Almost two weeks ago I drove from my home in Georgia to visit my sister in mid-state Illinois. She lives in a tiny farming town about 20 miles from where we both went to college, where her second son just received his master's degree, and where her youngest daughter is now a sophomore.
Small town America. Went to pick up my great-niece from grade school the other day and the gal who was helping funnel the kids to the right cars cheerily said that she was letting me pick Madison up because she saw my car, with the Georgia plates, in my sister's driveway during the week. A second time I picked Madison up I went by the little local IGA market. That same gal was behind me in line, and another woman in line said she wondered who owned the "Georgia" car. Quite the stir in this little square mile town.
The homes are charming and (mostly) well-kept. It's fall so people put out straw bales, corn stalks, pumpkins and scarecrows. There are locks on doors that are never used. Car keys are left in the cars. I still think you can even sign a counter check at the little grocery store.
These are hardworking people. This little town started around the grain/corn elevator many years ago. For a long time the residents were farmers who had moved "into town" when their children took over their farms. Other residents were those who worked in the elevator, bank, and little store. Things do change; the hardware store just closed as the owners' kids didn't want to take it over when the owners' reached retirement. But they got a "Casey's" down at the end of town. The library has also been refurbished.
Most folks now work in either Peoria or in Bloomington at State Farm. So there is a steady stream of traffic out of town each morning, and back again in the evening. Rush hour. (My sister, a school teacher who moved out here to raise her kids, used to get frustrated when she had to actually stop at a stop sign because there was another car on the road!) About 25 miles to either city through corn and soy bean fields. Keep the 55mph speed limit for sure -- The only ticket I ever got in my life was driving 62mph in the middle of endless corn fields with no one else on the road but me and the good officer.
I grew up in a small town, Lake Bluff, about 50 miles north of Chicago. Great place to be a kid. So is Minier.
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