Archive for the ‘Farmersville’ Category
Farmersville Irish Days
Sunday, June 15th, 2008The Touring Route 66 Show
Thursday, June 12th, 2008The whole idea of appearing at local town festivals was borne out of the April quarterly meeting of the Association in Hamel. One of the key points of discussion was the fall off in membership and the subsequent need for us to promote the Association (and the road). We can’t just expect people to hunt us down.
Emily and I quickly volunteered to appear at Farmersville, Raymond and Litchfield’s celebrations…and seconds later we found ourselves the Montgomery County reps. Cool.
This left us with the unenviable task of showing up at group of town celebrations that have nothing to do with our Association. Unlike next weeks National Route 66 Festival in Litchfield, these events have nothing to do with the Mother Road other than the fact that the communities are on the highway. Even Edwardsville’s fiesta this weekend is at least called the Route 66 Festival even if it’s just a name.
I figured I needed a battle plan. And this is what I came up with:
1.) Wow them. Pictures, music and a big banner. Instead of a tiny table with a few brochures, give the people something to help them grasp the utter awesomeness of America’s Main Street. One of my pet peeves about the Association’s website has always been the lack of vibrant images of the road, something I believe [cheap plug] that Digital Route 66 is not lacking in (that banner at the top has about twenty-six different pictures that rotate right now, and I keep adding more). So we need lots of color and flash.
The result: a flip book of around fifty 8.5×11 full color images from my collection of Illinois Route 66 landmarks. They’re brilliant and attention grabbing and there’s information that goes along with them. In order from south to north, they help tell the story of Route 66 as you leaf through it. In addition, I’m making a large presentation board (the type used for science fair projects) into a preservation display with, at last count, fourteen more images (mostly 4×6, but a couple 8.5×11) of landmarks that have been restored or preserved along the Mother Road in Illinois. There’s also a map of Illinois featuring all of the projects worked on.
Oh, the music: I purchased a few 50’s oldies compilation CDs to go with my already pretty good collection of 60’s music and created a four-to-five hour playlist for our iPod to take along on last weekend’s Motor Tour. It’s called “Cruisin’”, and to be a little polite it, well…it kicks your ass. The songs haven’t outlived their usefulness, though: I’m taking small speakers and the iPod with me to play crusin’ music (at a reasonable volume) at the booth to get people in the Route 66 mood. Trust me, it works.
The banner: didn’t get it done in time. We’ll make do without it.
2.) Have a product. Our main goal is to hopefully get one or two (or more) new (or renewal, even) applicants to the Association. Or to at least hand out brochures. But that’s not enough.
Since I printed all those pictures out to display, why can’t we sell a few? The Waldmire prints up for sale on the Motor Tour did okay, and while my photography is not nearly as artistic a few people may still find it attractive. And since we’re in Farmersville, printing a few extra copies of the Art’s sign and the Our Lady of the Highways Shrine might result in a few sales. It costs me (well, the Association after I get repaid) about $1.50 at most to produce a print. Selling just a couple at $10/print would do a lot.
What else sells well at these festivals? Cookbooks. Since the Association already has a stack of them, putting some on the table certainly won’t hurt. I was promised a shipment of them from up north by this weekend; no luck yet, but there’s still time.
3.) Get them talking. Our biggest advantage is our love of the highway. Emily and I are well versed in its history and speak with passion. If we can get people asking about certain pictures or landmarks or just what the heck we’re doing there, then we might get move a print. Or get a new member. Or at least just get someone to want to travel the road…someday. And isn’t that what we’re all about, anyway?
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I think it’ll work. If nothing else we have the three festivals before the next Association meeting in Willowbrook in July so we can report back on our successes and failures. Hopefully more of the former.
I’ll take pictures this weekend at Irish Days and show off the final product.
Illinois Central, Monday Morning Rail
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008Okay, so it wasn’t the Illinois Central.
And it wasn’t Monday morning; it was Monday evening.
But it was still awesome. With Emily having to work in Chicagoland this week, it was the perfect opportunity to travel the rails alongside Route 66. After arriving at a friend’s house in Plainfield to catch up on sleep after the Motor Tour, we spent Monday – our first anniversary – heading up the Mother Road out of Joliet all the way up to Michigan Avenue. We missed a few miles of road in Joliet, but we’d taken Veterans’ Parkway around Springfield on Saturday so we’d already cheated once. It’s the thought that counts.
At 6:05 that evening she dropped me off at the historic Joliet Union Station and I jumped the 305 Amtrak southbound to Carlinville. We paused only once – just south of Odell to wait for a freight to pass – and the trip along the Mother Road, coming just one day after we had traveled north, was a fun way to head back home. Of the landmarks easily visible from the train I only missed the Polk-a-Dot and pretty much all of Chenoa before darkness stole my vision from me near Sherman. For a moment I thought I’d missed the Cayuga Meramec Caverns Barn, but then it snuck up on me; with the elevation of the tracks at that point the view of the barn from the train is incredible.
An added bonus: the train car was lined with AC power plugs enabling me to plug in my laptop and do work, specifically for the festival this weekend. The result was me doing about five minutes of work while heading out of Joliet before I ditched the notebook and dug out the iPod. I was just too distracted away from my sightseeing.
• The aforementioned festival is Farmersville’s Irish Days, the village’s annual town fiesta that was once featured on the Illinois Motor Tour. This Friday night and Saturday we’ll have a booth at the event promoting the Association, handing out applications and hopefully educating some people about Route 66. Maybe we can even sell a few cookbooks. I’m assembling a binder full of 8.5×11 prints of Illinois Route 66 landmarks and information about them (and I’ll have some of those prints for sale as well) and there will be a large poster celebrating the preservation efforts of the Association over the years.
We’re looking forward to Litchfield next week, as well, though we’ll just be hanging out at the Illinois Association/Pontiac booth a little bit. I’d love to attend the breakfast at the Ariston on Sunday morning, as well, but we have to go to church sometime. And the rest of the weekend is packed.