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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuesday, February 2
• The Council of Catholic Women will not meet until March.
• St. Elmo Community Park Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Community Park Centennial Building.
Wednesday, February 3
• St. Elmo City Council, 6 p.m., American Legion Home.
Thursday, February 4
• The St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club will not meet until March.
Rhodes-Side Gleanings
My daughter and granddaughters, Phyllis Lea, Soo Jin and Chae Rin, of Green Oaks, visited with me Jan. 17 and 18, and we had our Christmas gift exchange. Son-in-law Prentiss, superintendent at the Libertyville and Vernon Hills high schools, was unable to attend.
When they arrived atabout 2 p.m. Sunday, they brought food for lunch from the Effingham Japanese restaurant. That evening, we played several games.
We all wore facemasks to protect me from COVID.
Soo Jin works at two stores, and Chae Rin will return Jan. 22 to the University of Kentucky, where she is a junior.
Board of Education
St. Elmo Board of Education met in regular session at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, and the following consent agenda items were approved: regular meeting minutes of Dec. 21, special board meeting minutes of Dec. 23, bills and financial reports, monthly administrative reports.
The board approved to waive the athletic fees for 2020-21.
The board adopted PRESS Policies (Nov. 20 edition).
The board approved the Risk Management Plan.
Letters of retirement at the end of the school year 2020-21 were accepted from Judy Hejnal and Scarlett Duckwitz
The board directed administration to gather information on developing a random drug policy for students involved in athletics/extracurricular activities and students who drive to school.
Historical Vandalia Inc.
The annual meeting of Historical Vandalia Inc., which owns and operates the Fayette County Museum, will be Monday, Feb. 15, at 6 p.m., in the Fayette County Museum in Vandalia, and the public is welcome to attend.
Because of the death of board member, Marilyn Beyes, the board members (directors) are down to nine, but the organization can have as many as 15, and because it is a Fayette County museum, board members need to be from throughout the county. It is hoped that more from throughout the county will become board members.
The board did not meet in December. The January meeting was held at 6 p.m. on Jan. 18 at the Fayette County Museum with the following present: President Steve Durbin, Donna Blair. Bill Haselhorst, Carrie Hill, Joyce Mueller, Phil Shroyer and Mary Truitt, all of Vandalia. Charlie Sharp of Vandalia and Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo were unable to attend.
Guests were Chuck Hutson, Penny Lewis, Kim Shanks and Marilyn Truitt of the Fayette County Art Connection. They were approached about the art shows that Beyes was in charge of at the museum: Fayette County Children’s Show during Easter and the Town and Country Art Show during the Grand Levée.
The museum has received memorials for Beyes.
Hill and some members of other organizations will help with the garden on the west side of the museum.
Beyes had been a member of the museum board for more than 20 years and had been serving as membership chairman; Blair volunteered to accept that position.
There no longer will be a gift shop in the museum.
The Fayette County Museum in 2020 has been working on displays for the county 2021 Bicentennial. Because of COVID, the opening has been moved to May, and there will be an open house.
Rhodes-Side Gleanings-Year 1964
On New Year’s Day I gave the St. Elmo News over WPMB. On the second, third and fourth, did a lot of cleaning downstairs and upstairs. That night the kids stayed at Mom’s;Phil and I had a pinochle party. Present were Soil Conservation District members and their wives, the Schallers of Vandalia, Grants and Hoovers of St. Peter, Bauers of Bingham, Daniels of west of Vandalia and also the Marchmans and the Coxes. Phil and I got to bed at 3:30 a.m.
On Jan. 8, I started writing St. Elmo news for the St. Elmo Banner. On the ninth, Steve went to Randy Hinton’s birthday party.
It started snowing at 4 p.m. on the 11th. The next morning, Sunday, the roads were drifted shut, so we stayed home.
Clarence Haslett and Ora Sludder were trying to get the road south of our house open and the plow got stuck in the snow. The two exhausted and nearly frozen men finally got to our house about noon. After having hot coffee and oyster stew with us, Phil took them on his tractor to the plow and helped get it unstuck. The men finished plowing the road open, but after they got back to town, the road drifted shut again.
The next day the wind was still blowing and the north-south and east-west roads were all drifted shut. There was no school and everything was canceled. On Tuesday, there was school in town, but the buses didn’t run and the PTA meeting was canceled. The snowplow got our road open at 3:30 p.m.
The January 17 issue of the Banner has an article titled “Anna Jean Rhodes Writes Banner News.” It says: The considerable increase in personal news items this month can be credited to the Banner staff. Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo, newscaster on the Vandalia station, has begun to write news for the Banner, supplementing the work of Helen Koonce, who has been writing for the Banner ever since she began newscasting for the Effingham station. Between the two energetic and capable reporters, the Banner hopes to carry the biggest volume of news in its local history.
On the 23rd, we gave a birthday party for Steve at the church; 16 were invited. The night of the 24th St. Elmo had a storm of hail the size of golf balls, and the greenhouses were badly damaged.
Alice had to go by ambulance to the Fayette County Hospital on Feb. 3. She had a fractured vertebra and didn’t go home until the ninth. This may have been when she fell from being on a counter top to get in a top cabinet. The next day, both Phil and I were rejected at the blood bank.
On Phil’s and my 15th anniversary, Feb. 6, Phil was supposed to take me out to supper, but an old sow was having pigs. My diary says that on the 15th, “Phil & kids made huge snowman – it’s really snowing!”
On the 20th, my diary says, I spent all afternoon cleaning steel cabinets that Phil salvaged from a fire a transport truck had when it went through St. Elmo. They were dumped on our land west of town.
In March we got a new refrigerator, and put the big old freezer in the summer kitchen.
The evening of the ninth, I went to Edmar Circle. After leaving the church, I picked up Mom at her home. It was snowing a blizzard and when we turned east on the road south of I-70, it was hard to see the road, and I got stuck. Mom and I walked a half mile (back west and south) to the Hallie Garrisons and he brought us home by going south, then back east, then north. I sat in the passenger seat and, with the window down, helped him keep his vehicle out of a ditch and keep it on the road. He got back home safely. Phil and I went to get our car the next day.
After school on March 17, Steve went to Pat Haslett’s birthday party.
After school on the 19th Phil picked up Steve and the kids who were invited to Phyllis’ fifth birthday party here and he took them home at 5 p.m.
The evening of the 24th, Phil and I went to Ramsey to an Amway meeting.
In April Phil put the 6½-foot tall petition up in our upstairs bedroom to give us a little privacy from the stairway. I painted the bedroom set black, the walls were a pale aqua, and I made curtains and bedspread out of aqua, lavender and black plaid fabric.
We voted on the swimming pool bond issue April 7 and it passed. St. Elmo was going to get a swimming pool in the park in St. Elmo and all of Avena Township has to pay a tax for the pool.
I took Phyllis to the grade school April 30 to register for kindergarten. At noon on May 19 she and I went to the park to attend Steve’s first grade picnic. On the 23rd Phyllis went to DaVonne Dugger’s birthday party in the park.
In the May 16 Banner, I wrote an article entitled “School Musical Was a Success – But Where Were the People?” The article tells all about the musical and toward the end says that the Friday night first performance had more people than were expected—but the Saturday night performance, where the most people were expected to attend, had only about half the number Friday night had. My story ends with this: Helping to mold young lives is a worthwhile endeavor, one wonders where the blame should be cast when the gymnasium will be filled with spectators for a donkey ballgame, but less than 500 people will attend a thing of value. Many parents do not make an effort to attend a school function, so guess we can’t be too hard on the general public.