Long story, but shows why people had such affinity for Bill Younger and family.

Those who were fortunate enough to be collectors in the late 1990s and early 2000s know several things about Bill Younger.

(1) At signing events and the large trade shows like Rosemont, Bill often enlisted young collectors from the audience to help – especially with drawings.

(2) Bill would often times “pick” on the young volunteer.

(3) There was always an interesting ongoing exchange between Bill and whoever was helping him – Nancy, Kim, Harry, Maureen and others.

One year at Rosemont Bill asked our daughter, Heather, to help pass out prizes. As part of the banter, Bill teased that for Heather and Maureen a gourmet meal was a cheeseburger happy meal. Lots of good fun and embarrassment. And of course one of those things that you just can’t let go of.

The community where we live was scheduled to receive the very first McDonald’s McDiner – a more full service diner set up down at the arches. Heather started to bug Bill that he would have to come have a gourmet meal with her at the McDiner.
Early August 2001 Bill was going to be in Indiana. There was a signing and Bill was going to Michigan City with Paul & Sue Brady so Paul could shoot pictures of Bill at the light with the light (that was the year that the Old Michigan City Light was the Christmas piece). My wife, Susan, and I went to the signing and met Bill and the Brady’s at Michigan City. Heather was not a happy camper as she had a weekend meeting she had been chosen to attend (and it wouldn’t have been a good thing to back out of). She expressed her frustration to her mother and I, and sometime that weekend we jokingly shared with Bill that fact that all of us were in trouble because we were spending time with him and Heather couldn’t.

I believe it was Monday morning when things got interesting. I was at work, Susan was at home and Heather was at our church minding the office for the day while the secretary was on vacation. Bill calls the home number (think that was all any of them could come up with at that point) and fortunately Susan was home to get the call. Well, he was on the road headed our way with the rep and wanted to meet Heather at the McDiner. She called Heather, told her to get ready and headed out the door to cover the office while Heather went to lunch. Of course, church is 10 miles away which added to the time line.

Heather got back into town and I met her and Bill and the rep at the McDiner. Bill made Heather order his lunch for him (no, it wasn’t a cheeseburger happy meal). After a nice lunch, Bill and the rep headed downtown with me to one of our local dealers. The shop owner recognized me and was somewhat floored when I introduced the owner of Harbour Lights. Bill headed over to sign all of the lights on display and had a nice chat with the dealer before heading back out on the road.

The really interesting footnote to this is that sometime later I was sharing the story with Kim and how much it meant to Heather for Bill to stop by to have lunch with her, especially at the McDiner. After I related the story she expressed great surprise. “What, that your dad stopped to have lunch with Heather?” She replied, “no, that he had her order his meal.” Kim told me that Bill never let someone else pick what he was to eat. Not even Nancy or Kim! So, not only had Heather enjoyed lunch with Bill at the last place you would expect to see Bill, she may well have been the only person to ever get to order his meal for him.