September and October 2017 in Illinois

We arrived in Fairview, IL, on September 13, Wednesday, and parked in our usual spot.  Yay!  Good to be back in the “land of our roots”!  

Saturday, September 16, Cottage Hospital School of Nursing (from which I had graduated in 1968) held its annual all-school reunion.  The school has been closed for 46 years, having graduated its last class in 1972…yikes!  Two of my classmates had planned to attend the gathering and so did I.  As always it was wonderful to see very dear, old friends, Mary Frank Smith and Peggy Hennenfent Hannam.  So many of my early nursing idols and mentors were among those who attended.

One of the joys of parking Abe in little-town-Illinois is the access to many lightly used blacktop roads through the country.  We did lots of bicycle riding, even through Coal Hollow, up and down 8 leg-burning hills!   Our route took us east of Fairview on Rt. 17 and the first road north…through all the strip mine land and the dreaded Coal Creek Valley.  Toward the end of our stay we got pretty good at this route, making the round trip with out any rest stops or crying!  You might have noticed all the little "lakes" on the map.  This area was once heavily strip mined for coal and the trenches the big shovels dug have filled with water to create many lakes.  Although it was great for wildlife and fishing, a lot of rich Illinois farm ground was completely destroyed.

One of our high school friends lived only about 70 miles away so we decided to meet in the middle for dinner one evening.  Bill was in our wedding and, although we had lost touch for awhile, we’ve been able to re-connect in recent years.  Sure was easier now that we’re all retired. 

We had many get-togethers with Jerry’s parents, Jim and Maxine, only a block from where we were parked; and lots of other family and friends.  These gatherings revolved around three things…food, pitch-playing, and reminiscing!  So good to see all of these folks!  

The highlight of our reunion weekend has always been a wiener roast and hayrack ride at the little farm outside Fairview.  The house hasn’t been lived in for quite awhile, although Jim and Maxine are out there almost every day doing “stuff”.  The old well was struggling to keep up with the water needs so Jerry and his brother Don decided to do an upgrade.  This turned out to be quite a project!  They put in a new pump, a new water line between the well and the pump, and rebuilt the “pumphouse” (the hole at the bottom left of the photo).  Good to have such handy guys around!

Our Illinois church home has become Trinity Lutheran Church in Canton, although neither of us attended church growing up in the area.  We’ve attended often enough to have made some friends, and actually remember first and last names of a few folks!  We particularly enjoyed Pastor Micah, who had been there about a year.  As a relatively young man with a creative bent, we looked forward to enjoying his innovations and ideas!

We also enjoyed attending the London Mills Methodist Church, where my parents had attended for years, after they moved to London Mills.  We know lots of folks in this congregation, including Charlie and Suzanne, my brother and sister-in-law.  Coffee hour, following the service was good for lots of catch-up conversations!  Usually we went to Sunday dinner at my sister Carol’s house following church, always a treat, because she cooks like Mom!  I had previously taken her some rhubarb so she had made a rhubarb pie for dessert…my very favorite…yum!!  Seeing Carol’s granddaughter Zelda was always a treat!  That little girl was quite a character!

I’m just going to have to bore you with some family reunion photos!  This was fourth annual gathering and the best one yet!

Our two daughters, Jill and Joy, plus Jill’s husband, Bob and their daughter Lauren arrived on Thursday evening.  Friday the ladies gathered at Aunt Dorothy’s house for lunch (while Jerry and Bob worked on the well) and made cupcakes.  Friday night we planned to celebrate Jim’s and Maxine’s 90^th birthdays and needed cupcakes to add to Aunt Dorothy’s German chocolate cake.  Lauren was a big fan of the frosting!

Friday late afternoon we met in Farmington, at Charlie and Suzanne’s for an evening pizza and birthday party.  We had time to go to the park with my niece Kelly and her family.  Lauren and Kelly’s little girls are all about the same age.

“Happy Birthday to you…..”

I think Jim and Maxine were surprised!

Saturday afternoon some of us went to Big Creek Park in Canton to enjoy “A Taste of Canton”…food booths, bands, face-painting, bounce houses, train rides, etc. (Let me just say that the photographer said to make a sad face and apparently I was the only one who heard her!  Apparently everyone else heard "looks cute").

Lauren, Shyla, and Sheldon thought the face painting was pretty cool.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the farm.  Jim and Maxine love that we all love to join them and have a wiener roast.  The photo shows them standing just outside the back door of the old house and is such a good photo of them!

The little kids, all from the city, found hand-shelling an ear of corn intriguing.  Lauren and Lauren (yep, there are two in the family!) tried to fill a bucket.

Gathered around the fire…some good-looking Woodall’s!

Great Aunt Dorothy with her great nieces Jill and Joy, our daughters.  Although Dorothy is Jerry’s aunt, she is 7 months younger than he.

We had a beautiful afternoon.  Nothing like a hayrack ride through the cornfield to the back pasture to give everyone a happy time.

Lauren demonstrating her tractor-driving skills.  Her dad Bob and Grandpa Jer kept a watchful eye!  All eight little kids wanted to drive the old John Deere, except Shyla who was happier playing with Aunt Sally’s cute pup, May Belle!

Sunday morning some of us met at Lakeland Park in Canton to feed the ducks and run around the playground.  Shyla and Lauren were buds.

The Woodall side of the family…the middle generations.

Sunday evening we were in Fairview at Jim and Maxine’s for dinner.  The “kids” table is in the living room!

Monday morning it was time for the more formal shots!  Almost everyone got the memo to wear some pink!

What a wonderful reunion!  We have rescheduled the 2018 reunion to June, to accommodate school schedules.  We will do all this again in about 9 months!

While we are in Illinois, we did a lot of “remember when” touring.  Monmouth Lutheran Church was one of the churches of my childhood, where my paternal grandparents attended, where my cousin was married, and where I attended my grandfather’s funeral.  Lots of happy and sad memories here.  This Swedish Lutheran Church was founded in 1853 and the services were originally held only in Swedish. 

Brian and Debbie Kennelly, friends from high school who live just west of Burlington, IA, are always good for some serious pitch playing!  We spent a Saturday night with them and took a break from card-playing to tour Burlington, an old Mississippi River town.  The photo was taken at Mosquito Park on the bluff above the Mississippi.  You can imagine how this park got its name!

One of my nursing school classmates, Mary Smith, and her husband John invited Jerry and I and another classmate and her husband, Marilyn and Leon, for dinner one Saturday night.  I hadn’t seen Marilyn since nursing school and she had not changed a bit!  Between the “remember when” conversations and the “you won’t believe” nursing stories, it was pretty deadly! But the guys hung in there!

Our friend Dick Shirk, from Anacortes, came to join us on October 18.  He had heard us talking about growing up in the cornfields of Illinois and wanted to come check out this exotic locale!  Since our destination after Illinois was central Kentucky and the bourbon tour, Dick wanted to ride along!  What would you include on a tour of the town and country where you grew up?  Jerry and I talked about all kinds of stuff.

Dick flew in to Peoria, IL, so, of course, the first place we took him was a microbrewery in downtown Peoria.  The building, built in 1889, was a former Presbyterian Church and Donmeyer Temple.  The remodeling was beautifully done!  Not only that but the beer was good and the food was delicious.  An auspicious beginning!

We toured Dick through Canton, Galesburg, and both farms where we lived as kids.  He got a farming tour with our friends who were harvesting, and lunch at the Fairview Café.  All good stuff.  These old tractors of Jerry’s dad’s were a highlight! 

Thursday, October 9, we pulled up the jacks and headed for Louisville, KY, to taste some bourbon with Dick…that’s the topic of the next blog.  I’ll get caught up yet!