A Publication of WTVP

One More Thing

Frozen in time

Ihave a weird guilty pleasure: Reading old newspapers. I bet not too many of you do likewise. After all, it’s...
Composer and Conductor Aaron Zigman leads an orchestra through a practice session. (Photo provided by Aaron Zigman)

A Musical Wunderkind Lands in Peoria

A chance encounter makes me wonder:At any given time, how many folks like Aaron Zigman might be unassumingly roaming around...
osprey perches inside a nest atop the eastbound McClugage Bridge

Lovers for Life

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

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

For the first time in 35 years, vinyl records outsell CDs, and Craig Moore is over the moon about itI’m...

True to the end

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

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

Soon, Nance Legins-Costley’s name will finally rise above her final resting place. It’s about time. Legins-Costley — the first slave helped...
George Manias

The nicest of nice guys

George Manias likes to chat about most anything, except maybe himself.The 91-year-old dresses himself every workday in white shirt and...
Talking Christmas Tree

When Christmas trees spoke to us

Meet the inaugural voice behind the legendary Bergner’s Talking Christmas Tree. In the above 1977 photo, 5-year-old Jennifer Zenzen poses next...
A dog sitting on a bar stool in front of a bar

The Bar Dog of Bar Dogs

In Hollowayville, at this old burg’s lone watering hole, the staff’s friendliest face belongs to Izzy. Of all employees at...
Peoria Chiefs Ball Park

Can The Old Julian Hotel Be Saved?

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?

The future is a tricky place to visit, a harder place still from which to send a postcard.We are an...
Inside old car

One Last, Emotional Ride

Sometimes, it’s hard to say goodbye to a special gal. She came into my life during hard times, keeping me...
Lorraine Washington

Lucky to be alive

At Thanksgiving, Lorraine Washington is grateful for never giving up during dark times. Homeless as a teen. Shot in the face....
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