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His name was Johnny. He had dark auburn hair and was good-looking in a rugged way. A former military man, Johnny was 42 and married. He had two sons, ages 10 and 12. In 1968, one week after Dr. Glennon Paul arrived at the VA hospital in Seattle, Johnny died of lung cancer. Paul was […]

A dozen people showed up for a three-hour class on money management last Saturday at the 11th Street office of the Springfield Housing Authority. Leading the class was Tami Rechner, whose goal is to get these people out of debt. She told the class about one client who was 13 months behind on her $200 […]

ONE Shelly Michalowski’s eyes were a shimmering, contact-lens blue. Her hair was bleach blond, and she could flip it with near perfect control, wink, go from a smile to a leer–and never once stop talking. She was a five-foot-two-inch perpetual-motion machine, and every bit of it was fake. I wasn’t sure whether she knew this, […]

Gloria Donaldson-Sampson came to Springfield in the 1980s as an inmate of the Department of Corrections assigned to a work-release program at the Sojourn Shelter. She enrolled in classes at what was then Sangamon State University and was hired as a student worker at Illinois Issues magazine before her drug addiction seduced her into violating […]

“The last cigarette smokers in America were located in a box canyon south of Donner Pass in the High Sierra by two federal tobacco agents in a helicopter who spotted the little smoke puffs just before noon.” –Garrison Keillor, “End of the Trail” I tell my students that when Garrison Keillor wrote this satire in […]

The smell of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls wafts enticingly inside Dagwood’s Deli. Leaning against the restaurant’s counter, owner Tim Spengler smiles and says, “Just by standing here I can tell you who smokes and who doesn’t when they walk through that door.” Outside that door is where all the cigarettes are left. Spengler won’t allow customers […]

No, the Little Theatre on the Square isn’t little. In fact, it’s quite big, and in its heyday it had quite a few big names in show biz performing there. That includes both Broadway and Hollywood stars: Eve Arden, Alan Alda, Leonard Nimoy, Dennis Weaver, Betty Grable, Kitty Carlisle, and Mickey Rooney all worked the […]

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If you don’t happen to be one of those lucky long-term employees with enough vacation time stacked up to leave for a month, don’t worry–you can drive 100 miles southwest and find yourself a world away. Down Interstate 55 and west on State Highway 140 lies the tiny village of Elsah, nicknamed “the town that […]

In Springfield:Lost Bridge Trail begins at the Illinois Department of Transportation, at Ash and Dirksen Parkway, and wends for five miles on a shady, tree-lined asphalt path to Rochester. At the end of the Lost Bridge Trail is a mile-and-a-half loop that goes into Rochester Park. The Wabash Trail begins at Park and North, and […]

Things can get steamy in the summer around here–it helps the corn grow–so chill out with some cool live music. You’ll hear it from the rooftops to the Grandstand, in the streets and the parks, and in all your favorite nightclubs. Hardee’s Jam Fest kicks off the scene. The second annual benefit for Friends of […]