Happy New Year

Into this life we're born
Baby, sometimes we don't know why
And time seems to go by so fast
In the twinkling of an eye

Let's enjoy it while we can
Won't you help me sing my song
From the dark end of the street
To the bright side of the road

Happy 2006!

Sangamon Valley Ghosts

To follow up on the Lake Club story, we now call attention to the Sangamon Valley Ghost Research Group. This intrepid set of ghost-busters has collected a long list of Haunted Locations in central Illinois, from Vandalia and Havana to Decatur and Elkhart.

Springfield has many haunted locations: the Dana House, Oak Ridge Cemetery, the Governor's Mansion, the Theatre Center, the Lincoln Home and Tomb, and the Old State Capitol.

SHS also makes the list, because the school site at Lewis and Adams Streets was formerly Hutchinson's Cemetery. Although workers moved all the old tomb stones, rumors linger that some graves remain and that a ghostly little girl named Rachel still wanders the halls.

The picture above is of SHS viewed from the top of the Illinois State Capitol building. It comes from a Community Atlas Project built by students in 2003-04.

Merry Christmas

Keith Schnepp

A lot of us are retiring these days, but not everyone gets publicity about it. This story ran in the State-Journal Register on Wednesday, December 21. Thanks to Judy Vicars Van Hagen for the note and to Judy Schnepp for the scan.

Congratulations to Keith on reaching this great milestone of life. (Or as an aviation friend recently said to me, "Welcome to the glide path.") We wish him all the best and many hours of fun, rest, and relaxation.

Winter Solstice

In case you missed it, winter solstice began on Dec 21 at 1:35 pm EST. This picture shows the sun at its southernmost position, giving the northern hemisphere its shortest day and longest night of the year.

Depending on your frame of mind, Dec 21-22 begins winter or brings more light. The word solstice is from the Latin sol, or "Sun," and stitium, or "stoppage." Many cultures have marked these days as the end of a calendar cycle and a time for major festivals.

In Greek legend, a grieving wife named Alcyone, or Halcyon, threw herself into the sea upon discovering the drowned body of her beloved husband, Ceyx. The pair changed into kingfishers or halcyons, and Zeus forbade the winds to blow seven days before and after the winter solstice, the birds' breeding season. Hence the expression "halcyon days," or tranquil waters.

Romans called this time of year Saturnalia, a time for feasts and gifts. Christians later adopted it as the time to celebrate the nativity of Christ.

So take your pick, short days or tranquil waters. Happy Solstice!

Barbershop Senators

I don't imagine anyone but Springfield locals can get to this event tonight, but it's the inaugural concert of the Barbershop Senators, a new male singing group that probably complements the famous Singing Seven.

In our day, Margaret Hausen formed a "Boys Double Quartette" and the only two names I can recall now are Fred Konrad as bass and Joe Hill as first tenor. The group is listed in our '57 yearbook but not the '58. Anyone recall the names and history of that group? Please add comments below.

And yes, that's the way the Capitoline spelled "Quartet" in 1957!

Reunion Committee

The reunion committee gathered on Dec 10 at Shakey's to visit and catch up on classmate news. According to Judy Vicars Van Hagen, they conducted no official business, other than "the usual talking, story telling and laughing."

In attendance were (Front row left to right): Keith Schnepp, Carolyn Baldwin Quinlan, Roy Borg, CE Welch, Judy McGaw Lewis. (Back row, left to right): John Brownback, Mary Houghton Elberson, Diane Gurgens Urbanckas, Judy Vicars Van Hagen. (click on the pic for a larger view)

Those unable to attend were: Janet Bailey Kerner, Linda Bradley Cozzolino, Bob Hails, Kris Hockenyos Tipps, Libbie Peterson Miller, Ann Tobin Hart, and Ron Wilson.

They haven't set a date yet for the 50th Reunion, but my calendar says that it's 943 days to mid-July of 2008. If you have any ideas for making that Reunion a special celebration, let's hear your comments below!

Lake Club Ghost

Diane Gurgens Urbanckas alerted me to a story today in the Journal-Register about a Discovery Channel program running tonight (Dec 9) on "The Lake Club Horror." It may appear at other times in other regions, so check the Discovery Channel site.

The Lake Club, located at 2840 Fox Bridge Road in southeast Springfield, was one of the town's few night clubs from the 1940s through the 1960s. It served late, presented big-name entertainers, and paid for them with gambling receipts from a guarded back room.

Closed in 1968, it reopened in the 1970s as a rock/disco club, and at that time the owners began to notice "ghostly" incidents, allegedly set off by a bar tender who had committed suicide there. The club burned to the ground in 1992 but the story lives on in tonight's TV presentation. We had our 10th reunion there in 1968, and here's the class photo to prove it.

Picture from the archives of the Springfield Journal-Register.

Springfield Rewind

Remember the Southtown Theatre? Above is how it looked in Jan 1949 and below in Nov 2005.

A great new site on the Web is Springfield Rewind, which offers visual tours of our town now and then. The fun part is interactive: place your cursor on a picture of Myers Brothers from 1967, and you see how it looks today.

Sometimes the results are happy, sometimes not. The Illinois State Journal building looks better today as the Historic Preservation Agency, while at 11th and South Grand, the old H. N. Blalock & Son store makes a sad "Beauty Supply" company now.

Author of the site is Russ Friedewald, a history and architecture buff who works with picture collections at the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library to document changing Springfield.

So far Russ has compiled pictures of Downtown and Southtown. He is looking for folks who have old photos; if you do and want to share, his e-mail is on the Rewind site.

Jack Leckel

1958 English teachers: Mary Sue Dilliard, John L. Leckel, Muriel Eastham, and Mary Virginia Lamson.

One of my favorite teachers at SHS was Jack Leckel. He taught speech and drama at SHS in 1956-58, directing "Antigone," "The Skin of Our Teeth," and "Gold in the Hills." Later I saw him at the U. of I, where he was a graduate student in drama. He wrote and directed his own play, "Blue is the Antecdent of It," and judged the annual Stunt Show.

For a while he tried professional theatre in New York, and later moved to Chicago, where he had a long career training and evaluating teachers in the public school system. Along the way he wrote TV scripts and then cookbooks, all focusing on Illinois food, land, and history. You may still buy copies online; look for "John L. Leckel" as the author's name.



A few years ago, Jack retired to his home town of Collinsville, IL, where one of his childhood friends was Mary Sue Dilliard. There he has been active in historic restoration and in writing online reviews of drama books.

I no longer have Jack's e-mail, but Google gives his mail address and phone. When I corresponded with him, he was delighted to know that members of our class remember him.

On this Thanksgiving Eve, I'd like to thank Jack for bringing his lively, creative imagination into our lives. Day after tomorrow, I will try his recipe for turkey tetrazzini, in The Legendary Illinois Cookbook, page 219.

Dan Fernandes

Dan Fernandes leads an active retired life in La Verne, CA, keeping busy with politics, computers, hi-fi music, and (when time allows) tennis and biking. After earning degrees from Springfield JC and the U of Illinois, he worked at General Dynamics for 33 years as an aerospace engineer, mostly building missile defense systems.

In 1980, Dan joined a design team that built the world's fastest human-powered vehicle, "The Vector," featured on ABC-TV "That's Incredible" and also the cover of Scientific American. In the early 1990s, he earned teaching credentials in math and taught for two years at the secondary and college levels.



In recent years, Dan has been a member of the Libertarian Party and candidate for the California State Senate in his district. He stands for individual rights and free markets, and he invites friends and classmates to visit his web site and drop him a line.

Our Town in Photos

The Illinois State Journal-Register marks its 175th anniversary next year, 1831-2006. To mark the occasion, the paper has mounted a gallery of photos on its site, and one set features "Our Town: A Visual Journey," showing images from 1936 to 2005.

The above image depicts an early snowfall on October 16, 1945. The scene is the Old State Capitol, then serving as the Sangamon County courthouse. An American elm stands on the left, and the Springfield Marine Bank at the rear.

I don't know the year or the make of the car, but it looks to be pre-war. The war had ended two months earlier, and we were five years old.

The gallery has 32 images; credits and photo reprints are available at the SJR site.

Jon Corzine

Few people know that Jon Corzine, U. S. Senator and newly-elected governor of New Jersey, is an Illinois native. He was born in Christian County, on a small farm close to Taylorville, about 27 miles southeast of Springfield.

As a kid he joined 4-H and was a St. Louis Cardinals fan. He went to the U. of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, joined the basketball team as a walk-on, served as president of his fraternity, and majored in Commerce.

After earning an MBA at the U. of Chicago, he joined the investment firm of Goldman Sachs and worked his way to the top. He took the company public, winning a rep for being low-key, efficient, kind, calm, and casual--he wore sweater vests on the trading floor, while making billion-dollar deals. (That's Illinois for you.)

Some observers say he may be President one day. Right now he looks forward to moving into a governor's mansion, since his current home in NJ is an apartment in Hoboken.

Campus Life

I have been remiss of late in posting news because (a) no one has sent me any and (b) I am dealing with mid-terms. Mid-terms is half-way through the semester, when papers and exams pile up at faculty doors and all the students skip off to enjoy a week of vacation from their jejune duties.

Well, this time I am leaving ahead of them, going to Wisconsin for a week of rest and hiking. I will have e-mail access via a local cafe that grants wi-fi to patrons "who are willing to buy a little food," the owner says, so I'll try to stay in touch and not spill coffee on my laptop.

In case you wonder what a professor does, Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post recently wrote a column describing a course that he took with me. He's also mentioned it in a book, so I guess he wants me to change his grade. (Just kidding; he was a star pupil.)

That picture is of Princeton, but not my classes, for I prefer to teach indoors. And I do have some news to impart about a '58, so stay tuned for my next report.

Autumn Leaves

The University of Illinois Extension maintains a beautiful site for leaf-peepers, The Miracle of Fall. It has information on driving, hiking, and picture-taking for many areas across the USA. Updates on the progress of fall color, tons of photos, and even live Foliage Cams will help you plan a trip or enjoy the fall at home.



The image above is from the site of Matthew Kuehl, a talented photographer and musician from Grayslake, Illinois. All of his pictures are available for sale as custom enlargements; he provides an e-mail address at his site.

Elijah Iles House

Springfield's newest historic museum is its oldest standing house, occupied by Elijah Iles (1796-1883), the town's first merchant. He was a friend of Abraham Lincoln and fought with him in the Black Hawk War of 1832. Iles later helped Lincoln bring the Illinois capitol to Springfield, and he supported Lincoln's campaigns for political office.

The Greek Revival house originally stood at the southeast corner of Sixth and Cook and later at 1825 South Fifth. In 1990, the Iles House Foundation incorporated as a non-profit group to give the home a new location on the northeast corner of Seventh and Cook. The foundation has raised funds to sponsor a restoration of the building as a museum and conference center.

Much of the Foundation's work has been a labor of love for Dick Hart, husband of Ann Tobin Hart. A Springfield attorney, Dick has tirelessly raised funds, hired architects and builders, and moved the project along to its grand opening date, September 23-24, 2005. He supplied this picture and many others for a blog I maintain on the Iles House.

In time, the House will anchor a neighborhood devoted to the history of Springfield, making our home town a premiere center for antebellum preservation in the Midwest. Dick and Ann have pursued this vision for two decades, and Springfield owes them much thanks.

If you would like to become a member and support historic preservation in Sangamon County, write to The Elijah Iles Foundation, P. O. Box 144, Springfield, Illinois 62705

Gas Prices

To folks in the USA suffering from gasoline-price shock, CNN presents a little table of "Gas Prices Around the World" that offers cold comfort.

Even at $3.00 a gallon, the US is far behind the average $5.50 charged in the United Kingdom. Most European prices are in the $4-5 range. In Asia, the average price is $2-3.

To get rock-bottom gas, you'd need to live in Moscow, Tajikistan, or Azerbaijan; and good luck on finding Western-style amenities.

In Venezuela the price is 14 cents a gallon, although the government monopoly charges far more at its 14,000 Citgo stations in the USA.

Rising prices hit hard at commuters and fixed-income retirees. What are you doing: driving less, riding a bus, or (gasp) walking? Comments are welcome.

Mother Jones

54 miles south of Springfield lies the village of Mount Olive, Illinois, featured today in the Washington Post as the last resting place of Mary Harris Jones.

Known as "Mother Jones" during her long public career, 1870-1930, she was a tiny, white-haired woman with a gift for passionate oratory. She fought against low wages and poor conditions in mines and factories, helped organize labor unions, and often went to jail for her beliefs.

The monuments to her today are Mother Jones magazine and her grave in the United Mine Workers Union Cemetery in Mount Olive. She asked to be buried there, with other martyrs of the labor movement, 75 years ago this summer.

Tom Cole '59

C. E. Welch sent me this obituary notice last night. Many '58s will remember Tom Cole from his years as a varsity basketball center, and for leading the SHS 1959 team to the Illinois state basketball championship.

George Thomas Cole: Ann Arbor, MI

Tom passed away Thursday, September 22, 2005 at the age of 64. He was born June 14, 1941 in St. Louis, MO the son of George and Lucille Cole. Throughout his life Tom was a very compassionate man who put others first. He was inducted into the State of Illinois Sports Hall of Fame for basketball. He graduated from U of M and was the captain of the basketball team from 1962-1963. He was a member of the Victors Club, and was very involved in youth sports. He retired as owner of Cole Associates, and was looking forward to enjoying his retirement.

Tom was an intelligent, honorable, and loving person and will always be with us. He is survived by his beloved wife of 38 years, Linda, dear children Christina Cole Slade (Mark), Tom Cole Jr., his precious grandchildren Madeline Dixon Slade and Andrew Cole Slade, sister Lucy (Don) Folger, and many nieces and nephews.

A Memorial Serv ice will be held on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 4:00 PM at First United Methodist Church of Saline with Pastor James Tuttle officiating. The family will begin receiving visitors at the church at 3:30 PM. A private family burial service will take place. Those wishing may make memorial contributions to Bank of Ann Arbor-George Thomas Cole Memorial Fund (to be used for stroke awareness and research) attn: Patti Judson 125 S. Fifth Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Published in the Ann Arbor News on MLive.com on 9/23/2005.

Customer Service Heaven

Tired of trying to call a major corporation and landing in Voice Mail Hell? Timothy Noah has written a series of articles for Slate magazine on how to find a human operator at those places.

He has also published a link to IVR Cheat Sheet, which offers a handy chart of instructions for evading voice mail at banks and companies selling cell phones, credit, insurance, computers, Internet, retail, shipping, telephones, travel, television, and power.