Kzoo

Sadly, Sunnybrook is no longer. It is so weird to drive by now... the buildings are gone and are being replaced by an "upscale" travel trailer park. My sister Rebecca, myself and friend Violet all worked there in the late 1980's as counselors, wait staff, office help, you name it. I would love to get in touch with staff and families...

jumpinjeanne

It was back in the early 1900's that my great grandfather, August Ott, built Sunny Brook. This time of year, I find myself humming the Sunny Brook song, and "Goin' on a Bear Hunt" with my children and students.

For years, I was known as Jumpin' Jeanne at the resort. It is so comforting to know that people still remember the resort as fondly as I do. When I tell my boys and my husband about the resort, they cannot even imagine the place.

Most of the Ott family lives in Florida now, but a few reside in Michigan and Illinois.

Jumpin Jimmy is right, "Sunny Brook will shine." Anyone want a sno-cone?

ccenr

This is just way too funny. Thing here right now is blue moon ice cream, and where do you get it, why Sherman's of course. Jeanne how could we possibly forget Sunny Brook, you, Jimmy, the dance hall, the bon fires, the sing alongs, hay rides, singing for snow cones after a trip, just to name a few. Week 2 in June was ours.

ruwithme

JJ5-are you still looking for a place
to go to in Michigan? I have skimmed thru this post but not sure if you are still looking.

Have you ever heard of Camp Dearborn in Milford Michigan?

JJ5

Thanks, yes I am still looking and I will look that one up for sure.

Thank you, thank you for suggestions.

How could any of us forget Sunnybrook?

We won't, jumpinjeanne. Ever time I hear the Ott name anywhere, I ask re the connection.

It was really special.

EricDetrattto

Hello all, I was just doing some searching for info on Sunnybrook, and I found this blog to my surprise. I have many fond memories of spending our summer family vacations there. I have a large extended family, and we would all look forward to our vacations at Sunnybrook.

We were there for most of the 80's and part of the early 90's. Jim Taylor, my uncle is a Chicago cop. The Taylor family became friends with the Ott family. Does the name ring a bell to anyone?

I am now 27, but I can still remember being little to even being a preteen and doing crafts, climbing the giant sand hill (which seemed to get smaller every year), taking swim lessons, snow-cones, late night PB sadwiches, magic shows, going to Finland for arcade & gocarts, Sherman's Ice Cream Parlor, shuffleboard tournaments, morning wake up bells & mealtimes, summer crushes, names like Tony the Tiger, bond fires with the Sunnybrook song of course, and even seeing the Bulls win their championships on the TV in the Rec room (sorry, I was a huge Bulls fan at the time). I even remember my uncle did the prank from Caddyshack with the Baby Ruth bar in the pool, but on a few occasions, because children have accidents, the real thing happened and the pool would be evacuated and drained. The thing I miss the most is that everyone was a big happy family. Whether you knew your neighbor or not, everyone was like family. It almost makes me teary-eyed to think that families can no longer experience Sunnybrook.

I hope others who had the opportunity to experience Sunnybrook will post their memories too. I enjoyed reading these posts and seeing what everyone else remembers.

smilingsuzanne

OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I DON'T REMEMBER THE LAST TIME I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!
I was looking for Denny Ott-long story-because I wanted to find his "former"girlfriend's name and see if he knew where she was. This was the summer of 1972......just a few years ago!!! Her first name was Jane. Anybody know anything about her?
Anyway, for someone out there who might remember, I was SMILINGSUZANNE during the summers of 1972 and 1973. I almost cried when I read your postings. Wow, every time I see Dirty Dancing I think of Sunnybrook. By the way, I was a children's counselor both summers and worked a lot with the teens.
JumpingJimmy, were you there then? Were you from Chicago? I was and still am a Washingtonian.
Please respond....any and/or all of you!!
smilingsuzanne

FreddieFred

OH My... I loved reading all your storys. It brought back so many good memorys. My grandparents use to take My Mother and her sisters to that resort when they were little. Then my mother and her sister and famliy when there many times with my grandparents. We always did Father day and then two of my cousin would have there bday there. Hi Jumpin' Jeanne I can't beleave there was a posting of you on here. Any one remeber the trip to the old barn and the story that used to be told. And they had the best snowcones after you sang the "Sunny Brook" song.

-Freddie

JJ5

Oh, I just remembered a wild night whem I ventured out to the "bush" to claim my wildly roving kids for a bonfire- they were playing it, and we all ran back covered in sweat and with 20 mosquitos the size of birds on each person by the time we ran through- but into the pool and on to the bonfire and then to the kitchen for peanut butter sandwiches.

I can still feel how hot and sticky and see the bugs lighting up and "on" us and the kids laughing hysterically. It was mid-summer and about 100 degrees out, still at 9 o'clock in the dark.

So much to remember. Especially in another age in a cold stark and horrid blizzard winter.

"Sunnybrook will shine tonight!
Sunnybrook will shine!

Sunnybrook will shine tonight!
Sunnybrook will shine!

Sunnybrook will shine tonight!
Sunnybrook will shine!

When the sun goes down and the moon comes up!
Sunnybrook will shine!"

Thanks, all of you- who were the employees and family- your legacy will live on for many, many more years.

Treyphish

I cant believe my eyes as I'm reading these posts about Sunnybrook. I cant begin to tell you how much I miss that place. We used to go there the first Saturday after the 4th of July! I still have my T-shirt that says London, Paris, Rome, Sunnybrook!

I have tons of pics and movies my Dad took. I'm so grateful to have them. How do you begin to tell anyone how special that place was. Unless you've been there you just cant describe how it made you feel driving up and seeing that "sun" sign in front and checking in at the office.

Remember "going on a bear hunt" song.
Remember the haunted barn....lol. The teen room! Taking our dirty towels and exchanging them for fresh ones. Dinner is now being served, Dinner is now being served. Diving lessons with JummpinJeanne.

Jeanne if you're reading this I was there the week the Fera's were there. Do you remember Pete and Sandy Fera? We stayed in the cabins on the side closest to the Basketball court. I think we were in cabin 14. Anyone there the week I was????

The first Saturday after the 4th of July.

JJ5

Treyphish, my kids who are now 38 and nearly 40 always wonder/discuss the logistics of Sunnybrook, and cabin placements, as you just did. And they also wonder how many romances and marriages came out of Sunnybrook "regulars" and their "weeks".

I think of Sunnybrook every single time I see or hear anything from the movie "Dirty Dancing". I was an adult so I remember the dances and the "horse" races SO well.

Treyphish

I remember everything about that place from the Shasta pop machines or was it fresca? to las vegas night, the frontier room, sneaking beer out of the public fridges that were around the resort. The sand dunes, the huge frickin horse flies. The tether ball at the park.

The week we went we'd have stupid olympics, my family and friends about 35 of us went to dinner one night in Togas......lol. We put the golf cart in the pool one year. It always rained one day which was always cool sitting by your cabin, those chairs were so comfortable. Tater Tot eating contests.......damn it open that place back up!!!!!!

My girlfriend at the time and I were in the shuffleboard tournament finals and lost by a hair. Volleyball courts
I can close my eyes and see everything. I even made out with two of the counselors down in "never never land" Ahhhhh memories!

JJ5

Treyphish, we were the 1st week in August.

One time my daughter and her then boyfriend, now husband of many years, won the volleyball.

Oh God, those horse flies out by the blueberry bushes!!! I remember I brought my Mom and Dad one year and he got caught out there with one of my boys, they were welts all over.

One time I got a horrendous fever the day after I arrived, and the only thing I remember well from that year, is the mambo line of about 40 teenagers my oldest kids got to prance through the room where I was sleeping in fever, playing the "Sunnybrook instruments"- and they really did think it was funny.

I remember the corn on the cob- platters and platters of it, and the kids using them like bats. And the big dairy farm/ice creamery trip- which many underaged snuck on each year.

Some weeks it was almost all Chicago fireman, cops and their families, and our week was one of those. Yes, it was on a scale that could never be done now- just upon the liabilities alone.

It was a fabulous time- the Sunnybrook week. My kids would choose it over any other vacation.

drydude

OK, brace yourselves.

My name is John Kleinhenz, but for those of you who were guests in 1973 I was beter known as "Jumping John"

I have enjoyed reading all of there postings about the Brook. I returned as a guest in 1980 and again in1986. The place hadn't changed much. It is now a huge RV Resort, all of the buildings are gone, they made a HUGE lake where the cornfield was next door, but kept the Sunny Brook name. They built their Recreation hall on the exact site of the Dance hall/dining room.

I would really enjoy hearing from some of you guests from summer of '73, send me a note at [email protected]

Sunny Brook will shine tonight . . .

drydude

Update.

Jumpin Jimmy, I remember you from 70 & 71, you visited there in 73, I remember you, pretty cool dude

BTW,, I was Jumping John, the guy jumping over the campfire in front of the "FUNTIER" room. Lost a lot of leg hair that summer!!!

jumpinjeanne

Good evening, Sunny Brookers!
Yes, Treyphish, I do remember the Fera's and the weeks that have all been mentioned in the Sunny Brook blog. I am not sure if any Sunny Brooker can ever be forgotten. . .that was a speical place, and it created special memories.

As I read all the notes to my husband and son, who have never been to Sunny Brook, tears are coming to my eyes. That is one experience that they will never have.

There is now an RV resort there, and the new owner has some nice pictures of the land. Often, old Sunny Brookers stop by he says to see what it now looks like. Denny Ott still lives in South Haven, down the old Piney Woods road (watch out for those leprechauns!)

It is funny, only one family put the golf cart in the pool, and I remember that. I remember the candy bar in the pool after the movie "Caddy Shack" came out. I remember the drinks by the pool and the Chicago cops with the hats "When your day ends, ours begins," that was a wild week. I can recite the Haunted Barn story still and give a tour like it was yesterday. I still have a "Londan, Paris, Rome" t-shirt, and my husband has my one remaining navy blue sweatshirt!

Thank you for sharing all your warm feelings about the resort, they are wonderful to read and to share with my son, Noah.
Jumpin' Jeanne

ccenr

After many years of withdrawl my family and I happened across a Sunny Brook staple in our "back yard". We went to lunch in Downers Grove, afterwords we walked a few doors down, I couldn't believe it! a Sherman's Dairy ice cream shop. Now that made my day.

peacerunner

I am Jolly Jettie. I was a counselor in the early 1070's. I recently wrote a novel, and part of the setting is at sunny brook. those summers are some of the very best memories of my life. john, you and i were there together. there was debbie too. I loved the kids and the parents. the hikes were so fun. and the wild blueberries out back and all the wildflowers that grew in the open field. I developed a lifelong love of wildflowers after identifying about 100 types in that field alone. I remember suzette. of course, i remember ed pugh and collette. denny's girlfriend was jean, not jane, just like his mom, jeanne. i tried to email collette a few times. she is a principal in a catholic school in florida. no response. i hope more people post here. someday i want to own a family resort like that. i will never, ever forget what that place and all those people meant to me

JJ5

I'm one of your Sunnybrook people- was there all the way through the 1970's and into the '80's. I think 1982 was our last year.

All of you counselors and staff are not forgotten.

This last 4 days I took 13 members of my immediate family (kids, grandkids and spouses) to a resort in WI- Chula Vista on the WI River, not far from the Dells.

It was pleasant and the waterparks were dynamite. The rooms/condo we had were 4 times the size for the same amount of people and super fashionable- but I tell you- we DID mention Sunnybrook- and often.

We compared.

We love Michigan- it is second to none for this kind of vacation and its own singular form of physical beauty- both. AND- the food was BETTER at Sunnybrook (despite being a high end resort status this year 2008 at Chula Vista) and at a porportional $$ of probably 1/3rd of the price, even gauging for inflation/changing logistics etc.

Sunnybrook and places like it, are just not attainable- in such pure forms. Liability, jadedness to lodging and much else just makes the whole criteria "different" from the get-go.

Thanks, Jolly Jettie and jumpinjeanne and all the Sunnybrook people who read this.

The "kids" are 40 now- but their kids are still hearing the tales- even up to this week.

There were no dairy or farm trips on this fancy stay either. Nor dances or "horse" races at night either.

Shuffleboard and the volleyball- were our favorite evening rituals- and we had a tournament. But it wasn't organized as in Sunnybrook style.

vigilante

My sister came across this site and we just sat back and could remember like it was yesterday. Me and my family went there from 79-91 just after the fourth. To read all those memories brought tears to my eyes. I don't think that you can really describe how much fun we had. Yes, from the peanut butter and jelly snadwiches at night to campfires and of coarse "some trouble" us teens got into. We still see some of out fellow sunny brookers, and the memories will always be cherished. Thank you Jumping Jeannie and the Ott for great memories.
LV