A Nose for News

When I was growing up in Palatine, Illinois, there was a weekly newspaper, the Palatine Enterprise, which came out on Thursdays. Our neighborhood, called Orchard Hills because all the streets had tree names, had a social column, as did other named sections and subdivisions of town. The woman who wrote it called my mother often to find out what the Knez family was up to.

Sometimes our comings and goings were more or less newsworthy, such as my appearance in a piano recital or my brother attending summer camp, but mostly it was mundane and trivial in the extreme. There are numerous reports of our having dinner at my grandparents' house on a Sunday or having relatives visiting from out of town. Here, for example, is an item from February 24, 1955:

Mrs. Betty Knez of Cedar st. is enjoying a visit from her mother, Mrs. Ralph Weatherford, of Litchfield, Ill., this week. Last Thursday Mrs. Knez and Mrs. Lee Vogeler, also of Palatine, took a bus trip into Chicago to do some shopping.

And how about this fascinating little tidbit from September 15, 1960:

Al Knez of Cedar st. attended the machine show at the amphitheatre last Saturday.

There is one piece, however, that I have never forgotten. It appeared on March 18, 1965:

Jan Knez and a co-worker, Miss Trudy Glovits of Arlington Heights, stayed in the city after work last Friday to have dinner and attend a performance of the Smothers Brothers at the Opera House.

That’s all true, except that my co-worker’s name was Trudy Benson. While giving the details to the social reporter lady, my mother couldn't remember my friend’s last name, so she made one up, assuming nobody from Arlington Heights would ever see it.

But Glovits?  I have no idea where she came up with that one.