Man Conceived At Des Plaines Oasis Stages One-Man Protest Of Closure

[Adam]

Man Conceived At Des Plaines Oasis Stages One-Man Protest Of Closure

DES PLAINES, Ill. (CBS) – A 21-year-old Crystal Lake man staged a one-man protest Friday morning over the permanent closing this weekend of the Des Plaines Oasis along the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. The reason will do doubt come as a surprise.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports Kevin Walters chained himself to the door of the oasis, and said to understand why, you have to go back more than two decades.

“It is a weird story, I must admit. About 21 years ago, my parents were at a Phil Collins concert here in Chicago, and one thing led to another. They ended up at the oasis … and I was conceived there,” he said.

Asked how his parents went about telling him that, Walters said “it just sort of came out just randomly in conversation.”

“They were like, ’Oh yeah, hey, we never really told you how you were born, or your conception,’ and my parents are weird people, so it’s not that surprising,” he said.

Walters said the oasis is part of his life, and he hates to see it close.

[....]

Oasis regulars are not happy.

“You can stop and eat lunch midday if you have to, or you can come after your sales calls during the day,” said Jim Day, a traveling salesman who stops there four or five days a week. “You can stop in and check emails, and return phone calls, and return emails. It’s very convenient.”

[....]

Essentially a strip mall on a bridge over the Addams Tollway, it is home to a Tollway customer service center, a 7-Eleven, a McDonald’s, a Panda Express, a Starbucks, a Taco Bell Express, a KFC Express, a Subway, a Sbarro, an Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop, a Baskin-Robbins, a Mobil gas station, a Best Buy Express kiosk, an ATM, a charging station for electric vehicles, and a Travel Mart newsstand. It also offers free wi-fi access.

OK, leaving aside the weird, somewhat icky nature of some grown man having an affinity for the rest stop in which he was conceived (), one would think that such a place would be a money-maker for the state. Half a dozen retailers getting oodles of traffic, effectively a captive audience, and it doesn't pay to keep the place open? Surely those retailers pay a premium for a prime location. Surely.

I get that they're widening the roadway, but my gut reaction tells me that they would still be making money if they just renovated the place in the process of renovating the roadway and kept the joint going.



Oh well. Means nothing to me in the grand scheme of things. It just seems counter-intuitive on its face.