Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Courtesy of my daughter Dani and fiancee' Dan.

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No title? It must have been the chocolate!

This is the time of the year when the days get shorter, it gets dark earlier, and the time speeds by in a haze of chocolate smears and shiny candy wrappers.

And the kids get excited too!

I bought a bag of Halloween candy because I wanted some suckers. I like Tootsie Pops, okay? With the Tootsie Roll center. Well it was quickly gone through, the suckers went first of course. My son took a look at the bag as if I had done a poor job of acquiring the correct kind and volume of sweets for the upcoming holiday. "I hope you know I am going to be getting WAY more candy than that." He said disapprovingly.

Last night Andy came home with 2 grocery bags stuffed to bursting with what he had decided was the right candy. He poured some from each bag into a big orange plastic Halloween bowl until he had a mix of chocolate candy bars of every kind, fruit chews, peanut butter bits (did I mention chocolate?) and of course, suckers. Chocolate covered things and taffy and toffee, miniature boxes and bags and stuff on a stick. Yesterday was October 20th. 11 days before Halloween. The candy is already in a bowl and accessible to peruse whenever we ( I ) want to.

I think my son is trying to kill me.

. . . either that - or he's got dibs on the jeans I'll out-grow!!!







. . . and this has been picked over already. It's going to get ugly.

And now ...............the rest .......of the story.

Vishnu Springs was a small village and resort located in west central Illinois. There is a small spring located on the property that is thought to have healing powers. So the area was sought after and went through many owners from when it was first developed for use to the present day.

The property was first developed by Darius Hicks in the late 1800’s. Hicks started out with a hotel that had many attractions to it, one of those being indoor plumbing. There were also swings and hammocks, flower gardens, a deer park, horse-powered merry-go-round, a pond filled with goldfish, and many other attractions. The village would eventually surround the resort.

Eventually the town failed though. Hicks committed suicide after the death of his wife. There were many owners after him who tried to get the place up and running. Ownership traded back and forth. Some Western Illinois University students even rented the place in the seventies because of its beauty and tranquility. Today though, Western Illinois University owns the property and will be turning it into a wildlife refuge. What will be come of the hotel which still stands? Who knows what will happen. No one can deny the history that will stay locked away in the memories of ones who have visited.

No Trespassing signs are posted.

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Trespassing at Vishnu Springs

In what's been an ongoing occurrence, people continue to trespass at Vishnu Springs. McDonough County Sheriff Rick VanBrooker says seventeen people were charged last weekend with trespassing. Around 3:30 Saturday afternoon, two cars were found parked outside the gate and blocking the entrance and the road that leads to the former hotel and springs and police ticketed *seven people. Just after 10 o'clock Sunday night police again found two vehicles parked at the entrance. This time they ticketed 10 people. The ages ranged from 18 to 22. There are rumors that the former hotel on the site is haunted and the spring water was rumored to have healing power. People pry off the boards covering the hotel windows and doors to get inside, and the walls inside are spray-painted with graffiti.

* My 21 year old good as gold daughter and friends, on Halloween. How did I find out? Her court summons came in the mail today. Am I thrilled? Not so much. Am I angry with her?

Would you be?

**Added - They did not go inside, it is all boarded up, nor did they vandalise anything. They poked around and explored outside.