Posted Sept 24, 2008.
Disclaimer: This site has no relationship to any restaurant whatsoever.

---

For years I've been saying that Carbondale had gotten too big for me. Well, in my new home of Henry, IL, I get to put my money where my mouth was.

We have a True Value Hardware (or is it an Ace? It goes by Read Bro.s, and it's been in the same location since at least the turn of the century - the 19th to the 20th, that is.) We have a Dairy Queen, a Subway Sandwiches, a Dollar General, and a Casey's, and no other store I'd ever heard of before. You can't get a pizza or a sandwich delivered, but if you plan ahead you can get your shopping done just fine.

There's a Kroger, an Alco, and a dry cleaner's in Chillicothe, all of them right along the highway where even I can find them. I had a little more trouble the first time I went to Princeton, where our vet is located. There's a wonderful china store downtown (Hoffman's Patterns of the Past), and a Wal Mart on the far side of town, as well as a Sullivan's grocery which I have yet to explore but at least I've located. Peru - La Salle has a Hy-Vee grocery, a Staples, a Big Lots, a Hobby Lobby and a Jo-Ann Fabric store, and at least one very nice mall. I've yet to actually get there direcly from Henry, but each time I get lost I'm closer to my goal, and I have confidence I'll eventually get there without incident.

Further afield, Peoria has just about everything you could ask for, and a few things I never thought to ask for, such as a brew pub where you can brew your own beer (Rhodell's). Of course, it's as scarey to drive there as it is in St. Louis, but Steve takes me into the City at least every other week, so I'm lacking for nothing.

Henry's a nice quiet town, and the people are kind and friendly. There's a lot to be said for living in a town where you can walk to get almost everything you can get, and where I've seen a UPS truck make a U-turn on Main Street in broad daylight. As a matter of fact, the hardest thing to adjust to has been a 10-year-old Springer Spaniel named Mischief - but that's a story for next Tuesday!

Correction: to my delight, a careful reader pointed out to me that Italian Villa in Henry will deliver pizza and sandwiches.

When I asked Steve why he always went to pick them up instead of ordering out, he looked at me in amazement and answered, "Ruby, we live a block and a half away from IV!"

Copyright © 2008 Ruby Jung