This list sure is stagnant. The GenWeb site is excellent technically ( thanks to Ted) but here again we as list members are neglecting our opportunity to input electronically or comment on interesting items. For example, I found in the most recent issue of Clay Roots the following: * My great grandfather Solomon (Sol) WHITE was elected to township supervisor of Hooshier in 1924. I did not know that. (He was a farmer as far as I knew). ** An obit for Col. Randolph SMITH.....now here was a true local politician who actually ran for Congress. Pretty good for a country boy in a small county like Clay. Related to me only by marriage well back. The 1924 obit does not mention that he had a half brother who was a State Representative decades before (Byron ROTAN). Byron was a lawyer who died young. (info on both is in the Clay History book). Their common thread was their mother Cynthia JONES. Now, I reminisce to a short conversation that I had with my Dad .... S. Raymond OLIVER who was born and raised in Louisville (that's Lewisville..... not as in Kentucky). I was about 10 and the year was about 1949-50. We had our home in E. Chicago, IN, later Decatur, IL. I stood outside the bathroom door one evening as he stropped his razor. I asked if Louisville had a Mayor. (Typical inane kid question but I think there was something in the news about crooked politicians which led me to the inquiry.) He said "Yes, but he is a guy just like you and me". This spoke to me about Clay County, democracy and populism. A corollary was the expression (unique to Southern Illinois?....and sexist?) that politicians put "their pants on one leg at a time, just as you and me". My father was fond of saying that also. In Hope for the Future and Fond of the Past, Ray OLIVER, ..... 120 miles west of Clay County , in Missouri.......... and 150 years.