Frozen in time Phil Luciano October 28, 2023 Ihave a weird guilty pleasure: Reading old newspapers. I bet not too many of you do likewise. After all, it’s...
A Musical Wunderkind Lands in Peoria Phil Luciano September 27, 2023 A chance encounter makes me wonder:At any given time, how many folks like Aaron Zigman might be unassumingly roaming around...
Piling Up the Pennies … and Admirers Phil Luciano August 28, 2023 Step after step, day after day, Shirley Meagher walked. She walked for exercise. And she walked for St. Jude. During...
Lovers for Life Phil Luciano August 1, 2023 In a year, I might lose two friends.Then again, maybe they’ll stick around.It’s hard to tell. They’re flighty. And distant.Also,...
Taking inventory of a life Phil Luciano June 28, 2023 How do you sort through a person’s life?After a loved one dies, can you pore over decades and decades of...
Dust off that old turntable Phil Luciano May 24, 2023 For the first time in 35 years, vinyl records outsell CDs, and Craig Moore is over the moon about itI’m...
Fifty years ago in Peoria, the unthinkable Phil Luciano April 27, 2023 On May 1, 1973, 10-year-old John Ardis raised his hand at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Grade School.He wasn’t trying to ask...
True to the end Phil Luciano March 31, 2023 In Peoria, a quiet hero died a quiet death.Carl H. Porter Jr. — the oldest veteran of the Army’s 508th...
Peoria Loses a Pizza Titan Phil Luciano February 27, 2023 Jim Agatucci looked at me as if I were nuts. This was a few years back, when he was in...
Final respects can wait no more Phil Luciano February 1, 2023 Soon, Nance Legins-Costley’s name will finally rise above her final resting place. It’s about time. Legins-Costley — the first slave helped...
The nicest of nice guys Phil Luciano January 1, 2023 George Manias likes to chat about most anything, except maybe himself.The 91-year-old dresses himself every workday in white shirt and...
When Christmas trees spoke to us Phil Luciano November 30, 2022 Meet the inaugural voice behind the legendary Bergner’s Talking Christmas Tree. In the above 1977 photo, 5-year-old Jennifer Zenzen poses next...
The Bar Dog of Bar Dogs Phil Luciano October 1, 2022 In Hollowayville, at this old burg’s lone watering hole, the staff’s friendliest face belongs to Izzy. Of all employees at...
Of nightmares and unfulfilled gridiron glory Phil Luciano September 1, 2022 Tick, tick, tick, tick … That’s the soundtrack to my recurrent nightmare, now entering its fifth decade. It’s the countdown...
His fountain of youth? A boiling pot of spaghetti Phil Luciano August 1, 2022 After more than a half-century in the kitchen at Mona’s Italian Restaurant in Toluca, Ray McAllister offers his secret recipe....
‘Hey Chap! How’s it going?’ Phil Luciano June 27, 2022 Martin Johnson puts on a police badge to serve and protect Peoria – not with the law, but with love....
One More Thing: Where Genius Resides Phil Luciano May 24, 2022 So, a guy walks into a bar …Actually, this particular guy – as in yours truly – had walked into...
Can The Old Julian Hotel Be Saved? Phil Luciano April 28, 2022 Architecture aficionados can fall in love in with a structure as bold, bedazzling, even breathtaking. But the object of my...
Where’s My Flying Car? Phil Luciano April 1, 2022 The future is a tricky place to visit, a harder place still from which to send a postcard.We are an...
One Last, Emotional Ride Phil Luciano March 4, 2022 Sometimes, it’s hard to say goodbye to a special gal. She came into my life during hard times, keeping me...
Lucky to be alive Phil Luciano October 27, 2022 At Thanksgiving, Lorraine Washington is grateful for never giving up during dark times. Homeless as a teen. Shot in the face....
