Above / The 6AM glow over the treetops as viewed from the May Watts Sled Hill is another reminder that the Earth is turning. Enjoy the beauty of local parks from sunup to sundown. (Top photo updated Aug. 10, 2019)
Every month PN receives a variety of greetings from readers that are greatly appreciated. Years ago we posted them all. These days, most months we run out of time and space to post them. Already during the first week in August, however, some longtime Napervillians, past and present, have connected to the printed pages of our Dog Days issue where we have celebrated this community’s caring and can-do spirit. Let’s keep moving forward to sustain the quality of life that attracts folks to live and work here. Cheers!
TO PN: Loved this issue (Positively Naperville, Aug. 2019). So enjoy reading the histories. I feel quite wistful when I read the paper. Such a great place to have lived for 25 years. Can hardly understand what keeps Grant Wehrli grinding away in Springfield. He’s persistent!
Also loved hearing about Karen Jarczyk (Longtime crisis intervention professional for 360 Youth Services) who so richly deserves this honor. She is another one with staying power. A good woman through and through.
Big family news is Pete was hired by the Franklin, TN fire department!!!! Life long goal achieved. His start date is Monday and the Fire Academy begins August 26, which is his 35th birthday. He said its the best birthday present possible.
Send me a picture of your grands. Here is my Nellie Claire (isn’t that a great Irish name) at her last dance recital and out to lunch with Grandma et al.
—Barb Dwyer (Former PN Columnist)
Here you go, Barb… At 18 months, Mariko likes to hang out in a special place under the sofa table next to the wooden toolbox her great-grandfather built when he first entered the trades back in the early 1940s. In addition to Katherine and Mariko, the toolbox is among son Jeff’s prized possessions. —Stephanie Penick, PN
TO PN Regarding Columnist Bryan Ogg / I was a 15-year-old sophomore at Naperville Community High School when Miss O’Brien was in the space capsule on Rt 59 at Scotts Plains.
I was set to earn my student driver’s permit the following month, and would receive my full driver’s license at the end of that Sophomore year, on my 16th birthday… just before May 30, Memorial Day. This was when Memorial Day was always on May 30, and we hadn’t yet changed over to the last Monday in May ten years later.
The top radio jock in Chicago, Dick Biondi, interviewed Miss O’Brien via phone on WLS Radio while she was in the space capsule. Wonder what ever happened to her.
That was in an era before cell phones, and we were lucky to have one “modern” black desk, dial phone on an end table in the TV room with a black and white TV that brought in only four TV stations (all that went off the air after playing the National Anthem at midnight), and we were still part of area code 312.
Sure is odd to be old enough to have lived through Bryan Ogg’s history lessons.
—Steve Hyett (Voice of many history lessons via Memorial Day Parade, etc.)
TO PN Columnist Barbara Blomquist / Thank you to writer Barbara Blomquist for highlighting the national and local importance of parks!
Approximately 5,000-acres of forest preserves in DuPage and Will Counties are located in or near Naperville. Prairies, savannas, rivers, trails! Flora and fauna! Enjoy, indeed, Barbara!
—Mary Lou Wehrli, Commissioner, District 5, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
