By Ricky Rieckert
My condolences for the passing of Donna Crane. I know she’ll be missed by many, especially Carter Crane and Jason Crane.
I sent an E-mail to Aurora mayor Richard Irvin, a couple of weeks ago, about bringing back, Main Street. No reply, yet.
We haven’t had a Main Street in Aurora, since the 1960s.
Every town has a Main Street. My proposal, would to have it back from Lake Street, (Route 31) on the West side to Ohio Street on the East Side.
Main Stret Baptist was on Main Street between East Avenue and Smith Boulevard
The late mayor Paul Egan changed Main Street to Galena Boulevard and had the Bypass 30 put in from Route 47 on the west to Ogden Avenue (Roue.34), on the east.
Then turn to the left on Ogden and go East to Route 30 south and Hill Avenue to the north.
Mayor Egan’s plan was to stop the cattle trucks from going through downtown. The smell in the Summer was horrible from cow waste.
Those trucks came from farms on the west to Route 30 south to the Joliet slaughter houses.
It didn’t seem feasible to have those trucks going through the heart of the City.
Great move, mayor Egan.
I heard he was sort of crazy, but that was a great move, except the changing of Main Street to Galena
Changing back to Main Street seems right A city of 200,000 without should have a Main Street.
When I was a kid, Downer Place was Fox Street on the East Side, and Downer Place on the west.
Main Street and East New York went both ways, not one way, then in the 1960s they were changed to one-way streets New York Street on both side of the Fox River.
Now, their both ways again.
A couple of facts:
1.) Way back when Aurora, started, the mayor would be from the West Side for four years, then the mayor would be from the East Side for four years and rotate every four years.
2.) East vs. West football games were played on Thanksgiving Day on Hurd’s Island.
Now for some fun:
When I was five years old, living at 727 E. New York Street, I would comb the neighborhood, going door to door and sell pieces of paper for a nickel.
Some would tell me to get lost, others paid.
When I got enough nickels in my pocket I had a girl in the neighborhood I liked and I would pick her up and go to Kearn’s Store on Union Street between Main Street and East New York Street. I would get a 12- ounce bottle of Orange Crush out of the machine for a nickel and we would take turns drinking it.
Then I would buy her a nice candy bar and me a couple packs of Topps baseball cards for the cardsand the sticks of Bazooka Joe bubble gum.
I would mow somebody’s lawn for $5 and I was rich.
I would go pick her up and take her to Johnson’s Drug Store soda fountain on the corner of East New York and Union Street and treat both of us to a chocolate sundae.
Upon walking her home one time, she said, “Rocky,” I turned around, and she tried to plant a kiss on my lips. I turned real quick and she caught me on the cheek.
I was just a good Catholic boy, raised strictly, and was told if you kissed a girl on the lips she would become pregnant and I thought at five years old, I was too young to become a dad.
Have a good week!