Belleville, IL is a town near my hometown of Mascoutah. The main street in Belleville holds a lot of memories for me. My first eye doctor was there, I got my first passport picture taken at one of the shops there (horribly bad hair in that pic) and it was perfect for 'cruising' on the weekends when we were in high school.
We had so much fun driving up and down main street - one night my friend Laura got pulled over by a cop for supposedly running a red light (it was yellow but whatever) and she was soooo scared when the cop came up to the car she could barely contain the urge to cry and I was sooooo nervous I could barely contain the urge to laugh.
There were also the times when I would scoot the swivel bucket seat of my '76 Monte Carlo way back and I'd let Laura do the brake and gas while I'd be in charge of the steering as we cruised down main (why we did this I don't know). Main street has an old haunted theatre, a big water fountain in the middle of the rotary and used to have back in the late 80's all sorts of high school boys with mullets and Metallica t-shirts (ah sweet sweet deadbeats).
But more importantly it had Curt. Curt was a local guy who did odds and ends around main street and helped local businesses with errands - he wore a bright orange safety vest as he walked up and down the sidewalks doing his errands and you could just about count on seeing him if you were on main during the day. Although I never spoke to him I'm sure I must have waved at him at some point and smiled - at least I hope I did.
I found out yesterday he passed away from pancreatic cancer a few days ago - he was 69. While he was not nearly as famous as Pavarotti he was famous in our area and he was a kind soul and happy person and I just wanted to share him with you. Here are some of the articles written about him by the local paper http://www.bnd.com/homepage/story/120982.html
http://www.legacy.com/Belleville/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=93800704
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