Small Town Living

Since Thursday evening, I have been in DuQuoin, Illinois, population 6,600, and home to the DuQuoin State Fair, the Association's newest Roll of Victory Show. DuQuoin has a neat charm about it, especially since the fairgrounds here are AWESOME, but more importantly it isn't located in a major metropolitan area like a lot of the state fairs I have traveled to (Boise, Springfield, Milwaukee) or will travel to (Minneapolis, Nashville, Raleigh). It is, in my mind a small town.

Being creatures of habit, Jerry and I took recommendations from the locals and ventured downtown, which is very quaint, on Thursday evening to Alongi's for some dinner. It is a family-owned Italian restaurant that has been around since 1933! And, it is DELISH! So, after we ate, we walked about 4 blocks to the ice cream shoppe (can't recall its name) for 1 scoop. And we walked around the town taking in the beautiful fall evening air.



Fast forward to Friday. Checked in Angus cattle at the fair, and had about 3 Angus exhibitors recommend Alongi's. So we went back, tried the thin crust pizza, walked down to the ice cream shoppe, sampled some home made fudge, made by the scooper/owner's daughter; and each tried a different kind of ice cream. Oh, and I bought a half pound of peanut butter fudge. YUM

Fast forward to Saturday. Junior Show at DuQuoin; more Angus breeders suggested we try Alongi's, "best place in town", so we did; walked down to the ice cream shoppe, tried a different kind of fudge, and had more ice cream. The scooper/owner comments that he's glad to have "regulars" coming in, as he now noticed we've been there 3 consecutive nights. We tell him we're only there for the fair. He says to stop in on Sunday after 6. He isn't open during the day Sunday of the fair so he can spend time with his wife, who is dying of cancer. This makes me sad, and as we leave, we know we'll be stopping for fudge and ice cream on our way out of town on Sunday. I knew there had to be a reason our show didn't start until 2.

On our third nightly walk, around the town, eating ice cream and talking, I say to Jerry, "We're acting like old people," and he replies, "Maybe we are." Or maybe we're just slowing down. Taking time to enjoy life's simple pleasures--a scoop of ice cream and small town living on a Saturday night.