Home is where the heart is, and our hearts are here in our region. Executive Editor Janine Pumilia outlines some of her favorite things about the place she calls home.
1. Family and friends still matter here. A lot. Young, old and in between. Sunday dinners and birthday parties, holidays and Scrabble nights, Friday night football games, picnics at the park. The stuff of life.
2. Faith and helping others matters here, too.
3. We love our farmland and remember our ancestors.
4. And the places they came from. Sometimes we even hang cow statues on our bank buildings as a reminder. In fact, cows are a big thing with us, all the way around
5. And we have a sense of humor, too.
6. There are still a few locally owned publications in our region …
7. … and plenty of lovely places to horse around, all year long.
8. The foods we grow and produce are wonderful. Take me to the Beloit Farmers Market, give me a glass of Galena Cellars wine, and call me happy.
9. We’re also big on growing food for the soul … our gardens, woods and prairies are sublime.
10. Chicago, Madison and the ocean are only hours away, thanks to I-90 and RFD airport.
11. But there’s more than enough to entertain us right here, too.
12. In the end, home is the people we come home to, and Dorothy had it right: There’s no other place like it.