Jacob and Marietta

My folks didn't drink coffee, so they traded their coffee stamps with people that didn't need as much sugar - we had such a large family, having a bit of extra sugar was nice! It's funny, I never noticed (as a child!) the barn smell - we raised a cow, chickens, and pigs. What I did notice, when it was my turn to wash the dishes, was when Dad brought the milk bucket in (from milking the cow) sometimes there was yuk! on the bottom of the bucket - it had picked up some of the mixture of manure and straw from the barn floor! I hated washing that off. But cowpies were fun (when they were dried out) - out in the pasture - we could fling them around (that was before frisbies!)or use them for baseball bases! I can still see the rows and rows of shelves of canned food in the basement! We weren't allowed to help ourselves - but once in a while, on a Sunday afternoon, Mom would let us bring up a 2-quart jar of grape juice and we would share it until it was gone! Yum! It was a lot of work, but it was just what you did! For us, it was the appricots that were the most plentiful - we had two trees and we could eat to our hearts content in the summer. Mom canned several bushels of peaches, purchased in Bloomington, and they were just for winter time eating! She made apple jelly from the apple skins left from making applesauce. I think being raised in the country (we only had about 3 acres on the edge of town) was a real priviledge!

I would like offer some thoughts on the controversy associated with the trophies of the consolidated school systems, as I think their true, immense value is being missed.

Those trophies of yesterday have become today's icons of history that will help the kids of today form a link to those kids of the past that are now their grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles,teachers and leaders of their community. This link quite literally will become part of the anchor of stability that their school and home town will be for the rest of their life.

The old trophies and pictures at the Dana Grade School (once the Dana High School) were the first glimpse I can remember of the history I was becoming a part of. I have traveled and lived throughout the world, including living in South America. "Home" has always been and continues to be my home town. While I have not lived in the community for 20 years, I pay Fieldcrest school district property taxes and do significant business locally because of the debt I owe my past. A debt that each of you owe as well.

For my niece, nephews and the other kids of today, the merged school is the only thing they will know. Like many other things in life, they will see Fieldcrest through different eyes than their parents. To the parents of today's children and the members of the board, how many know of the regular Sunday afternoon baseball games that were played between the towns in the 1890's? That part of Rutland is actually in the same county and township as much of Toluca? How many know of the train tracks that ran directly between Rutland and Toluca? Many will remember the train between Wenona, Rutland and Minonk, few the Rutland/Toluca line. If one knows how the town histories have been inter-twined from the beginning, one sees the merging of the school districts as a relatively small and natural blip in the history of the area.

The alma mater at the University of Illinois is presented: "To the students of today from those that came before". Something I did not "get" when I attended the university. But years later, standing in front of it, I feel the pull and understand the wisdom of those that came before.

I would like to propose to the superintendent and board of education, that we show this same wisdom and provide an anchor to our students of tomorrow. I would propose that we create a "History Case" at each of the schools within the district. Showing not just the trophies but other pieces of our local history. I assure you, it will be the most valuable gift of education of all to those students of tomorrow. A lesson, few will immediately understand but that all will "get" as they have reached the year of their 20th class re-union where I now stand.

Maybe other folks might want to give the history of their nicknames.

Keep up the good work.

I would like to buy him (and his only surviving brother, Walter) a copy of the book, Tales From the Trees by Ailene Hayes Schneider. Do you know how I can get two copies?

Thank you!

Jan Jones

I'd also like to thank Mr. Weistart for his latest Minonk story...just living in the 40's. The article was well written and VERY interesting, sometimes humerous. I hope his efforts encourage others to tell their stories, as well. I'll be looking forward to them!

When he was drafted into the Army in WW2 his name was published in the paper and when people asked who Francis Schneider was, I would say "Well that's Ollie".

As I sat writing his obituary for his funeral services I knew exactly how I had to start and it was "The Man Called Ollie". Nothing else seemed to fit.

Mike McKay

Keep up the good work.....really enjoy the site.

Sincerely