The Hood
My home is pictured to the left of the parking lot visibile in the right center.
In the pattern over SPI, the end of runway 31( right) is
marked with an X indicating it was closed while repair work was in progress midfield. The
area to the right of runway 4 is a hot check area for military jets departing SPI to the
northeast.
Richardson Manufacturing on the west side of Springfield,
was at one end of a large field. At the other end was the home of my best friend in 10th
grade. Jim Richardson (oldest son of Bill and Roberta, plant founders), Gary Baldwin, Mike
McEvoy, Phil Arndt & I flew control line and free flight from that field when the city
part officials chased us out of nearby Washington Park. Those were the happiest days
of my life until we discovered girls.
Come to think of it, those days were the happiest days of
my life.
Looking southwest, Schnuck's super market is just west of
Chatham Rd. It and a shopping mall just north occupy turf that was one of the last
meadowed areas outside a park in Springfield. So who ever accused our city council of
inflicting conservation when it's so obvious that trees don't vote or pay taxes?
This new marina was constructed at Lake Springfield in
2001, just off Interstate 55 south of the city. Judging from the cars in the parking lot,
business must be good!
The Illinois State Capitol looking east, slightly south. The H-shaped building just
this side of it is the Stratton Office Building, or S O etc. for short. An urban redesign
team recommended that the building be raized to facilitate a more impressive view when
driving east on Capitol Avenue from the west. I agree with their opinion, but I recommend,
as a courtesy to the hundreds of people who work there, that they be given 20 minutes
advance notice first.
Looking southeast, the large body of water in the
distance is Lake Springfield, a small body of water used exclusively for water supply,
single family residences and parks until recently when City Council approved condominium
development. Some log heads don't vote; they become aldermen.
Looking north up Veterans Parkway from Monroe/Old
Jacksonville Road running from right to left, one of the busiest intersections in Greater
Post Vietnam War Prosperity Sphere of the city.
The business area in the middle is Town & Country
Shopping Center, the city's first shopping center, built about 1961. The green area
behind it is the athletic field to the left of Ben Franklin Middle School where this
photographer attended junior high.
Typical of the industrial sites that once flourished in
our fair city, this is the former home of a Pillsbury Mills flour refining plant.
Looking mostly west, slightly north, this is Washington
Park. Note the tennis courts in the middle. This is one of several excellent parks in our
city.,This one has been transformed over time by park district directors who removed
a refreshment stand and public swimming pool and added a road through the middle of a
lagoon which, in better times, featured a wood foot bridge and "island."
Any resemblance between some parts of our parks and the aftermath of a strip mine is
purely coincidental, I am told.
Close up of Ben Franklin Middle School behind Town &
Country Shopping Center. Bob GIlbert, my best friend in 8th grade, won a contest to name
the school's new pop corn popper which provided fine fare during sock hops and b-ball
games in the gym. He named it "Kernel Franklin."
Excellent name, don' you think?
Another view of former Pillsbury Mills.
The race track and grandstand at the Illinois State
Fairgrounds on the north side of Springfield. This area is near the approach to runway 31
at SPI. During state fair time, the grandstand stage, center right, is a blaze with lights
at night while nationally know entertainers dazzle the grandstand audiences.
FInal approach to runway 22.
Soon after I recruit another free ride from a kindly Cessna or Piper jockey, on a clearer,
sunnier day, I will post additional aerial views..