The Time the Chicago Mafia Came to My Rural Hometown to Announce the Murder of a Nazi SS Officer.

Welcome to a new series I’m starting on Medium, The Folks of Forgotonnia, based on growing up in the agricultural (and heavily Appalachian in culture and tradition) region of Western Illinois which was economically disadvantaged by Chicago. The term was coined in the 1950’s by Coca-Cola bottler Jack Horn. According to Wikipedia:

The initiative grew from frustration among the citizens and public officials of western Illinois due to the lack of support for regional transportation and infrastructure projects. Federal funding for a highway from Chicago to Kansas City routed through the heart of western Illinois was defeated by the U.S. Congress (1955, 1968, 1972), passenger rail service from Quincy and Macomb to Chicago was dropped in 1970. Carthage College packed up and moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1964.

With a couple of exceptions (poet Carl Sandberg called Galseberg home and season 1 of the 90’s smash sitcom Roseanne was set in Fulton County, IL before the writers reworked the fictional town of Lanford, IL to be an exurb of Chicago in season 2), there haven’t been many voices telling the tales of where I come from.

The Folks of Forgottonia is an anthology of local lore and the people who shaped my growing up years — including some who influenced me from beyond the grave via the stories that lived on.