← Columns

Coming Together

The Source

My sister-in-law is a jewel. Maybe yours is too, but since I’m writing the column and you’re not, I’ll talk about Nancy. I suppose every family has a Nancy…the one who organizes every family gathering, orchestrates the food, invitations, entertainment, gifts and the thousand miscellaneous things of which this bachelor knows absolutely nothing. Yes, she makes the best cheesy potatoes in the Midwest, and yep, she can somehow host 30 people for a sit-down dinner while managing to hold a full-time job, but Nancy’s most appreciated function is the simple fact that she brings us together. You can buy cheesy potatoes at County Market. Cakes and baked hams are available just about anywhere…but what the retailers can’t do is bring a family together. You’ve seen families who lose touch with each other…perhaps you belong to one of those clans. No, the sky doesn’t fall if a birthday or anniversary or holiday is skipped, but every time this happens the group’s structure is weakened just a bit. I know a lady named Dorothy. For years she’s been the power behind her high school’s alumni association. When all others found the job of sending out invitations, arranging for caterers, and keeping records too time-consuming and downright wearying, Dorothy kept the flame alive. Even when Chapin High School consolidated with the dreaded Arenzville and Concord, Dorothy continued to make the alumni association’s annual dinner a must-go event in our area. Did we go for the food or listen to the speeches? Nope. It just kept the community together. Jacksonville’s going to get just such an opportunity this weekend as the parades, the food tents, the bands and the Clydesdales come to town to celebrate the square’s grand re-opening. Will the square re-open anyway…without the celebration? You betcha. In fact, it already has. Will businesses keep inching their way back toward the city square? Yep, it’s already happening. Can you get a brat or a beer or a band someplace else? Of course. In fact, you can even drive down to Grant’s Farm to get your Clydesdale fix if you feel desperate to see a big horse with ribbons in his mane. So why celebrate? Why come on down and try to find a parking place? Ask Nancy. Ask Dorothy. More importantly, ask the thousands of folks who’ve let their family ties fall by the wayside of busyness and have yearned to once again be a part of a group who care for each other. It’s simply because such celebrations give us the sense of community…of family…that’s slowly ebbing away in a world of technological communication. Will it be too hot or too rainy or too windy this weekend? Of course. Welcome to Central Illinois! Will you have to walk a bit to get to the square? Yep, that’s why it’s called a “square” instead of a “cornfield.” But let’s do it…not for the hotdogs or the beer or the bands, but simply because we do better as a community than as separate individuals. No single individual could have accomplished the rebirth of the square and no single individual is receiving credit. We did it as a community and it’ll do our psyches a world of good to celebrate as a community. And don’t think that by “community” I mean Jacksonville. Anyone in the Jacksonville business community knows that it’s the Franklin’s, Chapin’s, Murrayville’s, Virginia’s, Woodson’s, Alexander’s, Concord’s, Waverly’s and Meredosia’s that keep Jacksonville alive with their buying, banking, eating, and entertaining. We are all a part of the downtown celebration. It would be a heck of a lot easier if my sister-in-law would simply make reservations at a nice restaurant where we could order off the menu. We’d sit within talking distance of perhaps three other people, make nice talk, pay our bill and go home. But we couldn’t play with the dog, we couldn’t easily share our laptop pictures of the last celebration, we couldn’t slap grandpa’s head as we passed the cheesy potatoes, we couldn’t laugh as loud as we wanted when reliving the stories of when the boys were younger, we could take our shoes off and sit on the living room carpet to play Scrabble….and in a lifetime of eating in restaurants I’ve not once seen a Clydesdale come trotting out of of the kitchen. It’s going to be more than a party this weekend, it’s a family reunion. Come on out and meet your family.