Picture of Middle America

Yesterday we went down to the little town of Murrayville, population 650. Wendell's brother Kevin and his family live there. They were celebrating 150 years. The parade was an hour long with soldiers, tractors, horses, church floats, Masons in their tin lizzies, tractors, family floats, and a quilt show at the Methodist church (with over 150 quilts). Wendell's nephew, Eli, is driving the lawn tractor pulling the float for the 4-H and his brother is walking behind throwing candy, his sister-in-law, Wendy, is walking with the group from the bank she works at. Did I mention tractors? I can't tell you how many tractors were in the parade, mainly old ones, antique ones, many farmers pride themselves in restoring old tractors and they even have a festival here in the fall dedicated to them. There was one in the parade that was steam powered! Of course one of the guys had to drive up in the newest, latest, greatest version - the tank looking one- boy have they come a long way! This area is mainly corn, bean and wheat crops, for as many miles as you can drive each way in Illinois. You will see some cattle farms, hog farms and even an occasional chicken farm, but it is mainly crops. The farmers are having a rough time this spring, we have had over 22 inches (that is about 5 inches above normal) of rain and they are not being able to get their crops in. Areas near the Mississippi and Illinois rivers (Quincy, Illinois has been on the news and is about 60 miles from us on the Mississippi) are being flooded, it is such a sad sight - acres and acres of crop land, homes and businesses are under water. We are at the mercy of the rain and snow thaw from the north as it travels down to the gulf of Mexico. Murrayville had three days of celebration, and a lot of sweat and long hours of work went into it - they did a great job!