By Ricky Rieckert
(Part 8)
As we begin this week with Aurora’s social clubs, let us take a moment to remember our fallen heroes of our Armed Service clubs and those who have passed from the many social, nationality, and service clubs from this great City of Aurora, as Memorial Day approaches.
Join in on the Aurora Memorial Day Parade this year and you might see some of those clubs marching in the downtown parade.
As we return to the Luxembourg Club, in the 1990s, the Club wasn’t doing well.
The membership numbers had declined, mostly due to members passing, and was at an all-time low. They wanted to move to a new location, but Aurora was beginning to be land-locked. The only land available was on the far sides of town, which was more than they could afford, let alone build a new building.
So in the 1990s they reduced their open hours and were only open certain days of the week. During that time, I had done some work at the Club and one of the old timers told me that they were going to probably close up for good.
I went there later with a friend, on a Sunday evening, in 1995 to check it out. Much to my surprise, they had a decent crowd. All people around my age, drinking, shooting pool, playing songs on the jukebox, and having fun.
So, the next week I went back and joined. The bar manager, Jim, his wife, and another woman, Eileen (whom I dated a little while later), were running the Club at night, when the younger crowd came in.
Later, at a board meeting, the old timers were in favor of closing, because financially they were in the red.
A short while after that, a lifelong Auroran, named Jake and his high school friends, Dick, Larry, and Dean got together, to start a new regime.
That group of friends decided to have a fish fry on Friday nights and would open to the public, just as Lent had started.
The fish fry brought in new members and was a success.
Dean previously owned the old Elmer’s Dog House on N. Farnsworth Avenue, on the South Side, just north of the old Roncalli / Aurora Central building, that now is the Henry Cowherd Middle School. Dean got the fish fry recipe from the original owners, the Melchert Family.
Later, after much discussion, they decided to have the fish fry every Friday, even after Lent, which I thought wasn’t going to work out. But it did.
Dick became bar manager, Dean and Larry ran the kitchen, and Jake became president. Jake was past president of the Aurora Turners and was instrumental on getting the Turners from downtown to their present location on Mitchell Road.
Jake was able to get the Luxies back into the Luxembourg Brotherhood and become a fraternal section again. A survey was sent to the members at dues time to pay an extra $4 to the Brotherhood for per capita, which only two people paid, Jake and I.
One Friday night, they served 144 people, and membership had reached 350 dues-paying members.
The Board decided to have the Club pay it annually. By being fraternal the Club could attain gambling machines.
Jake asked me to be the Section 7 representative to the Brotherhood, which I accepted and served in that position for a few years.
The revenues from the fish fry, membership, and machines brought the Club out of the red and into the black.
The Club became solid and a place to come to, even today. There’s still a fish fry on Friday nights, open to the public.
Joseph, another past president of the Aurora Turner’s, is at the helm today, as president of the vibrant Club.
Luxies donates monthly to boys baseball, St. Jude’s, and The East Aurora Foundation.
Look forward to next week’s grand finale of Luxies. Perhaps with pictures.
Have a nice week.