End of a Historic Landmark

Gerry grew up in Benld, IL and lived there until we moved to Washington, DC once we were married.  I first talked to Gerry at the Coliseum Ballroom in Benld at a dance there in 1956.  The chat didn't go very well but I persisted and chased her until she caught me.  That is my story and I am sticking to it.

The Coliseum Ballroom was built in 1924 and had many big name bands of the era play there for many years until 1996 when it was converted to an antique mall.  Fats Domino, Tex Beneke, Louie Armstrong, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Kay Kyser, Count Basie, Everly Brothers, Ray Charles and many others played there and people came from all over Central Illinois to hear them play and to dance.  It was mainly a dance hall with a 10,000 sq ft dance floor and not a concert hall like now days where you listen but don't dance.  

Well, that all came to an end last night when a fire broke out and the place burned for 3 hours and it took 16 firefighting units to put the flames out.  The roof is gone and I would imagine most of the interior is gutted also.  My niece took the attached picture from her cell phone early on in the blaze.  The quality isn't very clear due to darkness and the smoke, but you can clearly see it going up in smoke.  Sad night.  

Newspaper Article on Fire 

The naming of Benld is an interesting story.  A wealthy land owner wanted to build an addition to Gillespie and name it after his daughter, but didn't get very far with that.  So he built the town and named it after himself; Ben L Dorsey.  As far as I know it is the only place in the world named Benld which makes it easy to search the internet as a key word.  Since it is located in Macoupin County, IL and there is only one Macoupin listed, that makes it even easier to search for events there.  Great for genealogists.

Hot Rod Dentist Office

As I mentioned earlier this week, things are slow around here in the boondocks.  A friend sent me an email about a Hot Rod Dentist Office and I thought it was pretty cool.  I googled the title above and came up with this website which featured the dentist.  Check it out, it is very cool and amazing that he did a lot of the work himself.  

Hot Rod Dentist Office 

I was working with some old pictures and came across our first house that we rented in 1960.  It was located in Kensington, MD and a co-worker owned it and agreed to rent it to us furnished for $95/month plus utilities.  He also wanted to sell it to us for $10,500 which we couldn't afford so we declined buying it.  We lived there for 2 years until we could buy our first house in Rockville, MD.  The rental house had the smallest kitchen I have ever seen, but it worked for us and our two young daughters.  It also had a large garage in the back but it was full of the owner's stuff and only a small part was usable.

Hot day & lousy leadership

I knew that it wasn't a good thing to say the weather was nice and we didn't have to run the a/c 24/7.  We were sitting outside on the porch this morning having a 2nd cup of coffee and watching the deer in the meadow feed for an hour or so.  During that time the temp went up 10 degrees and it was very noticeable.  By 2pm it was up around 99 degrees and very hot.  Back to the a/c for us.

Yesterday we worked on removing some old firewood that had decayed and wasn't any good for anything.  We used the wheelbarrow to truck it back into our woods and dumped it on a pile.  It will decompose very quickly back there and save us hauling it out of here.  We have to make room for some new firewood from all the trees we had cut down.  It doesn't really make a lot of sense to split a lot of firewood since we try and get out of here long before we need the fire in the cabin.  At least we will have enough to last a while if we are late leaving.

Do you all think the politicians will cut a deal and avert a meltdown in the financial market?  It seems like they are all trying to get the best deal they can and something will be worked out.  I find it amusing that Harry Reid says they will vote no on the House version before he even knows what the final cut will be and then say the Republicans are holding up the works.  Typical politics as usual.  I am so sick of all of these people and don't have much confidence in their ability to get the U.S. back on track.  What a crew!!!!


We need some old fashioned people in there from the top down who know what needs to be done and get some bi-partisan cooperation going rather than how it's been the past few years.   Where are the Sam Rayburns, Douglas & Dirksen caliber people when you need them?  


Ok, that is my political rant and I won't say anymore. 

Electrical Work Finished

The electrician showed up this morning and finished his part of the job to connect the meter to the incoming power lines.  West Penn Power called and said they would be a hour or so late getting there due to a higher priority repair that came up this morning.  They did show up and connect the meter to the power line and all is well.  

This upgrade sure was a long process and took almost three weeks from start to finish.  At least it is finished and we can move on to our next project.

We have a screened porch and the screening has been torn, ripped, etc over the years and needs replaced.  I thought I'd just buy some screen wire and do the job myself since it shouldn't be that difficult.  On to the internet to check screen wire prices and what a shock that was.  It looks like I will have to buy a 100ft roll of wire at $125 to complete the job.  I never imagined it would cost that much for screen wire.  Whew!

Cassie, Jack & Lexa went to Illinois to visit with Cassie's cousins and uncle out there.  They will be gone a week or so and we have the honor of feeding & watering their three cats for that period.  One neighbor will be helping so it won't be an everyday trip down the mountain to take care of it.

Not much interesting going on around here lately.  At least the weather isn't so hot and we don't have the a/c on 24/7.  

Hope you all are enjoying the summer wherever you are.

Another one bites the dust

The tree cutter came for the Jeep truck today all prepared with a car trailer and additional help.  The truck had sat so long that the right front brake had rusted to the point where the wheel wouldn't turn.  They jacked up the truck and removed the wheel and began to pound on the brake drum with a sledge hammer.  It took them 30 minutes of pounding and prying to get the drum off the truck.  After all that they put the wheel back on and were ready to go.  Not quite!  When they lowered it from the jack the truck rolled back into the woods.  Minor glitch.

The driver of the truck was a 6th grader who could barely see over the steering wheel.  That didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling being that there just a small space to back the pickup truck in by our porch on the cabin.  He managed to get it in there with outside help from his father.  Interesting!!

Eventually that extracted the truck and pulled it out onto the road in front of the cabin.  Loading it on the car trailer wasn't a piece of cake but they finally were ready to roll.  He came up and thanked me for the business and said to call him again if I needed any more trees cut.  Gerry wanted to get a picture of the Jeep leaving the area and had to hustle down there to capture this final shot of the the Jeep.   Maybe one day we will see it being driven down the road by the 6th grader again, but I think he will be a lot older before they get it road ready.  Good luck guys.

Cassie, Jack & Lexa came over for a ham, continental potatoes and squash dinner and it was enjoyed by all.  I mixed up some margaritas and we made it into a little party.  Later we played the game of Catch Phrase for a couple hours.  Friends Gloria & Doug introduced us to the game last winter and it is a fun game.  Lexa especially enjoyed the game and didn't want to quit, but three of us were so tired she had to hang it up. 

A clarification on this posting.  The tree cutter came to take down some dead trees that were threatening to fall on the cabin.  While here he noticed the Jeep and was interested in acquiring it, so I traded him the Jeep for cutting down a large dead tree.