My husband carter and I saw an article in a magazine in 1985/86 that Del Webb offered three-day getaways in their communities that we could visit. We stayed in a home with a golf cart and gave us an idea to help us decide if we wanted to retire in their community. We drove and stayed in many Del Webb communities – Arizona, California, South Carolina, and Florida, and we enjoyed all our stays but when we returned home to Schaumburg, Illinois we knew we wanted to stay here in Illinois for our golden years with our family.
After we got home, I called Arizona’s Del Webb office and asked to speak to someone in charge. I talked to an executive and I asked if Del Webb would be building here in Illinois. He said to me. “Lady, do you realize you have snow there? And we never built in the north.” My reply was, “Yes, but do you know we have our children and grandchildren here?”
Joanie and Carter Berg’s interest in Del Webb communities started in the mid-80s. After touring other Del Webb communities across the country, it was the atmosphere for them. In June of 1999, they became one of the first couples in Sun City, Huntley. (Photo provided)
I called them in Arizona so often they finally got someone to answer my many calls. When they told me that maybe Del Webb was finally deciding to build up north, maybe in Harvard, I called the mayor’s office in Harvard, and I was told no, not at the time. I called Arizona again and was told maybe Woodstock, so then I called the mayor’s office in Woodstock often and was told Del Webb was not coming there but there was talk that Del Webb might be coming to talk to Huntley. With that, I called often to see if Huntley was interested in having Del Webb here.
I’m sure all the people who were taking my calls were getting tired of hearing from me, but I don’t give up easy. So, Carter and I made a call to Mayor Dhamer of Huntley and asked if we could come by and talk with him. He said sure, come on over. What a nice gentleman and how kind he was to spend time with too. We liked him from the start. He was a good representative for the town of Huntley.
Huntley’s Del Webb sales personnel gave our name to the Chicago Tribune Newspaper to do stories about us and had a photographer come and take many pictures of us and our four grandchildren and a story about us buying our new home in Sun City.
We also had our picture taken one cold, snowy windy, stormy, winter day here on Del Webb’s property in a big gazebo they built but sad to say the storm was so strong it was blown to pieces.
We were one of the first couples to buy our house and moved in June 1999, Neighborhood 3. Everyone was so happy to move in at the same time. After all I’m sure we were all wondering if we did the right thing by leaving our homes, neighbors, and churches behind, but we all realized we like meeting new people and felt like joining a bigger family. In fact, some of our friends (about eleven couples of our friends) bought here.
I guess you can say, we are living happily ever after. How could we go wrong with Del Webb’s reputation and lifestyle?
Happy 25th anniversary to all!
