Mayor’s Row…………….by Ned Mitchell

          Moving the downstairs office is always a dreaded job, actually clearing my desk is a daunting task in itself, but the move that needed to be made was something I had put off for a long time.  I kept saying I’ll do it on some rainy day, but when the rains came I found other more pleasing chores that needed to be done.

          The wife has decided that we need more closet space hence the move of my office from the east side of the basement to the west.  Even though my office now shares a downstairs basement I do have a bigger desk and more room.  I’m sure one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to keep my office much more organized and neater.  I am also sure that will be one of the first resolutions to go out the door!

          Moving old boxes of things that have been accumulated to go through finds we sorting through items that I thought were important enough to keep.  That includes just about everything from ink pens that won’t work to coupons that are outdated by two years.  I did find a treasure chest made of card board containing old newspapers and of course my clean up got derailed while I started to read.  The first paper and the only one I read that day was a Benton Evening News issue of April 8, 1958.  That was the Tuesday after the Easter tornado of the previous weekend.  I clipped a picture of Aileen Kelly’s house that was destroyed by the tornado.  I gave that picture to Alderman Carroll Kelly who was at home in the basement when the house was destroyed.  I well remember that the Mitchell family was in Christopher visiting my grandma Mitchell when the storm did a lot of damage to Sesser.

          For days after the storm Sesser was abuzz with clean up work and site seeing folks traveling to town from outside the area to view the damage.  At Stidd’s service station on 148 South attendant Boogie Ames was busy filling up gas tanks on visitor’s cars all the while telling folks to be sure and visit a farm just outside town where the tornado had plucked the feathers off a chicken before sucking it up in a glass milk bottle.  That story, believe it or not, was believed according to lore by everyone who heard it as they drove off looking for the freak of nature.

          I also clipped and mailed a laminated copy of U S Attorney Courtney Cox hunting Easter eggs in Benton.  The picture was captioned Art Courtney Cox which I noted was an error not caught by the editor of the paper.  I believe the correct name should have been Aud Courtney Cox but I will have to check my facts on that one.

          Of course it is always fun to look through the ads in the old papers to see what things were selling for then.  There was an ad for a Studebaker car, a lawnmower for $69.96; Egyptian Venetian Blinds of Christopher had an ad promoting 24 hour service, stoker coal and Sylvania television.  Two businesses I noticed, Gibbs Insurance and Biebel Roofing Company both of Benton are still in business today.

          A front page story that about employment statistics caught my eye and brought on some research.  In March of 1958 there were 5,198,000 people out of work in America.  Today, according to my research there are 10.1 million Americans out of work.  The rate of unemployed was 7 per cent in 1958 compared to 6.5 per cent today.  Now if I were writing like a politician I would point out that things are much better today as we have one half percent lower unemployment rates than we had 50 years ago.

          But then I came out of my day dream thinking about life in 1958 realizing that I lived during those times as a 10 year old boy in Sesser.  Reality brought me back to Sesser today and the absolute mess we are in right now in not only Illinois but America.

          Out of 50 states in America, Illinois ranks 49^th in education funding.  Funny, I don’t recall anyone mentioning that fact while running for office in the election we just had.  Another disturbing tidbit of news is that despite the fact that Illinois has crumbling roads, bridges and schools, has over 4 billion dollars in bills that it cannot pay, Illinois taxpayers are getting ready to hand over a big windfall of $70 million dollars a year to the horse racing industry.  That surely must be one of those things hidden somewhere because it too did not come out during the last election cycle.  That amount of money would hire 600 new much needed teachers in Illinois but the simple fact is our politicians in Springfield would rather take care of their gambling proponent buddies than fund education.  This all comes on top of another huge windfall of $76.5 million dollars the horse race business got in 2006.  This is all in addition to a $30 million dollar tax cut rack owners got in 1999. So they are paying $30 million dollars per year less in taxes and getting $140 million dollars more on the income side from the taxpayers.  The clincher to this whole story is the fact that since 1994 the track owners have given $5.4 million dollars in campaign cash to Illinois politicians including $386,367.00 to our great reformer/unreformer governor.

          The thing we should do in this country is turn the economy over to the Illinois race track owners who have reaped $416 million dollars in benefits for a measly $5.4 million dollar investment!

          Goode Township Supervisor Bill Crocker has been in a Mt. Vernon hospital but should be home by the time this is published.  We wish him well in his recovery.

          If you have no plans for Thanksgiving you have a place to eat in Sesser for free.  For the second year in a row the First United Methodist Church will provide Thanksgiving dinner for those who are alone or not able to prepare a meal themselves.  The dinner will be on Thanksgiving Day at the Community Building from 11 am to 2 pm.  This is a fantastic service of the church for our community and we appreciate all that is done to make this holiday a special one.  You don’t have to be a member of the church, or any church for that matter.  If you want to eat a good meal and visit with other Sesser residents, come on out!

          The sad news today is the passing of our father in law Trent Terry of Benton.  Trent was seriously injured back in June in a motorcycle accident on I-57.  He had been in a coma since then and succumbed to his injuries early Sunday morning.  I had known Trent for many years, back to his childhood as I, like him and his family, became a Jaguar enthusiast.  He was extremely talented as a Jaguar enthusiast, race car driver, and businessman.  Our condolences go to his parents, sister, wife, and other family and friends.

          Ruth Sulser Babiak has also died.  Ruth grew up in Sesser and left the area to work and upon retirement she and husband John came back home.  They retired on a farm south of town but just recently purchased a house on South Broadway in Sesser.  Our condolences go out to this family, especially daughter Edie, as well.