MEET ME AT THEO’S

                                    MEET  ME  AT  THEO’S

                                          NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

Old guys like me are good at talking about the way it used to be, and frankly we get a lot of criticism over that and we deserve it.  We are called ‘old timers,’ ‘geezers’

and ‘old fogies.’  Some us have no idea what happened two days ago but can recall in detail what we were during fifty years ago. I am one of those guys, but I tell people in my historical stories that I am a historian, and that I am an octogenarian.  I feel like I am in those categories I mentioned when I tell you about Theo’s Ice Cream Shop there on Sterling and Gale.  It is located in the part of Peoria where I grew up called ElVista.  It was part of my past and as a historian I am about to tell you a historical story. There is no way I’m an old geezer…right?

 

Mr. Long had a little gas station there even before WW 11, and when my family moved into ElVista in 1937, believe me, we were really out in the boondocks.

There on Forest Hill was Woodrow Wilson School, and on Gale and Forest Hill was Sieks’ Grocery. Up the road then was Mr. Long’s gas station.  That was pretty much it.  There was a lot of space, a farm or two and Newman Golf Course and Bradley Park.  Before it was Theo’s it was Long’s gas station, and then John Theobold leased it and it became T&T Zephyr gas station as you can see in the old photograph.   Gas was twenty-nine cents per gallon and ‘The tax was included.’  Behind the building was a little storage room owned by CILCO.  As kids we hung around the station but since we were not welcome to loiter there in bunches we would head for Siek’s Grocery Store.

 

John Theobold and his wife Elsie were wonderful people and they had a son named Johnny.  He was a few years younger than me so he was not part of my gang, but later we were the best of friends.  He married a beautiful lady named Jean in 1958.  He was a carpenter and she was a secretary and they had three beautiful daughters.  Johnny’s dad, John Theobold died and his wife took over ownership of the gas station.  Some guy named Argo leased it from Elsie and when he died the place became vacant.

 

I will admit that once in awhile I would drive through ElVista, think about all my old friends and park in the little parking lot of the gas station and let memories of my youth pour over me.  Then one day I saw Jean and Johnny working around the place and I learned to my delight that they were going to open an ice cream store there.  Just about nine months later in June of 1994 there it was!  It was alive, and I could almost see John Theobold standing out front of the place smiling that big grin of his and Elsie grinning up at him.  They would have been proud of their son and daughter-in-law, believe me.

 

So Theo’s was born and it brightened up that old corner of Sterling and Gale and it sat there smiling out at all of us.  Folks like me that used to live in ElVista flocked to Theo’s along with a lot of loyal customers. Johnny was the man that kept the place in tip top shape but he never worked behind the counter. Jean ran the place even though she had another full-time job, so it was their daughter Sally that came back to Peoria from Florida to help her folks and their new business. Sally pretty much ran the place in the day time and Jean worked the second shift until around ten at night. The title of this piece came from folks wanting a quick snack for lunch and would simply tell their friends to “Meet me at Theo’s” and the place thrived.

 

It was amazing to me that a carpenter and a secretary with no experience of any kind, when it came to running a place of business, could boldly forge ahead taking on one hurdle after the other.  The ice cream equipment, the making of the ice cream, the hot dogs, and the business in general.  They did it with the help of a friend or two but together they faced the obstacles and Theo’s survived. 

 

One day Johnny Theobold noticed a persistent cough, some pain in his throat. He had surgery for the cancer that started in his tonsils and he seemed to have beaten the disease.  However five years later he was devastated to learn that the cancer had returned. His death brought a huge void into the lives of his family and the people that knew and loved him.

 

Jean Theobold and Sally somehow made it through that horrific time and kept their little ice cream shop going.   Sally became a partner in Theo’s Inc. and in the year 2002 Jean deeded the ice cream business to her deserving daughter Sally.  Jean retained ownership of the property and the building but it is Sally that is now in charge of the business that her mom and dad founded and struggled so hard to keep viable.

 

Today that little shop under the direction of Sally has a dozen teen-age girls working there part-time and behind the scene is strong, durable Jean Theobold.

Most days she is there when her daughter Sally opens the place up and works when her daughter needs a break. I don’t go to Theo’s much anymore, but every time I drive by it I smile at the thought of my old friends and neighbors, John, Elsie, Jean and Johnny Theobold. They were the very essence of a wonderful American family.

Editor’s Note:  Norm is a Peoria Historian, true-crime writer and author of several books available in our local library.      norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net