Lunch at Lou Mitchell's

I had 90 minutes to "kill" between the arrival of my bus from Indianapolis and the departure of my Metra train to West Chicago. As I walked to the train station I saw Lou Mitchell's, a breakfast/lunch icon in Chicago, and decided to have lunch. They make their own bakery goods daily, have their own brands of coffee and maple syrup, but for lunch, I chose the Lou Mitchell club sandwich; turkey & bacon on rye with lettuce & tomato. They gave me a donut hole when I arrived and a complimentary mini-cup of soft-serve ice cream.

One of the traditions is to give customers Milk Duds. According to a waitress, Uncle Lou was friends with the creator of Milk Duds and agreed to give them away to see if people liked them. Almost 90 years later they are a still a hit.

Books

I have a small collection of old books. These are mostly old math textbooks.

Corn Picking

Kline Creek Farm, a 1890's living history working farm let us help husk and pick field corn today.

Half the fun was throwing the cobs into the wagon.

 Once all the corn was harvested from the row, the stalk cutter went through and made shocks.

Precursor to AC

I went to a car show at Cantigny Park today. One of the interesting things I was was a Thermador Car Cooler.

You put water in this and as you cruise along the water evaporates as the air flows over it into the car (with the window up.) This was especially effective in the southwest were there was little humidity.

Coca Cola

I love all the Coke stuff in the trunk of this vintage car.

British Car Night

The theme for tonight's Vintage Rides show in downtown Wheaton was British Cars. The most interesting one was a Morgan.

Triumph

MG

1967 Austin Healey 3000 Mk III

Another interesting car was the Morris Minor which I featured perviously.

Barber Shop

I found the Angelo from Italy Barber Shop at the Riverside, IL train station so I stepped inside and asked if I could take a picture. The barber said, "This is an old fashioned barber shop." I love the step-back-in-time it offered.

1963 Chevy II 300

Tonight I saw this car at the the Cruizin Winfield event that I had never seen before. I talked with the owner and he only got it in March. It had been in storage for 20 years. The original owner only used it on Sundays. He walked a couple of blocks to work each day for exercise. The current owner bought it from the nephew of the original owner. They didn't have a key for it or a title. This car is just as it was when it was being driven. He did have to get a new gas tank and fuel lines. 

Round Barn

This afternoon I went on a photo adventure. I had my camera with me at lunch and a fellow customer asked if I wanted to take pictures of round barns. (Vernon County, WI has more round barns than any other county in the US.) That's how I met Kristi & Craig King. They own one of the remaining 10 round barns. She told me to go to their farm and tell her husband she sent me. This is their barn.  Seven years ago they left Naperville, IL and moved to WI. They have been restoring this barn ever since they bought it.  

I started asking where I could get a map of the other barns and eventually ended up at the store of a local artist who has painted each of the barns. Her husband is a historian and he did the research for the book about each of the barns. He was happy to sell me the book with a map and couldn't stop telling me about the various characteristics of some of them. I saw four more on my way home and hope tp see the other five before I leave Wisconsin.

B-29 FIFI

12 August 2012*

This is the last B-29 flying today. It was at the DuPage Airport's Community Days Weekend.

*Photos taken 8/12/12 but not posted until 8/13/12.

Taxi

1949 Oxford Taxi from England. This car was found in a warehouse in January 2012 in Downers Grove, IL. The owner has been working on the body ever since and this was the first time out, for the Warrenville, IL Summer Daze car show. It hadn't been driven for 25 years and he has no idea how it got to the US. It looked about like it must have when it was used in England.

                                   Meter

PS This interesting plaque encourages passengers to give to the help the blind.

Ford

It was another fun night in Wheaton at the Vintage Rides show on Front Street along the Union Pacific Railroad tracks.

1954 Pontiac

At every vintage car show, I look for a car from 1954; the year of my birth. Tonight, for the first time, I found one. Last year when I asked why nobody shows 1954's the answer was, "There weren't any collector cars that year." Tonight I saw this 1954 Pontiac. And yes, it has the "old" look rather than the sleek new look of the 1955+ Chevrolets.

I asked the owner the story of the car and he told me he and his son bought it from a local museum with 66,000 miles. All they have done to it was have it reupholstered and replaced a radiator. "It's not a show car. It's a nice car to drive and have fun in." 

Cruizin'

Steering wheel knob with dice inside.

Ranger Bike

I found this cool vintage bike in Wheaton at the Friday night Vintage Rides car show.

Revolutionary War Reenactment

Cantigny Park sponsored a number of family activities today. They brought in a group of Revolutionary War re-enactors who taught a variety of 18th century kids games. They also had a number of displays showing the daily life of the Continental Army as well as a canon firing demo.

This young girl hung around the table with a rifle and a muzzle loader. Anytime the adult (men) walked away she took up the "teaching" role tell listeners that the rifle was accurate up to 300 yrds but could only be fired once a minute, while the muzzle loader was only accurate up to 50 yards but could be fired 3 times a minute. She was really good. I think there's a teaching career ahead of her.

Classic Cars

It's Friday; there's  car show in downtown Wheaton tonight. My favorite was a Triumph.

Not a VW

My favorite car at tonight's Vintage Car show in Wheaton was a 1962 pink Trabant Kombi. This was East Germany's answer to the West German VW Beetle.

This man under the hood is the owner and I asked him for the story of this car. He is the second titled owner. It has about 60,000 Km on the odometer. The original owner was a high School principal in Dresden. A museum in the US bought it from his estate and then sold it to the current owner. 

My second favorite car tonight was the British car the Morris Minor. This was an economy car that was first manufactured in 1948.

The license plate on this car reads "NOTA VW".


See other Vintage Car photos I've taken this summer here.

Vintage Base Ball

There was a round robin tournament between 3 teams today. The DuPage County Plow Boys home field is at Cantigny. They play by the 1858 rules: no gloves, no lead-offs, no stealing, no sliding and you are out if the ball is caught on one bounce. Pitching is underhand. Makes for a fast-paced, interesting game.

This ball dropped in for a base hit.

The other two teams were the Lemont Quarrymen 

 

and the Somonauk Bluestockings.