Going Down Memory Lane

Friday Alta and I drove to Alton to meet her brother and his wife. I'm 62, have lived almost all my life in western Mercer and Rock Island counties, Ill. Going thru all the small towns, I remembered as a kid looking at all the tractor dealerships we drove past. As a kid, usually didn't remember the names of the towns, but when entering the town, we could tell you what brand of tractor we would see there. Also remembered some of the farms, well kept, busy farms with tractors and livestock. Now they are mostly run down or only a building or 2 left to mark where they were. We went to Carlinville, Lincoln, Mt. Pulaski, Peoria and Lake Fork. Remember driving from Morton to Lincoln one fall night. South of Morton on 121? we went past a nice farm with a big double crib by the highway and in the field by the highway the farmer was out plowing with probably a 44 Massey, heat houser and lights moving right along. The crib is all that's left, but I can still see the guy plowing at night with the wind blowing the dirt around. In Roseville there was a restaurant we sometimes stopped at. After eating, we would get a peppermint patty 2 for 1 cent. Beardstown had a ? tastyfreeze? that had huge tenderloins sandwichs, and sometime we stopped at Woo's Chop Suey in Macomb. Don't remember what we ate, but they always gave a small box of Chicklets with 2 pieces of gum inside. Time changes everything, sometimes I wonder if for the better or not. Oh, well, you all have a great day. Chris

Ya,I hauled canned milk in to the local milk plant back in 73-74-75. I've had dreams about getting up in the morning and heading out to follow the old route. I know I couldn't do it anymore though. I was down on the south end one time and was going to at least follow part of it back home. I headed back and a road I used to drive was gone. I followed the new road looking for where it should have hit a road that it used to curve in to where I had a stop,but I couldn't even find that road. I wandered around until I finally found my way back to civilization.

Chris
Your little trip down memory lane struck a chord with me. I am close to your age--65. Like you, I have lived almost all of my life in one county, Macon county, IL. I can remember when Macon county had a least a dozen farm equipment dealerships. You had your choice of AC, Ford, Case, IH, JD, Massey, Minnie Mo, and Oliver. Today, other than 2 dealerships that specialize in fertilizer and chemical application equipment, there are no farm equipment dealerships at all in the county. If you need to buy a tractor, combine, tillage or planting equipment, you have to go somewhere else. Yes, time changes things--Not always for the better. Tom

I too am at that 60 year mark. I moved 1400 miles from my hometown. I was there five years ago and I do not think I will ever go back, its just too heart breaking. Corperate greed has eliminated all the really nice family farms, they have leveled all the trees and buildings. In the town itself there are empty buildings and fast stop gas stations. No café, or to make matters worse no bars. So I think I will rely on my memories to go back home....

Super99: What you saw yesterday is the result of a continued farm mechanization and rural population shrinkage.

In my area here it is not as bad as in many areas but you can see it all around here too.

The saddest one for me is the LARGE old stone/brick Churches, that where the anchor for families and communities, just setting there slowly wasting away.

In the areas of Saskatchewan where we harvested there are a lot of old country churches with their cemeteries with the wrought iron fences, sitting abandoned. Some were still stately and some were caving in. Some of the cemeteries were kept up and some were overgrown with prairie grass. All the abandoned churches I saw were either Roman or Ukrainian Catholic. I wanted so badly to go inside the old churches to look around but I didn't dare. Most of the names on the tombstones were either in German or Ukrainian. To me these sites just exuded the history of the Canadian pioneers. Jim

Animal:

Yeh, I hear ya neighbor. I'm 67, Grew up in Burbank, Calif. (suburb of Los Angeles). When I graduated from High School in 1965 the population of Burbank had just passed the 100,000 mark (too many people). When I went back in 2001 for my Mothers funeral the population of Burbank was over 1 Million (WAY, WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE).

The community where I live now - Pahrump, Nevada - had just hit 2000 people when I moved here 35 years ago. Now it's holding right around 38,000 (still too many people for me). I'm a "country boy" at heart, I don't mind living near a City but I don't want to live IN one.

Doc

seen the comment on cemetarys in our county its the job of the county to take care of them. local kids went out and found these old cemetarys marked what the could and now there being taken care of again .yes its more taxes but dont forget some of them could be family or stood there ground on some old battlefield to give us what we have today.sad job i had plowing a field that had part of cemetary stones had been pulled and throwen in creek by former owner.

My Aunt & Uncle lived between Illiopolis and Nianic. My 2 cousins still live in the area. Know any Johnson's?

The country church I grew up in is wooden frame, and slowly rotting down. My great-grandparents, grandmother, and great uncle are buried in a cemetery behind it, and I cringe whenever I drive up to check on the graves.

It would be a blessing if someone torched the church.

25 or 30 years ago, a local farm wife wrote a weekly column in a local newspaper, usually personal interest stuff. One time she commented that their usual summer vacation consisted of driving past farm machinery dealerships at 15 mph.

There aren't that many dealerships around anymore, and the ones that are left are the huge ones, all with the same high dollar equipment.

Off the subject, but I gotta tell this. One time she wrote she accused her husband of snoring so loudly she couldn't sleep. He denied it. So she snuck a tape recorder on a timer by their bed. The next morning, she triumphantly played him a tape of some ungodly loud snoring.

He replied, "Nice tape, but as it happened I wasn't feeling well so I got up about 11:30 and spent the rest of the night in a recliner in the family room".

Oops!

Supper 99, did you see the corn in the field at Mt Pulaski, just north between the fertilizer plant and the elevator on both sides of 54 and the tracks. Some big farmer must have forgotten it. We were going from Farmer City to St Genevieve, MO.