Collecting My Thoughts

J. J. Slayback posted his travels in northern Illinois on Facebook, including Mt. Morris, Oregon and Byron. Here's the piece on Mt. Morr...

 I was talking to my brother in Illinois the other day while sitting in our driveway soaking up the beautiful weather. One of the advantages...

"Click it or ticket. Buckle up." That is the banner at the intersection of Tremont and Kenny Rds. Golf course on the west. Luthera...

We've both been trying to remember the name of an electrician from Cleveland who was on Bob's Haiti team and was a friend on Faceboo...

Debra Lynn (Nall) Diehl, 67, of Mt. Morris, Illinois, passed away peacefully on July 5, 2023, after suffering from some heart issues earlier...

 I tossed all my blogging notebooks several weeks ago as part of my Lenten house cleaning.  That's where I kept my notes while reading t...

 Reception December 11, 2022, 2-4 p.m. Bob and Norma, married for 62 years and UALC members since 1976, have both been painting since 1972 a...

I can't recall when I signed up for Family Search, the huge Mormon data base of genealogy, but every now and then I get an interesting ...

Dave Graf recalls: "When I was a kid (starting as early as age 5), I loved to take Route 64 to Chicago to visit my grandparents. They ...

 Our book club met yesterday (via Zoom) to discuss Jacqueline Winspear's memoir.  She is the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, that my ...

I just watched a Fox News story on the damage social media is doing to young teen girls and their body images. I used to be a young teen gi...

My uncle Gramps was the husband of my dad’s sister, Marion, who owned the Tot and Teen shop in Mt. Morris.  Nice guy, but I didn’t spend a l...

It’s interesting that even liberals who see everything in the 21 st century as dark, racist and the fault of the GOP, can think of the 50s-...

It was time.  It was supposed to be just our 50th reunion blog for the Mt. Morris High School class of 1957.  Now we’re past 60 years since...

We had our fall Illinois Indiana trip this past week, celebrating my birthday there and seeing our cousins and siblings. On Thursday we we...

Yesterday I received a “Little Golden Book,” EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK. It’s adorable AND Printed in Chi...

The Mount Morris Index editor, Worthington Thomas, kept track of the town's young men during WWII. From the going away party at his pare...

"If we were to chuck every single educational “innovation” visited upon us by political hucksters in the last eighty years, and simply ...

In 2009 I was blogging about class stuff and found out from Nancy F. that there had been a documentary filmed in Mt. Morris in 1957 and that...

 I was in Girl Scouts and 4-H about 2-3 years back in the 1950s. I enjoyed both organizations and learned valuable life skills--patriotis...