Returning to My Home Town - Monmouth, Illinois

People always say, you can not go home again, meaning it just won't be the same. There will be too many changes and there will be no one left there that you know, except for maybe part of your extended family. This is not always the case, as I found out when I went back to visit my home town. I had been in California for nineteen years before going back to visit as an adult. My dad and his new wife still lived in the same house where my sister and I grew up. My Aunt and Uncle and Grandma still lived there and not much of anything had changed in town. I saw a few friends I hadn't seen in over 20 years. The restaurants were the same, the bank, many of the stores, the old roller skating rink, the movie theater and the bowling alley. Lincoln Elementary School, where I went to until the fourth grade, still looked the same as I remembered. Monmouth College still looked the same. There was still the town square, which is really a circle, surrounded by the library, Vaughn's Jewelers, the courthouse and jail and Bowman's Shoe Store. During Christmas time the towns people still put out the large nativity in the middle of the square. It was still cold, but the air seems a lot fresher there. There's still the snow and the ice, which I love! It was wonderful going back to visit my home town to spend Christmas with my family. It brought back lots of good memories.

I was born in the small town of Monmouth and I lived there till I was about nine years old. My sister came along almost three years later. My mom had no idea what she had gotten herself in to, the mid west, known for tornadoes, thunderstorms, lightening, giant hail stones, snow, freezing weather and humid summers. My sister and I never knew anything different and we were very happy there. We built snowmen during recess at school frequently and we did actually walk six blocks to school in knee high snow four times a day! There was no cafeteria at school and no eating lunch at school unless there was a blizzard. In the summertime we ran around barefoot chasing after lightening bugs till dark.

Our grandparents lived right across the street and owned their own moving and storage company, Vaughn's Moving and Storage. Our cousins lived just around the block and another aunt and uncle not too much farther away. Some of my best memories include my dad teaching me to ride my bike and taking me to my first movie, (Mary Poppins) at the theater. I also remember walking down to Main Street to watch the parade and attending the annual Prime Beef Festival. Other memories include swinging on the tree swing at grandma's house and eating homemade ice cream under that same tree. For a real treat we went and got hotdogs and root beer from Dog N Suds! We also ate tenderloin sandwiches, (fried pork) and Maid Rites, (a loose meat sandwich similar to a sloppy jo), but a different flavor and eaten with mustard, onions and pickles.

I moved away when I was nine, but went back many times to visit as a child and an adult. Everything was pretty much the same for years. When I was married, my husband and I even moved back there for about a year. While I lived there I worked at The Pottery Barn, a small retail outlet and tourist attraction where you could buy pottery made by Western Stoneware. Western Stoneware is known for creating the Sleepy Eye Steins for the Sleepy Eye Milling Company back in 1892. The steins are still made today and there are many collectors. Each year they produce a limited edition of the steins. . Each stein is numbered and includes the maple leaf emblem on the bottom of each. Monmouth was named the Maple City because of all the maple trees.

Some things have now changed. There is no more Dog N Suds, except for the root beer. Some other stores have disappeared and a few new shops and restaurants have taken their places. Some of the new places that are my favorites are The Soda Works and The Candy Store, (both have gift items in addition to food).

The town is around 165 years old, give or take. I was there during the Sesquicentennial, when the town turned 150 years old. Believe it or not there are still streets made out of brick including the street my dad still lives on in the same house where I grew up. The town is known for Monmouth College which was founded in 1853 and was one of the first 4 year coed private liberal arts schools around. There were also a few famous people who lived in Monmouth. Wyatt Earp is one of them, best known for his fight at the OK Corral with Doc Holliday. Another is Ronald Reagan, he lived in Monmouth for a short time as a child around 1918 and his dad was a shoe salesman. Last but not least a famous serial killer, Richard Speck lived in Monmouth for a short time. He killed eight nurses in South Chicago Community Hospital.

I loved growing up in a small town and I had a lot of fun researching the history and reliving those old memories again.