What a great antidote to today's constant stream of discouraging news. I hope the women of Alto Pass are still stitching the community together with their quilts.
My grandmother made me a quilt when I went off to college. Of all the things I've lost or given away in the decades, the divorces and the pretty much countless moves I've made since then, that's the thing I most regret not having held onto. Wonderful story, thank you.
This is a beautiful story Lucian. Thank you for sharing. I’m kind of emotional tonight and this story got to me. When I got home from work I read that Gordon Lightfoot just passed away. He is one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. I saw him several times in concert going back to the late 70s. But the last time I saw him was about 9 years ago at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland. It wasn’t too long after he had the abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture that he nearly died from. He was amazing and very reflective. It was like no time had passed when he sang his great songs. This is one of my favorites among many.
Many feel the same. The news yesterday of his passing hit me harder than I would have imagined. He was a consummate singer-songwriter, and his words were from the heart. They were a big part of my college years. His songs are a great legacy.
A great story! I was the Assistant Director of Tourism for Illinois during that time, under Dan Walker. I remember Alto Pass driving in the area to tourism council meetings for Southern Illinois. Your story must have never hit the Illinois press. Community quilting has always gone on in rural areas, mostly through Ladies Circles in the various churches. It is still continuing today, though dying out as the rural population ages, and young people leave. A nursing home in Danforth, IL called Praire View still holds a quilt auction fundraiser every year. Local church groups produce 8-10 quilts. Prices are in the thousands today. Women have always been the underlying foundation of any rural society. Men are for show and drive the tractors. You touched a memory nerve, Lucian.
Google tells me the quilters of Alto Pass were still going in 2019. Of course my story didn't hit the Illinois press. It was in the Voice. I doubt there were many newspaper editors in 1974 in Chicago or Springfield subscribing to the Voice...although they should have, obviously.
My Great Grandfather and Grandfather started the local fire company. Trains start fires in the hot dry summers, sparks off the wheels. My father would take us four boys out to the river hills in the back of the pickup to put out fires (started by the trains) swatting with tree boughs (we were dressed only in shorts, no shoes) It wasn't until I toured the fire company with my son in Cub Scouts when I saw a sign saying this fire company was founded by these guys. They never said a word to me of any of this. They were farmers and veterans. They never spoke, at least not with words...
I could have made a career going around the country finding stories like this. CBS had a guy on 60 Minutes who did just that in a motorhome because he wouldn't fly. The Village Voice didn't have the budget for a motor home.
Having driven through Alto Pass many times I could actually see those places again through your descriptions. This story pulls at the heartstrings of an old girl from southern Illinois.
Just returned to my home in Queens County where the neighbors finally realized during COVID isolation that it was probably l good idea to actually converse. Now that we’re out of isolation, we’ve resumed the social standoff that preceded my 33 years in this upscale enclave of a borough that has one of the largest assortments of immigrants anywhere in the world.
It seems like a contradiction that such social isolation can exist a place where public schools have an uncanny number of students from any number of assorted ethnic backgrounds. But as an enclave that brags the oldest Memorial Day Parade, we’re funny that way.
By contrast, two of my daughters have emigrated out of America and have found more of a caring, welcoming, nurturing sense of community in Toronto and Melbourne.
Go figure. Our grandparents arrived as these shores by boat more than 100 years ago. They found their own extended community based on shared language, religion, and culture. The children, our parents wanted to forget the world their parents fled and embrace the American way of life, being careful not to make waves. We, conversely sought to shape the future of this land by speaking out and engaging in political activism.
I look at the needlepoint from my grandmother, a framed relic and l swear l have the best of both worlds. Don’t l seek out the stranger and befriend those who are new arrivals, continually making their way into our shared lives?
On the airplane returning from Toronto l spoke to an East-Indian
woman who resides in Canada. She was bringing her parents for a first visit to NYC! Sure hopes she takes up my offer of online friendship. I need encouragement
if I’m ever going to travel to Australia to visit my daughter and her growing family. “You can do this!”, says my new traveling companion !
The threads that connect us are just waiting to be stitched together to form the covering that is yet to be assembled! Sure glad Lucian had the good sense to reprint the original version that was published in The Village Voice, the year my eldest was born. That was quite a quilt, and it still warms the heart and gives one pause. Where are we going and why? And is this the best we can do?
Oh this is wonderful! To think that there was such a kind and resolute community working only to better their town. My Mother taught herself to quilt during the 1970s and attempted to engage me and all of her friends in the activity. Of course, she was doing in in suburban Long Island, so that altruism was lacking. Still...a community of quilters is a force to be reckoned with.
Hard to believe there were Alto Passes all over the country back in the day. No AK-47s in the hands of crazy people, no Presidents like Trump. So much for "progress."
I've never done a collection of my pieces because publishers stopped doing that kind of book by the time I thought I might do it. So the first time it's "collected" is here.
I went to school at SIU-Carbondale from 1976-1980. Your story brought back many memories of those years. We used to drive down to Alto Pass for an ice cream at the store. Southern Illinois had a subculture of back-to-the-land young people in many small communities like Alto Pass. It was a wonderful place to live and an experience I’m grateful to have had. Thanks for sharing. BTW, I love your column on Substack!
I spent quite a bit of time in S. Illinois back then visiting my West Point classmate and best friend David Vaught who was pretty heavily involved in Illinois politics at the time. He ran Walker's campaign in the southern 28 counties, among other things.
A Democrat, Dan Walker's election "trick" was to walk all over Illinois. He won and became totally corrupted by insatiable greed. His new wife, in my view, was the driving force of his greed. If she didn't go to prison too, she should have. He had been an OK guy. I lived in Hinsdale, IL, during the entire Walker fiasco and trials, which is the suburb next to Oakbrook where they lived.
Wow, Lucian! This piece was so engaging and brought me back to small town USA in North Carolina. Tons of quilts made there as well as folk art. Loads of ribbon winning pies and cakes existed there too. It is wondrous that a young man in the 70’s became so enamored by these remarkable older women. Your story sure is a keeper.
What a great antidote to today's constant stream of discouraging news. I hope the women of Alto Pass are still stitching the community together with their quilts.
I googled it. As of 2019, they were still quilting indeed.
Thanks. And may they never stop. We need all the community we can get.
It truly is fine art delivered with a big warm hug.
My grandmother made me a quilt when I went off to college. Of all the things I've lost or given away in the decades, the divorces and the pretty much countless moves I've made since then, that's the thing I most regret not having held onto. Wonderful story, thank you.
This is a beautiful story Lucian. Thank you for sharing. I’m kind of emotional tonight and this story got to me. When I got home from work I read that Gordon Lightfoot just passed away. He is one of my all time favorite singer/songwriters. I saw him several times in concert going back to the late 70s. But the last time I saw him was about 9 years ago at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland. It wasn’t too long after he had the abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture that he nearly died from. He was amazing and very reflective. It was like no time had passed when he sang his great songs. This is one of my favorites among many.
https://youtu.be/PXzauTuRG78
So sorry to hear of the loss to us all, but to you especially, Karen.
Thank you difny.
Many feel the same. The news yesterday of his passing hit me harder than I would have imagined. He was a consummate singer-songwriter, and his words were from the heart. They were a big part of my college years. His songs are a great legacy.
❤️💔❤️ Heartbreaking news, but he lived a long and wonderfully creative life.
https://youtu.be/_8LsxcV9Qz8
A great story! I was the Assistant Director of Tourism for Illinois during that time, under Dan Walker. I remember Alto Pass driving in the area to tourism council meetings for Southern Illinois. Your story must have never hit the Illinois press. Community quilting has always gone on in rural areas, mostly through Ladies Circles in the various churches. It is still continuing today, though dying out as the rural population ages, and young people leave. A nursing home in Danforth, IL called Praire View still holds a quilt auction fundraiser every year. Local church groups produce 8-10 quilts. Prices are in the thousands today. Women have always been the underlying foundation of any rural society. Men are for show and drive the tractors. You touched a memory nerve, Lucian.
Google tells me the quilters of Alto Pass were still going in 2019. Of course my story didn't hit the Illinois press. It was in the Voice. I doubt there were many newspaper editors in 1974 in Chicago or Springfield subscribing to the Voice...although they should have, obviously.
My Great Grandfather and Grandfather started the local fire company. Trains start fires in the hot dry summers, sparks off the wheels. My father would take us four boys out to the river hills in the back of the pickup to put out fires (started by the trains) swatting with tree boughs (we were dressed only in shorts, no shoes) It wasn't until I toured the fire company with my son in Cub Scouts when I saw a sign saying this fire company was founded by these guys. They never said a word to me of any of this. They were farmers and veterans. They never spoke, at least not with words...
I could have made a career going around the country finding stories like this. CBS had a guy on 60 Minutes who did just that in a motorhome because he wouldn't fly. The Village Voice didn't have the budget for a motor home.
Charles Kuralt---a great storyteller!
Yes! Some of the best television journalism ever produced. ❤️
Having driven through Alto Pass many times I could actually see those places again through your descriptions. This story pulls at the heartstrings of an old girl from southern Illinois.
Just returned to my home in Queens County where the neighbors finally realized during COVID isolation that it was probably l good idea to actually converse. Now that we’re out of isolation, we’ve resumed the social standoff that preceded my 33 years in this upscale enclave of a borough that has one of the largest assortments of immigrants anywhere in the world.
It seems like a contradiction that such social isolation can exist a place where public schools have an uncanny number of students from any number of assorted ethnic backgrounds. But as an enclave that brags the oldest Memorial Day Parade, we’re funny that way.
By contrast, two of my daughters have emigrated out of America and have found more of a caring, welcoming, nurturing sense of community in Toronto and Melbourne.
Go figure. Our grandparents arrived as these shores by boat more than 100 years ago. They found their own extended community based on shared language, religion, and culture. The children, our parents wanted to forget the world their parents fled and embrace the American way of life, being careful not to make waves. We, conversely sought to shape the future of this land by speaking out and engaging in political activism.
I look at the needlepoint from my grandmother, a framed relic and l swear l have the best of both worlds. Don’t l seek out the stranger and befriend those who are new arrivals, continually making their way into our shared lives?
On the airplane returning from Toronto l spoke to an East-Indian
woman who resides in Canada. She was bringing her parents for a first visit to NYC! Sure hopes she takes up my offer of online friendship. I need encouragement
if I’m ever going to travel to Australia to visit my daughter and her growing family. “You can do this!”, says my new traveling companion !
The threads that connect us are just waiting to be stitched together to form the covering that is yet to be assembled! Sure glad Lucian had the good sense to reprint the original version that was published in The Village Voice, the year my eldest was born. That was quite a quilt, and it still warms the heart and gives one pause. Where are we going and why? And is this the best we can do?
Glad it fit with the life you lived and are living.
Community is such a core value - the lives of these women are so centered!
Oh this is wonderful! To think that there was such a kind and resolute community working only to better their town. My Mother taught herself to quilt during the 1970s and attempted to engage me and all of her friends in the activity. Of course, she was doing in in suburban Long Island, so that altruism was lacking. Still...a community of quilters is a force to be reckoned with.
Hard to believe there were Alto Passes all over the country back in the day. No AK-47s in the hands of crazy people, no Presidents like Trump. So much for "progress."
Has this ever been collected? It's gorgeous.
I've never done a collection of my pieces because publishers stopped doing that kind of book by the time I thought I might do it. So the first time it's "collected" is here.
Sigh. Used to be themed collections too that put an assortment of writers in one book—often Best-Of's.
I went to school at SIU-Carbondale from 1976-1980. Your story brought back many memories of those years. We used to drive down to Alto Pass for an ice cream at the store. Southern Illinois had a subculture of back-to-the-land young people in many small communities like Alto Pass. It was a wonderful place to live and an experience I’m grateful to have had. Thanks for sharing. BTW, I love your column on Substack!
I spent quite a bit of time in S. Illinois back then visiting my West Point classmate and best friend David Vaught who was pretty heavily involved in Illinois politics at the time. He ran Walker's campaign in the southern 28 counties, among other things.
A Democrat, Dan Walker's election "trick" was to walk all over Illinois. He won and became totally corrupted by insatiable greed. His new wife, in my view, was the driving force of his greed. If she didn't go to prison too, she should have. He had been an OK guy. I lived in Hinsdale, IL, during the entire Walker fiasco and trials, which is the suburb next to Oakbrook where they lived.
Wow, Lucian! This piece was so engaging and brought me back to small town USA in North Carolina. Tons of quilts made there as well as folk art. Loads of ribbon winning pies and cakes existed there too. It is wondrous that a young man in the 70’s became so enamored by these remarkable older women. Your story sure is a keeper.
Superb piece; excellent writer for decades. I
Capital "A" bigtime fine art at its finest !
It would be so much fun to gather all this great history, all these stories. Instead of tik tok or whatever