Super Duper Friday

There Will A Rain Dance Friday, Weather Permitting!
Thank you George Carlin for telling us that because we need rain.  When no rain comes, it's like a Friday with no pizza.  And no pizza on a Friday means your mouth will salivate all over the place, and I hate to think I have to make do with saliva spittle rather than rain!! 

Ohhhhh .... I guess we can go to Casey's and get pizza in Greenview on Friday night to eat during our town wide rain dance.

I declare that the town wide rain dance will take place at 6 pm tonight in the land of Greenview.  All of you Greenviewanites should go out to the front of your yard, take off your hats (but whatever you do leave your clothes on...we don't want mutiny on the bounty), fold your hands like you're praying and begin to stomp your feet.  All the while you're doing this, you should be singing "She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes".  Now.... I know we don't have any mountains around here, but we have some hills....and I want that rain to come around those hills and land on my yard!  I couldn't think of a song with "hills" in it that everyone would know, thus I chose the "She'll be coming 'round the mountain song". I thought we could think of the word "She"  in this song as "rain"!  

 Be sure to stomp your feet or the Rain Maker might not hear you.  (And, if you want to eat Pizza during our Friday Rain Dance, you must buy your own.)

I hope it rains cats and dogs, but then changes to just rain, because I really can't afford to feed a lot of the cats and dogs it's gonna rain down.  Besides that, when you get a bunch of cats and dogs raining down on you, it kind of hurts when they hit you during a downpour.  And, the sound of the fighting that goes on between the two animals coming down from the sky is almost unbearable.....so please Mr. Rain Maker, just a few cats and dogs, but lots of rain!

A little rain never hurt anyone, so I want to see you all outside tonight, stomping and singing with your hands folded in prayer.  It's the right thing to do as a Greenviewanite!!!!  We Need Rain So You Do What You Have To Do....even if you look silly!

Comments Section ---- Recent Comments Appearing Now!!

It's come to my attention that some people go back to older posts to see the new comments which people make.....I have put a section at the very bottom which will give you the last 4 comments which have been written on any post in my blog....I put this on the blog so persons don't have to continue to go back to earlier blogs....you can now see the recent comments....if you think I need more than the most recent 4 comments, I can change that to more.  I have a special section that's only visible to me in which I can see every comment and didn't realize that others were going back and forth from post to post to see new comments...Sorry ...my fault!

Time Correction on Event

A few days ago, the Marbold Event was listed in the blog for September 4, 10am to 3pm.  This time was printed in the Menard County Review and is incorrect....the correct time is 11am to 4pm and will be corrected in this week's Menard County Review.

Olde Tyme Greenview - From The Scrapbook

•  1900 - the last of the wooden walks were laid.  Hatch's Opera House was destroyed by fire.
•  1901 - Luther Stone was granted a franchise to furnish electric lights for Greenview.
•  1902 - Rural free postal delivery was established out of Greenview.  William Calloway was the first carrier.
•  1903 - George Reed was in the general store business of Hatch, Reed and Alkire.
•  1904 - Businesses:  J.J. Henry, Bakery; Peter Nelson and Fritz Tressler, blacksmithhing and wagon repair; Ada Alkire, greenhouse; Dick Cleaveland, cigar factory.  Several others engaged in blacksmithing.  A library established by the church was started along about this time.  The Farmers Grain was organized with W.P. Montgomery as the president.  Wallis Reed opened a meat market in the Bracken building.  The old slaughter house was located north of town on Grove Creek, where they killed all their own meat for sale in the shop.  Merrit Williams and Dick Cleaveland each owned an automobile and these were the first in Greenview. 
• 1905 - Myrtle Hughes and Anna Riley Estill opened a millinery shop (next door to where Baugher's implment was - building not there now).  Another millinery was operated by Clara Propst and Carrie Blane.  The Alkire twins and Jim Huffman operated a carpentry business.  The DuQuion family and the Calloway Brothers operated a paperhanging and painting business.  Palmquists had the optometry and watch business.
• 1906 - The payroll of the Greenview mine for one pay period was $11,000.  The population at this time was 1170 residents.

The following is from the 1879 History of Menard and Mason Counties.  It's a biography of Mr. Alkire whose name has been a prominent name in the Greenview area.  At the time of the book, he lived in Sugar Grove Precinct, near Sweetwater:

"D. H. ALKIRE, merchant, Sweetwater; was born in Madison Co., Ohio, Dec. 2, 1824. Two years later, his father, J. N. Alkire, removed to Sugar Grove, in what is now known as Menard Co., 111. The father was a native of Kentucky, and the mother, whose maiden name was Jane Henderson, was a native of Virginia. Our subject was Sweetwater, where he received such education as the schools of that early day afforded. At 21 years of age, his father gave him eighty acres of wild prairie land, and he commenced business for
himself. He spent five years improving his land, when he engaged in the live-stock trade and hotel business in the village of Williamsville, Sangamon Co. At the expiration of two years, he returned to Sweetwater, and engaged in mercantile business, in
which he has since continued. In all of his business transactions, he has been very successful, and is what is properly termed a self-made man. He was united in marriage with Sarah Hayden in 1847. She is a native of Kentucky, and her parents were among the first settlers of Menard Co. From this union there were six children, four of whom are now living Thomas J., Mary J., Theodore and Lavina. The names of those deceased were Francis M. and Marion. 

Recipe From An Old Greenview Person

Sweet Pickled Peaches.  Wash and clean several pounds of peaches that aren't too ripe.  It's best to use cling peaches and don't peel them.  Put into a porcelain kettle with 3 pounds of brown sugar, 1 pint of cider vinegar and a small handful each of cinnamon and cloves and bring to a boil.  Put in as many peaches as the liquid will cover.  Cook until moderately soft and put into clean jars.  Pour the liquid over them and seal.

Vintage Hints From My Greenview Grandma
1.  Soak neglected paintbrushes in hot vinegar to make them pliable.
2.  Put white sheer curtains in 1 cup of epsom salts and 2 gallons of water and don't wring out, then hang on the line.  They will be white and stiff and unwrinkled.
3.  When you crack a favorite dish or plate, put it in a pan of milk and boil it for 30 minutes.  Most of the time the crack is gone.
4.  To make it easier to put curtains on a curtain rod, put a thimble on the end of the rod.
5.  To clean glass over pictures, dip rag in hot water and wring out and then dip in alcohol.  Wipe dry with white tissue paper.
6.  Keep eye glasses from frosting over....put soap from a bar on your fingers and wipe on glasses....don't rinse, just wipe dry.  (I have found that you need to make sure the soap doesn't have skin moisturizers in it)

Last of all....a funny story about one of my Grandma's hints (she was 90+ at the time).  She told me if I wanted to get rid of the ants I had,  I should put Balsam of Peru along the floor baseboards and in the corners.  I said WHAT????  I'd never heard of Balsam of Peru.  Sure enough she had some on a shelf in the back room.  She said you can put that on a sore, and especially if you have sore nipples.  I said Grandma, I don't have sore nipples, I have ants.  She said "it's all the same - you can use it for both".  Why on earth would I want to use an ant killer on my sore nipples???!!  I didn't!  But the Balsam of Peru worked on the ants....I took it back to her in case she got ants or the other thing it's good for.  ha ha ha.  I hadn't thought of Balsam of Peru for years and years until just today. Wonder if you can still buy it.

Over time I'll give you more of my Grandma's hints...she had hundreds and I wrote them down.  Thank goodness I spent quality time with her before she died and got her hints as well as her recipes.

Thought For The Day

What the country needs is

dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

--Will Rogers

The month is escaping us.   August is always so "summer final" for me. I think of the month of August as having no femininity, and being a totally "male" month.  The names of other months seem rather feminine, but not August...it seems to be strong in its march towards the fall and winter.  It's not weak at all....it's usually hot and sweaty and is the most dominant of all of the summer months.  Besides, you can even use August as a name for a male.  It was named for the Roman Emperor Augustas and the birthstone is what I think is a drab olive colored stone called peridot.  See, the male factor totally surrounds it.

Not because of my feeling it's male, August is simply my least favorite month ...  because of the nearness and the coming of the harsher winter weather.  It seems that once August is gone, winter quickly approaches. It goes from hot to cold here in Greenview land.   When you think about it, a week from yesterday, it was 4 months until Christmas.  OMG!

Unfortunately there aren't any holidays in the month and when people think of August it has the "Dog Days Of Summer" affixed to the thoughts of August.  The hot and humid "dog days of summer" with its high utility bills due to the need for air conditioners.  The grass dies back and lawns look brown and the prettiest of the flowers seem wilted and jilted.

Today is National Aviation Day as well as Orville Wright's birthday.  He is one person we are all thankful for....an airplane ride is much quicker than horseback or a car ride.  Happy Birthday Orville.

So many horrible things have happened in August
... it's like some people's brains were broiled by the sun:  Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe died ; the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; World War I started in August; Anne Frank was arrested in August; three deadly and destructive hurricanes in recent years, Katrina, Camille and Andrew hit the Gulf Coast; the London riots just this year.

August may be a cruel month, but it's here for a few more days.  It's not like we can jump over it!  So for now, I will grin and bear it as best I can.  A smile during a hot day in August will look pretty good to me when it's January with 10 degree weather.  Stay cool and dance for rain!

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Later.....