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7/7/2008
Where neighbors help neighbors
Mrs. Dooley and I had the great pleasure of spending the July 4th holiday in the small berg of Chillicothe, Illinois. Chillicothe borders the Illinois River on Route 29 about 15 miles north of Peoria right in the heart of the corn-belt.
First let me say that our hometown of Racine does the 4th of July right. Racine hosts the Midwest’s largest parade and puts on a darn nice party and fireworks display every year. However, Chillicothe has something Racine can’t offer. My Grandmother.
We take the four and a half hour drive to visit as often as possible. My Grandmother is 90 years old and proudly proclaims it to everyone she comes across. She knows more about life than any person I’ve met! - and I treasure every moment we spend together. She has taught me more than either of us probably will ever understand.
Much of who Grandmother is comes by way of where she is from. Chillicoth – one of those old fashioned towns where the downtown is three blocks long and everyone knows everyone. When we took my Grandmother out to lunch at her favorite local dive, The Track Inn, the waitress refused to let me pay the bill. As she put it, “I know Clara, and I’ve seen her angry before. I don’t know you.” She put me in my place all right – though Grandmother did let me pick up the tip!
The Track Inn, as most of the other businesses in Chillicothe, sported a collection canister for the Chillicothe 4th of July fireworks extravaganza. It seems the cost of the 50 minute fireworks show would be $20,000 – and the town was asking for help.
Every time I get to this sleepy community of just less than six thousand, there is a pancake breakfast to raise money for a new ambulance or a raffle to help a neighbor in the midst of a personal struggle.
Neighbors help neighbors there; they take care of their own. And do you know what else? The community doesn’t buy that ambulance until all those pancake breakfasts have raised enough money to pay for it. In Cash.
Something quite odd happened at about 10:30 Friday evening after both the town fireworks and the backyard variety ceased. I guess people respected their neighbors enough to hang it up at a decent hour. Imagine that.
People in Chillicothe aren’t worried about state budgets, illegal immigration, the war in Iraq and they are certainly not worried about the sky falling from global warming. The folks in Chillicothe are worried about the price of gas, because they need to fill up their truck to get to work.
I’m sure they’d like to have enough left over to go to this Saturday’s pancake breakfast.
As for my Grandmother, I hope next year she’ll be proudly telling everyone she’s 91 and hopefully she’ll let me buy lunch.
Fred Dooley blogs regularly at Real Debate Wisconsin.
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