Got my second wind, so let's move on to the LOGAN COUNTY FAIR

This is my second post in one day!  Imagine that with no time to post during the month of August, I have a lot of catching up to do.  I may not get to anything else today, but hope to in the next day or so add a couple more.

This was my first year of working the fair, and I really had a good time with it.

All of the work I did there was photography and in all the Lincoln Daily News posted 252 pictures, 161 of those were mine.

I actaully started on Saturday before the fair with the 4-H dog show, then was out there on Sunday and talked with John Fulton, Logan County Extension Advisor in charge of the 4-H portion of the fair, and also Mike Maske who is on the fair board.

We did one POW story on fair volunteers and this year offered more coverage on fair events than we ever have before.

I also covered the demolition derby on the last night of the fair, and later I'll post some pics from that as well.

For now though, I'm just going to share some of my favorites from the animals and their kids!

Normally this is the kind of pic (above) one would delete, but it struck me funny that at the CAT SHOW, the GREEN EYED MONSTER had this little furball in its grip!

I'm going to comment on this one and the one below because this is what I learned at the fair.  When showing rabbits, the bunny has to be inverted to lay on his back.  Before the show began, the judge actaully went around to the various kids and made sure they knew how to put the bunny on its back successfully, and then what to look for once they did, as this is a sex check, and apparently that is not terribly easy to determine on a bunny.

Anyway, this little boy is just as sweet as any can be, and he had no clue how to roll the bunny over safely.

And.........the bunny had NO DESIRE to stay there once the little boy got him in the right position.  The picture below shows a contorted bunny as he escapes the boys hold and makes a mad dash for parts unknonw in the barn.  The good thing though was that the kid was quick, and he had the bunny under control again before he ever made it off the show stand!

And, you can't have a fair without rain right Mindy????

Logan County's fair is no exception.  The pictures below are from the first official day of the fair when the horrid storm moved through.  The wind was terrible, the rain was a real downpour, and when the tornado sirens went off, John Fulton had us all stand against the only brick wall in the pole shed structure.

Running to Catch up! Let's start with the MILL

Okay, to say that the month of August flew by in my world would be totally the understatment of the year!!!

There has been so much going on around here even since the end of July that I have not had one moment to even post of some of the interesting things I've been doing.

I've had several decent pieces in the Lincoln Daily News, and need to work on upgrading my sidebar, and the photography has gotten to be a really big deal for me as well.

I guess to be thorough, I need to go back to July and post a few notes on the 80th Anniversary Celebration of the Mill.

The Mill is an interesting old Route 66 icon here in Lincoln.  A few years ago it made the local news almost weekly because it was such an eyesore, with the building in horrible condition and weeds and trash growing and strewn about, and the potetnial for vermin inside the building.

The push was on to have it demolished when Geoff Ladd came into Lincoln as the new director of the tourism bureau for Lincoln and Logan County, and he was approached firt off by Ernie Edwards who was the long time owner operator of the Pig Hip in Broadwell, another route 66 icon.

Ernie virtually pleaded with Geoff to save the Mill, and Geoff decided to take it on.

Now, I know Geoff, and he would certainly not want anyone to think he is the sole reason the Mill has survived and is now under restoration, but I also know that he has been the force behind the movement, and he deserves to be patted on the back for saving a piece of route 66 history.

The Mill first opened in July of 1929, but perhaps is more famous for the era of gangsters, gambling, and dance hall girls during the 40's.  The Mill was a known stop over for Al Capone, and they dabbled in bootleggin even after prohibition because at that time Logan county was "dry", and all alcohol was illiegal.

The Mill has ties with Coonhound Johnny who was an interesting character all to himself, and also owned a roadhouse in the Lincoln area.

This past July, the Save the Mill Organization, which you can read more about through Savethemill.org held an 80th year anniversary celebration at the Mill.

For the first time in quite some time, the public was allowed to venture inside the building and look around, there were special events inside and outside throughout the afternoon and into the night, and there was a special recognition for folks who have contributed to the restoration project in general, including the Weiss's of the Route 66 Association of Illinois, and Mr. Larry VanBibber who made a generous monetary donation to the project out of his own pocket.

Now here's where I'm going to editorialize for just a bit.....For years, people howled over the run down state of the Mill, and it made the news as I said earlier almost constantly, but do you have any idea how many folks from Lincoln showed up for the celebration???  At one point in time I could have counted them all on my two hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It bothers me to no end that folks want to see something fixed, they want to have tourism dollars in the community, and they want to have bragging rights to such national icons as Route 66, but when push comes to shove, they don't bother showing up in support of the very thing they've been belly-aching over!!!!!

All I can say is shame on them, they are no better than the folks who complain about the president but didn't bother to go vote!!

Anyway, on my side bar are some of the things that we published on the Mill, and you can visit savethemill.org and also Leigh Hensons website which I have linked also on my sidebar has a section referring to old watering holes of Logan County where there is discussion about the Mill and pictures of it plus Coonhound Johnny.

I'm going to throw a few pictures on here and move on to the next topic.

Thanks for reading!
Nila

The backroom bar and restaurant area inside the Mill

The front room which as I understand it may also have been eating and dacing area in the 1940's and beyond.

This Mill as it looks today.  Far from finished, but way beyond what it looked like a few years ago!

Local historial Paul Gleanson in the foreground with Larry VanBibber looking on.

Ernie Edwards, owner operator of the old Pig Hip.  The Pig hip had shut down as a food joint and bee revamped as a museum.  Sad to say it burned to the ground a couple years back and while there is still a marker, I don't think there is anything left of the old place.

Senator Larry Bomke took the time to come up and say a few words at the celebration.  Bomke is very pro-active Lincoln, and the city and Logan County does appreciate the interest he shows in us.

In the afternoon the "Sprits of..." Tours from Bloomington did a short presentation on Blossom Huffman the proprietor of the Mill, and her relationship with Coonhound Johnny, who are being protrayed in this photo.

I'm additng this photo just because I like it.  The gal playing Blossom really didn't look much like the real thing as far as facial features and all, but I think she nailed the personalily.  Now mind you I don't know that for sure, but my instincts tell me she did.

Remembering Napoleon Bonaparte

A very dear friend of mine has left this world.

Napoleon Bonaparte passed away July 31st, 2009.

Now don’t think I’m crazy, that was indeed his real name. He was a man of color and a very colorful man.

I became acquainted with “Nappy” when I worked for Community Action. Even then he seemed old, as until his obituary is actually posted I can’t tell you for sure how old he was.

He was a veteran who served overseas. He had a huge collection of documents from his time in service, including pictures and newspaper clippings and you name it.

He had lived in Lincoln the majority of his life and knew a lot about the town and it’s history.

He told me once about a little restaurant downtown that when the civil rights movement was in full blown glory, and it became a law that the business had to serve blacks and whites equally, the owner would do so, but when a black person finished eating, the owner would smash the plate on the floor and throw it in the trash. The message being that once a black person had used the plate it was unfit for any white person to eat off of. Consequently the safest way to keep this from happening was to smash the plate.

Nappy said that there were a few who made a custom of going in, sitting down getting their glass of water, placing a toothpick from their mouth into the water then getting up and leaving. The end result, the glass got smashed on the floor, and the owner saw no revenue whatsoever from it.

Nappy liked to talk about how things have changed over the years. He enjoyed remembering when and where businesses were opened that are now long since gone. He liked telling stories about people he had known over his life.

He was also an ordained minister, but kind of an absent minded one.

I remember first had the day he was supposed to perform a marriage, and forgot to go to the wedding!!! I remember it because I was the one who went driving all over town trying to locate his huge Lincoln Continental so that I could drag him to the wedding.

I never found him, and he showed up about 30 minutes after the whole thing was over.

Someone made a phone call and found a minister who would perform the services sight unseen. It wasn’t the plan but I guess in the end it did all work out.

But the wedding was for Jane Poertner’s grandson, and needless to say, Nappy was in the doghouse with Jane for a while.

Nappy served on the building and grounds committee at Community Action. I being the CFO was also on that committee along with Paul Gleason and Docia Barrick.

Docia was another staff member, and Paul was a lot like Nappy in many ways. I loved to listen to Paul, Nappy and Docia tell stories about the town and how it had changed, but with other members on that committee and a purpose for our meetings, I often times had to work really hard to steer the three of them back to the here and now.

When Nappy’s mother passed away, I attended the funeral. It was unlike anything I had ever been to before.

The funeral was a true celebration of life, with laughter, story telling, old Negro gospel hymns, speeches, it lasted if I remember correctly almost two hours.

Nappy was the only son living in Lincoln, and he took care of his mother. She was a very independent woman, and didn’t really like being taken care of, but he did the best he could.

He used to come to Krogers, and he’d see Rich and tell him “mamma sent me to the store for an apple’. And he would buy one apple to take to his mother.

Generally by the time he got it home to her, she had changed her mind and wanted something different.

After she died, he came to my office one day, and we spent a long time just talking about her. He loved her and missed her. He told me about having to go through her things and how hard it was. He told me she had dresser drawers full of jewelry some of it really old, and how that he had tried to get kids and grandkids to take it, and they had taken some, but not near all of it.

He told me that someday he’d go through it and bring me a few pieces, but that never happened, and I wish now that it had.

Nappy lived just a few blocks from Rich and I, on the corner of Palmer and 19th maybe, I can’t right now remember for sure, but anyway, I drove by his house quite often.

I always got a kick out of the gold toned set of armour standing in his back yard. It made no sense for it to be there. It wasn’t in a decorative place or anything, it just seemed to be there, along with a lot of other stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, the place was not trashy, it was just full of Stuff!

When things were going downhill at Community Action, Nappy came to my office one day and he told me that it was out of control, and the reason was that the people who were running the show didn’t know what the agency had been through to get where it was, and they were not willing to listen and learn.

He said they had no concern for the past, they just wanted a different future. He wondered how anyone could mold the future without knowing the past.

When a lot of us bailed on CIEDC myself included, Nappy hung in there. He stayed on the board, and I know through conversations with Paul, that he did try to be heard, but he was an old man and the newbies dubbed him as being “set in the past, and not willing to change”, and therefore his voice didn’t matter much to any of them.

When I left CIEDC, I let on like it was a good thing, but those who were close to me know that I truly went through hell for quite some time after that.

I couldn’t move on, and it was horrible. But eventually I made it through, but in the end, I did so by separating myself from everyone I had ever known at the agency.

People who meant a lot to me while I was there became strangers, because I couldn’t think about them or be around them without the old hurt coming back.

Eventually I made it through that period of darkness, and figured out how to move on.

Recently I’ve re-connected with a few of them from the Agency, like Paul who is no longer on their board. He told me that Nappy was still hanging in there and that he talked to him on occasion about what was going on at the new CAPCIL.

I wish that I had found a way to spend just a little while with Nappy before he passed. But I didn’t. He would have made an interesting story for the LDN, it would have been good to renew that friendship, but I missed the chance.

I’m sorry dear friend if I let you down and I hope you are now enjoying a lovely reunion with your “mamma”.

Shoot to Kill -- Vigilante Mentality at work

If you check out the Tuesday (07/21/09) morning edition of the Lincoln Daily News, you'll see that even in the considerably small town of Lincoln, wild things happen on occasion.

The top pick on that day is a photo of a police investigation going on at Scully Park in the downtown area.

Go on to read the story and you'll see that it begins early in the evening, while I personally was in the downtown area at city hall attending the council meeting, and in came to an end shortly after I left there and arrived home around 8.

It appears by all accounts that this fellow, known as TATTOO went off the deep end, attempted an armed robbery at a residence in the area of Scully Park, but when his attempt failed, he walked a few doors down, knocked on a door, and the resident inside offered to drive him back to his home.

As this was taking place, the police arrived, and when they stopped the vehicle, the driver escaped, TATTOO baled out of the vehicle brandishing a gun, and the police shot him.

For a while it was uncertain whether or not it was a fatal shooting, but in the end, TATTOO is alive and is currently being cared for at a hospital in Springfield.

He underwent surgery for his wounds, but is expected to recover.

This is all very disturbing to me.

The Courier, which is a Gatehouse Publication, the local hard copy newspaper, and one that I am respecting less and less each day, reported on this on paper and on their gatehouse web site.

Gatehouse owns many, many of the small town papers in Illinois and across the country. Their website is generic in that it carries the same format for all their publications, and that format includes an opportunity for readers to log on and "blog" comments about the story they have just read.

I read their story, then I read the comments, which were many.

In the comments, the majority of the writers expressed remorse that the police had not killed his man.

They hate him, they want him dead, the resent the fact that the county will now have to pay his medical bills, go to the expense of a trial, and that his person will take up space in a prison.

The readers who wrote on the subject claimed that the police were not doing their job, that they were poor shots, and that their objective should have been shoot to kill. One reader/blogger said that the police were supposed to be trained to shoot to kill, and that our police department was obviously lacking in skill because this villain survived.

Others blogged accusations toward him of crimes he has committed with no evidence whatsoever. Obviously no evidence or he would have already been arrested and none of this would ever have happened.

What bothers me most about this vigilante mentality is the statement that the cops are trained to shoot to kill.

In response to that, yes they are trained to shoot to kill, they do know how to do that, BUT they are TAUGHT to spare life whenever possible. They learn that it is far better to wound and therefore temporarily disable a suspect rather than to instantly become judge, jury and deliverer of the death penalty.

What the police did was exactly as it should have been.

Those who are blogging that this man should have been murdered at the hand of the cops should stop and think about this. This man, 31 years of age is someones son, and I know for a fact he is someones father.

You see, I know this fellow. I met him a few years ago when I worked at Wal-Mart. He has actually been to my home when I had a garage sale in 2007.

He's one of the weirdest looking people you'll ever meet. He is tattooed literally head to toe, has piercing on his face including a bone like object in his nose, and he has a gold grill. He walks with a cane, wears long trench coats whenever possible, and has a passion for snakes.

He is a tattoo artist, and earns a portion of his living that way, and let me tell you folks, I'm not big on tattoos, but the man has remarkable talent.

But what is probably the most shocking thing about him is his demeanor when he's clean and sober, which is the only way I personally have ever seen him.

He is well versed, polite, respectful, soft spoken, and well mannered.

At Wally world, I was truly the only one there who had the nerve to wait on him. I one time spent nearly two hours with the man, helping him go through the photos of his work, and he was nothing but kind and decent when I helped him.

The other photo lab people would very nearly run when they saw him coming, because he looked like such a creep.

When he and his girlfriend came to our garage sale, Rich was home of course, and when they came in, we spoke, I told introduced him to Rich and he shook his hand and they stood a visited while his girlfriend checked out the stuff at the sale.

There was nothing about this man that screamed "I deserve to be shot and killed".

Now, I'll admit, I don't know what happened to this man that caused him to do what he did Monday night.

Rumor has it that he was doped up or drunk or both, and I would suppose there is a fair chance that is correct.

But that doesn't mean he should have died. It means that he needs help. He is a lost soul, someone who for whatever reason took a wrong turn and ended up in a very bad place.

In the end, he has suffered injury, he will go to prison, and perhaps a long dry spell will help him to turn things around, or it may make him worse, I just don't know.

But here is what I do know, he is a human being, as I said earlier someones son and someones father. He's not perfect, he's made some mistakes, but then again so have I, and so have you reading this, and especially so have the blogger's who wish him dead.

I hope and pray that those who wrote such cruel hateful words never have to deal with their own son, daughter, mother or father being in a similar incident, but you can bet that if they do, they'll have a very different attitude.

Pic from family get together

Here are some pictures from our "Multi-family Get Together" last Saturday.

Things that make me crazy, I got home, and was going through the nearly 100 pics that I had taken and came to realize that in the whole bunch I had not one good picture of Mindy or Becky!!!!

That just makes me nuts because I try so hard to get everyone, then I mess it up!!!

Oh well, here are some of what I did get.


Left to right Nicholas, Chelsie, Rylee and MacKenzie (hope I spelled Nicholas and MacKenzie correctly). Nicholas and MacKenzie are extended family, children of Becky's sister Nycol.

Nephew Robert, and the hubs, Richard.

Chad's dad David and his friend Pat

Grandaughter Rachel, my mom Kay, Grandaughter Caitlyn. The blonde with her head down is Chasity, and with her back to us is MacKenzie. They are all looking at the albums I made for the two oldest grand girls, pictures and stories from their week with granpa and gramma.

Rachel in the pink jacket, Caitlyn facing me, and MacKenzie to the right.

Left to right, Chelsie, Chad, Chasity, Nycol, and Rick. That little dark blurp behind Ricks head is the closest thing to a picture of Becky that I have! I did get a shot of her, but it was blurry as she was moving, carrying and comforting Rylee from a fall she had taken.

Chasity, Nycol, and Rick

Nathan, Nycol's middle child, and oldest son.

Our grand girls Rachel and Rylee.

Our youngest grand girl Chelsie

MacKenzie

And, our grand girl Caitlyn

Lincoln Logan County Illinois Upcoming Events

We are going to be having some very special events in the Lincoln and Logan County area over the next month or so. Look for coverage in the Lincoln Daily News as we plan to do all that we can to post everything going on.

This coming Friday night there will be a walking tour of the city of Lincoln with President Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln leading the way.

It is my understanding that the tour will begin at the Christening site near the train depot and proceed from there to points of interest in the downtown area. These points of interest will revolve around the Lincoln's involvement in our communtiy prior to the presidential election which made Mr. Lincoln our 16th president.

On Satuday afternoon, there will be a large celebration at the MILL. For those of you who are interested in gangstas there will be a special presentation from a group out of Bloomington Illinois called "Spirits of...Tours". The program includes an appearance from Coonhound Johnny who was a known associate of the infamous Al Capone!

Also if your into ghosts and spirits, there will be a paranormal investigation taking place at the MILL at 8 p.m. that same night. The investigation will take place inside the MILL for the most part, but according to Geoff Ladd of the Abraham Lincoln Tourism and Save the Mill organizations, there could possibly be some sightings outside the building as well. The paranormal event does require a ticket purchase, but other events starting at noon that day are free of charge and will include live music and a car and motorcycle show.

August 4 will kick off the Logan County Fair, and LDN is planning complete coverage of the 4-H livestock shows.

August 27th will be a re-enactment of the Lincoln Christening scene at 1 p.m. and again at 2.

August 28th kicks off the Annual Art and Balloon Festival. At the moment I don't have many details on what will be going on those days, but you can be certain that there will be early morning fly-ins, evening glows, art in the park at Latham Park, a flea Market in Scully park, and the public library always has their annual book sale.

LDN will be covering all of these events, and in regard to the balloon festival, there will be a link to the balloon festival website in the LDN calendar of events.

Summertime is a great time for this area, lots to do, plenty to see, and none of it terribly expensive. These little events make for great one-day get-aways for anyone who would like to see the sites on a limited budget.

But if you can't make it to town, be sure to mark the Lincoln Daily News in your "favorites" and visit our publication to see just what all you missed!

To Market We Go!!

Rich would probably yell at me for using this picture, because his maters are dirty! But I think it is cool!

We had enough last night to make it worth the trip to go to Farmers Market.

With not quite 90 poounds of maters and a arm load of cucumbers, we arrived at 4 and sold out and were back home by 5:30!

Market rules have changed a little bit I guess.

By the time Rich got home at a quarter to 2 and we got everything wiped down (maters get buffed a bit so they are nice and shiney) loaded up the table, the maters, and ourselves, then had to run to the bank and get change for the cash box, it was about a quarter to four when we got there.

Most of the others were already there except the market boss.

We pulled in and started unloading, and it seemed almost instantly we had people standing there waiting for us to get ready.

The market boss pulled in beside us and started unloading.

We finished setting up, and people started grabbing bags and filling them. The boss sets the prices, so I asked him what we were allowed to charge, he told me, then added "but you can't sell yet, it isn't 4".

So, we had to stand there with our hands in our pockets for about five minutes.

Our customers kept looking up the way and saying really loud so the boss could hear them...look those people up there are selling!

But we waited and waited, and finally the boss yelled "Market's Open", and I swear we were the only ones not taking money before that. But anyway, we wiped out about 70 pounds of tomatoes and all the cukes in the first 20 minutes.

Rich added yellow tomatoes to his crop this year. We only had maybe 20 or so of those, and they sold out so quick it made our heads swim. No doubt they'll be on the growing list from now on!

We got down to about 12 maters left and I was thinking we were doomed, because usually that last little handful is like pulling teeth to get them sold. It's a matter of people like choice and when you get down to that few they don't have much of a choice. But then out of the blue this gal walked up and she said "I want everything you've got left here"!

So, we sold out, packed up, and came home Wooowhooooo!!

We love farmers market. It is a great opportunity to see people and visit and make some pretty good bucks all at the same time!!

Special effects with Picnik free online photo editor

I've found a website that offers a free photo editing package that is working out pretty well for me. It is called Picnik.com and it offers several editing tools free, but also has a more advanced system for about 25 bucks a year.



Right now, I don't think I'm ready to move into the advanced stuff, and even though it is a reasonable rate I think, I'm just not willing to put out the dough!



The free program offers some really fun stuff though.

For example, I can take the picture above and turn it into the piece of photo art below.

The next set was a little more complicated than the ones above. I did some editing with my HP software, then went to Picnik, then came back to HP and editied some more. The photo above I took through two processes in Picnik while the photo below went through two processes on HP, three on picnik, then back to one final adjustment on HP.

But this is how it all turned out. Now I want you to know, I wasn't looking for beautiful. I was looking for age and character not only in the subject but in the medium.

Some of you already know that I invested in a new camera. My little Kodak had served me well since about 2001, taking about 15,000 pictures in its lifetime, and to tell the truth, it is still plenty good enough for my two oldest grand-girls to use when they visit.

The new camera is a Fugi which I never thought I would buy anything but a Kodak, and I didn't expect to like it, but it was somewhat affordable compared to others with similar specs, and I cannot tell a lie, I really like it.

I'm still learning the settings, and rely a lot on the auto and the SP auto, but....check out hopefully Monday's edition of the Lincoln Daily News for the pictures of the Water Fights at the Park District.

I took all those pictures, working my own settings instead of letting "auto" do the job for me, and I was very pleased.

I love trying to capture water, and I think I got the job done pretty well (oops, excuse me while I rush to emergency, I just broke my arm patting myself on the back!!!).

Anyway, hope you enjoy, and if you like to play with photo editing, be sure to check out Picnik!!

BTW, how many pics have I taken on my new camera thus far?? WEll, I've had it since the middle of June and have taken 1100 pictures thus far!!!

A few favorites

In no particular order, but all from my mom's or my uncle's homes.

Well, we had to take them home!

Well, vacation is nearly over for Rich. He goes back to work Monday.

We had to take the girls back to their folks on Thursday evening, and we're still getting adjusted to the quiet house.

I think that the hardest part of having them here is when it is time to let them go. We enjoy the chaos, the energy, their laughter, and the weird silly things they do to entertain themselves!

The picture above is only one of about 400 or so that I took while Rich was on vacation.

We spent our first day with my mom, a favorite uncle of mine, then my sis and her family, and I think there were about 150 pics taken then.

The rest of them were of the kids!!

Anyway, left to right Chad, Chasity, Rich, (sitting on the train) Rylee, Chelsie, Rachel, Caitlyn, then standing on the ground again are Becky and Rick. (I think you can click to enlarge this shot)

I was so happy that I remembered to get a pic of Rich and all the kids. Many times, I am so busy taking shots of what they are doing, that I don't actually think to get a good family pic!

And here are the girls helping papaw plant flowers!





Posing and playing in the interactive center at Dixon Mounds;





Getting wet in the Illinois River