Davis, 84, died on Sunday, Aug. 17. Davis was one of my favorite people in the region, always working to help others. His greatest volunteer contribution was Christmas Wonderland, the annual holiday light display at Rock Spring Park.

Some don’t know this, but he was also a World War II veteran in the Army, serving in the Battle of the Bulge. He never talked to me about his war service, like so many of the other vets of his generation.

He grew up in Greene County and attended school near Greenfield, so we were fellow Greene County natives.

I talked to Kerry Smith, owner of the Illinois Business Journal and a former Telegraph staffer, who once rented an apartment from Davis, about him. She called him “a second father” and said he meant much to her in her life. When anything was broken at her residence, Davis was the man to fix things.

When the “Grandpa Gang” needed someone to devote time to the park display or fix something, Davis was there. He will be sorely missed by residents in The Telegraph area.

I can only hope that others will step forward to fill Davis’ shoes with the Christmas display. He would have wanted that.

Do you have a memory of Carl Davis you would like to share? Send it to my blog.

We took a trek up 3,124 feet to the top of Table Rock Mountain, near Pickens, S.C. My father-in-law, Joe, wanted to climb to the top of the mountain to mark his 71st birthday. He said it would be one of the more memorable experiences of his life.

Climbing a mountain is not an easy task, especially with four children 7 to 9 years of age. I had to carry my 7-year-old daughter, Sierra, some up the mountain, but she made it on her own all the way down. It took about 6 total hours for our mountain adventure.

Table Rock State Park opened in April 1938, one of the 17 developed areas across South Carolina by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Corps was part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. It’s amazing we are still seeing much of Franklin Roosevelt’s vision across this country 70 years later.

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law built a house on Table Rock Mountain. It brings my mind back to proper reality staying for a few days near wildlife and in the pristine environment of the mountains. As my sister-in-law says, “the air is pure here.” It’s difficult to rise early when most of what’s around is the wildlife and birds chirping.

I was most proud of my two kids, my two nephews and especially my father-in-law for making it to the top of the mountain. It’s not easy to go up and down a mountain with every rock and crevice imaginable for 7.2 miles.

We met a pastor who provided some much needed water during the trip down and on the way up a couple from Greer, S.C. People around us were friendly and encouraging on the climb.

I also discovered Aunt Sue’s Country Corner near Table Rock in Pickens as a place to write my blog. The food here was fantastic. I am always impressed by Southern hospitality. In the South, it is common to hear “yes, sir,” and “yes, ma’am,” constantly. I told my wife I miss the politeness of people in the South.

We closed our day after the mountain climb in a waterfall letting the spring water drench us. It was a fitting conclusion to one of those wonderful days, one that will etch in my memory from here on.

Do you have a mountain experience you would like to tell me about? Respond to my blog. I would like to hear and post the details.

On Monday, the departments had to respond to a situation near Forest Homes-Maple Park area near Cottage Hills where a meter reader was found dead.

On Tuesday, the departments responded to a heart attack victim near ConAgra, then a wreck out on Homer Adams in Alton.

I don’t think we often reflect about how these men and women deal with weather conditions, both positive and negative. The heat index was in the 110-degree range the last couple days, but still the fire officials and EMS people performed their duties.

I looked over at them from the Carrollton Bank in Alton on Tuesday during the crash and thought how hot they must be in their gear. Sweat seemed to just roll off the firefighters.

If you get a second, say a kind word to these people. I think they deserve it for what they do to respond to incidents.

Have you been helped recently by any of these workers? If so, send me your responses to my blog.

This past weekend, I attended the Carrollton High class of 1978 reunion at the Lone Oak Golf Course in Carrollton.

Attendance was down some for the 30th reunion, but still some of my main friends were there. Tony had to be called a few times to come, but he did make it. It was great to see him again, even though it was brief.

The reunions take a lot of work on the part of the organizers, tracking down people, and I think they do a terrific job.

We are all busy today with our jobs, kids, etc., so I understand it being difficult to attend.

I had one person get irritated with me because I didn’t automatically know who they were, but once I was told her name I realized she hadn’t really changed, although no matter how many times I said it, she didn’t believe me.

People who did attend had changed. Some had gained weight, some looked better than they did 30 years ago; some looked almost the same.

For each of us I think it was an opportunity to return to our roots. I was most appreciative of getting to sit next to my wife, Alan, Rick and their spouses and Tammy, Jenny and her husband. Without Jenny’s work on the phone, Tony wouldn’t have attended. We had a chance to share a lot of things over the past five years. It was also good to spend some time with Tim, a local dentist, and enjoy his dry sense of humor.

I was most appreciative that Ruth Ficker, our high school typing instructor and class sponsor, attended. I admire her greatly and she is the reason I am able to type this blog.

When I got back to our country place, I had trouble sleeping. It seemed almost too much to absorb in one night, seeing the classmates, taking a trip down memory lane and realizing some things have changed permanently. Life is always an odyssey and as my dad always said, it never stays the same.

Do you have a memorable recent class reunion experience?

If you attended the Carrollton reunion on Saturday night, send me your impressions.

My least favorite time to run outside is late July, August, December and January. I run on the treadmill during the winter, but I am an outside type of runner. Maybe it was my start many years ago in track running the streets to train that made me into a person who wants to run outside and breathe the fresh air.

In my competitive distance days, I was a terrible runner during July and August. I remember running a Firecracker 500 run in Southern Illinois when I was in my 20s and how my performance was awful. Then a few months later in September, I was back finishing near the top of the pack in my races.

I finished the run on Thursday and even swam inside in normal fashion, but the run wasn’t easy. I encourage people to drink plenty of fluids when they finish their runs and try to run during the times where the temperatures are the lowest during the day.

It is predicted to be in the upper 90s this weekend, so if you are exercising, I encourage you to run early and immediately drink water after finishing the task.

My question to fellow runners is how do you beat the heat? Do you run early? What do you do about hydrating yourself?

Send me a response back to my blog.

The picture was submitted by a local woman from her cell phone and drew some attention.

I still think that there must be something to the supposed sightings of large black cats in the region, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

I encourage anyone who does locate the big cat again to contact The Telegraph newsroom and we will continue our quest to see if the animal does truly exist.

We posted video online from our Memphis trip to the National Civil Rights Museum and with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles recently. I urge people to check out the video work. I appreciate the editing assistance of Laura Griffith, The Telegraph Web news editor.

It seems as of late we have been busy chasing cougar or panther or whatever-the-cat-is sightings around the region.

We had another one come in last week from an area woman who spotted some paw prints near her work. We will write about this soon. We have been trying to verify with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources whether or not a cell phone photograph shows the paw prints of a large cat or something else.

I talked to a local public relations person this week and she claims she saw something of this nature a few years back. For a long period of time, she said she thinks people thought she was imagining the creature, but now she feels some validation that what she saw actually might have been a large black cat of some type.

It seems to me that we have had too many sightings for something not to be going on out there, but who knows.

I encourage residents to take a photograph or videotape any large black cats you happen to come across, of course staying enough distance to avoid any harm.

I also urge people to send us the photographs and videos and to contact the Telegraph news editors at (618) 463-2576, (618) 463-2515 at night or (618) 463-2560 during the day if you happen to see the fleeting black cat in the region. The only way we will prove there is such a thing is to get the right photograph or video.

If you see anything, I also encourage you to contact the local authorities.

On Saturday, I drove to Memphis with retired Telegraph reporter Ande Yakstis to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.

I met with Barbara Andrews, museum currator, and Beverly Robertson, the organization’s president. The two and all the others at the museum were most gracious.

The museum captures the essence of the civil rights movement, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination and much more. I will write a lot more about this in some stories and commentaries in the coming days.

The same holds true for the visit to Monumental Baptist Church in Memphis with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the pastor and his congregation. Kyles is one of the last living leaders in the key inner circle King. He also was with him the last hour of his life and also tried to help him after he had been shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The congregation and Kyles made us feel right at home and spent a considerable amount of time with us.

My question is how many of you have visited the National Civil Rights Museum? What are your thoughts?

I encourage readers to look for our upcoming series, videos and photos from the weekend. This will culminate the series I have worked on with Ande marking the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination.

I also urge residents to consider a trip to Memphis to see the museum if you haven’t visited before.

My cousin, Mike Graner, Bob’s son, was there and he gave an eloquent summary of his dad’s life at the end. He is now a medical researcher in the Raleigh-Durham area in North Carolina. He talked about fishing and some of the lessons he learned from his father out in the boat. It brought me back to memories of my own dad and tossing the line in the water from creeks and lakes.

It may sound odd, but now some of my best memories come from those trips to the fishing holes.

Mike Graner talked a little about his father, Bob, donating his body to medical science. I didn’t know of the donation until he died.

I don’t know if part of Bob’s reason for donating his body to science came from his son, Mike, having insulin-dependent diabetes from a very early age or not, or his own ailments that he battled in his 77 years of living. Or if the decision came from Mike’s work in his professional career as a researcher.

I always admired Bob Graner. He was a quiet man, not an ultra-talkative uncle, but he would always seemingly open up to me. Maybe it was the reporter in me, but I always able to get my relatives to carry on a detailed conversation.

Bob Graner was always working at track meets, basketball games and coaching. Those memories will be what I remember about him the most. As far as admiring him, I don’t think I have ever thought more of him than on the day of his funeral, not seeing his body because it had been donated to medical science to further research.

We need to think more carefully about the importance of medical research. We have so many ailments that we need to address and without research, we will never discover cures.

If you have a similar story, send an e-mail to me that I can post in my blog.

City officials cancelled the celebration with plenty of notice to the public. The Mississippi River conditions made it impossible to have the festival along the riverfront this year.

Also, if one thinks about it, there wasn’t a good alternative for the city. I have heard some say that the display could have been held at Gordon Moore Park, but I don’t think that would have been possible.

I encourage people to have fun in their celebrations on July 4 and don’t drink and drive. The State Police and other law enforcement officials will be out in force.

If you get a moment, tell me about your plans for July 4 and your traditions. I think others would be interested.