Raccoon Paradise

•August 21, 2024•

by Janet Roney

My dear step-mother, Mabel Shuman, declared war on raccoons one dark night in late 1957.  When she heard a ruckus in the chicken house, she grabbed a broomstick, and went out into the winter night to check on it. (Mabel was eight months pregnant, I was asleep, and Dad was gone.)  

At the chicken House, a dark form ran out into the chicken yard and climbed a little plum tree. Breathless, with her dim flashlight wasting on the ground, she swatted away at the dark shape with ringed tail until it fell lifeless to the ground. Her fang-marked broomstick was a trophy of her victory. Getting rid of the chickens and chicken feed did not rid her of raccoons, for they liked her cat food, too. Having tired of broomstick combat, she set a live animal trap next to her cat food bowl. Through the years, several snarling, thrashing, hissing bandits were hauled across the river where they were released alive (still snarling, hissing, and thrashing) into the great outdoors…whereupon (she was certain) they swam back across the river and hightailed it right back to her cat food bowl again. Read More

2014

Moultrie Independent Telephone Company recently awarded Aaron Fleming, a junior at Millikin University and a 2012 graduate of Lovington High School, a $1,500 academic scholarship funded by the Fund for Rural Education and Development, or FRED, which is a national charitable foundation located in Washington, D.C.

Samantha Fenton of Sullivan has received a certificate of recognition and a monetary award to pursue educational training. Fenton is currently a Certified Nurse Assistant and plans to further her career in the medical field and become a Licensed Practical Nurse by attending Lake Land College.  Read More

•August 21, 2024•

The Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Foundation will host its 17th annual SBL Hospice Binga on Tuesday, September 3, at the Mattoon Eagles Club, 1917 Oak Avenue. Net proceeds support an  endowment for SBL Willow Breeze Hospice House. Read More

•August 21, 2024•

Pickleball is an American original. The popularity of pickleball has risen sharply in recent years, and a recent report from the Association of Pickleball Professionals indicated more than 36 million people played the sport across the United States in 2022. But pickleball is much older than its recent participation boom suggests. According to USA Pickleball, the sport is the brainchild of U.S. congressman Joel Pritchard and businessman Bill Bell. In 1965, Prichard and Bell arrived at the former’s home on Bainbridge Island in Washington to find their families lounging around. Pritchard’s property had an old badminton court, but no equipment. So the players improvised, using ping pong paddles and a perforated plastic ball. The net, initially around 60 inches high, was lowered once the players realized how well the ball bounced on the asphalt playing surface. The following weekend Pritchard introduced the game to another friend, Barney McCallum, and the two men and Bell soon created rules for the game that is now known as pickleball.

•August 21, 2024•

The Village of  Lovingtons Sparrows Unlimited announced the return of the Annual Toy Run, in which all types of vehicles are welcome and the fee for the event is just a toy, on Saturday, September 28. Sign up for the run is at the Lovington American Legion, the theme this year is 70’s, prizes will be rewarded. Stops on the run will be announce the day of the run. Read More