Swimming In A Borrowed Suit

Swimming in someone's suit?

To swim is wonderful if you like to swim.  But if you hate water, it's maybe not good.  And, in order to swim, you say you will have to borrow someone's suit......well that sounds like something I might not do.....nope on second thought, never would I do that. 

First of all, someone's suit might not fit.  You have to try to find one that will fit all portioned or unportioned parts of your body.  If you're a woman and are top heavy, then you'll need to find one with big enough boob cups to fit you.  And when you do, your smaller hips might have lots of baggy material just hanging there.  When the butt factor is what gives you trouble, that much bigger size you need just to cover your butt cheeks, might give you what is known as "saggy cups".  This could mean that your boobs might wander around and even fall out when there's too much room.

A person must realize that even a department store won't let you try on swimsuits without leaving on your underdrawers.  Now why would that be?  Ohhhhhh ick!  Can you imagine someone trying on a suit in a store and that person has the unspoken but gross V-A-G-I-N-A infection.   Or, even worse, it could be something else (sperminskis maybe).   Oh crap!  That suddenly makes me want to barf and never try on a swimsuit again.  Of course this body says to me, you should never try on a swimsuit because you look so terrible, and if you really bought one and went out into the world,  you would become the Eighth Wonder of the World .... otherwise defined as a classical construction of an antiquity .... a fat antiquity at that.

At this point, I see that I have four options.  Never borrow someone's swimsuit if I feel the urge to go swimming when it's hot.  Secondly, the other option is to choose to swim only when no one is looking because my suit might not fit.  Thirdly, is to not go swimming at all.  And fourth and maybe the best is to don't borrow a swimsuit.....get nekid and go swimming butt nekid while it's dark.  That way no one will see the eighth wonder of the world having a good time with an "unborrowed swimsuit"..... that eighth wonder classical antiquity will be in the "suit" she was born with.

Illinois State Fair

(you can click on most photos to get an enlarged view)

1912 Illinois State Fair Coliseum with a covered walkway

Illinois State Fair Coliseum Building 1908

mid 1940's Illinois State Fair Happy Hallow

Illinois State Fair Machinery Hall 1910

Quote For The Day

A fanatic is one who can't change his mind

and won't change the subject.

--Sir Winston Churchill

This weekend will see lots of fireworks and kids calling out ooohs and aaahs.  But is it a good time to light those fireworks when our area is so drought sticken?  

I personally think that this year, fireworks should be banned so that a wildfire doesn't become a first for this area.  Not that a wildfire would burn acres and acres like it does in the forests of the western states, but there are small towns and subdivions in the woods (mine)  which could go up in a puff of smoke.

If you are a person who has a bunch of fireworks to set off to give a few people a bunch of laughs, think hard about this being the right time to give a few laughs when it could result in a lot of persons suffering from fires.  Their tears are not worth a few laughs for others.  The trade off isn't worth it in my book.

Have a good holiday weekend.  It will be a hot one for most of us so take precautions and drink lots of fluids!!

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Chinese Fire Drill

What is a Chinese fire drill?

As I thought about a Chinese fire drill, a big old smile came to my face.  I hadn't thought about this term for about 40 years. Maybe you know what it is, but maybe you don't.  This could have been a thing in the Midwest, I just don't know. 

When I was young a group of kids would hang together and ride around for hours. Of course, most of us had our parents' huge old cars to drive and they were so roomy and big, so about 6 to 8 kids could pile in with ease.  And, at that time, gasoline was about $.25 per gallon....yes, I said a quarter a gallon.  We would all pitch in a quarter to get gas to cruise so we always had plenty of gas.

The thing to do was go to the capitol city to cruise the two popular drive-in restaurants.  And, cruise we did, but we had to drive from one place to another which was from the south part of town to the north part of town.  In between we had to do something, so we would do Chinese Fire Drills.  Sometimes over and over again.

So what the heck is it you say?   Well....I'll tell you to ease your curiosity!

A Chinese Fire Drill is............Stop at a red light and all people on the driver's side would run around and get in on the passenger side and all people on the passenger side would run around to the driver's side and get in.

We did this time and time again.....except the driver would normally stay in place since it was the driver's car.   We thought it was fun and it kept us out of trouble.  Keep in mind we didn't have drugs back then....maybe a spot of alcohol but drugs were just not a thing we did.  So, we did good clean fun things .... some might have been stupid and no rhyme or reason as so why we thought they were fun.....but the Chinese Fire Drill just was fun.  And afterwards we giggled until we thought we would pee our panties.  And, we definitely giggled until the next time someone called out "Chinese Fire Drill". 

It might be fun to see if us old codgers could still do this......the young ones in the different cars at the stop light might think we have dementia but we would have the last laugh.  Try it sometime!


Hot Tyme In The Old Town

Bressmer's Downtown Department Store May 2, 1948

Bressmer's after the fire (huge damage on the right side)

Inside after the fire.

Bressmer's before the 1948 fire.

Quote For The Day

If you don't know where you're going,

you will probably end up somewhere else.

--Laurence J. Peter

Have you ever seen monkeys picking at another monkey?  One monkey will spread apart the hair and look and look.  Whatcha think they're looking for?  Fleas and lice and dry skin! That's what....grooming at its best.  And I've read they do this a lot after they've had a fight....to make up. 

I love watching these monkeys clean up another's flea and lice population.  At least it's cute until they get down to the private parts area...then it becomes pretty gross to see the way they do that.

They don't talk to each other during the process, so it seems the pickee is loving the feel of the picker's

monkey digits going through the pickee's hair.

hmmm.....wonder if I could get the other person in my house to do a bit of monkey clean up business.....don't think I have any fleas or lice but maybe dry skin which needs to come off.  Try it....you might like it!

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Tranquility

Tranquil and Anxious or just old?

I swear the world goes round too fast.  Is it possible for a person to be tranquil and calm when the New York minute is running at high speed even in my small town.

It seems just yesterday I was waiting to be age 21.  That age came and went, so then I was waiting to be age 30 because it was a neat age.  Age 29 came and I was traumatized and certainly not tranquil when I reached this age.  I guess I felt I was on the threshold of being old.  30 was a bit easier to take than 29 but, I suddenly realized that I was no longer a young chick....I was bound for the old chick's chicken pen.  The coup de grace as far as I was concerned at that tender age of 30.

Next came the wait for the "Jack Benny" age --an old 39 year old fart.  Reaching that age was horrible....even worse than age 40.

The next couple of years saw 40, 50 and then 60 pass me by.  
That old chick's chicken pen was getting full of years...all sitting along the wall like wallflowers.    No tranquility surrounded any of these milestone ages, but a lot of anxiety sure did!  Now I lay me down to sleep every night as an old person.....tranquil as h*ll mainly because I learned my lesson....age doesn't mean you're dead..... reaching those "high" ages brought me to discover that it really doesn't pay to be anxious about getting old.....we're all gonna get there....at the same pace.  Of course some of my good friends are gonna get to the next age a bit faster than me (cough cough you know who you are), but I guess I will catch up....tranquil and not anxious at all at raising the age. 

Tranquility is an old man's milk.  I think Thomas Jefferson might have said this.....but, he ain't around so I have borrowed it to become my motto (but I changed it to an old woman's milk).  He loved humor and so do I.  Tranquil humor that is!


Old Stuff

(you can click on most photos to get an

enlarged view)

Sears House "Honor Built Crescent"....1920's from a catalog.

Five rooms and a bath at a $2,436 cost.

Postcard showing Sears Roebuck in

early 1900's, Chicago, IL.  Was on 50 acres.

A "self built" Sears house which could be

ordered from a catalog 1927 at a price

of $2,025 or $35 monthly.  6 rooms and a bath. 

Called the Gladstone model.

Both sides of a postcard from Sears, advertising the book "Ben Hur" at a price of $.48.

Quote For The Day

Every sweet has its sour;

every evil its good.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Over my many years I've lost friends....some died...  some moved away....some I determined were really not my friends in the first place.....some got rotten spots like an old apple .....and some just went away .... Thank God!

At times the way we have to keep friends is like sucking marijuana through a blow pipe....they don't want to come up the way you want it to.  Some want us to kiss their butts.  And, some want to beat our butts.  Some would really like to make us go away for good and some don't really give a crap about us....but they pretend they do.  Money flows easily through one's hands and so do friends....here today and gone tomorrow.

Gaining and keeping good friends is like insanity in an insane world.   But I have a test for this insanity......I look at the 4 persons I consider my best friends to see if they look and act insane....if they look ok and act ok, then it must be me so I have to change....and sometimes it means changing friends. 

Sometimes those friends can turn on you like a rabid dog....kind of like that pit bull that your neighbor down two blocks has in his backyard pen.  Specifically, the one he's been training to fight other pit bulls ....... or maybe he's training those dang pit bulls to chew people or his friends .... sometimes friends can act like they want to go for your throat just like a pit bull.

If someone turns on you, what do you do??  You fight back.....that's what you do!!  It's my motto that you should never let anyone jump on you without retaliating....you should do everything you can to make that person miserable, if they started it.  You should send them a bouquet of dead flowers, talk about them to everyone who will listen and then send them a box of candy but, eat the candy first and replace the pieces of candy with little sheep poop pellets.  Love that tasty morsel.

The moral of this story is friends are hard to find but even harder to keep.  You should know that if you land up in jail....a friend who says she/he is your good friend will always bail you out....but your BEST friend will be in that same jail cell saying wow that was a good time...glad we were together!  See you around friend...maybe in that jail cell!

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Word Salad

Is this another new salad or what?

Word salad has been around for many many years.  In the writing field it means something a bit different than the medical field but it's still close to the medical meaning.

When I write a word salad, it's usually when I'm really having a bad day.  To give you an example of word salad, here's an example: "Eyes charity bonus cheating person bonus slipped."

That word salad is just a bunch of words which make no sense at all.  A lot of mentally disturbed persons link words together which make no sense.  It's called schizophasia.  This particular salad is mixed up and repetitive and confused. 

Sometimes, even on the best of days, I might write a word salad which doesn't make much sense, but at least it fills the page.  You might leave shaking your head and wondering  ""what the heck did she just say"".  Well just think a bit further....if you couldn't figure it out......I know that I couldn't figure out what the heck I was saying even though I wrote it.

Typically our language and our writings, should resemble  something nice and organized .... perhaps like a lettuce salad, made with a high class romaine or bibb lettuce, settled on the bottom of the bowl, and topped with a nice array of chopped tomatoes, croutons, onions, cucumbers, and topped with a creamy salad dressing.  But, a word salad is thrown together and resembles a tossed salad where the lettuce and tomatoes and croutons, etc, land where they land and the whole things looks confused and not refined at all.  How do you like your salad.....refined and respectable or tossed around and confused?  I'll take refined!!

So I will leave you today, thinking about a salad you might not even known existed.  I bet if you think about it long enough, you probably have known people whose writings or language were like word salads.....unorganized and confused with no structure.  Give them a break.....they're probably from a small town where there's nothing going on.....ever.....and they're having boredom days!  Surely not!

Old Stuff From Greenview History
(taken from a huge documented history I got from my grandmother)

The pergola in the park was built in 1886 at a cost of $500.00.

The coal companies consolidated and several citizens left Greenview to seek other employment, leaving 25 vacant houses in Greenview.  In September 1893, the Greenview Butter and Cheese company was incorporated.  A creamery was built on lots that were known later as the B. C. Armeling home.  This was known as the Elstrodt residence when the company started.

(Note from me....the history says:     in 1968 the land where this cheese company/B . C. Armeling was, is occupied by Donald Beatty.  (I know that Donald Beatty lived across from the high school next to the John Dennis house but I don't know if this is the location where the Cheese company was).

In 1893 Greenview had a fire which destroyed several businesses in the business area.  The old buildings were replaced by substantial brick buildings.

In June 21, 1897, the village board voted to build a brick jail for $978, replacing the 12 x 12 foot jail made of 2 x 4's spiked together at the corners, log cabin style.  The new jail stood on the northeast corner of block 13 across from the coal office.  It was moved to the north side of the square and used for a place to sober up drunks till the new brick one was completed.

The last of the wooden sidewalks were laid in 1899....the walks required about $500 per year to be kept in repair and lasted about 11 years.

Oil was first applied to the village streets in 1917.

Quote For The Day

I don't care what is written about me

so long as it isn't true.

--Dorothy Parker

Have you had the occasion to run into the phrase "nanny banned".  I believe it's being used a lot for states which are implementing a bunch of bans on things.  Better known as control freaks running amok!

Whatever happened to the "land of the free and home of the brave"????  It's almost like the states are trying to put their hands around our delicate necks and tighten the hold and strangle until we are dried up prunes.  Folks your rights and freedom are being sucked out from beneath you. 

New York says you can't buy a huge drink because it might make a person fat.  Even if you've been starving for a drink after you've been three days out in the hot desert of the suburbs of New York City, don't count on being able to purchase a long tall large drink of soda to replace the sugar you lost during your trek in the desert of New York (well there's a New York minute so I can conger up a desert if I want).

North Carolina is threatening to send a blogger to prison because he blogged about his battle against diabetes.  He has suddenly become what the state is calling....practicing nutrition.

These cities are using micro chips on a person's garbage to monitor the recycle habits of persons.  Cleveland, OH; Charlotte, NC;  Alexandria, VA;  Boise, ID;  Dayton, OH;  Flint, MI.

In Minnetonka MN, you can be arrested for having a muddy vehicle.

In Hilton Head, SC it's illegal to have trash in your vehicle.

Many major cities across the US have banned feeding the homeless due to health reasons.

In California, a person can't have a bible home study without a permit.

In many states it's illegal for a person to collect rain on a person's own property....because the state governments are claiming ownership of the rain.  (OMG how stupid!!)  If I lived in one of those states I would call the state government and demand that the "state's" frozen rain (snow) is clogging my yard, therefore the state should come and remove the snow/frozen rain.

And there are many more of these stupid nanny bans......control freaks at their worst!!!  This is what states/cities are paying their legislative and administrative people to concentrate on.....seems that if this is all they have to do then they are not needed on a full time basis.

In this great state of Illinois, I don't think we have this rain possession law ....YET....but give them time.  They will probably spend time on something like this rather than figuring out how to get out of debt they have created.....Of course it might be wise for them to tax the water we drink from the wells in our yard....after all the rain is soaked into the ground, goes to the underground well....so basically I would be drinking the state's water.  Watch out folks, the Illinois lawmakers might do this....just for tax money!!

Now you know about nanny banned....stop the control freaks in government!!!

(I'm wondering if I have this when thinking about our politicians)

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Sayin It Like It Is

Oldtimers use to talk out the side of their mouth!

Did the oldtimers you knew many years ago, kind of talk out of the side of their mouth??  Some did because they had a pipe between their teeth....some might have had a worn out toothpick hanging out of their lips.  And, some just talked that way....maybe a speech impediment or no teeth or some other ailment.

But the words these oldtimers said is what's so interesting.  They didn't mince their words and came straight to the point believe me.  I used to work in a cafe where the old time farmers used to come in for coffee and sit for hours and chaw the fat with the other oldtimers.  I learned a lot from those old guys.  Most were smokers, thus the cafe reeked of smoke and pig poop from the boots worn in the stockyard that particular morning and many mornings before that.  They forgot this young girl was around when they spoke.....but I guess I didn't mind as I got the perfect Redneck (or is this Hillbilly) education.....loud, aggressive and ornery.

Here's just a few "oldtimer sayings" that I remember from the past....and by the way, some I haven't heard since either:

***  He holds a nickel so tight that the Indian rides the buffalo.

***  He'll squeeze a nickel till the buffalo craps.

***  If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

***  She is so ugly her face would stop a freight train.

***  Whoa Nellie.

***  Eyes like a cross eyed mule.

***  He better git off my property if he knows what's good fer him.

***  Nervous as frog legs fryin.

***  So bucked teethed he could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence.

***  Crazy as a loon.

***  So dry, the catfish are carrying canteens.

***  Looks like he was chawin tobacco and spit into the wind.

***  Smiles like a possum eating sh*t.

***  Colder than a welldigger's a$$.

*** Scallywag!

***  Half past a monkey's a$$.

***  Useless as t*ts on a bore.

***  Faster than greased lightening.

***  He'd bitch if they hung him with a new rope.

***  She is so ugly we tied a pork chop around her neck to get the dogs to play with her.

***  That would gag a maggot.

***  Till h*ll freezes over.

***  Crazy as a chicken with its head cut off.

Surely these oldtimers weren't speaking "Redneck" were they?  The old timer farmers in the farmlands of rural America wouldn't speak Redneck would they?  Maybe so.........


Old Tyme Petersburg

Petersburg flood approximately 1942

A & P store....Paul Armstrong, owner, on right.

Petersburg Branson House 1876....top of Brahm's Hill

built by Nathaniel Branson.

Petersburg Branson House, top of Brahms' Hill,

in 1950's.  This is currently a Bed and Breakfast.

Quote For The Day

I would never die for my beliefs,

because I might be wrong.

--Bertrand Russell

If one of you were Rhett Butler and I was Scarlett O'Hara, we would be surrounded by the scandals of Tara in the Southern Hemisphere.  There would be marriages among cousins and pre-war and post-war survival. 

Scarlett had a few slaves so housework was not something she was used to.  First Scarlett loved Ashley but he ran off to get married to his cousin.  Scarlett then met Rhett but he wanted to play it cool.  

Before these two could finally get together, Rhett was chasing women by the dozens and Scarlett was always ticked off....and even turned to someone she didn't love, and got married to get even.  But her husband died of the measles.   Pregnant and wearing black due to her husband's death, she was still eyeballing Rhett.

He goes to war and she works to help the soldiers.  Atlanta was under siege and Scarlett and her slaves left Tara.  Later she returns and needs money to pay the taxes so she marries a Frank person just to get money for taxes, loving Rhett all the time.  Later Frank is out with the Klu Klux Klan and is shot and killed, so fun loving Scarlett is a widow AGAIN. 

Rhett comes back to woo Scarlett....she just falls into his arms.  They marry but, their marriage is tumultuous.  They accuse each other of having affairs....Rhett thinks she loves Ashley, she thinks he loves all women and he does.

Scarlett has a daughter named Bonnie whom Rhett doted on.  Later Bonnie falls from a horse and dies.  Rhett is heartbroken and leaves Tara for good.  Scarlett is left alone and her last words are

"tomorrow is another day".

Yes tomorrow is another day.....hopefully for all of us.  I'm sure most of us didn't have to suffer through the tumultuous encounters in Gone With The Wind, but when you think about it......things in our life happen and then are gone with the wind.....hopefully "your tomorrow is another day" results in a wonderful renewal of the day.  For now.....I will be gone with the wind!



 

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Being Old and Not Liking It

Ya say you're stiff....ha ha ha .... you're old maybe.

I'm so tired of getting up from bed or just up from the sofa and feeling joint pain.  It seems that my body screams.....but I suddenly realize it's not my body screaming, it's me, from the dang pain I'm going through just from getting up.  Is this happening to everyone in this small town?  Is it peculiar to small town life?  (ie nothing much to do, except for sitting around)

Another pain every morning has become my motto in the last few years.  Apparently when the pains start coming to a person, it's a warning to that person that the "official old age era" has hit!!  And I sure don't like it.  It seems mine gets worse every day, not just worse each year.....so does that mean I'm aging by the day I would ask???  But, of course, when I ask that question, no one answers me, so I guess I must form my own conclusions.....and the answer to my question is.....h*ll yes you're getting older by the day.....and you're a dummy if you think otherwise.  My reponse to that is....ok wise-arse......I was just asking.

So here I sit for hours at a time at my computer, with my knees stiffening with each hour I sit here.  SO...... my cure for that is..... not to give up my precious computer which has almost become a part of my body, but instead to stand in front of my computer for half the time I'm on it....at least my unhealthy knees and butt which is getting bigger and bigger from sitting so much, will not be so abused.  Amen.

Old Springfield

Entrance to Camp Lincoln, Springfield, 1910

Chicago & Midland Locomotive 2007

Springfield, 1950's

CIPS ice delivery truck early 1900's,

Springfield

Demolition of the old City Hall, Springfield,

7th and Monroe, June 28, 1961

Old City Hall, Springfield, 7th & Monroe 1908

Lamplighter Motel out by the Lake Springfield bridge

Parts of this still stand and are used as apartments.

Quote For The Day

A sence of humor is a part of

the art of leadership, getting along

with people, of getting things done.

--Dwight D. Eisenhower

How many nicknames do you have?  I have lots, and, most peeps probably do.  My most common nickname is "hey you"!  When people yell "hey you", I just know they are talking to me so I stop and listen to the important message they have for me.  Usually it's more in the form of a revised version of sign language....I call it "finger language" for sure, but for the most part when they yell "hey you" I get the "sign language one finger message".

Of course "hey you" isn't my only nickname.  I was once called "Boob" by an old neighbor who was straight from the hills of Kentucky.  That nickname stuck with me even after she moved back to Kentucky, and, when I once drove down to Kentucky to visit her, her first word when she saw me was "Boob".  God rest her soul for sure.

Curly Rae was another nickname.....as a child an old German neighbor's son used to visit our house often.  He loved my long natuarally curly hair (long gone) and he knew my middle name was Rae so it just stuck.  And at least one of my siblings, still calls me that name.

Carly has always been a nickname....through school, and in my working days, Carly stuck. 

Once I started doing history research and writing this blog, a nickname fell upon my head....."trailer park humorist".  That has stuck and I've made several references to this nickname, but.....I'm still trying to discover what the heck is a "trailer park humorist"???? 

 In addition to all of the above, I've been referred many times to being a "history buff", "car enthusiast", "witch" (and similar with one letter changed), "jerk", "idiot", "sicko", "pyscho", "betty crocker", "doll", "doll lady", "mama", "mom", "mother", "mamalama", "grandma", "grammie", "gram" and "honey".....those are the ones I can quickly recall.

Let me tell you.....I have so many nicknames, I can hardly remember my real name.  And, I sure don't know which of the nicknames best suits me.....I guess it depends upon the occasion and the interaction with a person.

So for now, I will sign off.....as the trailer park humorist.  Simply because I'm fascinated with this misnomer (??? maybe or maybe not).  Adios!

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Chawin Tabacky In Days Of Old

Back before us......

Many folks who landed in this area came from Kentucky or the foothills of West Virginia and Virginia.  Can you imagine what it was like to travel in those days of old?  Horrible thought.

Once they got here the whole day was taken up with hard physical labor.  Clearing trees, cutting logs for cabins, chopping wood for heat, plowing the fields with a horse, planting crops .... and at first maybe the plowing was totally by hand if no pull type plow was available.  Crop gathering in the fall by hand.  The women also in the fields and then in the house to clean, sew, cook, for child bearing, child rearing, and the home schooling of the children.  Life wasn't easy back then.

Life definitely wasn't just sitting around and shooting the bull and chawin tabacky that the folks brought with them from the tobacco fields of Kentucky.  Although they may have had a big wad of tabacky in their cheek most of the day.  The Hooka Tooka album might have asked if your momma chawed tobacca, but I have a feeling that the respected women who landed in our area, didn't chaw much tabacky.  I might be wrong, but I somehow think that my women relatives didn't.  Although a little later, these women relatives might have had a few swigs of some traveling medicine show elixer...just to try it out to assure herself that her family would be safe using it....and she might have liked it so well, she had more than one swig to test it.   She was testing the snake oil claims of the traveling salesman to disprove any fraudulent medical practice claims!! How fun to her to get some cure all other than her homemade remedies she had up her sleeve for just about any type of ailment.

Can you imagine how the bodies of the menfolk ached after a strenuous day of physical labor?  The traveling salesmen probably sold lots of liniment....or the women folk must have spent hours mixing up various ingredients to come up with a homemade liniment.  Remember the study and practice of medicine wasn't as it is today.....a pill for every ailment so that you feel as if you own the pharmacy.  Back in the very early days, the doctors might not have been available.  When reading the documented history, this locale seems to have been pretty lucky with a fairly large number of physicians locating to this area. 

But the hard life continued for years for our ancestors in this area.  We sure need to be proud of these folks.....and if it weren't for them, many of us wouldn't be here.  So count your blessings that some of the men had time to sit and relax and chaw tabacky, and rest their weary bones .... then went to bed happy and ready to procreate so that life could continue in these there parts.  Displaced from the tabacky fields of the east to Central Illinois....the land of humidity and heat in the summer and extreme cold of the winter.  It must have been hard with no electricity and no air conditioners. 
Would our generation of people have been able to tolerate this period in time?  hmmmm

Case steam engine - Case Sattley Engine

Gang Plow....Springfield factory

By this time the men folk had it easier.

Sattley Bros. Plow Ad....based in Springfield

The Sattley Plow Works factory - Springfield 1903

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Unknown Local History

A Circus in Petersburg You Say?  And a Queen of sorts?!  Burlesque that is!

Sometimes history can be right under your nose and you still don't know about it.  In this area we tend to concentrate on Petersburg being known for Abe Lincoln, but, until recently, I didn't realize  there were so many history related items that enriched Petersburg during the days of old.  Thank you to all of my friends who gave initial information on pieces of history that I didn't have any knowledge of.

One of the people with the most notoriety (besides Abe Lincoln) was Amy May Coomer, who moved here with her mother when her mother married a Petersburg farmer, Curtis Hinds and lived on his farm (according to the 1930 census).

It seems Amy May Coomer attempted to change her name to "Evelyn $50,000 Treasure Chest West" in the Menard Circuit Court.  You see, Evelyn West (aka Amy Coomer) was best known for her bosoms.  Her famous 39.5 inch bust was insured through Lloyd's of London for $50,000.  She was apparently also known as the "Hubba Bubba Girl" and was a burlesque legend in the forties, fifties and sixties.  Wow a stripper among us!  Miss West died in 2004 in Florida.

Then thinking about fun things, I was doing some research and found some info on Petersburg being a former Circus mecca in the early 1900's.  I didn't know that.  There is a huge story related to the multiple circus people who lived in Petersburg in the days of old.  During the next week or so I will do some posts related to these circus people.

 I also found out there was a gas station and a store at the corner of Curtis Road and Route 123.  On the northwest side where the pasture is.  There is also an old small building there but in the early 1940's it was run by a person of the name Flumiydoal.  Thus, this corner got its name "Floomydoodle Corner".  Later it was ran by Ed and Haskell Pike who had the store and a trucking company at that site.

My trips down memory lane also led me to information about a Dairy Business which was along Route 123, right about where the rock waterfall is at the entrance of the subdivision at the top of the hill past the bridge going toward Greenview (left side).

Of course I already knew about the slaughter house which was located on the east side of the river, turning down a road at the end of the bridge.  The person who operated this was a relative of mine and also ran the locker plant on the west side of the uptown square.

(Cheese Factory)

Among other things, Petersburg also had a Cheese Factory which was in the building which later became the skating rink along the tracks.  E. E. Brass Canning Factory was known for canning pumpkin under the brand name "Man In The Moon".                                                  

(E. E. Brass Canning Factory)

The old brick yard at the far north end was a really busy place making bricks of all sorts for the needs of the expanding community. 

                                             (Petersburg Brick Yard)

And, of course, there was the Peabody Mine in Petersburg.

Did you know that Petersburg was greatly damaged in 1907 during an earthquake originating in the New Madrid Fault.  Towns all over Central Illinois had damage but Petersburg suffered the most.

A gruesome murder occurred in Petersburg.   Charles Houlden and his wife were constantly bickering and on an evening in March, 1884, he decided he couldn't take it any longer and grabbed an axe.  He hit his wife over her right eye then jumped on her chest and withdrew his dull knife and proceeded to saw her throat.  Even after all of that, his wife was still alive and tried to crawl to her son which her husband had threatened.  So Houlden again jumped on her with his dull knife and began hacking away again.  She succumbed to her injuries.  Houlden was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.  This was the first execution in the city and the last public execution.

(Jennison Hall at Old Chatauqua 1908)

And of course Old Chautauqua was well known all over the state.  It drew crowds by the hundreds.  It was founded as the Old Salem Cumberland Presbyterian State Chautauqua Association of Petersburg in 1897.                                                                                                        
                                                                 
                              



(Another Old Chautauqua building).







Our neighboring town and county seat is indeed rich in history....and I've only skimmed the surface.  Makes me a little jealous that our community didn't have as much.  Perhaps if it did, our little town would have grown to a huge city full of life and history.   Perhaps you knew about all of this history lore, but maybe you didn't.  And if you did, I'm sure it was fun to once again jog your memory. We will again visit history in the county in the near future.

Thank you for coming to my blog.

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