Yesterday We Went to Town

Mornin'!

Warning: longest post in the history of the blog... may take a while to upload! If you don't have time to read now, please come back, I've put a lot of time and energy into this one! :)

Yesterday we went to town. Let me tell you a little about "town" before I show it to you.

My parent's farm is in a very small farming community 12 miles outside of Mt. Carmel, Illinois. For simplicity sake, my whole family is either from there or currently lives there. It's a very small, quaint town with a population of 7,000 and sits on the western bank of the Wabash River, which separates it from Southern Indiana. It, like many other small towns, has been affected by the larger retailers moving in {or nearby} which almost always results in the starvation and eventual death of a downtown {or in their case what they refer to as "uptown"}.

My parents have, for as long as I can remember, had a vision and love for Mt. Carmel. They both grew up there, knew it in it's "prime", graduated from it's high school and I imagine, for the rest of their lives will do their part to improve it, love it, and continue to have a vision to return it to the thriving community that it once was. Unfortunately, finding others with an equal vision, admiration of the past and love for a small town has proven to be the most challenging part.

Before I go on, I will clarify that the town itself is not dead, nor is it desolate. It is however, a town that has been greatly affected by the closing of plants and the closing of mines. The uptown has retailers, but the street lights that used to change from green, to yellow, to red now simply flash red. The traffic is not heavy and I would dare to guess that only every second, maybe third building is occupied. There is no Walmart in town, but there is one across the river. There is no KMart. There is no Target {although there used to be}. There is Pamida, Dollar General, Family Dollar, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut and a few others. There is a very small handful of locally owned restaurants, unfortunately, none of which are located uptown.

Hadley's, up until a few months ago, was the only place uptown to eat. Unfortunately, it fell victim to a fire {which totally destoryed the building adjacent it} and with no insurance there's no hope for rebuilding or reopening it or the other 3 buildings that fell victim. My Papa {DaddyBoy's dad} used to go to Hadley's every morning at 6 am.

My parents own the building that houses "Blades". The building to it's right was another victim of the fire, and the owner didn't have insurance. It's sad to think that it will likely sit like that until it either falls down or someone is willing to buy it and rebuild it. My parents use the space above Blades to house their "office". They have a real estate business, not the kind with brokers and realtors, they rent homes, duplexes and retail space.

I love to imagine what life once was like when Mt. Carmel was thriving. I also love to imagine what went on in the beautiful houses that are perfectly spread around it. Yesterday, my mother very graciously drove me around town and very patiently allowed me to get out often and snap some pictures. It's not exactly a tedious job for her, she too, loves older homes, and this town.

Our first stop is the second piece of real estate they bought and restored. When my grandfather died my parents bought this house for my grandmother, Mimi to live in. {Mimi also reads the blog and corrected me yesterday that Brooke Shields did not come from a yard sale, she bought it when I was little, put it in the attic and forgot about it until she recently moved.} A few months ago Mimi moved out of this house into a smaller duplex that is more energy efficient and suitable for a widow.

It pains me to tell you that this house is for sale. My childhood memories of Mt. Carmel are centered around this house. Not only does it have a history with me, it has a history with our Nation. It's one of the oldest houses in the state of Illinois and the cellar was used as part of the underground railroad.

It sits on a tree lined, brick street.

And still has many of it's original architectural features.

Including, it's beautiful original Walnut floors.

I have so many memories of Christmas in this house. Santa always came down that chimney you see. We would wait at the top of these narrow and steep stairs. I can hear my Aunt Kaye, "Oh girls, you aren't going to believe who's been here!!! And you're not going to believe what he brought!!"

Then they would open the door and we'd run like mad to the family room and tear into our presents.

I tried to convince Mom that this needs to be their "town" house. We broke it down. We often break houses down, you know, evaluate them, what needs to be done, where the table should go, where furniture should go, what needs to be done in the kitchen. I think I'm close to convincing her to remove the for sale sign that sits in the front yard.

We went up stairs. Mimi has only recently moved out and I've never seen the house empty and I certaily have never seen the attic empty. You can imagine my surprise when Mom opened the door and showed me this:

There is a piece of brightly illustrated linoleum on the floor. I've never seen anything like it.

If they sell the house, they cannot sell this with it. If I could figure out how to get the wallpaper off in one piece I would also insist that it not be sold with the house either.

We went back downstairs and I reminisced about all the meals that my Mimi prepared on this stove. And if it wasn't too much to request that the wallpaper and flooring not be include in the sale of this house, I would also like to request that the stove not be included either.

My mom came across a box of Mimi's things that haven't made their way to her new home. I was somewhat offended that she didn't take us with her and hang us over her bed. Just so we're clear, I'm NOT the one with the tongue out! :)

They say twins skip a generation. In our case, they're right. This is Papa {DaddyBoy's dad} and my Uncle Harland. {Harry & Harland} They too are obviously twins.

At this point in our outing Morgan is screaming, "I want to leave now! I am not having any fun! My hands stink and I want to get out of here!" So we quickly took her {& Paige} to Mimi's new house and dropped them off. She has candy bowls and cable television, we knew they'd be just fine.

Hornet stayed with us. We couldn't do that to her.

Before I continue on with our tour... I must interrupt this post with a hilarious story. My parents built several duplexes in Mt. Carmel {Mimi is pictured here in front of hers}. I noticed one of her neighbors had some "yard ornaments". I commented on them to mom. She went on to tell me about these tiny deer.

My parents have included in the covenants and rescrictions of the neighborhood that no tenants are allowed to display yard ornaments. When Mom saw these little deer appear before Christmas she knew something needed to be done. The tenant was in Florida over the winter so mom went over and collected the tiny deer and placed them in the tenant's garage. Almost immediately, the neighboring tenant, who obviously didn't see mom in action, called the police to report them stolen. It made the front page of the paper the next day. {click here for the newspaper article} Mom had to make a few phone calls and turn herself in. She called the tenant to inform them that she was the deer burglar. He thanked her for placing them in the garage and never asked "why" and so once he returned from Florida the deer made their way back to the front bed, and are still there now. Mom thought they would get the hint but apparently they didn't.

Ok, so after "discussing" the deer we hit the road, with camera and JM in tow. Our first stop happened to be one that they own.

It was built by a tug boat captain who made his way from New Orleans {which you can tell by the architecture} up the rivers to Mt. Carmel. I love the details & the porches. To give you an idea of the "market" here in Mt. Carmel, this is a 3 bedroom house with a carport {my parents added} and it rents for $600/month.

Our next stop was another house they own, but haven't finished restoring.

It's an old "American Gothic" that sits above the levy of the Wabash River. If you come to town from Indiana it's the first house you see {on your left}. It used to house 30,000 books; card catalogized, organized by subject matter and stacked on shelves floor to ceiling. My parents recently sold the entire lot of books to a book dealer. They paid $5,000 for this house and $5,000 for the books in 2005.

Mom took me inside. What I wouldn't give to hear the stories these walls could tell!

Our next stop was another "American Gothic" that my dad used to live in. My grandparents lived in this house when I was very young, and if I recall, lived in this house until my grandfather died in 1986. I have "Christmas memories" in this house too.

My grandparents didn't own this home, they rented it. My father never understood his father's lack of desire to own a home. Papa rented every home they ever lived in. I attribute my father's overcompensation of "home ownership" to his father's absence of. My parents started buying property in Mt. Carmel the late '80s and have only recently stopped.

We continued on to look at houses that have been beautifully restored. {My parents don't own these.} And before we look at them I'm sad to report that for every beautifully restored home in Mt. Carmel there are 100 that are in desperate need of attention. These pictures were taken around noon, the worst time of day {in my opinion} to take pictures, please excuse the strong shadows.

These folks have recently added a garage and did a FABULOUS job matching the architecture and look of the original house.

Next door there is a beautiful Dutch Colonnial.

Most of these houses are on Cherry Street, the same brick street that Mimi's house is on.

Every house is different and there is no lack of charm.

This is where we stopped... we were hungry and knew Mimi would start to wonder about us!

Be back soon... maybe with a farm tour! We're headed to Evansville, IN today to take the kids to the zoo. They don't know we're going and I know they'll love it! I love a surrrprise!