I can’t remember when the ball got rolling on this move but I do know it was probably the last relatively “peaceful” relocation my family had. Brian and I were in grade school so we were still at a more resilient age regarding our relationships with friends and surroundings. Besides, Springfield wasn’t (and still isn’t) very different culturally from Champaign-Urbana; they’re only 100 miles apart; their lack of contrast wasn’t obvious until I lived in a couple different regions of the US.
In many ways, I think I was looking forward to leaving Champaign-Urbana. I disliked going to St. Matthew’s with its institutionalized bullying and the caustic teacher I had in fifth grade. To be fair to the school, I had accrued a bad reputation in fourth grade thanks to my numerous trips to the principal’s office and making a nun cry (not one of my prouder academic moments). Packing up for another town was certainly the clean break I probably needed. Of course, being 10 years old, I didn’t immediately see it this way. Most people (including children) are likely to stick with the devil they know over the one they don’t. House hunting changed my opinion over this decision because we landed the closest thing to our dream home. Here I was going to have my own room! The other major improvement was a second bathroom. How we managed all those years with only one toilet, sink and bathtub boggles the mind. The new house’s location was an accidental treasure; it was within a couple miles of downtown, school (St. Agnes), the state capitol and Washington Park. My brother and I discovered these advantages within a year.
Another element elevating Springfield’s expectations was its mall, White Oaks. Before the move, we rarely visited malls. Champaign’s had an inconvenient location and Urbana’s was lame. We’d sometimes see Bloomington’s during visits to Grandma’s house but it carried the same boring vibe as any other place adults dragged children to. White Oaks Mall was magical in our eyes. It was a two-storied building throughout with an Aladdin’s Castle, Spencer’s Gifts and a McDonald’s; remember, it was 1979, these things weren’t standard then. The mall’s relatively close position to our new house also made it a frequent destination while we got settled. Those initial trips and contemporary television portraying youth culture made it the place I wanted to go to hang out, especially if I had money to play the latest video games at Aladdin’s Castle.
Moving-in day was an oddly enjoyable and funny time with this house. First of all, Brian’s birthday was coming up so we were in a cheerful mood because it meant dining out, seeing our grandparents and doing something fun like going to a movie. The humorous part was my parents discovering a well-packed box of empty liquor bottles. Seems that one of the moving guys was an alcoholic. Mom noted how meticulously these were wrapped and packaged. My parents felt more alleviated than irked about their “stash” being consumed; they rarely drank and most of it was donated to them from a party.
Picking out a new school was the tortuous part. Might as well ask a slave to pick out which color of chains he would like to wear. Springfield did stand out over Champaign-Urbana on this aspect, it had ten parochial choices because this town was 45 percent Catholic. There were even three high schools and the all-boys one (Griffin) dominated the three public institutions in sports. Our new house was in an area overlapped by two parishes, Blessed Sacrament and St. Agnes. Mom took us to visit both. The former was my first pick. It seemed to resemble what I was accustomed to since first grade. I don’t remember Brian’s reaction. The latter definitely got a negative response from me. St. Agnes was located on the edge of downtown Springfield, the building was very old (constructed sometime before the Twenties) and it gave me a nasty vibe. I’m sure the staff kept pushing their upcoming new location to my mother (this wouldn’t be completed until late 1981) as an incentive to enroll. Being a kid, I had no say so St. Agnes became our grade school through 1982; I graduated from there and it was Brian’s last parochial school for a couple years due to living in Houston.
St. Agnes had its positive elements. It was the first school we attended that our parents let us walk to and from. This was pretty exciting in the beginning. Even after it grew into a routine I continued to enjoy the opportunity because of the numerous “adventures” we had from it: getting hit by a car, the Randy Simpson “flashing” incident, the first time Brian and I teamed up in a fight against a bully and taunting Springfield High’s football practice. The girls outnumbering the boys two-to-one wasn’t seen as advantageous other than getting a spot on the basketball team. This changed by eighth grade for me obviously.
Lastly, the one unique and fascinating element of Springfield was its cable television offerings. In the Seventies, cable meant the VHF channels (2-13) on the TV were occupied by the local affiliates, teleprompters and independent stations from the big cities (WGN in Chicago was pretty common in Illinois). Cable networks such as ESPN, CNN, etc. didn’t exist for another couple years. Champaign-Urbana had no cable company so we were already stoked on having this again after four years of missing the Bozo show, Ray Rayner, Ultraman and numerous cartoons. Springfield’s arrangement definitely fit its geography. Besides the usual three commercial networks, Public television and WGN, there was KPLR from St. Louis and this extra pay channel called Home Box Office on Channel Five. The idea of seeing movies without commercials, editing (for time and nudity) and dubbing (for profanity) was mind blowing in 1979. It wasn’t all movies then neither. There were annual ventriloquism showcases and stand-up comedy specials before they were cliche. To fill time between programs there were plugs for upcoming features the following month and a show called Video Jukebox with these alien clips known as music videos. My brother and I would sometimes change it to Channel Five to witness the satellite feed as HBO was going on the air for the evening, back then it wasn’t on continuously and it was fascinating to us.
Springfield went on to be a memorable place. It was filled with heartache and triumph throughout those three and a half years we lived there. I remember how much I didn’t want to leave in 1982 for Houston followed by the 180 I did over it after visiting in 1983; nothing cures a homesick kid like a trip like that. Afterwards, I didn’t want to be associated with the town for many years. I think passing through in 1994 on my way to Austin was a reconciliation of sorts because I now admit to it being my first and original hometown. It was there I became more interested in music through WDBR, learned of D&D from a classmate named Dan Blankenburger, saw my first concert and developed the foundations of what I think are in my character.
