Maid Rite Ornament May Be Most Collectible in Series

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For 14 years, Du Quoin Tourism has been bringing the city's great landmarks to the faces of its holiday ornament collection.

But, the 2010 commemorative ornament has a "wow" factor--an ornament that depicts the storied Maid Rite restaurant on South Washington Street during its hey day in the 1950s and 1960s.

Taking the lid off the box sets off hundreds of memories for those who remember Du Quoin's legendary haunt. Elections were won and lost in that restaurant. Friday night football and basketball games were relived over coffee. All the town's gossip was fodder at the lunch counter.

This edition hits the home run.

The ornament comes with its own stand and is $22 . Shipping is $3 additional. You may contact Luana Maxton at 542-2583, or Judy & Co. at 542-4697 to reserve your ornament.

The design borrows from a pen and ink drawing of three generations of the restaurant by the late Paul Schirmer.

Last year's ornament celebrates the old and the current Du Quoin High Schools with an eye toward construction of a new DHS next year. It follows the release of an ornament celebrating the new patient wing, surgical suite, lab and pharmacy of the Marshall Browning Hospital.

The 2007 ornament celebrated the Coca Cola Bottling Co. building on Rt. 51 south of Du Quoin and the World Trotting Derby. You get the idea. Beginning in 2007 and now ongoing-- the name "Du Quoin, Ill." appears on the bottom of the ornaments, making this an elegantly simple gift that says "Du Quoin." Earlier issues are still available. A couple of complete sets are still available.

The ornaments have depicted things like the historic Grand Theater, the Sacred Heart Church, Presbyterian Church and white bridge at the fairgrounds, Christian Church and Higgins Jewelry, United Methodist Church and the city's Bradford pear trees, the First Baptist Church and memorial in Keyes Park, Gospel Assembly Church and the Christmas Stroll, the city's sesquicentennial, St. John's United Church of Christ and the First United Pentecostal Church.

The top seller has been the Sesquicentennial holiday ornament which celebrated the city's 150 year anniversary in 2003.