By Charlie Melton

It’s a pleasure to see our main streets come back to life. Not many years ago, every little town in our State was effectively dead. My (former) hometown of Carmi used to be so busy that it was almost impossible to get a parking place, especially on Friday night. That was in the 60s and early 70s, when I left the area. When I rolled back in to town in the 90s, it was like the zombie apocalypse had run out of prey and left Carmi, Fairfield, Norris City, and every other small town a bombed-out shell. Now, 30 years later, it seems we’ve had a renaissance of our villages.

For example, I got a call from my friend Trisha Coomer, in Fairfield. She thought I’d be interested in her and Jeremy’s business. They own what is known as an “Air BNB”, which I was clueless on. Long story short, they bought a building on Main Street and converted into a hotel, of sorts. It is what we Boomers call, “Far out and cool.” [Read more...]

The Michael Hillegas Chapter of the NSDAR, assisted by the Norris City Library staff, Crouch's Accounting, and many others collect food for needy veterans in Southern Illinois.

Pictured are DAR members, as well as members of the community, along with some of the food collected. Sheila Albright is the Veterans Chairperson