White Gull comes home to roost, and TnT under new management!

By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
Dottie and Bill Thompson are starting a new chapter – again. Cousin Gene and his wife Joan Thompson have taken over TnT Video, the video rental shop, and the White Gull Inn is closing. No more B&B for B&D. However, “Grandpa’s Place,” (as Bill calls it), the small house behind TnT, will be a year round rental. Why the change? “My big mouth!” says Bill. “When we came up here to run the Dairy Bar, I said we’d quit after ten years. Dottie remembered!!” The Thompson’s ran the Dairy Bar as a 50’s style burgers, fries, and ice cream parlor with an Elvis motif for several years before taking over both the White Gull Inn and TnT Video.

“So this will be our first summer vacation,” says an elated Dottie.
“We’ll have lots more time for doing fun stuff with our kids and grandkids,” adds Bill.
“We’ll be able to see what the beach looks like from May to September,” Dottie grins.
So two always cheerful folks just got happier.
But, TnT still means Thompson and Thompson! On September 1, Gene and Joan Thompson, recently of Bakersfield, California, took over the video rental shop. Gene was the distributor of the Bakersfield Californian newspaper. “With a population of 250,000, it’s hard to believe there was only one local paper,” Gene says. Joan worked as a food demonstrator at Costco, “like Sam’s Club” she says. These two Thompsons came to Glen Arbor to be with mother Pat Littleford and closer to Bill and Dottie. “We grew up in Downers Grove and went to school with them both,” Joan explains. (“Gene is just a little bit older than Bill, who has a birthday coming up Dec. 6. But don’t tell!”) Gene and Joan plan to keep things pretty much the same at the video store. We welcome them to the community. Winter hours will be: M-Th 1-9:30, F 1-10, Sat 11-10, Sun 11-9:30.