Editor’s note: The second of two parts this week follows part one in the December 15, 2022 edition of The Voice by Charles Coddington which was a focus on two of the “Big Eight” manufacturing hubs in Aurora, All-Steel and Austin-Western Company. Aurora used to be a major manufacturing hub
Reprinted from November 3, 2011 Rite awf, thuh disserneen reeder will notis sumthing rather diferent abowt this esay. Hee or shee may naht eeven beeleev hee or shee iz reedeen whut haz bin printed ahn thuh paje. Hee or shee mite cunclood that sumwun iz playeen uh joke ahn him
December 6, 2022Dear editor; I now read that Charles Coddington is dreaming of publishing his own newspaper. As fulfilling for him as that might be, I can only hope that his newspaper will be more enlightening than his recent contributions to The Voice have been. With his usual lack of
Aurora used to be a major manufacturing hub of factories with sales items not only to the Nation, but to the world. The major employer was, of course, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which operated its famous round house repair shops on North
This week is essay No. 300, dear reader. I’m shooting for No. 400! The Chas has a dream. He dreams of becoming a newspaper publisher. In the early 20th Century, Aurora had three major daily newspapers, the Aurora Beacon (a conservative point of view), the Aurora Star (a liberal point
Musings: • Hypocrisy 101: Older women seem to think that little girls who wear short skirts are oh-so-cute. But, if those same girls are wearing short skirts post-puberty, why, they are oh-so-immoral, exposing themselves like that. And, by the way, if a young woman keeps tugging at a short skirt
A post-pandemic retrospective: The pandemic is over, isn’t it? We are not deluged, day after day, with alarming statistics, and Americans seem to be enjoying life-as-we-once-knew-it again. Would you believe? Anthony Fauci has announced that he will resign his position at the National Institutes of Health at the end of
In last week’s edition of The Voice (October 20), both Carter Crane, our illustrious publisher, and Chas Coddington, our illustrious columnist, wrote of the constant change to which we’re all exposed in our lives. Change can be either for the good or the bad, depending on your point of view.
It is time to re-visit my Wildly Important Goals (WIG) for Aurora. I’ve added a few new goals to my previous list, although the older recommendations are still uppermost in my mind for the improvement of “Life in Cythera.” (Sorry, that was a shameless plug for my two satiric novels
Musings: • The chief cause of divorce is marriage. You read that right, dear reader. Humans marry for the wrong reasons. They marry too young. They marry the wrong person. They marry because of social pressure. They marry because they become unexpected parents. Some couples realize they made a mistake
One of the more interesting features of The Voice (in addition to the pearls of wisdom penned by Yours Truly) is the person-on-the-street interviews. Week after week, ye olde reporter asks a select group to express opinions on a given topic. Lately, however, thanks to the pandemic, original material has
In October 2015, I revived the “Now and Then” feature which originally had appeared in TONIT (that other newspaper in town, Aurora) many years ago. My introductory essay was a profile of Middle Avenue and, in particular, its role in tying up traffic in downtown Aurora whenever a freight train
Musings: • Have you ever had the experience of talking to, or trying to talk to, a salesperson on the telephone, dear reader? Sure, you have. We all have at one time or another and, more likely, more than once. Too many of these persons do not speak the Queen’s
You’re an old-timer in Aurora if you: Were a member of the Tom-a-Hawk Club. Ate a meal at Barefoot Charlie’s (the best steaks in town!). Drag-raced on North Lake Street. Know that there was a West Aurora North High School. Drank a soda at Shaffer’s Pharmacy. Shot a few billiards
The U.S. Congress finally passed a bipartisan gun-control bill and president Joe Biden signed it after a hiatus of 30 years and hundreds of mass shootings. The provisions of the new law, however, are soft; that is to say, they tinker around the fringes of the issue and do not
Musings: • Roe v. Wade is dead. It was shot, stabbed, strangled, and burned to death, and its ashes were scattered to the four winds, thanks to the three U.S. Supreme Court justices nominated by the former, unlamented King of the United States, T. Rump. According to some legal scholars,
Once upon a time, in Aurora, Ill., there were no shopping centers, strip malls, or whatever one wanted to call them. Aurorans shopped mostly downtown at local retail outlets. There were, of course, local branches of national business entities, such as, Woolworth, Kroger, and Rexall Drugs, to name a few
Another mass shooting. In a school. Oh, my. Thoughts and prayers. End of story. Until the next time. There will be a next time, dear reader, some where in these Disunited States of America. No community is immune any more. Even here in River City, we’ve had our own mass
By R. Mel DormerAurora, Ill. Charles Coddington’s recent article on Aurora old-timers memories (May 19: Aurora old-timers know special sites of past places) stirred a few memories for me of my near East Side Aurora neighborhood, the South Broadway/North Avenue area. • Our ever-present mail carrier, Benny, was met at
Musings: • Got baby formula, ladies? Sure, you do; it came with the baby, but you forgot you had it. It’s called “breast milk,” and you have a plentiful supply to fulfill the baby’s needs. Few women talk about it anymore, which is unfortunate, because the original product is more
