Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield

A: Oh yes sure, they used to dl, a lot of business here in those days
Q: One of the social centers of the village
A: Oh yes that's right.
Q: When did you yet involved with the trusteeship of the villaye?
.A: Oh that's when I ycrt the - prior to the - I hat1 to yet off of there on account i~f t~cing
in the liiluur business see.
Q: Oh I'll 1)~. darned. (chuckles)
A: Other\vise thry wanted me to be mayor, see, at that time. But I had a little contafls
outside and I got out a little more and I thought I'd hr the right men for the job. Rut
I couldn't he mayor and hold a liquor license.
(3 Oh'' I'll t~e darned. What camr up nhen you were on the boartl of trustrrs"
A: Oh we never had anything particular. That \\.;is just about the routine dral. You'ti
visit and get - I think xx-e got tn,o dollars a mceting or sc~~nnething like that, ihal's ahout
all there was. ilnii somrbody'd want a drain or a sewer or son~ething 11-ith a drive\\-ay and
there was nothing. Hall to build a few sidewalks and that's ahout the extent of that, there
was no accidents like it is nnw. Yon they've always got people complaining about this or
that or . . .
Q: IIow did you go ahi,ut keeping up the streets then?
A: Oh we did it by hand lahi~r. We just went out and cut thr weeds with this little
scythe. And scoo[r to shovel snow. we (lid a better job than thry do now. We'd al\va)-s h:ive
the snow off the sidewalk from her? to the church. We always had a sidr~valk all of tht,
way down this part anti then to the church. Then we had a hank in town. They'd always
ha\-^, the sidewalk cleared and peoplc'il grt out and cleared their own in front of itnrir
w:ilks. Hut now, hell they could care less. They just let it on there and nobody thinks about
getting ahold of a shovel anymore.
Q: I'll be darnrd. And you maintained the streets that way, a1 thr
.4: Well I used to do all nly own streets, yes
Q: Oh, is that right'!
A: Sure. I hail :i hard road in front of my place before anybody ever thought ahout a hard
road because I kcl~t min'. H:ul oil here anyway from the filling station, saved ihe oil ant1
just kept pourinrr it on thc highway, which would be against the law now. Somebody would
sue you if you had that. But those days, why, we'd settle the dust. In thr wintrrtimr it
stayed, it didn't gel mudd,. That's all that is out there now is just :i solitl mass of oil and
dirt, and pound it to make it solitl and waterproofed.
Q: I'll be darned. \Veil then - let's see, hack in the 1940's now, did you beco~r~e the public
administrator in thc carly 1940's?
ri Yes that's right, I was puhliv administrator then
Q: What docs that amount to?
A: Oh that's your handling of the estates wherr they tlon't desicnate anybody in their
will. And I hail a fen of them.
Carl Wittmond Memoir -- Archives/Special Collections, University of Illinois at Springfield