Strasburg Lions to hold fish fry
STRASBURG — The Strasburg Lions Club will host an all-you-can-eat fish fry from 4:30-7 p.m. Friday, March 25, at the Strasburg Community Center.
The menu also includes potato salad, coleslaw and baked beans. The cost is $12 for adults and $6 for kids 12 and under. Proceeds will help fund community projects and the visually and hearing impaired.
Williams Elementary to hold ‘Teacher Chase’
MATTOON — Arland D. Williams Elementary in Mattoon is holding its Teacher Chase 5K and 1 Mile Color Run and Walk fundraiser on at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 26.
There will also be age group awards for the top three finishers in the 5K race only and a participation ribbon for all 1-mile fun run/walkers.
The registration fee for the 5K Run/Walk is $30; $20 for the 1 Mile Fun Run/Walk. Register online at runsignup.com/westeacherchase
Additional race information can be found at https://www.mattoon.k12.il.us/.
This is a family friendly event that includes a competitive 5K run/walk as well as a 1-mile fun run. The event will also include a post-race after party which will include bounce houses (weather permitting), ninja course (weather permitting, DJ, tattoo station, and food vendors.
Crooked Creek fire district to hold hog roast
HIDALGO — Crooked Creek Fire Protection District in Hidalgo will host a hog roast from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2. Free-will donations will be accepted for the meal. The event will also include 50/50 and gun raffles. The grand prize for the gun raffle is a Springfield Armory Hellcat 9mm or $500 cash. Tickets can be reserved at 618-367-6200.
My Town: Clint Walker’s memories of Coles County as pulled from the archives
Cosmic Blue Comics
From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a “greenspace”.
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured, Shelbyville’s Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin’s Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an “Ocean Pacific” kind of kid.
Icenogle’s
Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle’s…but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that’s not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills
I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam’s Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I’m seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music
Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn’t buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all went down. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver’s license fresh in your wallet, you’d be right. But it’s the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year’s Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette’s
Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out at Vette’s back in it’s “heyday,” and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough in parking lot fights.” If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.
