Annual journey to Springfield marred by sad local news | From the Round Table

It was a sentimental journey last week, when I returned to Springfield, Ill., for the annual reunion of former WTAX Radio employees, many of whom I was working with 40 years ago.
My old boss, Shelby Harbison, has done much to propel my radio career during the years. He’s hosted these events since he retired 25 years ago, and it’s become a must on my annual calendar.
This 181-mile trip was to be a leisurely drive through the lush, rural farmland of northeast Missouri and the portion of western Illinois the locals call “Forgottonia.” I chose a route that followed as much of the two-lane original roadway as I could find from Kingdom City to Springfield formerly called US 54.
Between Kingdom City and Mexico, I slowed for the notorious Curryville speed trap and crossed the narrow bridge across the Mississippi River at Louisiana. A few miles east of there, I paused in Atlas, one of several early claimants of the peripatetic state capital, which finally settled in Springfield.
Pittsfield, the Pike County seat, marked the start of my deliberate detour from the speedier Interstate 72. I followed what is now Illinois Route 106 and crossed the Illinois River on the old vertical lift bridge at Florence. With old pavements still extant, the rest of my trip followed the two-lane roads I’ve made dozens of trips on through the years. The 410-foot-high Illinois State Capitol dome, visible from about 20 miles away on a clear day, heralded the final approach to Springfield after about four hours on the road.
The approach to any community for me means sampling the local radio fare, so I began cruising the kilocycles to find out what was going on in the city I once called home. The usual run of stories was punctuated by repeated references to Springfield’s late mayor and action taken the previous evening by the City Council to appoint an acting successor. Although the mayor’s death two weeks earlier was old news to the locals, the burden assumed by the stand-in was the city’s $13-million budget deficit.
I assumed I was going to have to wait to find out more about the late mayor at the noontime reception with old associates at Maldaner’s, a downtown eatery frequented by Abraham Lincoln when he was practicing law on the other side of South Sixth Street.
But I was in for a surprise. A news bulletin from the Sangamon County Court House said the mayor had committed suicide just before he was to be questioned about the possible misappropriation of $200,000 of an estate he was the executor of. Here was a popular 53-year-old family man who was said to have performed his mayoral duties effectively but decided he couldn’t take it any more and took his life a few days before Christmas. (There was no indication of any malfeasance in office from accounts in the news and reports from my friends.)
The gloom continued as I drove through a vastly changed central business district, which used to be filled with department and specialty stores. Most retail activity abandoned the area years ago for sprawling shopping complexes on the west side of town. I passed acres of newer retail emporiums on old US Route 36/54 (Wabash Avenue), but as I approached the core, the quality seemed to go downhill. Columbia hardly has the monopoly on payday loan establishments; there are dozens and dozens of them dotting the Springfield area.
One downtown restaurant owner blamed the decline in business activity on Draconian state employment cutbacks during the past few years. The Prairie State is said to be virtually bankrupt, and the business district seemed rather deserted at lunchtime. Forty years ago, I remember it was abuzz with activity.
Although I miss Springfield’s mainline rail service to Chicago and St. Louis and its magnificent city-owned lake and recreation complex, I wouldn’t want to deal with the vicissitudes of Illinois’ shaky financial picture and the havoc it’s causing in what is otherwise a very pleasant place to live.
Watching Columbia light up the sky as I returned from my daytrip was heartening, and it was nice indeed to be back home again.