says right on there, ‘Made especially for the Freckled Frog,’ with the address and the phone number right on there,” Drury said. “So if they like it, they know where to get more.” At first, Drury didn’t quite know how they would sell, but he’s been pleased with the results. “When one sells, they call me the next day, or they come back in the store the next day, and tell me how great it is,” he said. “It just blew me away when customers were coming back in the store just to tell me just how great this product was, how much they liked it, and how great it tastes.” Another item has a seasoned tongue firmly in cheek: Chef Marla’s California-based Super Shitarein seasonings, with an emphasis on the spicier part of the seasoning’s name front and center on the label.

GRIN cont’d to page 35 Since 1992

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GRIN cont’d from page 34 They’re the kind of products “I can’t do a radio ad with,” Drury joked. But before you turn your nose up at the name, it’s actually a Yiddish word that means “to throw in a little of this and a little of that” when cooking. Another item at the store that has a connection to the end result: Oopsie Poopsie sprays, which keeps bathroom odors from escaping the toilet. “A guy came in from the Chicago area selling that stuff, and I ordered it and thought it would be fun to have,” Drury said. “It was something different. At Christmas, people were just buying it for a gag gift to throw in and have fun.” Items like this help give Freckled Frog its unique flavor — something that sets it apart from other shops. Another spice Drury likes in his store: variety. While he keeps popular items in stock, he also likes to bring in new items to see how they sell. “If it’s something that I think looks nice” he’ll buy it, Drury said. “I try to find stuff that you cannot buy anywhere else in town. I don’t want to have a store full of stuff that everyone else has. I want unique stuff that nobody else sells.”

Cody Cutter/ccutter@saukvalley.com

ABOVE: Freckled Frog carries jams, seasonings, sauces and more. “What’s nice is that someone can buy the bottle and give that as a gift, and it says right on there, ‘Made especially for the Freckled Frog,’ with the address and the phone number right on there,” Drury said. “So if they like it, they know where to get more.” LEFT: Words of wit, wisdom and inspiration can be found on signs, coasters and lanterns at the Freckled Frog.

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