The Lost Archives: Westfield and Elwood, Illinois

 After leaving St. Meinrad Indiana where I hung out with my buddy Jeff, my next destination was Elwood, IL to visit my friend Kevin W. with a short detour in the small farming town of Westfield, IL where one of my grandfathers grew up.  I crossed the Illinois border pretty quick, and I was greeted by miles of corn fields.  Its easy to be dismissive of the scenery as boring, but I felt like I was passing through Illinois at a great time to see the corn.  I dont know a lot about corn, but I think the corn was ready for harvest, which the browned husks looked very reminiscent of "amber waves of grain."  The endless brown corn rows rocking in the wind is a pretty cool sight.  Unfortunately, it was late enough in the season that a lot of farmers were already clearing their fields, so some of the fields were just miles of dirt, but that was a minority of the farms.

After battling traffic back ups on isolated farm roads, due to construction, I eventually made it to Westfield, IL where my grandfather grew up.  The first thing that greats you in the town square is the giant grain elevator where the local farmers come to drop off their produce.  As you can tell by the city limits sign, its a pretty small town and its in the middle of nowhere.  As I drove through downtown, it is apparent that the once boomtown had fallen on harder times.  Decaying and vacant buildings made up most of the town square. I was surprised to see that the most central buildings in the small town had brick walls that had collapsed a long time ago, and never been repaired.  It certainly projected a feeling of sadness. 

My next task was to try to find my grandfathers childhood house.  I called up grandpa, and he was able to give me a loose description of where the house ways.  It had been a while since he had been back here, and many things had changed, but I think I was able to find it based on his description.  It is important to me to connect to previous generations of my family.  This place represents a whole chunk of my grandfathers life that only existed as an abstract thought in my mind.  This trip provides a much needed connection to reality. 

After finding grandpas childhood home, I stopped by the local cemetary to see if I had any relative buried there.  The cemetary was actually pretty huge, so I briskly walked the rows and hoped that my last name would jump out at me if it crossed by gaze.  After 20min or so, I didnt see any relatives, so I hit the road.  After talking to my grandfather later, he told me no one was buried in Westfield. 

I spent the rest of my time in Westfield seeing the sites and looking at quaint farmhouses.  My grandpa suggested that I stop by the local post office and drop his name.  Apparently, there is an old lady that has been working at the post office forever that grandpa was friends with back in the day.  Unfortnately, the post office was closed at that time, so I didnt get the chance. 

After a while, I hit the road towards Elwood, which is just south of Chicago.   Apparently, it has one of the largest warehouse districts ever, and something like thousands of tractor trailers pass through Elwood every day.  Also, Elwood has a strong connection to the Blues Brothers.  You make recall that the two main characters in the movie are Elwood and  "Joliet" Jake.  The towns of Joliet and Elwood are right next to each other. 

As I pulled up to Kevin's house, his dog and family gave me a very warm welcome.  After a some introductory banter, Kevin asked what I wanted to see in Elwood. Hahaha, I laughed.  I have no idea what there is to see.  So I told him, show me the coolest things in  Elwood.  He mentioned that I could see the famous Joliet correctional facility, and that he would drive me by the entrance where Jake exits prison in the very beginning of the Blues Brothers.  I thought this was super cool!  Lets do it!

On the way to  the prison, we passed by his high school, which looks almost indistguishable from the prison!  Awesome.  Finally we made it to the gate.  It was night time, and Kevin told me this was a pretty rough area, so we shouldnt linger too long.  I got my picure and we moved on.  It was a pretty fun moment though.  I love seeing movie related stuff along the way.

The opening scene to the Blues Brothers

Next, we drove to a place called Portillos Hot Dogs.  Kevin said it was a pretty legit place to get some dogs and whatnot.  We spent the next couple hours chillin and eatin dogs.  I went back for seconds because I was hungry, and lets be honest, I am putting on the weight for this trip. Why hold back?

After dinner, we went back to Elwood to visit a local watering hole, Watson’s Diner I think.  Apparently there was quite a bit a drama that went down in downtown Elwood.  Something about the oldest and most popular bar being burned down by someone.  It was the community gathering place, and in the absence of this bar, many places have tried to fill the gap, but none of them have had the wide appeal to all demographics that the original place had.  We were also celebrating Kevins big achievement.  He got a new job!  After finishing grad school, he scored his first gig post school.  With his architecture expertise, he will be working for a firm that works with the warehouses.  It sounded like a pretty cool job, and we drank a few beers to celebrate. 

After the beers, we went home and slept.  The next morning, Kevin's  family treated me to a very nice breakfast and I really enjoyed the conversation with Kevin and his mother.  Kevin and family, thanks so much for your hospitality.  You were an excellent tour guide and host….I had a great time. 

On my way out of town, I stopped to snap a pic of the old timey post office in Elwood, and I got to drive down a stretch of historic Route 66.  A jaunt down Rte66 was a goal of mine for the trip, so I am glad I got to check it off the list.  There are still 50's style diners left over from the glory days of Route 66.  Given more time, it would be cool to stop at a few.

Next up: Des Plaines, IL to visit my great aunt and her family!