Oddly Nostalgic

Nathan and I had a little vacation this past weekend. Friday night we drove four hours north to visit my middle sister Anne, where she is going to graduate school at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota.

Here's the thing about this: Anne has been at Winona State for six years now, four as an undergrad and two as a grad student. For three of those years, she was joined by Elizabeth, who transferred to Winona during her sophomore year of undergrad.

Now, Elizabeth is in Alton and this May, Anne will graduate with her master's in teaching English as a foreign language and it will be "Farewell, Winona" for the whole family. As we spent time there this weekend, I started to feel sad and nostalgic about the place. Granted, I have been there maybe three times in the six years the girls have been there. But I've always liked it, as a place. When we went there when Anne was trying to decide where she wanted to go in 2004, I noticed how pleasant and "small-towney" it felt.

The university is not huge and the town surrounding it spreads out for quite a ways and still feels like a friendly area.

And it is replete with interesting places: the Winona Sandwich Company has the best bread this side of Jimmy John's. Last weekend I went with Anne to the co-op she goes to to get oats and other things for her made-from-scratch pumpkin pies. I had never been in a co-op--it was a nice store. The town sits on the Mississippi River and is bordered on one side by a long range of bluffs, which provide ample hiking. But it also has all the things a college town needs, including a Wal-Mart, Target and many restaurants.

I may not have been there quite often enough, considering it's where my sisters were spending their time. But when Anne moves on to the next phase in her life, I think I'll miss Winona a only a little less than she will

Haunted Alton Tour Kicks Haunted Macomb Tour's Butt

I love ghost stories..love them. I love the atmosphere in which they are usually told, I love the tense tingly feeling I get and the way the hairs on my neck stand up. I'm not sure whether or not I believe in ghosts, but I do know that I want to believe in them. When Nathan and I moved into the house we live in, I was fairly certain it was going to be haunted and I'm still not entirely convinced it isn't.

The unfortunate part of all this is that even though I love ghost stories, they do horrible things to my dreams. As a child one evening I watched a series of shows called Castle Ghosts of England...Ireland...Scotland. I was enthralled, I was excited, I was terrified. I went to bed that night and had the absolute worst nightmares of my life. I kid you not, I woke up crying at least twice. It was awful. I stayed away from ghost stories after that for the most part until college.

My freshman year, several girls on my floor and I saw an ad for Haunted Macomb Tours and decided that this was the perfect activity for a cold October night. In all honesty, I don't remember much of this tour. I don't remember all the places we went or the stories they told. I just know I didn't spend much of it being frightened. It was a fun way to spend an evening with friends, but that was about it.

Elizabeth's roommate was gone this past weekend and she called me a few weeks ago asking if she got tickets for the Haunted Alton Tour if I would go spend the weekend with her. If you haven't picked up on it recently from all the posts about it: I love Alton. It's a river town with a ridiculously fascinating history and my trips down there are a blast. On top of getting to see Elizabeth, I also get to hang out in Alton. I'm setting my second work of fiction there and whenever I find myself there, I do some research and learn interesting things.

Alton is also supposed to be one of the most haunted cities in the country. And given its history: 9 underground railroad stops, a Confederate Civil War prison, the death of Elijah Lovejoy, and many other incredible happenings, I wouldn't doubt it. Elizabeth is a skeptic and was really doing this for the stories (which were great) and because she knew I would like it.

We started the evening in front of a building which had at times been a private home and a hospital and now serves as apartments. The remarkable thing was that in the basement there was a "tunnel" which was a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was freezing cold that night so we were wearing sweaters and jackets and Elizabeth had the foresight to buy mittens, which I loved. Her coat had two zippered pockets in which she put her phone and wallet and kept them zipped up. We went down to the tunnel and came back out and Elizabeth said to me very quietly "My pocket is unzipped." It was the pocket with her wallet and that was the side I stood on. As her fiance pointed out over the phone, she probably just got it caught and it pulled open. I don't care, I thought it was awesome.

This was taken in the tunnel. It was dark, that's why the top of her head is missing.

We roamed all over Alton that night listening to stories, in one case which could easily induce the nightmares I was so sure I was going to have. We ended in a church in Alton which is supposed to be one of the most haunted buildings in the town. Those of us on the tour were instructed to sit in the pews and then the leader asked for two volunteers and I, of course, jumped up. Elizabeth was less excited, but came along like the good sister she is. We went into a big socializing room behind the sanctuary and the guide told us the reason he needed us there was because that room was usually particularly active and he needed us to vouch for him and so he could vouch for us when we said things were moved or different.

We took note of furniture placements and then he took us down a little hallway and stopped the doors and asked us to take note of which ones were open or closed. One was the door to the nursery, which was locked and the inside of the room was dark (there was a little window in the door.) We went back and sat in the sanctuary and he did his talk about the church history and why it was haunted and then everyone moved to the back room to look around. He asked Elizabeth and I to look around the room and go down the hallway to check things. As we were moving towards the hall way we passed through a spot which was noticeably colder than the rest of the room. I looked at Elizabeth and said "Cold" and she said "Yeah, I felt it too."

So we moved down the hallway and the first door I went to was the nusery door, which was locked when we were there with the guide. As I started to turn the handle it turned completely and the door opened. I turned to Elizabeth with eyes which, I'm sure were the size of dinner plates and she nodded and made note of the fingerprints on the window. Just then, the women's bathroom door opened and an older lady came out. I could tell Elizabeth was about to give her what for. "Are you with this tour group?" Elizabeth asked, a definite edge in her voice. "Yes," the lady responded. "Well then you need to be in that other room listening to him talk and you just scared the hell out of me." I tried not to laugh and we returned to the socializing room where Elizabeth told our guide what happened with the nursery door. "Really?" he responded. "That's never happened before. If anything happens with that door, it's usually just rattling."

We were both quite frightened at this point and Elizabeth bowed out of going into the basement. I wanted to see it, so I went. The guide gave his talk and then said, "If you want to see a floating skull I can show you one. There was a girl who took a picture and sent it to us saying she saw a skull on the wall. I said I'd try to see if I could recreate it and I did. It happens, that stone over there looks like a skull if the flash hits it right." I took a picture of it and looked at my camera. Unintentionally, I said "Oh, holy crap!" really loudly. The guide was right next to me and asked me if I captured the skull. "No, but the stone next to it looks like a face." Seriously, it looks like Abraham Lincoln. I was weirded out. The guide says "Oh, right, I forgot to say that."

Then Elizabeth and I departed, as that was the last stop of the night. As we were leaving, she told me one of the chairs in the socializing room did seem to move while she was there. She said in the beginning they were in a straight line, but when she looked back later, one was moved up a bit. She asked people there if they had sat in them and everyone said they hadn't.

She called her fiance, Eric, King of the Skeptics. She said to him, "I know most of this can probably be explained away, but there is a church in Alton that is seriously haunted." I thought that was pretty cool. And he did try to explain most of it, she said the only thing he couldn't explain was the door.

I know most of this probably seems silly to most people, but please don't deflate my enthusiasm. I love things like this, they make me happy....and terrified.

When a day trip goes awry

This week, Northern Illinois University resumes its normal schedule, before this week it had been operating on its summer course, which means Nathan had Fridays off. This past Wednesday we decided since this was his last long weekend, we should do something fun. I have been wanting to see the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum for a few years, so on Friday, we drove to Springfield.



We had a very nice time, we saw everything in the museum and then we walked around Springfield, we saw both the old and new capitol buildings, saw the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office, walked through the neighborhood of the Lincoln house and even listened to a musical group called the Lincoln Troubadours who sing period music in the neighborhood.

The day didn't really start to get away from us until I remembered that Springfield is only about an hour and a half north of Alton, where my sister Elizabeth recently began dental school. I called my mom and she assured me Elizabeth would love visitors because her roommate is gone for the weekend and won't be back until Tuesday. So, we pressed on to Alton.


When we got there, we went to dinner and then rented a movie. The next day, Elizabeth made breakfast and then Nathan fixed a few things around the house she needed help with. Then we went out to show Nathan around Alton. We went to see the Lovejoy Monument. (Elijah Lovejoy is a personal hero of mine.) The monument itself stands in Alton Cemetery and we found Lovejoy's actual grave, which was interesting.

This is probably my favorite picture I have ever taken.

Then Nathan got in touch with his friend Nic, who lives in St. Louis and he invited us down for dinner. Elizabeth needed to study, so Nathan and I climbed back into the car and continued our trip down to St. Louis. We met up with Nic at his work and then went out for dinner and a drink. After wards, we piled back into the car and drove straight home from St. Louis.

All this driving was made even more exciting by the fact that our GPS doesn't work properly, so we had to turn it on, copy down directions and then turn it off again so it could hold a charge.

So our day trip turned into a two-day extravaganza of friends, family and history. It was a pretty good trip. Many thanks to Pam and Craig for getting Nic's phone number to us and looking in on the cats.

The Belle Departs

Look past the whole me-losing-my-job thing and this summer has actually not been bad. It's been nice to be near family and I even took a little vacation.

But I think probably the best part about the summer is that Elizabeth was home for the first time since she started college. She visited often and we played board games, I went over to my parents' house and she helped me make a cornflake pig face for my family's annual "Rib Fest."

But now she's gone. On Saturday, Mom, Dad, Elizabeth and her boyfriend Eric packed up a budget rental truck and drove down to Alton, where she will be spending the next four years learning the art of dentistry.

And I have to say, I'm sad. Nathan will miss having a gin and tonics buddy for evenings, the kitties will miss Elizabeth coming to visit and bringing them toys. She gave them foam rubber golf balls that Hecate just goes nuts over.

But I think I'll just miss my sister. It was nice to have her so close by all summer. But she's been preparing herself for dental school since she was like 10, so I'm sure she'll do great.

It's a tooth...well, I tried...

My mom is a great cook, don't ever let her tell you otherwise. Between tuna casserole, green pizza crusts on St. Patrick's Day, and that one time we ever ate meat loaf, I did not have a culinarily deprived childhood.

However...since I met Nathan, I have learned the value of festive and decorative foods. My mother-in-law, Pam, is the queen of making the right food for the right occasion, even if it is just switching jello colors to match the season.

The first Christmas Nathan and I dated, I learned about cornflake wreaths. My life has never been the same.

It's not a complicated recipe at all...but I think it might be family secret. Suffice it to say it involves a lot of cornflakes, a lot of marshmallows and food coloring...but not too much.

The second year Nathan and I were dating I made a cornflake wreath for my family. They all became believers, too, especially Elizabeth.

It is only this year that I am beginning to understand and explore the vast world of cornflake art beyond the Christmas wreath. This year I experienced the cornflake Valentine heart, the cornflake shamrock, and the cornflake "50" in honor of my mother's fiftieth birthday. (I was advised by my father-in-law, Craig, however, that it included bran flakes because, in his words, "she's fifty now, after all." Really it was just because they didn't have enough corn flakes.

Almost universally, these confections are tinged with green food coloring, the only exception I've ever seen is the Valentine heart and that was consumed before I got too close a look at it.

Well, Elizabeth has been having a lousy week, and seeing as it's only Tuesday, I thought I needed to do something to cheer her up. So, I obtained the requisite cornflakes, marshmallows, and food coloring. In honor of her first semester of dental school, which will be starting this August, I attempted to create a blue cornflake tooth. Blue because I thought red would look bloody, green would look gangrenous, and yellow doesn't really show up.

I think it turned out much more like an "M" than a tooth, but Elizabeth says she saw the tooth, and I guess that's all that matters. It's kind of hard to see in this picture...sorry.

Road Trip!

I have actually started research and plot planning on my next work of fiction. It came as an idea while I was at the writer's conference, then when I found out Elizabeth was going to go to school in Alton, IL and how incredible that town's history is, I thought I needed to check it out.

Fortunately, Elizabeth had to go to orientation last weekend, so I rode down with her. We got up at quarter to six and drove the four hours to Alton in Madison County.

Then, while Bella was at her meetings and campus tour, I drove around and took notes and looked at monuments, historical markers, and museums. It really is an amazing area.

This is all that remains of Illinois' very first state penitentiary. Founded in 1833 it was abandoned in 1860 only to be pressed back into service as a Union prison during the Civil War. It was kind of the Union Andersonville. This site is really what got my creative juices flowing.

This is Alton's National cemetery, created for the Union soldiers who died at the prison. It is still used as a military cemetery today. It is actually incorporated into the Alton cemetery. Usually I'm against taking pictures in cemeteries, but I thought it would be useful to have an image of this to help with the book. This cemetery also housed the monument to Elijah Lovejoy, America's first martyr to free press, who was killed by an angry mob for running abolitionist material in his newspaper so close to Missouri, which was a slave state.

I actually did a lot of research before leaving for Alton and I would mention something about the history of the area every now and then and eventually Elizabeth looked at me and said "You really did do a lot of research!"

Alton also has a mental hospital (which is actually what it is called) founded in 1913 or 1914.

Alton was also home to the tallest person whoever lived. His name was Robert Wadlow and I believe he died in the early 1930s. By the time he died, he was 8' 11". He was said to have been an ambassador for Alton and there is a life size statue of him on the dental school campus, as well as a full size replica of his chair.
Elizabeth and I hung out and we both got a lot done. It was a great trip!