Marshall City band concerts return
MARSHALL — The Marshall City Band will perform its first concert of its 147th season at 8 p.m. Friday, June 3, on the Clark County Courthouse lawn.
Heather Setzer, a member of the band for 22 years, has been named its new director as former director Blake Reynolds has excepted a position in Tennessee.
The concert will open with “The Huntress March”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “All Glory Told”, “Chillers and Thrillers”, Defying Gravity”, “Trombonanza”, “Amazing Grace”, Amparita Roca”, Ashokan Farewell, “Colonel Bogey”, and end the concert with “The Star-Spangled Banner”.
The band has been in continuous operation since 1875 with 50 band members from across the Wabash Valley.
The Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce will also be kicking off its Marshall Farmers Market to run each Friday from 4-7:30 p.m. around the courthouse square before each concert. Many organizations host ice cream socials during the band concerts and the Lion’s Club antique popcorn wagon will also be open each Friday.
Follow Marshall City Band on Facebook.
Embarras volunteer conservation day
CHARLESTON — The Embarras Volunteer Stewards will hold a workday from 9-11 a.m. Saturday, June 4, to remove bush honeysuckle and multiflora rose at Lake Charleston. Meet at the spillway parking. Work will be done on the hill above the shelter.
All are welcome, and no prior experience is necessary. Sturdy footwear and gloves are recommended. Tools are provided.
Visit www.embarrasstewards.org for more information.
Neoga community choir concert
NEOGA — The Neoga Area Community Choir will be presenting “A Summer Gospel Concert” on Sunday, June 12, at the Grace United Methodist Church in Neoga
The concert, which starts at 4 p.m., will include “I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary,” “Sweet Beulah Land,” “Where Could I Go” and “Till the Storm Passes By.”
A total of 11 songs will be performed, plus two additional specials by two of the choir members. The concert is free to the public.
My Town: Clint Walker’s memories of Coles County as pulled from the archives
Cosmic Blue Comics
From the Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo of Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent virtually every Saturday afternoon for about two years. That small back room you see just off to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean many, long-boxes of back issues. I still own my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue No. 1 that I found back there. Sadly, this location is now just a “greenspace”.
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured, Shelbyville’s Bob Murray from the June 2, 1982, Journal Gazette, displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at the Cross County Mall, later to be the Aladdin’s Castle, soon thereafter to be not a thing anymore. I spent just about every Saturday at that arcade, perhaps with that exact same haircut. No overalls, though. I was more of an “Ocean Pacific” kind of kid.
Icenogle’s
Pictured, from the Nov. 28, 1988, Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle’s…but when we did, even as a kid, I knew it was the way a grocery store is supposed to be in a perfect world, and that’s not just because they had wood floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or plenty, and I mean plenty, of trading cards in wax packs.
Cooks Mills
I had long since moved away from Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase item about Adam’s Groceries ran in the June 13, 1998, Journal Gazette, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those kids in that photo; for if it was summer, and you had a bike, and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report, they still had Tab in the Pepsi-branded cooler in the back. I’m seriously considering asking my money guy if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mister Music
Pictured, from the July 16, 1987, Journal Gazette, this ad for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I wasn’t buying records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all went down. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” to hang out at a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a piping-hot driver’s license fresh in your wallet, you’d be right. But it’s the best a geek like me could do. Wherever you are today, owners of Mister Music, please know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap bin changed my life.
Sound Source Guitar Throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target at that year’s Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest, from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Check out my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look carefully, those are Air Jordans you see on my feet. Addendum: despite what the cutline says, I did not win a guitar.
Pictured, clipped from the online archives at JG-TC.com, a photo from the April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing Contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
Vette’s
Here today, gone tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, from the June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out at Vette’s back in it’s “heyday,” and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough in parking lot fights.” If only I could get a crack at it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The end of the beginning, and eventually, the beginning of the end, from the Dec. 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had been paying more attention at the time. I probably should have been reading the newspaper.
