Keeneyville?

[deano52]

Originally Posted by user name

Most maps will show Virginia road going through from Lake street all the way to Lawrence but that's incorrect. It actually dead ends 1 block in after Lake street due to a lake that interrupts the street. You'd never realize there's a lake there unless you lived right here because it's surrounded by trees. It continues and then turns and tapers off just south and halfway to Argyle.
As I understand it from my landlord, who grew up in the home that I'm renting and is a lifelong resident of the area, that was also once a drainage ditch until it grew and caused the street to be cut off.

Really neat area, by the way, with interesting wildlife walking through my backyard (coyote, deer, Canadian geese, Blue Herron, large spiders of countless type, etc). Also, an abundance of mosquitos as the county doesn't seem to realize that there's lake back there either and doesn't hit the water with any skeeter killer. And of course there's a nightly skunk fight outside my door...you can find my house with your eyes closed. I'm moving soon, overall I'm going to miss this area.

I am a surveyor / mapper living now in Colorado. I grew up in Keeneyville and created a 1950's map of the area from memory. I remember the pond you are talking about, as we used to catch "game" fish at Mallard Lake as boys (the state stocked Mallard) and released them in the pond where one of our friends lived. Contact me and I'll send you a pdf of the map. dfglorso@comcast.net

[deano52]

A KEENEYVILLE ENTERTAINER, By Dean Glorso

As a young boy, I remember Old Otto sitting at one of the four tables in Keeneyville’s “Koffee Kupp” having lunch. People said he used to be on WLS radio in Chicago, years ago. Actually Otto was an old entertainer who played “Little Genevieve” in a precursor to the Grand O’ Opry called “The WLS Barn Dance”. Otto lived, what must have been a lonely life in the Route 20 Motel about a quarter mile east of Wheaton Road in Keeneyville, Illinois. He drove a big ole’ green Desoto.

I remember one time, Timmy Kupp, with his buddy Alby in tow, running in the front door of the store yelling: “Guys! Otto’s pulling out – OTTO’S PULLING OUT”!

It was common for us young Keeneyville Swamp Rats to all want to watch Old Otto wheel the block long Desoto out onto Lake Street. At that time (Lake Street) U.S. Highway 20 was a four lane road where the speed limit was posted 55 miles per hour, but everyone drove seventy. Otto could barely see over the steering wheel and because of his previous stroke could hardly turn his head to look for traffic. Horns were sure to be blowing and tires were sure to be screeching every time he made the maneuver. On this particular day; Waitress Pearl, Grandma Blanch, and a host of regulars at the Koffee Kupp, stood at the window behind the coffee urn, groping for the best view of the driveway out front. Grandma Blanch drew her hand to the side of her face and made an “oh – oh” sound as she and Pearl watched with concern. Us young “swamp rats” looked on eagerly, wanting to witness the greatest car crash in the history of Keeneyville. But as it happened so frequently, Good Old Otto defied death once again and we had to settle for the blaring sounds of an 18 wheeler’s air horns. We all cheered Old Otto as he prevailed once again, and were happy he would live on to provide us more entertainment on another day.

[Nicksgramma]

Originally Posted by deano52

THE KEENEYVILLE SWAMP RATS
AND THE LAUGHING PLACE
By: Dean Glorso

Du Page County Resolution SM-0006-06 will put the funding in place to improve the drainage in Keeneyville. The county has studied the plan extensively and estimates the cost to improve the drainage in East Keeneyville to be $26 Million over the next ten years. One aspect of there studies, I’m sure never included some of the boy hood memories I have of the poor drainage and wetlands there. The wetland/swamps were our play ground.

In the past 40 years, since leaving the wonderful community of Keeneyville, I have watched the many changes during my infrequent visits to the Chicago Area. These drainage improvements will forever change the rural community I grew up in, but improvements will never drain the memories of the group of boys that called themselves “The Keeneyville Swamp Rats”.

We were part of the baby boomer generation. We Swamp Rats were especially lucky because our parents were smart enough to leave the crowed city of Chicago and move west to this wonderful rural subdivision. “Keeney’s Lake Street Farms”, located about 25 miles west of Chicago, was created when Virginia Keeney signed, and recorded the subdivision plat in 1932. The original subdivision, East of Gary Road, and South of U.S. Highway 20 (Lake Street), contained approximately 115, 1-Arcre Lots. It was the perfect place for young boys to grow up in the 1950’s.

When I was age 10, I acquired a paper route delivering the Chicago American and the Elgin Courier in the community of Keeneyville. At that time, both were evening papers and a perfect way for a boy to earn a few bucks and get to know many of the people in the neighborhood.

Mrs. Mae Miller was one of my paper customers who, lived to be 100 years old. She and her husband Francis Xavier Miller were one of the first home owners in Keeneyville. They lived on Keeney Road in a lovely white house with green trim just south of Lake Street. I remember asking Mrs. Miller to help me with one of my school assignments, writing a brief history of Keeneyville. She was very willing to tell me some things I still remember to this day. One was the fact that Keeneyville had a lake that was considered by the Native American Indians to be a great fishing spot. According to Mrs. Miller, the lake was reduced to a swamp when drainage ditches were cut, and fill material was placed during the original construction of Gary Road back in the 1930’s.

Winter was a great time for the Keeneyville Swamp Rats. Bob Sherman organized a hockey team and The Swamp Rats skated regularly in the open areas between the cattails. But in the summer I distinctly remember one of those drainage ditches where the cottonwood trees on the banks seemed as tall as the buildings in downtown Chicago. We called our favorite playground “The Laughing Place”.

It was Dale Young and Warner Baumgartner. Two Swamp Rats who procured a heavy long rope from Case Foundation Company and made a wonderful swing in the trees. Dale and Warner were both very athletic and had the great upper body strength required to climb high in the tall cottonwoods. Like circus trapezes actors, they hauled up the large rope and draped it over a high limb. While Gary Olson tied one end of the rope to the trunk of the tree, Warner let the other end drop until it hung directly over the stagnant drainage ditch. A large knot at the swinging end of the rope completed the fabulous boy made swing.

Hot summer days were spent swinging on the long rope, in a large counter clockwise arc. The swing travel was over, parallel with then back over the smelly stagnant ditch. I remember watching Tim “Tink” McLaughlin take a turn dressed in his Sunday wing tip shoes. Tink had big feet for a young boy and as he left the ground on the high side of the tree bank, Terry Kupp and Bill Steiner inched the tie down side of the rope up the trunk of the tree until Tink was lowered closer to the slime green water. Soon his large shoes hit the surface and he looked like a water skier spewing green water in all directions. With a final nudge on the rope, Terry and Bill sent Tink to the mud and slime bottom of the ditch. It was at this moment, I remember, when the Laughing Place got its name. I can still see Tink’s blonde head emerge from the brown water, with a large piece of green moss rolling off his forehead. Belly laughs from both banks of the ditch secured the name of our play ground forever.

Quickly Dan “Porky” Williamson took charge of the rope while Ron Cabai and Mark Olson were starting a duet swing. Porky leaped from the bank just as Ron and Mark swung by, knocking the two boys and him self into the stinking ditch. This act caused a mud fight to break out and before long all the Swamp Rats present were soaked in mud, slime and laughter.

So as the County makes these drainage improvements to the Keeneyville swamps, remember there are some of us around who still consider Keeneyville’s poor drainage, “Our Laughing Place”.

What a wonderfull story about Keeneyville. I have lived in Keeneyville 53 years, my maiden name was Harrison, east end of Argyle. I remember all the names you mentioned, a little younger than you I think, I was in Keeneyville School with Brad Olsen, the Switzers, Pauly's, Haywards, Palmers and so on. I love remembering Kupp's Store corner of Wheaton Rd and Lake Street, where you could get smokes, gas, lunch meat, while your car was worked on. There have been many, many changes, but there are still a few of us that just can't seem to leave the wide open space that we own. Loved your story, and are still in love with Keeneyville!!!!!