{"id":2747,"date":"2014-06-10T11:59:34","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T15:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=2747"},"modified":"2014-06-10T11:59:34","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T15:59:34","slug":"another-slice-of-small-town-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/another-slice-of-small-town-america\/","title":{"rendered":"ANOTHER SLICE OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bonfield_02\"<\/a>I recently taught a class at the Illinois State Rifle<\/a> Range<\/a> in Kankakee, Illinois. Set in the \u201cbreadbasket of the nation\u201d farmlands surrounding that small city, it\u2019s a great range and getting greater, with substantial construction going on as I write this.\u00a0 More ranges, and also a spacious classroom are being built. However, there\u2019s not yet <\/i>a classroom on the range per se, <\/i>so we rented the nearest hall for that part of the program.\u00a0 This year and last, that was the Lions Club<\/a> in Bonfield, IL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Bonfield_05\"<\/a>With a listed population of 364, there isn\u2019t exactly a \u201cdowntown Bonfield.\u201d\u00a0 They used to have a caf\u00e9 there.\u00a0 The village restaurant is where the locals gather to talk about everything from crops to local politics to solving the problems of the world and hey, how are the grandkids? When the caf\u00e9 closed its doors, the Lions stepped in to fill the gap.<\/p>\n

\"Bonfield_01\"<\/a>They configured part of their meeting hall to a separate-able coffee shop, specifically a coffee-and-continental-breakfast shop.\u00a0 Menu prices look as if they came back from the past in a time machine. Think \u201cdonation,\u201d not \u201cbill.\u201d\u00a0 I learned that the coffee shop is not run for profit.\u00a0 They just ask enough to cover expenses.\u00a0 The Lions Club is one of our great civic groups, and their purpose in opening their club for this purpose was to serve the community.\u00a0 To maintain a gathering place for the citizens.<\/p>\n

\"Bonfield_04\"<\/a>For the four ten-hour days of a MAG-40 immersion course, the ladies of the Lions did noble service feeding the thirty-some students and seven staff that MAG<\/a> and its host entity, MTG<\/a>, brought in.\u00a0 They fed us splendidly, and we collectively groveled in gratitude.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/a>
Chris Supinski, Riley Armellino (9), JoCarol Emling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I discovered that, at least in this chapter of the Lions, the ladies who fed us so well are not to be called Lionesses.\u00a0 Apparently, that element of the Lions Club is falling by the wayside and the women are, in most chapters, Lions like the men.<\/p>\n

The Lions Club is one of our greatest civic groups, particularly important to the smaller and more rural communities.\u00a0 They embody all the best values of America.\u00a0 Our time there was sort of a Norman Rockwell moment.<\/p>\n

Have I mentioned lately that I love this country?<\/p>\n

\"MAG<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently taught a class at the Illinois State Rifle Range in Kankakee, Illinois. Set in the \u201cbreadbasket of the nation\u201d farmlands surrounding that small city, it\u2019s a great range and getting greater, with substantial construction going on as I write this.\u00a0 More ranges, and also a spacious classroom are being built. However, there\u2019s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}