West Side Boathouse, second edition

[Skoontz]

OK. I'm going to begin this thing all over again. Ron said he felt the encyclopedia title would best fit the topic, as most of it talks of my family. My dad had very limited stock racing experiences, in Wisconsin and Illinois, other than that, Grandpa owned the boathouse. Myself, well, I was just a crazy wild eyed river racer who was very rambunctious, to say the least. I'll be posting limited numbers of pictures, and telling stories of my youth, with the hope that anyone reading will be able to enjoy and visualize how it was.

The West Side Boathouse was on a 150' wide by 1,400' long piece of riverfront ground about a block north of Rt. 64, (North Avenue) on US Rt. 31 in St. Charles, Illinois, right on the Fox River. The dam and fish ladder are just under the Rt. 64 bridge, and I lived to respect the orange warnign barrels that said Danger Dam 500 feet.

My wife and I were very blessed to have grown up in such a small hometown USA setting, which niethr of us recognise when we go home to visit.

Today, the boathouse is comemorated by a seawall, stairs and concrete landing which were built in the 1930's by the work force of the CCC, as a result of the "New Deal" by president Roosevelt. On the far north end, there sits Salerno's on the Fox, a pizza joint built by Tony Salerno in the early
1970's.

So, here is the start, and my motivaion to post, at least once per week, the history of this part of my youth. Enjoy, post, and ask away as you will.

More soon to follow, right after the honey-do list is done today......

[Skoontz]

I remember back when I was about 2 1/2 or 3, many things about my youth. None more vivid than this bench grinder. You see I was a pretty rambunctious kid, always playing with things I should not have been, and always watching. Grandpa turned the switch for this grinder off, and the wheel was still spinning... Well, I couldn't have that, so, I did what any 3 year old would do and stuck my left thumb in the wheel. To this day the nail on my left thumb has a corner of skin torn off, and the nail is ruffled. I remember grandpa grabbing me, wrapping my thumb in a shop rag, yelling upstairs to my mom and off we went to Del-Nor hospital to get bandaged and cleaned up. In those days, the interstates were being built all over. Hence, the demise of places like Needles and Barstow. US Alternate 30 ran right through town, and Rt. 31, which is where the boathouse was on, was to be the new main drag. The road crews had the street blocked to all traffic, and for a few weeks, our boathouse sat with nothing comming in. They would not let us out for several days....Grandpa backed his '48 Chevy truck out onto the newly poured concrete and I remember this guy with a Camel straight hanging out of his mouth, a tun helmet, and stubbly beard using the f word, which was pretty strong around kids in those days at Grandpa.... He drove me across the river to the hospital, and my thumb thumped for a few days after that. Now, I ask you, what makes you learn faster? Reading a sign that says Danger, spinning wheel as we have a=on all the grinders today, or, remembering not to stick anything int that wheel because you got hurt?

Check out the '54 Evinrude 25 in the back ground. This bench was facing north, just on the other side of the many small parts bins that I would play with throughout my days at the boathouse. Opposite that bench on the wall, was a steel bench, which dad bid for and won at the auction. I have that bench in my garage, which is now 65 some years old. On tthe far end of the shot, is the test tank in which grandpa installed a plaque with these imortal words "One test is worth 1000 expert opinions" in Old English script. That tank disappeared after the auction, and would later return home. The dril press you see in the shot was made by the Thor tool company, in Aurora, Illinois. Thor made everything from drills to motorcycles, and you can find Thor outboard motors occasionally. The Thor factory still stands in pretty much it's original form, now a Mexican Apostolic church.