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Flashback Friday

There is a novel out that has been on the Best Seller list for months called The Burgess Boys.  I have written before about Burgess, a Shangri-La nestled in the Illinois prairie.  Its on few maps and you can't really find it without a GPS or special invitation but it does exist.  Once there you are treated to unreal hospitality and a sense that you just might be amongst the friendliest group of people you have ever encountered.  



Amongst my piles of old photos that have become fodder for Flashback Fridays, I found these that provide further amplification of me assertion:  truly nice people flock together, much like BFE and Budde's.  Above are Marvin and Richard at the bar enjoying a cold one.  



Pictures of a parade of one with Marvin the Grand Marshall.  I had my old convertible over at one point in 2003 and Marvin and Richard wanted to go for a ride.  I'd like to say no homecoming queen ever looked prettier, but I won't.




Marvin was the sheriff of Mercer county at one time and while he downplays his tenure, he did look great in uniform.  



Electrical Supervisor for some Quad City firm, Richard is an encyclopedia of car minutia.  Give him a beer and he'll talk up your old car with interesting facts and funny lines for hours.  I've talked of Burgess before (go check out the blog of 4-26-13) so I won't belabor the point.  A magical place of fun, cold beer, unbelievable hospitality and the greatest people this side of BFE.

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Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant