CITY BEAT: MEMORIES OF ANOTHER TIME IN DECATUR’S LINCOLN SQUARE

     The photo on the front page of this week’s edition of the Decatur Tribune, which shows the southwest corner of Lincoln Square in Decatur, was shot in the 1920s — a century ago!
     It shows a street car approaching the Transfer House with passengers waiting for its arrival.
     Despite what some of you may believe, the years of the 1920s were long before my time. (honest!)
     A few decades later when I came along, Lincoln Square was still a very active part of Decatur and the Transfer House was still in Lincoln Square —although mostly city buses, instead of streetcars, were stopping to pick up passengers traveling to and from the downtown area.
     When I was old enough to secure my first driver’s license in the late 1950s, one of the first places I drove was to Lincoln Square and around the Transfer House.
     It was like a rite of passage for this teenager. Driving around the Transfer House in Lincoln Square meant that I was legally mobile and could drive anywhere I wanted.
There was another  tradition that was kept for many years at the Transfer House in Lincoln Square. A bridegroom would push his new bride around the Transfer House in a wheelbarrow!
     I’m glad I got to drive around the Transfer House several years before it was moved to Central Park in 1962.
     Downtown Decatur was changing in the 1960s and I have no doubt that, moving the Transfer House from Lincoln Square to Central Park, took the heart out of the Main and Main streets intersection — along with recognizable history.
     I tried to re-energize the Transfer House, Lincoln Square and Abraham Lincoln’s valuable connection to that part of our city with my “Treasures of Decatur” program when I served as mayor.
     That’s the subject of my “Viewpoint” column in this week’s edition of the Decatur Tribune.

     • TRADITION CONTINUES — Although Jim Wrigley, who organized the Decatur St. Patrick’s Day Parade for the past 20+ years, passed away last month, the parade will continue this year as Jim’s daughter, Kate Wrigley Pletsch, has stepped up to continue her dad’s work in organizing the parade.

     The parade will step off at 11:00 AM, Saturday, March 14th, in downtown Decatur.
     The Grand Marshal this year will be Vicki Wrigley, in honor of her late husband, Jim.
     If you have any questions, or want to join the parade, call or text Kate at 217-855-4874, or e-mail at [email protected].
     I always enjoyed being in the parade during the years I served as mayor.
     Since Primary Election Day will be on the Tuesday following the Saturday parade, look for candidates and their supporters marching in the parade with plenty of signs — and lots of candy!!!
     After the parade there will be a party at the KC Hall at 520.

     • THE DEATH of civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson at the age of 84 last week, stirred a lot of memories of my contact with him many years ago.
     There is no question that Rev. Jackson is, and will always be, remembered for his impact on America’s civil rights movement.
     Wherever he went, he attracted enormous attention with his strong personality and message.
     I interviewed Rev. Jackson on my first GE Cablevision program in the 1970s at the studio/office that was located on North Water Street at Grand.

     I don’t remember much about what we discussed in the interview, but what I do remember is how he walked down the hallway and into the studio.
     He walked rapidly, like a man on a mission and he was not going to let anyone stop him from accomplishing that mission.
     Years later, I covered Rev. Jackson’s return to Decatur in connection with a major protest to lessen the suspension of seven Decatur students who were involved in a fight in the stands of a football game at Eisenhower High School.
I covered, through photography and articles, every aspect of those days of protest —which drew nationwide attention with members of the national news media gathering in Decatur to cover the protest.
     I remember being interviewed on several television news programs on NBC and other major networks.
     I also remember getting into a debate with a protestor who had been spreading false information about crowd size, the Decatur Police Department, and other aspects of the protest that I witnessed with my own eyes.
     I was on one show I had never watched and didn’t know much about.
     I told my oldest son that I was going to be live on a show called “Hannity and something” and he exclaimed, “You mean Hannity & Colmes?”
     Apparently he had watched it.
     He drove me to a location that night in front of a church on East Prairie Street and the interview/debate took place outside near the church building.
     I remember the other guy who was going to appear with me, and I, being told, “We’re about ready to start. Make sure and mix it up!”
     I think they wanted a little controversy (smile).

     • THE NATIONAL news media personnel were in Decatur for several days so I did remote interviews at several locations in the city.
     When another big news story broke out in another city several days later, all the big television network trucks disappeared about as quickly as they arrived.
     An NBC station in Chicago still wanted to interview me about what was happening in Decatur, but wanted me to drive to Chicago for the interview.
     I decided my network tv interviews had come to an end, because I wasn’t going to drive to Chicago to do an interview when I had plenty of work to catch up on at the Tribune.

     • ANOTHER memory I have of the time I was doing those network tv interviews was when a guy from another state called the Tribune and wanted to speak to me.
     When I got on the line, he told me he was upset about something I said during one of the tv interviews and told me that he was going to get me fired.
     He then asked to speak to the owner of the newspaper.
     When I told him that I owned the newspaper…he paused…and hung up!
     That made my day!!

     • I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00 to discuss the news of the day on the City Hall Insider.

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