When you're in Farm country....

When you live in Farm country you're bound to see farm related things, shows and activities. Yesterday was the tractor show at the local library. Due to graduation's,  turnout was light but the ones that did come were classics in of themselves.

There was a beautiful McCormick Farmall "M" series tractor produced from 1939-1952. There was a colorful Allis-Chalmers (Model D-15?) sitting there. I saw a 1936 McCormick-Deering Farmall F-20 in fine shape and even a Steam powered Mystery machine. The only thing I could make out on this was "The Westinghouse company 1 1/2 HP). The man operating it was having a grand time using the sawmill attachment cutting wood for the firebox.  Even the kids got into the act with a selection of riding pedal tractors.

So you don't have to go far to find unusual sights in Illinois. Sometimes it's a forgotten cemetery, an unusual headstone, or a leftover relic from the World War. Just follow your nose and take the road less traveled. You might be surprised what you'll find.

Want to give a big Shout Out to the folks at Walton's Tap

We got sterling service, reasonable prices and generous hand made burgers. Thank you!!  Plus we met a colorful fellow by the name of William Eckberg. More from him later.

A Forgotten Future

If you listen hard you can still hear the sound of laughter. The sound of pans clanging in the kitchen, a tractor working in the fields, the family gathered around the radio in the parlor. While on a recent outing we came across this forlorn and forgotten house along a peaceful back road. The old house is leaning to one side, obviously weary of bearing its burdens for so long.

It was just down the from St. Mary's cemetery so if you get down that way be sure to go past the cemetery and reflect on a quieter, simpler time. A time when kids played in the yard and parents sat out on the porch at night and listened to the crickets chirping and the sound of bright laughter as the kids used their imaginations to whisk them away to strange and wonderful new worlds.

I had a few photo's left over from the cemetery trip so I'm including them here as well. Know of a great place that needs my special attentions? Drop me a line and let me know.

On the Lee county line

Recently went out with my friend Tom Anderson and we drove up past Ohio to see what new treasures we could find. We were just about to leave Bureau county when he spied a cemetery way down one of the side roads, so we drove down to investigate. Turned out to be St. Mary's catholic cemetery.

St. Mary's, also known as the East Grove cemetery, is just over the county line but serves Immaculate Conception catholic church in Ohio. It's a quiet, peaceful spot with large trees and gentle breezes to bring one peace and calm. The cemetery is well maintained, no broken or out of place stones and there's a well and pump on site. We saw predominantly Irish names but we didn't venture too far as there was a crew there trimming the trees. There's several large and unusually shaped headstones, which I'll show here.

So if you happen to be driving out that way be sure to stop for a moment and pay your respects to the people who came before us and enjoy this quiet spot in the middle of the fields.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder part 2

Last Saturday I went to the air show in Peru honoring our WW 2 vets. There was fun, excitement, and So many vintage planes you could scarce take them all in. There were fly by's, flying in formations, period music was being played and several people were walking around in period uniforms and flight suits. One fellow had a full get up including leather flying helmet and an inflatable life vest in case he had to ditch!

Though there wasn't as much colorful nose art as I would have liked ( Pity ) many did have colorful names. "She's the Boss", "Spanish Lady", Naked Fanny" and "Ida Red" were some of the ones there. There were single engines, twin engines, biplanes, monoplanes, fighters, observation planes, jets, and oh so much more.

If you didn't go you truly missed a great show. But as it was wrapping up there was talk of doing it again next year so you may have another chance. Be sure to take it. Again kudos and many thanks to Lil Sidekick Nick for walking around and taking photo's I couldn't get to. Be sure to check out his interior shots of one of the TBM Avengers showing the rear gunners station and a mock torpedo in the bomb bay.

Into the Wild Blue Yonder part 1

On Saturday Lil' Nick and I went in search of another kind of forgotten memorial. In Peru, they had an airshow/fly in honoring WW 2 vets. There were nine TBM torpedo bombers there out of the fifteen that are still flying in America. There were half a dozen T-6 Texans. There were a couple WW 2 Russian YAK aircraft. Thee were four Stearman biplanes. There were smaller US planes, there were military jets, There was so much to see and experience I'm sure I missed half of it.

One of the highlights of the day was a tribute to the vets as four of the Tbm's flew over head, one plane breaking off in the classic "Missing Man" formation as the speakers played Taps.

In fact, There was so much to see that I cannot show it all in one post so this is going to come to you in two parts. Big shout out to my Lil' sidekick Nick for taking a lot of the close up pics I couldn't reach.