Summer in My Hometown

It’s a beautiful day here in Effingham. I’m sitting on our boat dock with not a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze blowing off of the water. Brats are on the grill. Summer is finally here! It was a l-o-n-g winter and we seemed to completely miss having anywhere near a normal spring. Winter just seemed to hang on forever.

We have a couple who were friends of mine from the town I lived in Brazil staying with us for a couple of months so we’ve been trying to find unusual things to do on the weekends and Betinha has been taking them to area attractions during the week. This weekend has been a full one with loads of things to do in Effingham.

Friday night we went to a new bank opening in Effingham, having been to another bank opening on Thursday night. And, I thought we had plenty of banks already!

Afterwards we went to the Rosebud Theater for a CD release party for a local singer, Matt Poss. It is his third CD and there were close to 2,000 fans that packed the theater which normally seats 1,550. This wonderful theater was built this past year through a public-private partnership of the City of Effingham, 30+ local investors and 6 local banks. Matt Poss is one of many who have packed the place and had the Rosebud rockin! He put on a wonderful show that highlighted his multi-faceted talent from country and rock to bluegrass.

Saturday afternoon we attended the duck race (plastic not live) fund raiser for the American Cancer Society and then a Bravo Company send off for our local company that is on its way to Afghanistan this month. The local Legacy Harley Davidson dealership put together a wonderful tribute and lunch for the 80+ local soldiers who are headed out.

From there we drove over to the VW Fun Fest at Mid America Motorworks. This annual event brings in over 1,000 VW Bugs and other air-cooled VW vehicles. Mid America also puts on a Corvette Fest in the fall that brings in over 15,000 Corvettes and their fans. Mike Yager, who I wrote about in BoomtownUSA, literally started the company out of the trunk of his Corvette with the help of a $500 loan. Today it has grown into a $50 million per year business with its own private museum and several events that bring tens of thousands of visitors to Effingham.

We capped off the day with a cookout in neighboring Newton for a Brazilian exchange student who was heading back home today. His parents came up from Sertonzinho and the girls of Newton High School gave him quite a send off.

All in all, it has been an activity filled weekend in my hometown. Now I’m just relaxing. And, the brats are almost done.