CITY BEAT: 9/11 ATTACK ON AMERICA BROUGHT US TOGETHER

    

     It doesn’t seem possible that it has been 23 years since America was attacked on 9/11.
     I shot the front page photo of three children, who were among many, gathered with their parents and other adults in Central Park on Sept. 11, 2001.
     The expressions on the faces of the children reflected the feelings of many on that infamous day when are nation was attacked.
     I didn’t get the names of the children or others that I shot photos of in the park that day. It just didn’t seem appropriate to intrude on their thoughts and time of sorrow and concern.
     I couldn’t help but think, when looking back on pages 4 and 5 of this week’s “Scrapbook” about local reaction to 9/11, about how united we were as a community and nation back then.
     When the terrorists attacked part of America, they attacked all of America, and we united to stand strong together.
     Today’s nation is very divided over who best can lead us to a brighter future.
     Unlike the aftermath of 9/11 23 years ago, when unity and prayer and strength defined our nation, we have been weakened by our division and inflammatory rhetoric and actions.
     Hopefully, and prayerfully, we will return soon to what unifies us — instead of what divides us.

     • COMMENT: Dennis Thompson, who grew up in Decatur, and is now a Knoxville, TN resident and subscriber to the Decatur Tribune, emailed me the following comment: “I enjoyed your article on ‘Re-membering Our Heroes of Years Ago’ in your Aug. 28 issue. Did your readers know that Gene Autry’s side-kick Smiley Burnette was a Central Illinois native of Summum, a small town east of Springfield? He was quite a country music singer, and accompanied my mother, Maxine Lowry Thompson years ago on the Clinton, IL radio station.
“Enjoy the paper and particularly enjoy the historical articles each week.”
     Thank you, Dennis. Smiley was a popular area entertainer when radio was in its infancy — before he hit the big time in cowboy movies and television shows.

     Smiley worked at radio station WDZ in Tuscola in 1929, obviously, before WDZ moved to Decatur.
     Smiley opened WDZ at 6 a.m. and ran all aspects of the radio station until 6 p.m., seven days a week.
Looking at his bio, I was surprised to discover that he was only 55 years old when he passed away in 1967 from Leukemia.
     By the way, WDZ’s studio on South Park Street in Decatur, later became the home of this newspaper when we occupied the entire second floor of that building.
     I converted the radio studio, where many of those early radio shows were done live, into a television studio for the years I produced and anchored the daily “Newsline” on WFHL-TV.
     I often thought, while doing the Newsline show in that studio, of all the stories about early radio stars those walls in that studio could tell, if they could only talk.
     (Of course, if the walls started talking to me, I would make a rapid exit from the building.)
     Having the newspaper and television studio in that building on South Park was also like “coming home” to me. I had been in the same studio back in the 1960s to do the “Thoughts For Today” program for most of that decade — and later appeared with Lois Howlett every Thursday on WDZ’s “Hotline” morning program.
     Today, that building is part of Busey Bank’s local operation. I toured the building a few years ago after Busey remodeled it and, although it looked great, there wasn’t anything left that resembled those days when WDZ and later, this newspaper, occupied the space.

     • SLIDING ALONG — I received quite-a-few comments following publication of my “Viewpoint” column about my lifelong history with the Hammond Church of Christ in last week’s Tribune.
     One of the emails I received was from lifelong friend Dick Cain who wrote: “Paul: I have many fond memories of that Church of Christ building growing up. However, you omitted the most fun part of our experience 75 years ago. As soon as services were finished, we hurried one block east to slide down the fire escape at the grade school. Life was simple then. We’ve both been blessed!”

     You’re right, Dick. I’ll have to confess that I liked climbing up the inside of those chutes and speeding towards the bottom with not much between me and that hot steel tube!
     Dick grew up in the Sullivan Church of Christ and members of the two congregations often visited each other for revival meetings, etc.
     The Hammond Grade and High School was where a lot of the community’s activity took place — and those fire escape chutes were our roller coaster rides!
     Of course, with the fire escape entrances at the top being closed, we had to climb up to the top on the inside of the long tube — and on hot summer days, the temperature inside must have been 120 degrees!
     I know that steel was really hot to the touch!
     Anyhoo, some of us discovered that putting wax paper underneath us as we started down the chute increased the speed of the descent and departure from the end of the tube at what seemed like the speed of a bullet!!!
     Thanks for the reminder, Dick, of what kids in small towns did long before we got our driver’s license — or the internet existed!
     As most of you know, Dick also became a Decatur businessman and owned Tom’s Grill on North Main for many years before his retirement.

     • DISCRIMINATION — My “Viewpoint” on page 3 of this week’s Decatur Tribune is about the discrimination against this state’s senior citizens who are forced to take a road test at a driver’s license facility every two years and, as they get older, every one year, to keep their license.
     Statistics show that senior citizens are among the safest drivers on the road and Illinois is the only state in the nation that discriminates against senior drivers with the road test.
     Illinois House Bill 4431, if passed, will eliminate discrimination against senior drivers. State Rep. Dan Caulkins of Decatur is a supporter of HB 4431.
     I appreciate his support.
     Age discrimination in renewing Illinois Driver’s License must stop!

     • THANKS to Greg Spain who took the time to stop by the Tribune office and leave one of my campaign buttons from my first mayoral run in 2003.

     Greg said he found the button in his father’s artifacts and thought I might want it back.
     That was nice of him, although I don’t see any more campaigns for mayor in my future. I ran twice and was honored to be elected both times and I never had any desire to serve more terms, or move up the political ladder to the state level. I have always loved being the editor of this newspaper.
     Campaign materials, such as buttons and other items, are still floating around in attics and other places where items are stored. It seems that everytime I’m looking through some old files, I end up finding something from those campaigns of yesteryear — and the memories of those days are always pleasant ones involving special people, places and events.

     • I JOIN Brian Byers on WSOY’s Byers & Co. every Thursday morning at 7:00 —something we’ve done for 22 years.

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