One Stop Community Christmas Trivia Night
LERNA – A fundraising party for One Stop Community Christmas will take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 26, at the Lincoln Fire Protection District in Lerna. Pre-packaged snacks and beverages will be available.
Teams cannot have more than six members. The cost is $50 per team. No pre-registration is necessary. Pay at the door with cash, check, or Venmo.
Oakland Christmas Market Set
OAKLAND — Join the community to shop for handcrafted goods from local makers and artisans from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Lake Crest Elementary School in the multi-purpose hall.
Greenup Methodist will organize a religious bazaar
GREENUP — The annual Greenup United Methodist Church Christmas Bazaar will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, December 3. The church is located at 201 N. Kentucky St., Greenup.
There will be soup, sandwiches, pies, baked goods, crafts and the cookie table.
Alpha Upsilon will celebrate Christmas
MATTOON — ESA’s Alpha Upsilon Chapter will hold its Christmas celebration at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6 at the home of Recording Secretary Michelle Skinlo. Participants are asked to bring a wrapped Christmas decoration and a gift for their secret sister.
RSVP by Thursday, December 1 to Vicki at 217-246-6753 or Michelle at 217-234-2579.
If you would like to learn more about Epsilon Sigma Alpha (a philanthropic service organization), they welcome all inquiries and new members. Contact Kathleen Grissom at 217-848-2774.
Effingham Public Library is holding a book sale
EFFINGHAM – The Effingham Suzette Brumleve Memorial Public Library will hold a book sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, December 9 and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, December 10 on the lower level of the library at 200 N. Third St.
The book sale features new, lightly used and vintage books in a wide range of categories, including fiction, history, mystery, cooking, Christian, large print, politics, military, biographies, nature, sports, travel, gardening, romance, science fiction. and self-improvement.
Children’s books will be sold in a special area that allows easier access for strollers.
The book sale will also offer a selection of DVDs and CDs.
Donations of good, little-used books are accepted at the library checkout during normal library hours. Proceeds from the sale will go towards special projects at the library.
If you have questions about book sales, call the library at 217-342-2464, Ext. 1, or email info@effinghamlibrary.org.
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 soon after. more. 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.