CITY BEAT: FROM THE ‘GOOD OLD DAYS’ TO FLYING KITES TO POSTAL SERVICE
Paul Osborne
Editor/Publisher
As you should be able to tell, from the subject matter of many notes and letters from readers that have been printed over the years, looking back to the “good old days” of Decatur is a popular feature of this newspaper.
Our “Scrapbook” feature, on pages 4 and 5 of each week’s edition of the Decatur Tribune, is a look at the “good old days” of our city’s past —especially the downtown area.
Needless to point out, the downtown of our city is much different than when many of us were much younger and a trip to downtown Decatur was like going to another world where anything you needed, or wanted, could be found in the heart of our city.
I’ve lived long enough to have been blessed to experience the “good old days” of downtown Decatur so, when I write about them, a lot of those memories come from a personal perspective.
As I’ve mentioned before in this column, when I attended Roosevelt Junior High School, I often rode my bicycle downtown to the Carnegie Library, which always fascinated me.
When I would leave that beautiful structure at Main and Eldorado, I always paused for a few minutes to look south down Main Street to see the Transfer House in the distance located in the middle of Lincoln Square.
There was just something special about that sight which, as a junior high student, fascinated me — like all of the downtown area.
As this week’s “Scrapbook” article points out, the presence of Decatur/Stephen Decatur High School downtown created a lot of activity and enhanced shopper excitement.
Many of the high students also worked at some of the downtown stores when they weren’t in class, to make some extra spending money.
Like many of you reading this column today, a lot of fond memories exist of the “good old days” of downtown Decatur and we tend to forget some of the parts of those days which were not so good — especially when compared to the conveniences of today.
I remember that many of the countless stores downtown didn’t have air-conditioning and, on those hot summer days shopping in some of those stores was almost unbearable.
I remember trying on suits on the mezzanine at Montgomery Ward, which was then located in the 300 block of North Water Street, and it must have been 110 degrees in that store!
Everybody in the store was sweating and the scent of sweat on clothing was not pleasant to experience.
What was pleasant was one suit I bought cost me $12 — which was about the average price of a suit back then.
I remember how great it was to walk into a store or restaurant back then that was air-conditioned! It was not as common as some might think because, when a restaurant or other place of business had air conditioning, they would put a sign in the window stating “air conditioned” because it would attract people to go inside —even if it was to cool off, because they might buy something while they were looking around as they cooled off.
Even though the downtown area has survived in better shape than many downtowns across the nation, I have to admit that, there are times that I look out my office windows on the fourth floor and see parking lots where many buildings once stood and I think of those days, businesses and people that are long gone — and I miss all of them.
I guess the “good old days” of downtown Decatur have a lot of life in the hearts of those of us who remember them.
I often wish I had enjoyed those days more when they were here, but I thought the downtown I knew would always be here and it disappeared.
I still love having our offices in downtown Decatur, and many improvements have been made over the years, but I think I could endure no air conditioning for at least one day just to go back and visit those “good old days”.
So, for those of you reading today’s Tribune who have no knowledge of downtown the way it once was, give those of us who do a little space to enjoy the memories.
• KITE FLYING — For those of you who are fond of telling newspaper editors to “Go fly a kite”, I now have a kite to fly — even more than one!
Thanks to Steve and Pam Shepherd of Decatur for stopping by the Tribune office to bring me a couple of Hi-Flier kites that Steve’s father picked up at a sale years ago. (Actually he bought several kites at the sale and Steve and Pam brought me two of them.)
They are now collector’s items so I’m pleased to be gifted them.
They brought the kites to me after reading the recent “Scrap-book” article about Hi-Flier kites in Decatur.
Guess what? One of the two kites they brought was the same as the blue kite (Little Boy) that was in the front page photo in the March 11th edition.
Now all I have to do is wait for someone to disagree with something I’ve written and tell me to “Go fly a kite”!
(Don’t get any ideas.)
• LAST WEEK’S General Primary Election is now history and the unofficial vote totals in Macon County are in and not expected to change.
The Republican Primary for Macon County Clerk was won by Marsha Webb with the following unofficial tally: Marsha Webb had 4124 votes or 52.99% and Kurt Younghouse had 3658 votes or 47.01%.
Webb moves on to face Democrat Bryan Smith in the November General Election and that should be an interesting race, with Smith and Webb running pretty efficient campaigns.
Republican Sheriff Jim Root has won re-election to another term by winning his race against write-in opponent Shane Beck — although the totals at this point are unofficial:
Root had received 4,674 votes out of 8,295 ballots cast in his race against the Macon County deputy and challenger but there are mail-in votes yet to be counted as I’m writing this column.
However, the result of that count isn’t expected to change the result of Sheriff Root winning re-election.
Winning the Republican Primary Election in the race for Macon County Sheriff is the same as being elected because there isn’t a Democrat opponent facing Root for the November General Election — as far as we know.
Those two county office races were the ones that generated the most interest during this campaign because they were contested.
WSOY’s Brian Byers and I discussed the results on last Thursday’s Byes & Co. program.
Results can also be found on the website of the Macon County Clerk at il-macon.pollresults.net
I’ll have to admit, there really wasn’t much on my ballot to decide because so many of the races, local and state, did not have opponents.
• WHOA!!!! I was stopped at the intersection of North Water and Grand the other day because the traffic signal was red.
While all of us (drivers) patiently waited for the traffic signal to turn from red to green, one driver apparently got tired of being stopped and decided to hit the gas and drive on through the red light which didn’t turn to green until a half minute later!
• THANKS to Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski for calling on Postmaster General David Steiner to address flailing USPS delivery rates that have impacted rural communities in her district. (Story on page 13)
Budzinski questioned why the Postmaster has continued to implement the so-called “Delivering for America” plan when the initiative has been proven to worsen on-time mail delivery rates and slow outgoing mail in rural areas.
Congresswoman Budzinski has been a staunch advocate of improved mail service.
As a business that is a huge customer of the USPS I really appreciate the Congresswoman’s efforts in improving our mail service.
• I JOIN WSOY’s Brian Byers every Thursday morning at 7:00 on Byers & Co. I always enjoy our weekly visits and hope you do, too.
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