Welcome to Collinsville, Illinois First 150th Anniversary Celebration ba...

The little town of Collinsville, Illinois had it's 150 Anniversary celebration way back in 1987, and here you will see all of the participating people, and business who just had to say "Happy 150th Birthday Collinsville" Oddly enough this year, 2022 has also been named Collinsville, Illinois 150th Birthday, so now "Oh Little Town Of Collinsville" has 2 150th Birthdays!

The Main Street Collinsville Annual Christmas Parade

The Annual Downtown Collinsville Christmas Parade.

If you are ready for a Christmas Parade, we have one for you!

1971 Collinsville, Illinois Plymouth Dealer Fire

In 1971 a fire broke out at the Johnston-Varadin Plymouth Dealership on Saint Louis Road in Collinsville, Illinois. Jerry Dallape (Dean's Fine Wine and Spirits aka Dean's Tobacco & Liquor) was there with his camera.
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A Valentines Day Message

Have you taken time to notice, the further we get from the simpler times, the unhappier people seem to become. Take Valentines Day for example. It was, at one time, very uplifting to receive a box of candy, and a card with hearts on it. Now, how would you personally react to that? I, for one, would be overjoyed, but I really like candy, and I am one of those who still keeps things simple, and rare.

I like to see that someone has taken the time to actually think about me, in the course of their day, no matter what has, or has not been bought. Sometimes it's a pretty amazing feeling to find out that someone has been thinking about you. That really has no price to it. I to, like the feeling of surprising someone when they are not expecting it, and it never has to cost anything, or much. Some thoughts are very valuable.

Yes, I am under the impression that we tend to over do things now, or even expect too much, when it truly is the little things that make people most happy. I once got a card that said I meant everything in the world to that person, and kept it for almost 30 years before I let it go. Just a card. When you find the feelings that you for someone have are mutual, it means far more than another gift. That moment you see for the first time, you are thinking the same thing.

I would like to wish you a Happy Valentines Day, and even if you are like me, and are alone, it doesn't mean that you cannot make it a fun day. I usually decorate the house a few weeks before, and make something I know I like for a meal, dessert too of course! You can make anything fun if you want to, and have fun at it too. It's all in the attitude.

Where Did All the Easter Parades Go, A Trip Back

Remember a time when Easter was fast approaching, and your mom would take you out shopping for a new suit, dress, and/or shoes? You would come home, and carefully put them away in anticipation. You were now all ready for that Special Easter Sunday appearance. First in Church, sometimes very early for the even more special Sunrise Service. Followed by Easter dinner, with all of your relatives and the Easter Egg hunts with your siblings, and cousins.
Join me in another trip down memory lane to a simpler time of dressed up fun in the Easter Parades.



Easter in the early 1900's. Have you ever wondered what it looked like for the Easter Holiday in the 1920's. What were the ladies wearing, what were the kids up to, and what they did special for Easter. Here is what a simpler time looked like, and tasted like too!

It's the It's Almost Valentines Day Show Vlog, Funny

Did you ever wonder where our modern day version of Valentine's Day originated from?
The ancient Romans may also be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on Feb. 14 of different years in the 3rd century A.D. Their martyrdom was honored by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St. Valentine's Day.

On February 14, all across the United States, and other places around the world, candy, flowers and gifts are given to loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine. But who is Saint Valentine, and where did these traditions come from?

One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
According to legend, during his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius, and before his execution, he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine,” an expression that is still in use today.
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial–which probably occurred around A.D. 270–others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia.

Valentine's Day is mentioned ruefully by Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet:
"To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.
Then up he rose, and donn'd his clothes,
And dupp'd the chamber-door;
Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more."

What Ever Happened to the Easter Bonnet?

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade.

It was just as much a fixture of Easter as deviled eggs, and new shoes for Easter services. The Easter bonnet was even so much of a fixture of the holiday that it had it's own song. Where ever did it go?

So why new hats at Easter?
Well the tradition appears to have origins in the Christian custom of Easter being the time for new clothes after the fasting of Lent, and the Church-going notion of wearing your "Sunday Best", meaning that at Easter your best had to be "better than best" to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.
The custom of wearing hats at Easter is also tied to the American tradition of The Easter Parade, which emerged in the 1870s after the end of the Civil War. People were stepping out with positivism in their lives, and women would stream out of the churches following the Easter service dressed up in their best, and often new clothes, including that ever important bonnet.

The 1948 film "Easter Parade" starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, and the music of Irving Berlin really immortalised the practice of wearing Easter Bonnets, with the popular song "Easter Parade" which was originally written in 1933 and became one of the most popular songs about Easter.
Although Bonnets started out as a practical form of head wear they became more and more elaborate as the 19th Century progressed, and its clear that as the tradition of the Easter parade grew in popularity, the bonnets that accompanied them became more and more outlandish and much less bonnet-like! At the depths of the Great Depression a new hat at Easter, or a refurbished old one, was a simple luxury.

Now, in a more casual society, Easter Bonnets are becoming harder to find, as fewer and fewer women bother with the tradition. Modern Easter bonnets for children are usually white wide-brimmed hats with a pastel colored satin ribbon around it and tied in a bow. It may also have flowers or other springtime motifs on top, and may match a special dress picked out for the occasion.

Poor Robin, an 18th-century English almanac maker, offered the verse
At Easter let your clothes be new
Or else be sure you will it rue.
Is there a resurgence of the Easter Bonnet?
Karen Grigsby Bates, on NPR's Code Switch team said... There is often, for those of us who are a certain age, the Easter outfit. You know, your shiny patent leather shoes and your dress with too many crinolines underneath it and - even little kids had hats. I had Easter hats when I was little.
Today many women still continue this tradition using Easter as a time to show off the new, members of the Royal Family especially like to carry on this tradition!

"For a while, Easter bonnets sort of fell out of vogue —it became more of a day for the children — but last year and this year, I've seen the resurgence of that tradition," says Song, who owns Detroit-based Mr. Song Millinery.
"I think there has been in the last year more presence of hats in magazines, and on TV, and I believe that these leave an impression on people. The fashion industry had disregarded this whole sector of fashion. But everybody just woke up to the fact that there's that head that we have to deal with all the time. … And anybody who wears hats, they'll tell you it completes an outfit."
So, happily there may be hope that the lovable Easter Bonnet will be making an appearance for many springtime's to come. Do you have yours?