Often, when driving on I-55 to and from Chicago, I while away the hours with word games. (How many words mean “dull”?) Until I reach McLean County, that is, when the towers of the Twin Groves Wind Farm come into view. Even though they’ve stood there for years – the farm was built way back […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Springfield’s city plan at 100
Rampant and haphazard growth after the Civil War left Springfield dirty, dangerous, unhealthful and inconvenient. The race riots in 1908 left the city’s worthy citizens with what we might call a reputational problem, so progressive-minded locals undertook a municipal housecleaning. The 1911 commission reform promised to fix politics. The election that same year of Willis […]
Posted inOpinion
The devil’s trumpets
In the Christian Book of Revelation we read that angels will sound seven trumpets to signal the apocalyptic events that will lead to a new kingdom of Heaven. I heard such a trumpet on my first night in my new apartment and it wasn’t announcing hail or blood or a mountain thrown into the sea. It […]
Posted inOpinion
Cracks in the earth
“Lutheran high school as hellmouth?” is a headline that I’d hoped to read when I heard that the ground at 3500 W. Washington beneath Springfield’s new Lutheran High School opened up beneath it in 2022. Disappointingly, no bloody hand had thrust up out of its grave to pull innocents down into the bowels of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Krohe khronicles
In “As the crow is bent” (perhaps my worst title ever), I explored the ramifications of my unusual surname. Unusual, that is, outside Cass County and environs. My father, on his travels around the country, would study local phone books in search of other Krohes and found none. I understand the name is uncommon in Germany […]
Posted inOpinion
The real Jim Krohe
James Krohe Sr. PHOTO COURTESY JAMES KROHE SR. I can only barely keep time, but while I could never be a drummer I love to talk with my father about the drummer’s craft. He’s worked as a professional musician for 76 years now – he’ll turn 90 this week – which means he’s been supplying […]
