VITAL STATS
Population: Who knows? 500 maybe? (Wikipedia say 3,573 in the greater Kickapoo area)
Area: I would say about, "oh so big"
Cast Members: Dr. Doctorman, Mr. Marlo
Visited On: August 13, 2010
Weather: Balmy
Oh you wish you were a town, don’t you, sweet Kickapoo? You wish you were a recognized municipality, just like nearby Hanna City, Dunlap, and Princeville. You wish it so bad that you’re willing to lie with signs that say things like "Kickapoo 2 miles" and "Kickapoo, a great city to raise your family". You stoop Kickapoo, didn't you know we'd love you for who you really are?
A few weekends ago, friends of the blog Jon and Kevin Klesterates got married at Prairie Wildlife Park just outside Peoria. This was appropriate because it 1.) Was near me, and 2.) lead to the inevitable tidal wave of our friends washing up on the shores of Whiskey Town only to lay about drunkenly the next day. After the heady rush and swell another wonderful wedding came and went, not to mention the dancing of Troy Hayes, I found Mr. Marlo washed up in my basement, sleeping peacefully. Left with a Saturday to while away together, we decided to go ’splorin’.
Kickapoo seemed a natural choice. It’s plenty close and is often thought of by Peorians as "reachable rural". Not to mention they are alleged to have a kick-ass winery. Thus we were hopelessly pulled to this local Charybdis.
YIB tells me that he always (sometimes) does a solid 5-10 minutes of research on a town before blogging. Kickapoo proved a stranger nut to crack. I went into my search assuming I’d finding the usual a/s/l, but instead the internet came back to me with a, "Kickapoo where? Who? Did you mean the park by Danville? Love the blog, by the way."
I figured the U.S. census website would help, but the best it could find was information on Kickapoo Township as a whole. Which, now that I think about it makes sense: I didn’t remember seeing a post office, and when I searched the zip code, 61615, it just comes up as Peoria. You will notice that in the picture with Mr. Marlo above, there's no population count on the town sign, it just marks a perimeter. I guess so that the "townies" can think of themselves as a class apart from the mere "townshippers" out in the sticks. But I digress.
We pulled into town in Mr. Marlo’s sweet rental car and everything seemed in order: There was a nice church, a city park, and the requisite 3 antique malls all in view of the main drag. The town is laid out on the T where Highway 18 butts into Highway 150 (known to Peorians as "War Memorial Drive" and know to Kickapooians [ew…] as "Main Street").
We made it inside safely.
I guess this does reinforce what I’ve heard about Kickapoo being a popular gathering spot in the area. And for what it was, Ludy’s did just fine. What you have to remember in an area like this is it’s RIGHT THE HELL NEXT TO PEORIA. Keeping a restaurant open there has to be hard. It’s only 6.8 miles from a TGIF on the exact same road, although I guess TGIF frowns on bike rallies. Mr. Marlo said his burger was excellent, but he didn’t exactly need to say so.
We let geographic Darwinism decide which antique/knick-knack shop we could visit, and decided that Kightlinger’s could probably eat the other two handily. Mr. Marlo spent some time capturing the scene outside while I wandered in. Jim Kightlinger, proprietor, bondsman, etc. was behind the counter and eager to talk about anything and everything except Kickapoo. I gave him the line that we were just passing through town and stopped for lunch across the street.
Me: So what’s it like here in Kickapoo?
Jim: No much like anything. Just boring.
Me: Oh…(looking at a sprinkling can crafted to display pictures)… So what would you say you do to keep busy around here?
Me: Oh…(looking at a sprinkling can crafted to display pictures)… So what would you say you do to keep busy around here?
Jimmy: Nothing. There’s nothing here.
Me: Ah. Well, so you grew up here then?
James: Me? God, no. I moved here.
Still Me: You moved here?
Jim Kightlinger: Yep!
And then he changed the conversation to me and where I work and what I’m like and refused to go back. It was like he was trying to repress something and didn’t want a headshrinker like me mucking about in his thoughts. Whatever force in heaven or hell caused him to move to what he describes as "nowhere" and open a pretty nice knick-knack shop is completely beyond me. Mr. Marlo came to my aid though, and we interrogated the rest of the shop.
Like Wal-Mart, Jim prescribes to the "never too early for Halloween" theology
He also bragged about the people he attracts from Peoria and even Chicago. Specifically old lady types that come for wine tastings. Again, you have a shop that attracts people from over 100 miles away, and everything you can say about your town I can fit between the butt cheeks of a small hamster. That old pastime of crapping on your town came back to haunt us. I just don't get it. Honestly, if you chose to live in a burned out hole in the ground, shouldn't you try to convince yourself and others that it is, in fact, the best hole in the ground that ever got burned out? And the case goes triple for small towns like Kickapoo. Why take pot-shots at it when you choose to live there? Chaos reigns!
Anyway, after Mr. Marlo and I were thoroughly antiqued, we strolled around town, taking in the sites and snapping a picture or two.
This isn't reflective of the town at large, but, come on! Four satellite dishes?
Actually we didn't get many pictures of the nice parts of town. Because that's boring. For the most part it all came off as pretty nice, though. There really didn’t seem to be any run-down houses or neighbors, save the unmowed lawn or two. I suspect this is because Kickapoo is very much a bedroom community. Sexiness aside, that means that most of the people who live there drive anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to get to work everyday. That’s simply where jobs are and where people need to be. I do know that a lot of Kickapooians (again, ew…) work at the many Caterpillar plants scattered around P-town, so it only figures.
We also took a turn through the town cemetary, which, honestly, was pretty cool, especially the tiny Catholic church that’s over a 150 years old. And what's hilarious is the pamphlets they had in the little box next to it had a journal entry from around that time that specifically said there weren't many Catholics around then and "maybe this would help attract some". Kevin Costner is Catholic.
They still use it a couple of times a year, which, as a church-goer myself, I really like because it mixes things up a little.
Catholic Mom: Kids, hurry up, it’s time for church!
Catholic Kids: Aww…
Catholic Mom: Come on kids, it’s in the graveyard!
Catholic Kids: Hellz yeah!1! Roxorz!!!!one!!!
Because apparently all Catholic children speak in 2002 Leet.
And if your name is Heinz, this cemetary is for you!
The walk back revealed two more businesses: A used car lot and a monument/2nd best knick-knack shop in town. Not to mention a lighthouse/clubhouse in some folks backyard.
"Bottles" was certainly a motif around Kickapoo
At that point we’d had enough and decided it was time for THE WINERY.
I’d been here one time before for a graduation, and it was just fine. The inside was simple but also really nice. Mr. Marlo and I enjoyed our 5 tastings, plus a secret 6th taste. Getting mellow on wine certainly makes any DTL project end on a sweet, port-flavored note.
And the summary. Do I vote Kickapoo? Maybe! While not a town and completely willing to let you go on believing it is, it did have several businesses and amenities that you might not expect in a town 7 miles away from a town of 100,000. But therein lies the reason, because I’ll bet people like to maintain a small amount of locality there. But not too much: There was no bank, no post office, and no grocery store. There were two bars and a gas station, though. If I had to guess, I would say that Kickapoo has stabilized with the larger draw of Peoria. Everyone we met did seem to be smiling and more than a few people we saw in there yards and on the ballfield waved happily at a couple of strangers wondering their streets.
Beats other places we’ve been.
And here’s a bunch of other shots Mr. Marlo took around town. He’ll leave you his website in the comments section. Also congrats again to Jon and Kevin, you no longer bachelors you!
Signing off,
Dr. Doctorman
The town was alright, but MAN. THAT WINERY. I could've sat there for another hour, easily.
ReplyDeleteYou know, for an unincorporated town (township), they have some very very nice things. That winery, the church (which was beautiful), a baseball field... which doubled as a town center, it seems... How did all these expensive things get made in a town that has as many people in its cemetery as currently living there?
Oh and I think Doctor Doctorman understated how dreadfully frightened I was in trying to go into Ludy's. It had what was obviously Kickapoo's chapter of the Hells Angels putting stake on Ludy's entire outdoor property and then some. I was scared just taking a picture might start a brawl. And any brawls that are not referencing a Wii game, I am sorely out of practice.
Regardless, I had a lot of fun doing this trip and taking pictures of it. The rest of my portfolio, and Kickapoo shots soon, can be seen at at my website:
www.jeremykanne.com