The Story

The following are memories of the Sugar Bowl restaurant, once located in Pecatonica when owned by Orville and Mary Brockway from 1956 through 1960, as told by Orville and Mary, with added background information….

The earliest of the baby boomers hadn't hit their teens yet. World War II ended just a decade before. The Korean War was a not-so-distant memory but had been over for a couple of years. American was flourishing with growth and change.

They were introduced to Disneyland, McDonald's, and a “fad” called Rock and Roll. They lost the genius Albert Einstein and the rebel James Dean. Into the world came Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Both would end up changing the world as we know it. Rosa Parks stood up for herself on a bus in an incident that would spark the civil rights movement.

It was 1955

Orville and Mary Brockway (Mom and Dad) were living in Waukesha Wisconsin with their 3 small children. Dad was a Navy veteran who, in his first tour, was the first in peacetime of post WWII. He was able to see Pearl Harbor when the main mast of the USS Arizona was still attached to the fateful ship. He finished his tour of duty and settled back in WI.

Mom was a local girl who attended catholic school and came from a very strict background. She was the only girl in her family and had 3 brothers. I remember mom telling the story of when Grandma chose to marry a Catholic boy. As the story goes, grandma's dad was a bit prejudiced and apparently belonged to the KKK. Not only did they believe in white supremacy, I guess they also had something against those of Catholic faith. When the wedding invitation was sent to great grandpa, he tore it up and sent it back.

Dad was the 7th of 10 children born to Alonzo and Mable Brockway, 5 girls and 5 boys. Grandma was a mail-order bride, which apparently was not all too uncommon in those days. Most of the kids were born in the years just before the Great Depression. The family moved around a lot depending on where there was work. Ironically Dad was born on a farm just south of Winnebago, Illinois, just a few miles from Pecatonica.

They were married on June 1st, 1949. Mom soon was carrying their first child, Sandy, who was born on December 26th of the same year. She came into the world a little earlier than expected but arrived none-the-less. Next came Cindy in 1952 and Scott in 1954.

6 years into their life together, Dad was working at Andwall Manufacturing in Ixonia as a machinist, where they made aluminum siding. He was bringing home between $35-$40 a week. Mom was staying home with the kids. They were renting a house in Oconomowoc for about $80 per month.

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On an early summer Saturday, they decided to take a road trip with the kids and head to Pecatonica Illinois to visit Dad's sister and her husband, Fran and Arnie Haschke.

About a 2 hour drive from their home in Oconomowoc, Pecatonica is a small farm community in the middle of northern Illinois. Population at the time was about 1200 people.

Fran and Arnie lived on a farm about 1/2 a mile outside of town. During this visit they decided to go into town for some refreshments. They headed to a small downtown restaurant called the Sugar Bowl, where they enjoyed sodas and ice cream and lively conversation. At one point they were talking to one of the owners Jerry Sughroue. Dad jokingly commented “If you ever want to sell the place, let me know”.

The Sugar Bowl was a long, narrow establishment located in the middle of the block on the west side of Main Street between 3rd and 4th Streets. Walking in the front door from Main Street, the front of the restaurant contained the candy counter, magazine and book racks. Walking further to the back you would pass a large root beer barrel on the end of the counter where patrons could sit and eat. Behind this counter is the grill used to cook the short orders, breakfast, hamburgers and fries.

Across from the counter against the opposite wall were booths and tables. Just past these, further back sat a jukebox. The kitchen was located in the farthest corner in the back where lunch and dinner food was prepared. There was a lot to offer in a small venue.

After spending the day in Pecatonica, Mom, Dad, Sandy, Cindy, and Scott headed back to Oconomowoc and resumed their lives as it was.

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Fast forward about 10 months.

1956. Rock and Roll was becoming wildly popular as Elvis Presley and his contemporaries were hitting the charts. Dick Clark takes over as host of American Bandstand. Television as gaining popularity and The Price is Right first aired.

Nothing much has changed in the day-to-day lives of the young Brockway family, until the day that a letter arrives in the mail. It was from the owners of the Sugar Bowl in Pecatonica, Nina and Jerry Sughroue. Jerry remembered Dad's comments about selling the place and decided to see how serious he might have been. For whatever reason they wanted to sell the restaurant and were giving Mom and Dad the first opportunity to buy.

Mom and Dad were by no means in a position to buy a restaurant, living paycheck to paycheck as it was. Dad decided to travel to Pecatonica and meet with Nina and Jerry to discuss the offer. During the meeting Dad listed several reasons why they couldn't buy the Sugar Bowl, with the two main reasons being:

1. They had no money to buy the place and

2. They didn't know anything about running a restaurant.

But the Sughroues were very determined to sell. On the issue of not having the money to buy, They offered to sell on contract with no money down. On the issue of not knowing how to run a restaurant, they said they would work with Mom and Dad prior to handing over the Sugar Bowl and teach them all they needed to know. At the end of the meeting, Dad called up Mom with this message: “We just bought a restaurant”. As Mom remembers, she was not too thrilled to hear this.

It was almost a month before the Brockways moved to Pecatonica, the main reason being the need to give notice to their landlord on moving out of the house.

So at the beginning of June Mom and Dad packed their belongings on a 2-wheel open trailer and what they could in their 1947 Buick and headed to Illinois. They had made arrangements to stay with Fran and Arnie until an apartment near the restaurant became available.

For the next few weeks the Sughroues worked with Mom and Dad to show them all the ins and outs of running the restaurant: Meeting vendors and learning what and when to order supplies, managing menus for breakfast lunch and dinner, and being short-order cooks and soda jerks.

It was decided the Mom and Dad would fully take over the restaurant during the 4th of July holiday. The rodeo was is town at the county fairgrounds as it was every year and the Sughroues thought this would be a good money-making way to start out. They were literally starting out with nothing to the point that they had to borrow $15 to put in the cash register for change the first day on their own. They were able to repay the $15 at the end of the day. About that same time, they were able to move into a 2 bedroom apartment that was above the tavern next door.

The restaurant was open from 6am until 9pm, sometimes later. Mom and Dad worked out a schedule so that one of them was there all the time. They were not able to hire much help but usually had one other person to help wait on customers.

Dad opened up and took the breakfast shift. Mom would show up around 9 after the baby sitter arrived. They both worked the lunch shift until around 2 or 3pm then Dad would leave. Mom covered the dinner shift but sometimes times both of them would work depending on business. They split their time between the restaurant and watching their 3 children.

The Winnebago County Fairgrounds, located on the northwest edge of town, hosted several events during the year. Besides the rodeo some of the bigger events included motorcycle races and the county fair.

The July 4th holiday got them off to a good start. Local business people were coming in and wishing them well. They were getting to know the locals and the regular customers and found the people of Pecatonica to be warm and friendly.

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The Sugar Bowl became the gathering place for the kids in town. After school would find the Sugar Bowl filled with young people. Some would call their parents for a ride home, some would grab some fries and a soda or maybe an ice cream cone and just hang out for a while.

The Jukebox in the back would blast out the latest country and Rock and Roll hits, 3 plays for a quarter. It was maintained by a vendor who would regularly change the records, remove the money, and keep the Jukebox functioning. Mom and Dad would receive a percentage of the money taken. When the records were changed dad would buy the old ones for 25 cents a piece. Sometimes, to get the ball rolling, they would give the kids a quarter to start playing records. That quarter was marked with nail polish. When the vendor removed the money, he would separate that quarter and give it back to Mom and Dad.

Playing records was ok, but dancing was strictly forbidden. Not by Mom and Dad, but by the town's Constable. For whatever reason he didn't seem to like teenagers and, being the in a position of authority, liked to exercise that authority. He told Mom and Dad they needed at permit allow dancing in their establishment. Whether that was true or not Mom and Dad didn't pursue it. When the kids wanted to “Shake, Rattle, and Roll”, one of them would head to the front window and be a lookout for the law while the rest would do a little dancing further back by the Jukebox. Mom and Dad didn't have a problem with that.

The kids would get their paybacks on the old Constable though, through some harmless pranks. One of the favorites was to light the bridge on fire. The bridge was cement so it didn't really burn. Actually they would light a bale of straw on fire and throw it over the side and watch it float down the river. They did get some great publicity though one time when Chicago's WGN radio 720 AM announced on one particular Saturday that it was “Pester Lester Night” in Pecatonica.

After the high school sports games were particularly busy. Everyone would head down to the Sugar Bowl for refreshments and fun. The Jukebox was busy and the place was packed. When Mom and Dad had trouble keeping up with the orders some of the teens would jump behind the counter and help out, serving their friends and taking the money for the cash register. They were trusted fully and Mom and Dad said they were never shorted money at the end of the day. Everyone was having a good time.

On one night it just so happened that there was a basketball game that was out of town and quite a distance away. Mom and Dad closed the restaurant around 9pm figuring that the kids would be back too late to stop by. About 10:30 the phone rings ion their apartment. It was one of the kids calling to tell them everyone was back in town from the game and asked if Mom and Dad would open up the restaurant. And so they did.

Mom and Dad enjoyed having the Sugar Bowl as the kids’ hangout. They said they never had any trouble. But the kids weren't the only business that made the Sugar Bowl successful. Breakfast and lunch was busy as well between the farmers and the local business people.

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Dad's younger brother Harry also lived in Wisconsin with wife Darlene and children Steve and Sheri. Harry was trying to get into the carpentry trade but work seemed difficult to come by in 1957.

Harry decided to move to Pecatonica and see if there were any better opportunities.

The Clover Farm was a food store right across the street from the Sugar bowl. One of their offering happened to be fresh donuts. They had a donut making machine, as described, where the maker would dispense the dough into the hot oil. The dough would travel through the oil and at one point would be flipped over to cook the other side.

With a little investigation I discovered that the machine was most likely a Krispy Automatic Ring King Junior.

The Krispy Automatic Ring-King Junior was introduced by the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation in the 1950s. It was designed for making the company's signature product—hot glazed doughnuts—in small retail operations around the United States and abroad. The Ring-King Junior could produce about 60 dozen doughnuts an hour, and was used until the late 1960s.

The Clover Farm decided they didn't want to be in the donut biz anymore so Dad and Harry got an idea. They bought the machine, set it up in the front part of the restaurant, and let Harry run a donut shop.

And so they did. For most of the next year Harry made and sold donuts. According to dad the only downside was that people would buy donuts and then sit in the booths to eat them, taking up space that could have been used by paying customers of the Sugar Bowl side! Eventually the Harry was able to get into carpentry and the donut machine was sold.

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Among other services Mom and dad provided was camera film drop-off and photo pick-up, and they also became the bus station for Greyhound when the company still had a route though Pecatonica. An agent from the bus company came to the Sugar Bowl and instructed Mom and Dad on all the ins and outs of ticketing, routing, etc

The sign outside said “Sugar Bowl” but it became affectionately known as “Ornery Orv's Hamburger Haven” after one particular incident observed by a patron. Dad was very personable and could get along with most anybody, but when the temper flared there was no fooling around. It happened one day when a Greyhound bus patron came in to the Sugar Bowl. He was late and missed his bus. He was explaining to Mom that he didn't want to take a later bus but instead requested a refund. Mom proceeded to explain to him that Greyhound's policy stated no refunds. This made the patron angry and irate, yelling at Mom and demanding a refund. Upon hearing this, Dad stepped in and told the man in no uncertain terms to get out and don't come back!

Sitting at the counter was Jim James, a local sign painter, who when asked what he did responded with “I make little James”. Seeing the events of Dad escorting the unruly customer out the door, Jim decided to paint a sign, or poster as it were. He took a roughly 3 foot by 2 foot 7-up sign and used the back for his artwork. He painted a cartoon of an angry chef with steam coming from his ears, utensils in his hand, and appears to be jumping up and down. In the background is a woman with a surprised look dropping dishes. In the lower corner is a smaller cartoon of a cook with both arms full of plates walking on cloud nine. In big letters is written “Ornery Orv's Hamburger Haven” James framed the sign and presented it to Mom and Dad in good fun. The sign hung proudly in the restaurant until they sold it.

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Pecatonica is situated about midway between the cities of Rockford and Freeport. US highway 20 was the main 2 – lane road connecting the cities and located about a mile south of town. In 1959 construction began to widen highway20 into a divided 4 lane highway. Because of this, the businesses located at the corners of Pecatonica road and Route 20 had to close. One of these businesses was a restaurant, the name of which has been forgotten. The restaurant closed and was to be torn down to make room for the highway expansion.

By this time the Sugar Bowl was doing well and some of the fixtures, booths, tables and chairs were getting worn. Dad knew that the restaurant on the highway had newer fixtures that he thought would be nice to get ahold of before it was demolished. They also had a large 2-door refrigerator. The Sugar Bowl only had a standard, household type. Dad was talking to Bill Rose, who was president of the Bank of Pecatonica and mentioned interest in the equipment. Mr. Rose mentioned that Dad could by the equipment he wanted for $100.00. Dad told him he didn’t have the $100.00. Mr. Rose replied “Yes you do Orv, the bank will cover you”.

The challenge now was how and when to get the fixtures out of the old place and into the Sugar Bowl – especially since they were open 7 days a week. At the first opportunity, Dad and Uncle Harry went out and pulled out the equipment that was purchased and brought it back to the Sugar Bowl, storing it at the back area of the restaurant. About a week later after closing on a Saturday night, Dad and Uncle Harry took out the old and installed the new through the night and were able to open the remodeled Sugar Bowl at 6 AM Sunday morning.

The businessmen of Pecatonica were a fairly close knit group and the Rotary Club was an active part of the community. As was, and is, the function of the club provides service and support to their respective communities. The Pecatonica Rotary club met on the second Tuesday of each month. Soon after Mom and Dad settled into business, Dad was invited to join. At the first meeting he attended he was voted in as Secretary. Dad accepted the position. Dad stayed a member for about a year but respectfully resigned due to the demands of the restaurant

Lester Hobson, owner of the Hobson’s department store, Sam Benedict, owner of the five and dime, were among the businessmen who routinely came into the Sugar Bowl for morning coffee before opening their own business for the day. Dad remembered that Lester Hobson was a pipe smoker and his tobacco had a particularly pleasant scent.

And there were times that the businessmen would partake in some antics when the opportunity presented itself. On one particularly hot day in August of 1957, a couple of the businessmen challenged Dad to see if he could fry and egg on the sidewalk out front. With the heat of the day at its peak, Dad took a castiron frypan out to the sidewalk and set it down. He threw a pat of butter in the pan and let it melt, then broke one egg threw it in. It wasn’t exactly a fast fry but none-the-less the egg cooked until it became a sunny-side up. No one stepped up to eat the egg.

The Businessmen decided to have a softball game pitting the east side versus the west side down at Sumner Park.

The game commences. Art Zimmerman – who owned the Excavating business – was up to bat. Art was getting on in years and not really in athletic shape. He hit the ball – then a wheelchair was brought out to pick him up and take him to first base. Umpire called him safe. When Walt Wiegert came up to bat, The “softball” pitched to him was actually a muskmelon painted white. Walt took a mighty swing and connected. The result was as expected, with seeds even landing behind his glasses.

A few miles out of town, just off of Telegraph Road, was the Theodorf farm. In the very early 1950’s the Theodorfs built a new barn. When it was finished they hired a band and held a barn dance to celebrate. The dance proved so popular that they decided to keep having dances. So for many years after, every Saturday night was the barn dance at Theodorfs. No liquor was sold. The ticket taker was the bouncer and also kept an eye on the kids.

At least through the time that Mom and Dad ran the Sugar Bowl the Jack Busch Orchestra was one of the bands to entertain at the dance. They had a routine where Jack Busch would call ahead on Saturday afternoon and order steak dinners for he and his band. They would show up for dinner before heading out to Theodorfs.

Walt Williamson was a very well-known successful and prominent businessman in the Northern Illinois area. He owned the Wagon Wheel, a huge resort complex located in Rockton Illinois. He was also ½ of the Kelly-Williamson Oil Company and owned many of the Mobil gas stations locally.

One day Mr. Williamson paid a visit to the Sugar Bowl. It is not known how he knew about the Sugar Bowl but told Mom and Dad that he had heard many good things and was impressed by how well they ran the business. He was there propose a business deal. He wanted to build a restaurant at Mobil station on the south edge of town and asked Mom and Dad to run it.

They politely declined as they were not interested in getting any further into the restaurant business. After the visit Mr. Williamson thanked them for their time and made his way out. Dad recalls that the whole town was abuzz that Walt Williamson had paid a visit.

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By the summer of 1958 Mom, Dad, Sandy, Cindy, and Scott had moved out of the apartment above the tavern next door to the Sugar Bowl and into an apartment a block up the street near the opera house theatre.

Late one Saturday night the phone rang. It was the fire department telling them they should go to the restaurant and get all of their important papers out. A fire had broken out in the lumber yard that was located across the alley behind the Sugar Bowl.

By the time Mom and Dad got to the restaurant the fire was still growing. Fire departments from all around the area were called in to help fight the blaze. Electricity was out as the power poles were also burning. Despite the firemen’s efforts the fire had reached the point where all they could do was let it burn. They continually watered down the buildings nearby, including the Sugar Bowl, the keep the blaze from spreading further.

Mom and Dad brewed pots coffee on the gas stove and opened their doors to the firemen. Don Markham was the local butcher who had his shop across Main Street next to the Clover Farm. He went over to his shop and ground up a bunch of beef into hamburger and took it to the Sugar Bowl so Mom and Dad could fry burgers and feed the firemen as well. They stayed open all night to help as they could.

In appreciation of their efforts, the Fire Department gave them a check for $100.00 and also cleaned their floors, which were quite wet and muddy from the traffic.

Out in back of the restaurant sat a barrel of fuel oil. The barrel rested on a small platform just above the sloped double door that lead to the basement. Dad and a couple of times that the oil was going down faster than it should be and realized someone was stealing it.

Instead of trying to catch the thief red-handed, Dad decided on a different approach. He took out an ad in the local paper, The Pecatonica News. It read (as close as remembered)

“Whoever is stealing oil from the Barrel behind the Sugar Bowl please be careful not to spill any on the wooden doors. They get slippery and someone might fall.”

After the ad was published, no more oil went missing…..

In late 1959 Mom contracted meningitis and was sent to a hospital in Madison for treatment. This left Dad to run the restaurant on his own. He would take the kids and go up to visit Mom every chance he got. Since they were still popular with the school crowd, the high school cheerleaders wanted to go up and visit Mom. So one winter day after school Dad loaded 6 cheerleaders, in full uniform, in the car and headed for Madison. Dad was happy to do it but mentioned that he had never heard so much talking in all his life. The visit was very appreciated and lifted Moms spirits. She soon recovered and was able to go back home to Pecatonica.

Early in 1960 Mom became pregnant with their 4th child. In addition to that, the long hours and responsibilities of raising a family were taking its toll on Mom and Dad. Soon after the birth of their son Craig they decided to sell the restaurant. Dad Continued to work in Pecatonica taking a job with KC Soil service, then Managing the local Grain Elevator and feed supply. In 1974 they welcomed one more son, Tim. Dad eventually retired from Dean Foods, a local company that made non-dairy creamers. Mom became a homemaker and occasionally took on jobs to help make ends meet. She also was actively involved in their church and for many years managed the food stand run by the church at the fairgrounds.

Dad passed away on July 23rd, 2018. Mom passed away on November 6th, 2019. Cindy passed away on October 5th, 2018

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