New trees planted at Lake Charleston through the Green Communities Tree Program |
CHARLESTON — The Cooks Mills Clovers 4-H Club planted 25 oak trees at Lake Charleston in Charleston on April 15, with the help of staff from the University of Illinois Extension and Coles County SWCD.
The project, part of the 4-H Green Communities tree program, will support existing restoration and enhancement projects in the park. Hands-on community service, conservation, and environmental education are key components of the program.
The trees included 10 Jackiana oaks, five bur oaks, five black oaks and five red oaks. They will increase diversity and improve wildlife benefits in the area. The new trees will also provide educational opportunities for local youth and community members to learn how to identify oak trees and understand why they are essential as a keystone species in Illinois forests and savannahs.
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The Coles County Soil and Water Conservation District selected Lake Charleston Park, a City of Charleston facility, as the 2022 planting site because of its accessibility and public visibility for increased education.
The Green Communities Tree program is funded by the Illinois Forest Development Council, the University of Illinois Extension, and the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts (AISWCD ). The initiative is coordinated by Illinois 4-H, the AISWCD Forestry Committee, and local soil and water conservation districts. Coles County is one of 31 total counties participating statewide in this year’s pilot program, with a total of 775 total trees planted.
My Town: Clint Walker’s Memories of Coles County From the Archives
Cosmic blue comics
From Nov. 22, 1992, Journal Gazette, this photo from Cosmic Blue Comics in Mattoon; where I spent almost every Saturday afternoon for about two years. This little back room that you see just to the right of the Coca-Cola sign was where they kept the many, and I mean the long boxes of back issues. I still have my bagged copy of “Tales of the Beanworld” issue 1 that I found there. Sadly, this place is now just a “green space”.
Mattoon Arcade
Pictured is Bob Murray of Shelbyville from the June 2, 1982 Journal Gazette displaying his dominance over the TRON arcade game at the “Carousel Time” arcade at Cross County Mall, later Aladdin’s Castle, shortly long after to no longer be a thing anymore. I spent pretty much every Saturday in this arcade, maybe with the exact same haircut. No overalls though. I was more of a “Pacific Ocean” type.
of Icenogle
Pictured, November 28, 1988 Journal Gazette, Icenogle’s grocery store. Being from Cooks Mills, we didn’t often shop at Icenogle…but when we did, even as a child, I knew that was how a grocery store was supposed to be in a perfect world, and it wasn’t. isn’t just because they had wooden floors, comic books on the magazine rack, or lots, and I mean lots, of trading cards in wax packets.
Cooks Mills
I had long since left Cooks Mills by the time this Showcase article on Adam’s Groceries was published in the Journal Gazette on June 13, 1998, but there was a time when I very well could have been one of those children on this photo; because if it was summer, you had a bike and you lived in Cooks Mills, that’s where you ended up. At last report they still had Tab in the Pepsi branded cooler in the back. I am seriously considering asking my fundraiser if I could afford to reopen this place.
Mr Music
Pictured is a July 16, 1987 Journal Gazette advertisement for Mister Music, formerly located in the Cross County Mall. I didn’t buy records at that age, but I would eventually, and that’s where it all happened. If you don’t think it sounds “cool” hanging out in a record store with your buddies on a Friday night, a hot driver’s license in your wallet, you’re right. But it’s the best a geek like me can do. Wherever you Mister Music owners are today, know that a Minutemen album I found in your cheap trash can changed my life.
sound source guitar throw
Portrait of the author as a young man, about to throw a guitar through a target during that year’s Sound Source Music guitar throwing contest, from April 18, 1994, Journal Gazette. Look at my grunge-era hoodie, and yes…look, those are Air Jordans you see at my feet. Addendum: Despite what the cutline says, I didn’t win a guitar.
Pictured, taken from the online archives at JG-TC.com, is an April 18, 1994 photo of Journal Gazette of Sound Source Music Guitar Throwing contest winner, and current JG-TC staff writer, Clint Walker.
At Vette’s
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow, Vette’s Teen Club, June 20, 1991, Journal Gazette. I wasn’t “cool” enough to hang out with Vette in his “golden age”, and by “cool enough” I mean, “not proficient enough at parking lot fights”. If only I could get to it now.
FutureGen
FutureGen: The End of the Beginning, and Finally, the Beginning of the End, December 19, 2007, JG-TC. I wish I had paid more attention back then. I probably should have read the newspaper.