Springfield- Summer-Illinois State Fair

What would summer in Springfield be without a trip to the Illinois State Fair. Dad, being raised on a farm, had a natural attraction. As kids, we would pile in the car on a weekend day and head about 10 miles to the fairgrounds.

After parking, we would all just hang around with mom and dad for a while visiting the various stables, crafts, food exhibits and then go to watch the prime entertainment at the racecourse. After this, we would break up and go out own way..... usually to the Midway!!!!

The Midway was fascinating. No, no, not just your routine fair rides, but they had exotic shows! Hey, I mean, really exotic..... As you passed by the siamese twin boys, they brought them out and here were two young boys conjoined at the hip...awesome. Then there was the bearded lady, but I always doubted that one. And, of course, the guy that turned into an ape, but you had to pay to go into the tent to see him transform.

But the best was all the way at the end of the Midway... the burlesque show. As young boys, we only went down that far if we were with our buddies on a day trip to the fair. The barker would bring a lady out on stage in front of the tent and she would shake a bit then go back in. All the time the music "WIPEOUT" was blaring as she wiggled and paraded in front of us.

To this day, when I hear that song, I don't think of some surfer boys in Hawaii, but the Illinois State Fair and that great Midway.

SHS Cross Country and State Meet 1962

After my sophomore year in high school, I realized that distance running was what I did best and would be my fastest way to a varsity letter. In those days, earning a varsity letter was a major accomplishment as these were not given out as "paticipation" awards as so many things are today. This had to be earned at the varsity level and had strict requirements. So that summer of 1962, I trained very hard. I ran almost every day with my best buddy, John Prillaman, in Washington Park, Illini Country Club and Pasfield Park Golf Course. In spite of the hot, humid summer weather, we logged up to 50-60 miles each week. When the season started in September, we were ready. We had a great team. John was by far the best runner and maybe one of the best in the state as a junior. We had a couple of seniors, including Allen Ice, juniors which included Prillaman and myself and one or two sophomores. We were deep, and we cruised through the early dual meets. We stumbled a bit at the Peoria Invitational, but still finished high and were regarded as a possible state meet contender. We won our Big 12 conference meet and placed 1st or 2nd in the district meet to secure a team spot at state. This would be coach Cochran's first time to the state meet with a team, and he was excited. The meet would be at 10 am Saturday morning at Urbana Country Club.

We left Springfield in two cars, with John, Allen Ice and myself with coach Cochran in his station wagon. He didn't say too much, which told the rest of us how nervous he was. When we arrived in Champaign, he stopped at a traffic light which was green. John nudged me and winked, nodding toward the traffic light. When the light then turned red, coach proceeded to go through the red light. We cracked up laughing so hard....lucky there wasn't any cross traffic. We stayed at a small motel outside town (lest we be enticed by the nightlife of a college campus) and had an early dinner at the Redwoods Inn which was an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord. In spite of a curfew, we horsed around till late at night with our own nervous energy.

When we arrived at Urbana Country Club the next morning, we all began to realize what a big deal this really was seeing all the other teams in their fancy sweats...New Trier, Evanston, Rockford East, Oak Park - schools three times the size of ours.  Coach told us about the course and emphasized that about 400 yards from the starting line we would have to go almost all the way around a green before heading nearly back the way we came. He said that if we didn't get around that green with the leaders that we would be strung out too far behind. So when the starting gun fired, all seven of us tore away like the hundred yard dash and we were all within the first 20 people around that green! Then we crashed! Lactate production sky-rocketed, legs became heavy and breathing labored. Prillaman still did reasonably well, but not as well as he might otherwise have done with a more controlled start, while Allen Ice and I finished 157 and 158 out of 164 runners....brutal!! Our senior year we returned to the state meet and did much better, and John received all state honors. To this day, I think cross country is one of the best sports for a kid - comraderie, shared pain and exhilarating finishes.

Springfield: First Day at US Grant Jr High

If you asked 100 kids whether they wanted to move towns when they were in the 9th grade, probably 101 would say, "No way!"(there would be another kid sneaking in just to say "Hell no!"). At first, the thought of moving from Rockford to Springfield was typically nightmarish. However, upon further reflection, I came to realize that there could be a silver lining. In junior high, I was a dork...and a geek....(probably like most 8th graders feel) with loser friends, no girlfriend, and no immediate prospects for a girlfriend...and probably typecast as such. How bad could starting over really be?

So in September 1960, we moved to Springfield and bought a house in Pasfield Park, and I was enrolled at U.S. Grant Junior High in the 9th grade. I got a cooler haircut (flattop), cooler clothes (nice jeans, a nice belt and yellow cotton button-down sirt), and tried to act really cool as I entered US Grant on my first day. School had been in session for a month already, so the Assistant Principal showed me to my first period class - Social Studies - and I took a seat in the back row. The teacher did not introduce me or comment on the new kids arrival. I did have a textbook, but had no idea what page we were on, so I leaned over to the cute girl in the next seat, and very coolly asked what page we were on, when "Bam!" I was hit right in the temple with a piece of chalk. The teacher glared at me and said that there would be no talking in his class unless I was called upon. "Yes, sir" I answered....meekly and embarassed and very un-coolly. Welcome to Springfield, Illinois!