March has always been one of the least favorite months of mine. Normally, this time of the year is when we have what is referred to as "mud season", especially in the rural areas. Everytime you come into the house you either have to wipe your shoes or take them off. And you always have to wipe the dog's feet before he comes in the house.

As bad as it seems now, it was much worse years ago when all the dirt roads would turn into a sea of mud, making passage anywhere almost impossible except if you cared to walk. Living in the country meant that you may be stranded in the same way as if there was a blizzard. It is hard to imagine how depressing that must have been.

My mother was born and raised in the country. When she went to high school she would stay in town during the winter with her aunt and uncle because it was too difficult to get into town everyday because of the road conditions. This was before school buses.

Years ago the county would pay farmers who lived along the major roads to drag the roads with their horses to get rid of the ruts and smooth out the road. Normally, this was down right before a hard freeze so that the road would be smooth for the winter. In the summer the roads would be oiled down to keep the dust down.

In the 1930's gravel was put on most of the rural roads which made the roads passable during the rainy season. However, gravel created clouds of dust when cars would travel during dry periods. I remember when I was young how dusty our front lawn would get from the gravel dust off the road. You could actually create little clouds of dust while walking in the grass. My poor mother would have to dust the house every couple of days to stay ahead of the dust from the road. If the wind was from the north we had to keep the front door and windows closed in order to keep the dust out of the house during hot summer days.

The other problem created by the gravel roads was that the dust created invisibility behind any vehicle traveling down the road. This led to many terrible accidents in which a car following another car's dust would run into an oncoming car that was hidden by the dust until the last second.

In the late 1940's gravel roads were started to be replaced with blacktop roads and now almost every rural road in Woodford County is blacktopped.

The City of Minonk had its brick roads laid around 1915 also. The brick streets are still in use today and give Minonk a special oldtime charm that most modern communities do not have. Minonk's brick streets appear to be indestructable and almost maintenance free. Can you imagine a paved road lasting 80 years! I wish that the city would repair the brick streets with brick rather than blacktop. The blacktop ruins the appearance of the street and will not last as long as brick. Minonk's brick streets should be treated as a historical preservation. It makes the city unique.

Travel has certainly been facilitated by the improvement of roads over the years. Narrow two-lane paved highways have given way to 4-lane interstate roads where you can literally drive hundreds of miles without encountering a stop sign or stop light and normally can pass any car you want without waiting for an oncoming car to pass. This ease of travel has created a new type of driver. A driver who goes as fast as he wants to with the minimum of interference. Even though there are speed limits, many drivers today ignore the limits and drive with abandon and freedom.

I couldn't help compare today's driver to travelers years ago. I remember reading in John Adam's biography on how it took him two weeks to travel by horseback from Boston to Philadelphia. Can you imagine anyone today having the patience and the constitution to take two weeks out of their life to go 350 miles on horseback?

Get out and vote!

The least we can do to ensure that our democracy remains intact is to get out and vote. Remember, if you don't vote, you can't complain.