Five Dollar Gasoline By Memorial Day

Get Ready Feet....You Will Be Walking More!

Just what is this $5.00 per gallon gas prediction??  I swear the distributors in this country are getting to be really greedy pigs.  They say they think the Iranian-US tensions will cause this.

Does your salary or your pension go up every whip-stitch?  NO it doesn't.  But believe me when the gas price goes up, food prices will go up, electric rates will go up and heck the price of every commodity on the market will rise ......... strained relations .... maybe the Iranians will close the strait of Hormuz.....gas prices will rise due to Iranian subsidy cuts.  Which is it?  All of them???  Then the news goes on to say there will most likely be a 20% electricity hike!!  WHAT!!!!  How are those on limited pensions, with no way to earn more money, going to be able to live??

I can see my feet getting more and more calluses.  I may be walking to the village unless I can find a neighbor going to town who will give me a ride.  And, getting to go other places on the weekend, may be a thing of the past in days to come....and a vacation is a big laugh.  Get ready for long days and weeks and month at home for a long period I'm afraid.  I hate gas prices....I hate increased food prices.....I hate to pay my electric bill.......and no way to get an increased monthly check amount.

Well....I guess I should just go out and get a horse....it will mow the grass.....provide fertilizer for the yard......take me places ...... and  will provide entertainment for the grandkids.   But oh my aching back scooping those big piles of poop.

Vintage Springfield Fire

These is an article related to Springfield suffering a fire in 1855.  Many fires have destroyed Springfield landmarks....more to come on the subject of fires in tomorrow's blog post.

From the Springfield Journal May 1855:

The Fire in Springfield.
From the Springfield (Ill.) Journal.
The sun this morning rose upon a scene in Springfield the like of which has never been witnessed here. More than half the block of stores on the west side of the square, commencing from the north, was in ruins, and the goods and furniture not destroyed were scattered about mostly on the State-House-square, presenting further evidence of the melancholy catastrophe. The great destruction was, without question, the work of an incendiary. The fire was kindled among the some boxes near one of the buildings, and such was the dry state of all the materials about that the buildings immediately caught fire, which was not arrested until nine stores and one or two buildings of less consequence were destroyed. The following is a list of the sufferers:
Clark & HenkleHenkle -stock mostly saved; loss probably $100. Mulquinn tailor shop, over Clark & Henkle -stock mostly saved loss estimated at $50. Thayer Co., dry goods merchants-stock of goods valued at $17,000; insured for $8,000-saved goods in amount of $10,000 or $12,000; in bad order. Canedy & Johnson,. Druggists, insured on stock and fixtures $6,500, on house $2,500-loss estimated at $9,000. Spear & Brother, dry goods merchants, insured $3,000 on goods, no insurance on house. Loss about $4,000. R.H. Beach clothing store, insured $5,000. Loss about $2,000. Irwin & Davis, dry goods merchants, insured on goods $5,000, no insurance on house. Loss estimated at $6,000. A. Freeman & Co., dry goods and grocery merchants, no insurance either on house or goods. Loss estimated at $8,000. Dr. Harp office, Primm Law office, and a barber shop over Freeman, (books, papers, & etc., mostly saved.) Loss estimated at $200. Springfield Coffee-House, closed, owned by William H. Camp, no insurance. Loss about $2,000. Bradford & Johnson book store, bindery, & c., house owned by N.W. Edwards, insured for $700. Bradford & Johnson had insured on stock $3,500; loss about $1,800. P.C. Canedy dwelling house saved by the most preserving efforts; back buildings with the west torn down. House and furniture, which are considerably damaged, insured. Clark Exchange Bank, which was fire proof, arrested the fire on the south, but for which, the whole block on the west side of the square would have been laid in ashes.
The progress of the fire, as it was going west, was arrested at Mr. Canedy dwelling house. S.B. Fisher store, on the north side of the square, while the fire was raging, was discovered to be on fire in the second story. It was soon extinguished, doing but little damage.
The present is a very appropriate occasion to draw the attention of our city authorities to the necessity of providing more efficient means than they have yet done for the extinguishment of fires.

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Thought For The Day

The unfed mind devours itself.

--Gore Vidal

Is it chilli or is it chili?  Is seems to be that in the Springfield area it's one way and to the rest of the world it's the other way.  So who is right???

In Springfield area this tasty concoction of beef, beens and hot spices is called Chilli!  In fact in 1993 the state legislature declared Illinois the "Chilli Capitol of teh Civilized Universe" and purposely spelled Chilli with two "LL's" so to get that in the laws of Illinois.  (No wonder this state is broke.....the legislatures have always and still spend their time thinking up and passing "REALLY IMPORTANT" things instead of unimportant things like how to get us out of this financial mess.)  When the legislature did this, the Texans were enraged!!!

But the state of the state being put aside, and back to chili or chilli, however the heck it's spelled, I love a good chilli/chili....but I don't want it swimming in suet grease like some of the famous chilli recipes in this area.  There are so many chilli cook-offs in this area and it's a well know fact that many national winners have been those from the Springfield area.....even Texans come to the area chilli cook-offs and leave with no prizes....ha ha ha.

The spelling of the famous two "L" chilli started with the owner of the Dew Chilli Parlor, Dew Brockman, in 1909 when he argued with his sign painter (and won) that it needed two"LL's" and that the dictionary said both were right. Other people in Illinois think the double "LL's" are because Illinois has two "L's".  I personally don't care, I just want to use the right spelling.

Through the years there have been some famous chilli dens or cafes or hideouts or taverns or whatever.  Some of those were the Dew Chilli Parlor, The Den and Mae and Ollie's Tavern which at the time was out on Price Street off McArthur.  I remember my dad  always talking about it.....my dad always loved a good chilli and was a frequent patron of all of the chilli places in town.....and of course I usually was sitting beside him at those places and learned to eat a mean bowl of chilli and even those hot kind!!  Although the old body can't take much of that at this time in my life, I still can tolerate quite a bit of heat.

I happen to have Mae and Ollie's recipe for their tavern chilli.....one of their relatives was in a chilli cook-off and I got it from there.  Going to chilli cook-offs has been a pleasurable past time for quite some time and wow are there some really bad chilli tastes and just a few really good ones!!  Here's Mae and Ollie's recipe....of course it has the heart -attack-maker suet in it...but I guess a little taste now and again won't kill me.....I hope!  Enjoy and when you find out how to spell Chilli/Chili, let me know.

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