A walk through Wauconda

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Starts with a stroll along Sunny Hill Beach.

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This image has likely been seen here before.
(Now color corrected)
First shared by Mary Beth Jachac, with the local Daily Herald newspaper.



(1979)
John Belushi with Wauconda resident Debbie Jachec.
(Jachec family were owners of Sunny Hill Beach)

<< I clearly remember Mr. Jachec going up to Belushi while sitting in his air conditioned car and telling him how many times and how much money his daughter spent seeing Animal House and that he should get out of the car and take a picture with his beautiful daughter. You can tell how embarrassed Debbie was.>>

- Mary Elkins Ahlers (via FB)

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Sunny Hill Beach (before 1980 was called "Honey Hill Beach"), was owned and operated by the family of Stanley Jachec,
* Who invented and erected the Large J-Slide.
It closed to the public in 1992, two years after Phil's beach, which was right next door, along the same stretch of sand.

As a kid and a teenager, I spent many summers at both beaches, and the story is, Belushi himself chose the spot from remembering the times he had there.

The invention of the slide is attributed to Stanley Jachec/ Sunny Hill, but the two beaches were nearly identical,
both having very similar water obstacles and a big J-Slide.

* You can get a glimpse of both slides, in the same scene, in the film.
As the camera pans away from the first slide, the second can be seen.


The beaches were separated by a chain-link fence that extended into the water.
* To get the length needed to film the long moving shot, the fence separating Phil’s Beach and Sunny Hill Beach was temporarily removed.

(As a kid, I remember if you could hold your breath long enough, and time it when the lifeguard wasn't looking, you could swim around and pop up on the other side, grabbing a turn on those rides as well)

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