The Darndest Things: How a local band in the 60s rocked our lives

By Roxanne Mills | July 2, 2019 | Comments Off on The Darndest Things: How a local band in the 60s rocked our lives

Like many baby boomers, my husband Randy and I often listen to the “oldies” while traveling.  A few years ago,…

A Farrington Kid

By Randy Mills | June 19, 2019 | Comments Off on A Farrington Kid

There were fifteen rural grade schools in Jefferson County, Illinois, when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s,…

Memories of the Wayne City Holiday Tournament

By Randy Mills | May 24, 2019 | Comments Off on Memories of the Wayne City Holiday Tournament

One of my favorite events that I related in the book An Almost Perfect Season: A Father and Son and…

What the Cows Saw

By Randy Mills | May 10, 2019 | Comments Off on What the Cows Saw

The coldest day on record in southern Illinois was February 2, 1951. A dome of bitter Arctic air settled over…

Sledge Leads the Charge:

By Randy Mills | May 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Sledge Leads the Charge:

A Country Boy on a City Boy Basketball Team Some of the great Illinois high school basketball players sometimes get…

The 1968- 1969 Fairfield Mules

By Randy Mills | April 15, 2019 | Comments Off on The 1968- 1969 Fairfield Mules

One of southern Illinois’ most successful basketball teams you probably never heard of. Accounts from Illinois newspaper sports pages clearly…

Trojans!

By Randy Mills | April 1, 2019 | Comments Off on Trojans!

A Brief History of Some of the Best Bluford High School Basketball Teams and Scorers, 1950-1970 During the exciting, highly…

The Newell Letters

By Randy Mills | March 18, 2019 | Comments Off on The Newell Letters

The Story of a Waltonville Boy, Jimmy Newell, who traveled to the Big City in 1906, as Told through Family…

A Heartbreaking Loss: The Story of the 1942-1943 Waltonville Commandos

By Randy Mills | March 4, 2019 | Comments Off on A Heartbreaking Loss: The Story of the 1942-1943 Waltonville Commandos

While my book, An Almost Perfect Season, primarily features Bluford basketball teams, the book also give ample space to many…

Southern Illinois’ Elegant Elephant: The Guy Lee Turner Story

By Randy Mills | February 18, 2019 | Comments Off on Southern Illinois’ Elegant Elephant: The Guy Lee Turner Story

In the book An Almost Perfect Season: A Father and Son and a Golden Age of Small Town High School…

Coming In the Fall of 2019

By Randy Mills | January 30, 2019 | Comments Off on Coming In the Fall of 2019

In the 1968-1969 Illinois high school basketball season, tiny Bluford High School, having just over a hundred students, reeled off…

On My Mother’s Birthday

By Randy Mills | December 3, 2018 | Comments Off on On My Mother’s Birthday

Today our sweet mother, Mary Alice Newell, would have been ninety-one. In the photo of her holding a small dog,…