Five For Friday

I love this linky party hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching, but have never joined in.  However, on a Friday at the end of the second week of school, I feel completely random and so I am ready to ramble away!

I am very excited to be heading home to my hometown of Kewanee, Illinois this weekend.  It is a small town in Illinois of about 12,000 people.  Sa-lute!  (Okay, for those of you who have no idea of the old TV show Hee-Haw, you won't get that reference)!  Anyway, I loved growing up there and my girls love going back to stay at camp Grandma and Grandpa!  So today you are going to get 5 random facts about pretty much the coolest small town in Illinois!

1.)  The reason I am heading home with the family this weekend is because every Labor Day weekend, the town celebrates Hog Days!  Yes, you heard me right Hog Days!  It is a long story about our town's history, but basically it boils down to this.  Kewanee was a great place to raise pigs.  So much so that the US Department of Agriculture named Henry County (of which Kewanne being the biggest city in the county) "top hog" when it came to pork production.  Kewanee took it upon itself to celebrate this honor by a one day (which has now turned into 4 days) of celebration.  Things snowballed from there.  So on March 23rd, 1949, the Illinois House of Representative passed House Resolution 40 declaring Henry County (and Kewanee) the Hog Capital of the World!

2.)  The biggest industry has since shut down, but I know you have seen what Kewanee is famous for making in some of your favorite movies.  Especially the basement scenes!  The Kewanne Boiler Cooporation was famous for making boilers!  In fact, that is still the high school mascot (and I believe the only Boilermaker high school mascot in Illinois)!  So watch Blues Brothers again (and I have heard the old version of Nightmare on Elm Street) and you may see a genuine Kewanee Boiler!

3.)  In a town of only 12,000 people, Kewanee actually has 2 separate school districts.  Very rare for such a small town.  The good thing is that one is smaller than the other so the two rarely have to compete against each other in sports!

4.)  Over the years, one store in Kewanee has grown so much that even up here in Chicago, commercials for it can be seen now and then.  Goods Furniture has turned from a small store to about 2 whole city blocks.  It even has a restaurant and a bed and breakfast.  Yup, that's the skywalk you see in the picture above connecting one side of the store to the other.  Rumor has it that the store even delivers up to Chicago once a week!  Pretty cool for a small town!

5.)  When we visit my parents, we often go to Johnson's Sauk Trail Park.  The girls go fishing with grandpa and we sometimes walk the trails.  It is home to one of the biggest round barns in the country!

I know this has nothing to do with teaching, but after working hard for a couple of weeks, I thought I deserved to take a break for this post.  And, if you can't tell, I'm kind of proud of the country girl that still lurks in me somewhere!  There is something to be said for small town life in the Midwest!

If you have started school, enjoy your days off with the holiday.  If you will be starting next week, have a great start!  

The next chapter for Pathways (my book study) will be posted on Tuesday, September 3rd.  I am taking Labor Day literally and not doing anything!