McHenry County Blog

While I was searching for some old newspaper articles for a November 22nd article, I stumbled across two bits of memorabilia of no concern to anyone but myself.

I found this picture of me at age 6 in a multi-colored costume with saddle tap shoes. I’m even wearing a cap.

Goodness knows how my mother ever convinced me to take tap dancing lessons, but, come time for the recital, she had made an outfit in which I was to dance to “You Are My Sunshine” with other little boys in all probability.

My little sister Janet. age 4, was in the 1948 recital, too.

But she had a cuter outfit.

I was six.

First grade.

My classmate David Hill’s father owned Hill’s Pharmacy in downtown Easton, Maryland. His father called their home, south of my own on South Aurora Street, “Hill’s Half Acre.” It had a railroad spur running along the road to its north.

Catchy name for a home, I thought.

I even found a bit a cloth from what was left over from the original custume.

My wife will, of course, order a dumpster when I die.

There’s no secret about that.

In 1963, my mother and I attended the Illinois Crime Commission’s summer hearings held in the old county board room at what is now Woodstock City Hall. It was twice the size of the current Woodstock City Council Chambers.

Crime Commission Executive Director Charles Siragusa had investigated a bookmaking operation in Crystal Lake and presented diagrams of Crystal Lake businesses (like the magazine shop on Williams Street) from which bets were phoned to a room on the second floor the Pinemoor Hotel southwest of the First Congregational Church. At the time, we knew the Pinemoor as a great place for pizza. (It still it near the “V” in the Crystal Lake Plaza.)

The owner of the Pinemoor was Harry Snell, our Republican precinct committeeman. He told the commissioners he didn’t know what was going on upstairs.

Algonquin Township Precinct 7 was huge. It went from Route 14 to the the McHenry-Kane County line east of McHenry Avenue. Most of the homes were in Crystal Lake and Lakewood. The current Lake in the Hills and Algonquin subdivisions west of Randall Road did not exist then. They were farms.

In 1964, my father ran for the office of McHenry County Auditor. It was the first year that the county had enough population to have one–over 80,000 people.

He ran against McHenry County Board Chairman Harley Mackeben, who was on the board by virtue of his position as Grafton Township Supervisor.

My father and mother ran a leisurely campaign in the then-90,000 person county, telling people who asked whether he would quit his Barley and Malt Institute job that he wouldn’t, that the job only require part-time work, which was subsequently proven correct.

Mother and Dad campaigned in the little northern and western towns on weekends, going into the small bars and stores and introducing themselves.

Dad lost the two-way race by about 300 votes, preparing the way for me to become McHenry County Treasurer in 1966 in a 3-way race (33%+, 33%, 33%-) by 72 votes with about 13,000 cast.

Lots of people obviously thought they were voting for my father.

I heard again and again when they met me, the 20-something, in the Treasurer’s Office.

The same year, Dad decided that he would make a more appropriate precinct committeeman than Harry, ran against him and won.

In 1967, Dad, who had opposed the formation of a junior college district in 1963, called a meeting in the cafeteria of Crystal Lake Community High School that led to the formation of a committee that successfully created McHenry County College with a ten-cent tax rate. The committee promoted a college that would be one-third funded by student tuition, one-third by local property taxpayers and one-third by the state. (Needless to say, state government did not come through with the promises made by state officials who spoke to McHenry County college proponents.)

The referendum passed on April 1, 1967, and Dad was elected to serve on its first board.

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
Links to all the articles are below:

Biography of Calvin L Skinner – Part 1 – Second Son, School Years

Biography of Calvin L. Skinner – Part 2 – College, Marriage, First Jobs

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 3 – First House, Elected President of the Easton, Maryland, Town Council

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 4 – Storm Sewer Grates, Miles River Yacht Club, Slot Machines, Chesapeake Bay Bridge

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 5 – Switching Parties, Moving to Salt Lake City, Middletown and Crystal Lake

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 6 – The Early Crystal Lake Days, Dipping Feet Slowly into Political Arena

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 7 – Running for County Auditor, Precinct Committeeman, Calling the Meeting that Led to McHenry County College

Biography of Cal Skinner – Part 8 – The Star Reporter, Daughter Ellen Bored in High School, Prohibited from Attending MCC Classes

Biography of Cal L Skinner – Part 9 – Responsible Republicans’ Slate, County Board Reapportionment

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

This is the fourth in a serialization of my father’s biography. Previous parts can be found below on McHenry County Blog.

One of Dad’s inspirations for running for office involved an unresponsive city government.

I can hear the sounds of gravel to this day hitting the water below my feet as my Dad held my hands after I managed to slip into the open storm sewer.

Dad went to city hall and asked for a grate on the sewer. (You might say my and my father’s political careers started that day…in the gutter. That what I said about my own when I announced for the U.S. Senate in 1981 at my then in-laws’ Herb and Millicent Geist’s David Adler mansion at at 955 Lake Avenue in Lake Forest.)

Dad didn’t get what he requested.

So, when the post of president of the town council became vacant, he had a real reason for running.

Needless to say, storm sewers soon through Easton soon had grates.

Jan Skinner with parents Cal and Eleanor Skinner in 1965, the year they went to Europe.

First daughter Janet was born in 1944.

I remember the family joined the Miles River Yacht Club. We had a small outboard in what seemed to be a very big berth to someone about six. I remember the day we came to the yacht club and it had sunk.

More scary were the fireworks that blew onto our blanket when the wind blew in from the east during the 4th of July celebration.

Dad then bought a leaky, old fishing boat. We had just seen the “African Queen,” so it probably was in 1951 or 52. The boat ran aground in Kent Narrows and the men got off to push it off the sandbar. I was put in charge of the pump at age ten, while my eight-year old sister Janet sat with me inside the small cabin.

The yacht club is where I got introduced to slot machines. They were nickel slots and I have to admit I did not understand the sign above them:

I knew there were no mines nearby.

My father and his assistant Jack Rue, who became a congressional assistant to either Rogers C.B. Morton or his successor, took off the boat’s copper sheathing and spend hours putting wooden match sticks into the holes where the nails had been.

One day a snow goose showed up in the back room where the washing machine was kept. Dad had shot it. I remember Mother’s pouring boiling water over to loosen the feathers, which she plucked. I don’t think she was too happy about having that task.

Sometime in the late 1940’s Dad bought a used offset press and started a printing business in the side room where we played. I guess he thought the family needed more money than Tri-State Packers paid him.

Dad was in the caravan of Eastern Shore public officials who were the first to drive across the new Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952.

So much for the ferry rides across the Bay. They were a real treat to us kids.

That was the same year that second daughter Ellen entered the world. Jan and I were asked if we wanted a little brother or sister. My guess is that Mom asked the question after she was pregnant.

More tomorrow

= = = = =
Links to all the stories are below:

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

Previous parts of this biography can be found below on McHenry County Blog.

The night I was born, June 11, 1942, my father and his Methodist minister friend Charles (Charlie) Jarvis, who baptized all three kids and, having moved to Illinois to the first pastor the Oak Park Methodist Church, officiated at Dad’s funeral, sat on the porch of the Easton Memorial Hospital drinking beer.

His wife Eleanor was inside doing the heavy work.

It was the night of the first blackout. (During World War II communities prepared for air attacks by using shades to block light coming from their homes.)

Since I was conceived before Pearl Harbor, my father was not drafted. He also was working in what was considered an essential industry. Those two factors, rather than his mis-set broken arm probably keep him out of harm’s way.

A local owner of property, Mrs. Hubbard died and her homes went up for auction to settle her estate. Dad was bidding on her home, which was at 212 S. Aurora Street. As I remember the story, he had $2,000.

The bid went higher.

Mr. Frank Shook, his boss at Tri-State Packers, offered to loan him $500 and, with that money, he bid $2,500 and bought his first house. (It had weathered wooden shingles then. I remember tossing what Mrs. Hubbard had stored in the attic out the window, which seemed very high up to someone in grade school. I got a lot of great old stamps, because she saved every letter.)

Shortly thereafter Mr. Shook retired and Dad became the Tri-State Packers’ Executive Secretary.

That must have been about the time Dad was spending a lot of time on Capitol Hill. As one of the closer trade associations.

The National Canners Association often called on him to appear before congressional committees during World War II. Dad always got cannery operators to testify, knowing that congressmen would rather hear from someone in the trenches than a hired gun.

The high-powered attorney the national association retained gave him some advice I have repeated many times:

“Cal, there are two kinds of lawyers. Those who tell you why you can’t do what you want to do and those who tell you how to do what you want to do.”

Dad and I preferred the latter.

Besides working at the trade association, Dad managed a cannery at least one summer.

He also worked his father’s farm when his father became incapacitated. You see him behind the mule.

As an up-and-comer in Easton, Dad was elected president of the Easton Rotary Club, which met in the Tidewater Inn. From the award for club excellence I found, it appears that must have been in 1944-45. (Plaques just don’t take the place of those hand-lettered awards, do they? Click to enlarge.)

His friend Walter Barnes, who ran a men’s store across from the courthouse, was Mayor of Easton. When a vacancy occurred as head of the legislative branch, the town council, Dad ran unopposed and won. (I remember walking with my mother when she voted at the fire house on the side street near the Avalon Theatre.)

More tomorrow.

= = = = =
Links to all of the stories can be found below:

Biography of Cal Skinner, Sr. – Part 10 – Unsuccessful County Clerk Try, County Airport Fight, Wife’s Death

Younger folks don’t know what a telegram is.

Here’s what one looks like.

After taking the Federal government’s Management Intern exam in 1965, I got a couple of job offers.

IRS was first.

Having political ambitions, I hoped I would get other job offers.

NASA came next. I’d have to move to Texas. That’s a long way from home.

Then came the offer I wanted most—from the United States Bureau of the Budget.

The agency had been glamorized for me by my best Oberlin College government professor—Aaron Wildavsky in his “Politics of the Budgetary Process.” The book was a political look at the budget making process.

In the middle of the June, after I had started a summer school course in statistics, I got word that Ihad a job at the Budget Bureau.

Naturally, the job was more important than the course.

I flew East the night 4th of July fireworks were being set off in Ohio.

What a sight.

I spent the summer with mainly Oberlin grads who had summer jobs in D.C.

From the way the telegram is worded, it sounds as if I were on probation.

When I finally got word from my section chief, Sam Lawrence, that I had a permanent job, I sent the telegram you see above to my parents.

All in capital letters, the August 18, 1985, telegram said says,

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. 40 ODD NEGATIVE REPLIES.
NO MATTER. NOW THEY KNOW FOR THE FUTURE. NO NEED. WHEN WENT
TO WORK SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER TAKING KIDS TO ZOO FOUND
A LETTER FROM LAWRENCE. GOT THE POSITION. LOOKING FOR
CLOSER APARTMENT. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU=
LARRY.

Note that the letters are typed on strips of paper and pasted on the Western Union Telegram form. (Click to enlarge.) I don’t remember what the “40 odd negative replies” referred to.

I figure the kids where from an Anocostia housing project that Dennis Bathory hooked people in our house up with that summer.

Younger folks don’t know what a telegram is.

Here’s what one looks like.

After taking the Federal government’s Management Intern exam in 1965, I got a couple of job offers.

IRS was first.

Having political ambitions, I hoped I would get other job offers.

NASA came next. I’d have to move to Texas. That’s a long way from home.

Then came the offer I wanted most—from the United States Bureau of the Budget.

The agency had been glamorized for me by my best Oberlin College government professor—Aaron Wildavsky in his “Politics of the Budgetary Process.” The book was a political look at the budget making process.

In the middle of the June, after I had started a summer school course in statistics, I got word that Ihad a job at the Budget Bureau.

Naturally, the job was more important than the course.

I flew East the night 4th of July fireworks were being set off in Ohio.

What a sight.

I spent the summer with mainly Oberlin grads who had summer jobs in D.C.

From the way the telegram is worded, it sounds as if I were on probation.

When I finally got word from my section chief, Sam Lawrence, that I had a permanent job, I sent the telegram you see above to my parents.

All in capital letters, the August 18, 1985, telegram said says,

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. 40 ODD NEGATIVE REPLIES.
NO MATTER. NOW THEY KNOW FOR THE FUTURE. NO NEED. WHEN WENT
TO WORK SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER TAKING KIDS TO ZOO FOUND
A LETTER FROM LAWRENCE. GOT THE POSITION. LOOKING FOR
CLOSER APARTMENT. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU=
LARRY.

Note that the letters are typed on strips of paper and pasted on the Western Union Telegram form. (Click to enlarge.) I don’t remember what the “40 odd negative replies” referred to.

I figure the kids where from an Anocostia housing project that Dennis Bathory hooked people in our house up with that summer.

This past week 8th congressional district Congresswoman Melissa Bean got endorsed in her Democratic Party primary over peace candidate challenger Randi Scheurer.

In the Republican Party primary, benefits consultant Ken Arnold got the nod over his two opponents, Steve Greenberg and Kirk Morris.

Only one paragraph was dedicated to each endorsement, which was included with a bunch of other congressional endorsements.

There is a characteriture of Bean sitting at the back of the wagon. I have reproduced it large enough for you to see.

“8th: Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean, who describes herself as ‘moderate mainstream’ and a ‘fiscal conservative’ was first elected to congress in 2004. She authored and led passage of an Internet education safety program and co-sponsored initiatives to track sex offenders online. Bean, who has worked issues across the aisle, including transportation funding, is endorsed over Randi Scheurer, whose husband Bill Scheurer, ran against Bean as an independent.

“Vying in the Republican primary are businessmen Steve Greenberg, Kenneth Arnold and Kirk Morris. Notably, Morris’ son, a Marine, was killed in Iraq. Arnold is strong on policy, while Greenberg has greater financial backing. Arnold is endorsed over Greenberg, because brains should matter more than bucks.”

I would note that Bill Scheurer did not run as an independent. He created his own party, which he named the Moderate Party. I would also note that the editorial does not point out that both Scheurers ran to protest Bean’s position on the Iraq War.

So, what difference does the Sun-Times endorsement make?

I got it in 1980 when I ran against incumbent Robert C. McClory, but still lost the primary election, carrying only McHenry of the three county district that looking like a crane.

And, they endorsed me in spite of my opposition to gun control, as they did Lynn Martin.

For those interested in history, here was the endorsement:
OFFICE: U.S. House. Term, 2 years
Salary, $60,662.50

13th DIST. Republicans Robert McClory, Cal Skinner, Jr. Democrats
Edward J. LaFlamme, Michael Reese

Despite a sharp tongue that can wound needlessly and obtuseness on some public transit maters, state Rep. Cal Skinner Jr. has served Illinois well on such complex matters as school taxes and urban sprawl—and as an idea-generator.

Incumbent Rep. Robert McClory’s stewardship of his office has been amiable but increasingly listless. And his recent vote for pork-barrel water projects belies his claimed opposition to wasteful spending.

Skinner favors innovative use of alcohol to increase fuel supplies and practical deregulation of various industries as an anti-inflation measure. Both men agree on such key issues as the need to promote savings and investment, but we think Skinner offers more intelligent, vigorous representation.

That was the year I was driving a Pinto that used 85% alcohol and 15% water.

That is not a typo.

Elgin’s Herb Hanson and an Elgin policeman, whose name escapes me right now, invented it. It smelled like a still going down the street. This same time, GM and Ford were producing all-alcohol fueled cars in Brazil, but refused to do so in the United States.

It only broke down once…just east on Route 120 of where the highway turns south in Greenwood Township. Fortunately, the very surprised farm family living on the northwest corner or Route 120 on Charles Road took pity and let me call Gravers in Woodstock to tow it in and give me a ride back to 360 S. Madison Street, Woodstock.

Lynn Martin got endorsed to fill John B. Anderson’s seat in the same editorial. She won.

And, no.

My filing system is not good enough that I could have found this if I were looking for it. I was looking for a small black-on-yellow “Write-In Vance Roberts” sign that we used when he ran for the Crystal Lake city council.

Instead, I found this bad copy of a February 29, 1980 Sun-Times editorial, plus a Re-Elect Bob McClory yard sign.

Click on the editorials and you should be able to read them. The other images can also be enlarged the same way.

This past week 8th congressional district Congresswoman Melissa Bean got endorsed in her Democratic Party primary over peace candidate challenger Randi Scheurer.

In the Republican Party primary, benefits consultant Ken Arnold got the nod over his two opponents, Steve Greenberg and Kirk Morris.

Only one paragraph was dedicated to each endorsement, which was included with a bunch of other congressional endorsements.

There is a characteriture of Bean sitting at the back of the wagon. I have reproduced it large enough for you to see.

“8th: Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean, who describes herself as ‘moderate mainstream’ and a ‘fiscal conservative’ was first elected to congress in 2004. She authored and led passage of an Internet education safety program and co-sponsored initiatives to track sex offenders online. Bean, who has worked issues across the aisle, including transportation funding, is endorsed over Randi Scheurer, whose husband Bill Scheurer, ran against Bean as an independent.

“Vying in the Republican primary are businessmen Steve Greenberg, Kenneth Arnold and Kirk Morris. Notably, Morris’ son, a Marine, was killed in Iraq. Arnold is strong on policy, while Greenberg has greater financial backing. Arnold is endorsed over Greenberg, because brains should matter more than bucks.”

I would note that Bill Scheurer did not run as an independent. He created his own party, which he named the Moderate Party. I would also note that the editorial does not point out that both Scheurers ran to protest Bean’s position on the Iraq War.

So, what difference does the Sun-Times endorsement make?

I got it in 1980 when I ran against incumbent Robert C. McClory, but still lost the primary election, carrying only McHenry of the three county district that looking like a crane.

And, they endorsed me in spite of my opposition to gun control, as they did Lynn Martin.

For those interested in history, here was the endorsement:
OFFICE: U.S. House. Term, 2 years
Salary, $60,662.50

13th DIST. Republicans Robert McClory, Cal Skinner, Jr. Democrats
Edward J. LaFlamme, Michael Reese

Despite a sharp tongue that can wound needlessly and obtuseness on some public transit maters, state Rep. Cal Skinner Jr. has served Illinois well on such complex matters as school taxes and urban sprawl—and as an idea-generator.

Incumbent Rep. Robert McClory’s stewardship of his office has been amiable but increasingly listless. And his recent vote for pork-barrel water projects belies his claimed opposition to wasteful spending.

Skinner favors innovative use of alcohol to increase fuel supplies and practical deregulation of various industries as an anti-inflation measure. Both men agree on such key issues as the need to promote savings and investment, but we think Skinner offers more intelligent, vigorous representation.

That was the year I was driving a Pinto that used 85% alcohol and 15% water.

That is not a typo.

Elgin’s Herb Hanson and an Elgin policeman, whose name escapes me right now, invented it. It smelled like a still going down the street. This same time, GM and Ford were producing all-alcohol fueled cars in Brazil, but refused to do so in the United States.

It only broke down once…just east on Route 120 of where the highway turns south in Greenwood Township. Fortunately, the very surprised farm family living on the northwest corner or Route 120 on Charles Road took pity and let me call Gravers in Woodstock to tow it in and give me a ride back to 360 S. Madison Street, Woodstock.

Lynn Martin got endorsed to fill John B. Anderson’s seat in the same editorial. She won.

And, no.

My filing system is not good enough that I could have found this if I were looking for it. I was looking for a small black-on-yellow “Write-In Vance Roberts” sign that we used when he ran for the Crystal Lake city council.

Instead, I found this bad copy of a February 29, 1980 Sun-Times editorial, plus a Re-Elect Bob McClory yard sign.

Click on the editorials and you should be able to read them. The other images can also be enlarged the same way.

Since I have an article about the McHenry County Treasurer’s office below, today is as good a one as any to post this sign.

It’s a political sign that helped me (barely) win the 1966 Republican June primary election for county treasurer two days after my 24th birthday.

It’s 8½ inches wide and 7 inches high.

It says,

There were made out of 8½ by 14 inch goldenrod card stock.

They were printed on a mimeograph machine. This one didn’t get inked as well as it should have.

Then, they were cut in half.

You will not the hard charging elephant, which the national Republican Party has replaced with a stylized one with rounded edges.

I like the older, more energetic elephant.

The campaign had about a third of the precinct committeemen supporting me. I remember Nunda Township Supervisor Ted Sterns, after whom Sterns Woods is named, telling me that I should wait my turn, that I was young, that I had time.

(A neighbor across the way from his basket show on Woodstock Street said he ran a bookie joint. He said there was an incredible amount of traffic in and out of the little building that was torn down to be part of the Crystal Lake City Hall parking lot.)

Another precinct committeeman from McHenry Township told me I would be eaten alive by the tigers in the courthouse.

When I campaigned at the small grocery store in Fox River Grove, the Republican precinct committeeman called to complain that I had not asked his permission. Ted Mandale was a Goldwater Republican who later moved to Lake Forest where I reconnected with him and his wife Ruth after I became more conservative.

Because the election was held the second Tuesday of June, I had plenty of time to knock on doors—some 4,000, I think. The county’s population was about 90,000 at the time.

With nightfall being pretty late, I found that I could knock on doors until 8:45 without scaring people. Of course, it helped that I was young. I sensed many of the older women gave me the same benefit of the doubt they would have given their grandsons.

In any event, I put these little posters up all over McHenry County. Supporters of the other two candidates, Harvard Police Chief Gene Brewer and Hartland Township Supervisor and county board member Ray Murphy thought there must be at least six people putting them up.

But it was just me.

I even put one on a telephone pole outside the police department door. It stayed up for years, but was probably a bad idea, because Brewer probably just got more energized every time he saw it.

After Earth Day in 1969, Jack Schaffer and I pretty much agreed that signs on poles and in rights-of-ways were something that no longer seems appropriate.

The right-of-way avoidance continued until Don Manzullo ran for congress in 1992. Apparently he had more signs than he could find supporters to give permission to place on their properties. Maybe it was because he was running against Schaffer and McHenry County was his “home town.”

Signs have been illegally put in road rights-of-way ever since.

My father designed the sign, by the way.

Since I have an article about the McHenry County Treasurer’s office below, today is as good a one as any to post this sign.

It’s a political sign that helped me (barely) win the 1966 Republican June primary election for county treasurer two days after my 24th birthday.

It’s 8½ inches wide and 7 inches high.

It says,

There were made out of 8½ by 14 inch goldenrod card stock.

They were printed on a mimeograph machine. This one didn’t get inked as well as it should have.

Then, they were cut in half.

You will not the hard charging elephant, which the national Republican Party has replaced with a stylized one with rounded edges.

I like the older, more energetic elephant.

The campaign had about a third of the precinct committeemen supporting me. I remember Nunda Township Supervisor Ted Sterns, after whom Sterns Woods is named, telling me that I should wait my turn, that I was young, that I had time.

(A neighbor across the way from his basket show on Woodstock Street said he ran a bookie joint. He said there was an incredible amount of traffic in and out of the little building that was torn down to be part of the Crystal Lake City Hall parking lot.)

Another precinct committeeman from McHenry Township told me I would be eaten alive by the tigers in the courthouse.

When I campaigned at the small grocery store in Fox River Grove, the Republican precinct committeeman called to complain that I had not asked his permission. Ted Mandale was a Goldwater Republican who later moved to Lake Forest where I reconnected with him and his wife Ruth after I became more conservative.

Because the election was held the second Tuesday of June, I had plenty of time to knock on doors—some 4,000, I think. The county’s population was about 90,000 at the time.

With nightfall being pretty late, I found that I could knock on doors until 8:45 without scaring people. Of course, it helped that I was young. I sensed many of the older women gave me the same benefit of the doubt they would have given their grandsons.

In any event, I put these little posters up all over McHenry County. Supporters of the other two candidates, Harvard Police Chief Gene Brewer and Hartland Township Supervisor and county board member Ray Murphy thought there must be at least six people putting them up.

But it was just me.

I even put one on a telephone pole outside the police department door. It stayed up for years, but was probably a bad idea, because Brewer probably just got more energized every time he saw it.

After Earth Day in 1969, Jack Schaffer and I pretty much agreed that signs on poles and in rights-of-ways were something that no longer seems appropriate.

The right-of-way avoidance continued until Don Manzullo ran for congress in 1992. Apparently he had more signs than he could find supporters to give permission to place on their properties. Maybe it was because he was running against Schaffer and McHenry County was his “home town.”

Signs have been illegally put in road rights-of-way ever since.

My father designed the sign, by the way.