Hi All, I can not help but put my 2 cents in. I was raised in Hamilton. My grandparents, Mildred and Lillard ( Doc) had a resteraunt between Hamilton and Nauvoo, called the Mississippi Bar- B- Q. My Grandma ran the resteraunt and my grandpa was a Barber in Hamilton. Before they moved to Hamilton, they lived in Nauvoo when my mother Alice Pilcher, was a girl. At that time Grandma made clothes for the wealthy people of town and grandpa was a Band Leader, and tutored privately. They also ran the Mississippi Youth Center, along the Mississippi river, where a lot of the young people from the area hung out. I was raised on the river swimming in the summer and iceskating in the winter. To this day I could sit and let all my troubles drift on down the river. I still long to go back to where I grew up. It was a little bit of heaven on earth The country is beautiful, simple and layed back. Nauvoo has a Grape Festival every year. I bet you won't find a better grape anywhere. They used to have a carnival and it went for a whole week. We had band concerts in the summer on Saturday night. The towns people would block off the street and everyone went to town all dressed up for the band concert. It was a big thing back then. No one really had much money but this was something that did not cost any money. Some of us High school age kids used to stop, at the local drug store after school and for a dime, we could get a Vanilla Phosfate, or a Cherry Coke. Now I drink a cream soda and it is almost the same but not quite. Our church went to Carthage to the Rollerskating rink. We all loved to go rollerskating. I used to love to go to the games when we got to go to Carthage. When we wanted to go to the Drive In Movies we went to Keokuk. We made it a habit to go to the A&W Rootbeer stand before we went ot the movies, so we would not want anything at the movie stand. It just seems so long ago now and so many things have changed. They even have a golf course in Hamilton now. I am not a writer but I hope you all can understand what I ment to say Shawnnee