The Huntley Farmside

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The Hmitlev Famiside
Thursday, October 1,1998
A Press Publications newspaper«/ serving tlie Huntley community
Volume 37 Issue 77
Huntley businessman to be featured in Santa magazine
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications
Frank Fryer is known around town as the man with the white beard who heads the Huntley Tech Center on Main Street.
Tucked away in the rear of the center, Fryer has trimmed his beard for another busy sea¬ son of making Christmas come alive. If you haven't caught a glimpse of Fryer dressed in his Old World garb collecting money for the Salvation Army outside a local department store, then pick up the 1998 edition of Better Homes and Gardens "Santa Claus" magazine.
Wearing a multicolored fur¬ like jacket and a cap topped with artificial fruit, a smiling Fryer is pictiu-ed inside the mag¬ azine in one of four Father Christmas costumes he created.
"I was not expecting this. I now know what a professional model goes through," said Fryer from his Huntley office nearly 10 months since being pho¬ tographed at the Living History Farms in Des Moines, a re-cre¬ ated 19th century farm.
Of the 200 pictures that pho¬ tographers took, only a handful appear inside the magazine. And without self promotion. Fryer said he would have never made it on the pages of the popular arts and crafts publication.
"I approached them because I couldn't make myself known otherwise. This is the first time they portrayed someone in that type of caricature."
Writer Shelley Stewart said the magazine immediately jumped on the idea.
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Top photo by Steve Brosinski
Frank Fryer (above) stands in front of a portrait painted by an artist in Galena. Fryer (below) is dressed up as the Scandinavian Father Christmas, one of four costumes that Fryer is featured wearing in the 1998 edition of Better Homes and Gardens "Santa" magazine.
"We have a pretty fanatical    ^^^^^^ ^^ j^.
group of readers and they can't get enough of Santa Claus," Stewart said. "We found him and a lady who does Mrs. Santa Claus and we thought it was a great idea. His costumes were just beautiful. What was inter¬ esting was that he got some of his ideas from our magazine."
What began as a whim in 1984, when Fryer wore a bor¬ rowed corduroy Santa Claus outfit for a children's breakfast, has tumed into a passion of cre¬ ating authentic-looking cos¬ tumes of the benevolent charac¬ ter.
Soon after Nicholas was can-
tion of Father Christmas spread throu^KHit Eurqje as Grand Father Frost in Russia, Kris Kingle in Germany and Sinter Klass in Holland.
In the late 19th century, American car¬ toonist Thomas Nast popularized Santa through his drawings that were  based  on
see Santa—page 2
School buses to pick up children later
Steve Brosinski
Press Publications
Some elementary school children will be starting school up to 10 minutes later in order to provide more time for buses to get through traffic, school offi¬ cials said.
School District 158 Superintendent J.R. Hartiey said the change in the schedule is intended to give buses more time to get through the congestion along Route 47.
"In the past we made it quite well. We've just not been able to do that any longer," Hartley said.
The change affects third- and fourth-graders at Huntley South and preschoolers through sec¬ ond-graders at Huntley North.
Fifth-grade students attending Huntiey South will continue on the current schedule. For third- and fourth-graders at Huntiey South, the school day will go from 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m., five minutes later than the current schedule. The school day at Huntiey North will go from 8:40 a.m.-3:25 p.m., ten minutes later than the current schedule.
see Buses—page 2