As company picnics go, the PTROI’s (Professional Towing and Recovery Operators of Illinois) 17th annual picnic is small (50 people, tops), simple (not a clown or moonwalk in sight) and guaranteed to start late.
The tow-truck drivers and their families don’t aspire to be fashionably late, explains Ron Matthews of Pekin, as he feeds his dog Gizmo potato chips. “(People who tow) are always late,” he says. “We don’t look at the clock because people don’t call us to make appointments. When they call us, they want us to come now.”
So, on this sunny summer Sunday, the sole member of the organization’s special-events committee, Bill Howard of Naperville, leisurely posts a half-dozen signs directing PTROI members from the entrance of the Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville to a grove more than a mile into the woods.
The PTROI party is one of 250 company and association picnics hosted by the DuPage County Forest Preserve District this summer at its 24 picnic groves in 57 preserves. In this particular grove, Howard lines up his three Weber grills near a tent set up earlier by a forest preserve crew, then fires up the coals to start cooking the chicken, hot dogs and hamburgers that members unpack from cars and trucks with vanity license plates including Tow Pro, We Tow U and Big Tow. The cook is dressed appropriately, in Bermuda shorts, a Hawaiian shirt and argyle socks.
Compared to Howard’s other special-events duties for the Blue Island-based group, organizing this get-together was easy. It took only a few hours from his post as the owner of Naperville Towing Service. He purchased a $25 permit from the DuPage County Forest Preserve District in April, paid an additional $250 for the tent rental and announced the picnic via the PTROI newsletter, The Beacon.
Each PTROI picnic is held at a different location to please the 200 members and their families, who send tow operators from all over the state. Why Blackwell? “The forest preserve is a client,” Howard admits. Next year’s picnic, he says, will probably be in central Illinois.
This group decided long ago to forgo caterers in favor of potluck. Although they recall one picnic when everyone brought baked beans, this year’s spread is diverse: seven-layer salad, tossed salad, shish-kebabs, French bread and enough potato chips to feed Gizmo for a year. The highlights are a pan of lasagna and two strawberry pies made by Katy Cooper, owner of Cooper Towing & Repair in Gardner.
“We try to schedule board meetings at Katy’s house because she’s our best cook,” Matthews says.
The recreational activities are do-it-yourself, too. This year’s crowd brings a volleyball game and Frisbees.
As they down a second round of pop, the picnickers trade war stories. “Towed 48 cars in that prostitute sting last week,” says Bob Bowers, a Chicago Heights-based tower (motto: “We don’t charge you an arm and a leg; we just want all your tows”). They debate the best way to win the rollover contest at their upcoming convention in August, when the first to right an overturned car takes home $1,000 cash.
While Cooper dishes out her strawberry pies, her fellow drivers chat about the public’s love-hate attitude toward tow-truck drivers. “If you get towed from an illegal spot, you hate us,” Matthews explains. “But if it’s 20 below and you’re in a ditch, you love us. We’ve all saved lives. We pull people out who are pinned in cars. We get kids out of locked cars when it’s hot.”
Even today, everyone’s on call. Each picnicker packs a cellular phone or pager; Bowers has two cellular phones. This being a 90-degree-plus day, they ring, beep and vibrate almost continuously. “Extreme temperatures are our busy times,” Matthews explains. “That and the drinking holidays: New Year’s Eve, July 4th, Memorial Day and Labor Day. Although, I have to say that those holidays aren’t as bad as they were before the (DUI) laws changed.”
It’s first-come first-served for forest preserve picnicking permits, beginning the first Monday in January, said Bill Weidner, interim public affairs manager for the Forest Preserve of DuPage County. Picnic organizers obtain permits from the forest preserve office in Glen Ellyn (or, if charging by credit card, by calling 630-942-6075).
The Forest Preserve of Kane County doesn’t issue permits or charge fees, but it does ask organizers to register directly with the preserve site managers. Kane County residents get first dibs beginning Jan. 1 for the 50 groves in the 39 preserves that are open to the public. Non-residents must wait until Feb. 1. Organizers planning to hire vendors or include music must send a request in writing to the central office (719 Batavia Ave., Bldg. G, Geneva, Ill. 60132).
Although not every collar county keeps tabs on numbers of company picnics (many county permit issuers lump them with graduation parties, weddings, family reunions and other large get-togethers), Chicago-area forest preserve officials speculate they are holding their own, if not increasing in number. This despite downsizing, corporate cost-cutting and our lawsuit-happy society.
Although some companies consider catered meals, amenities and giveaways standard now, more company picnics are going retro, said Pam Paul, Chicago-based special-events planner and president of Eventive Inc. The been-there-done-that, hamburgers-and-horseshoes wingding is hip again.
“In the ’80s, companies spent more, had more theme picnics and tried to one-up last year’s party,” Paul said. “Now they are more cost-conscious and focusing on the old-fashioned picnic with whole-family games. The employees are so busy and their companies demand so much from them that the picnics are a chance to relax. They choose games like volleyball, softball, horseshoes, where employees can make them as competitive as they want.”
This comes as no surprise to veteran picnic organizers Howard and his wife, Vicky. “Everyone’s so busy these days, it gets harder to get everyone together,” Vicky says as she counts heads at the PTROI gathering. “But we’ll always have the picnic. It’s as all-American as apple pie.”
