The buda bear

This is a picture of the bear that's been running wild around our old hometown of Buda, Illinois (I've heard most sightings are between Buda and Neponset). The pic was taken by an old classmate of Jane's. You don't see many bears in these parts.


Interestingly enough, when the town of Buda had its own high school, their nickname was the 'Buda Bears.' Buda consolidated with Sheffield in the early 1960's to become Western Comm. Unit district 306 and were then known as the Western Rams (which is what we were when I was in school). My dad became the first principal at Western when he was 28 years old, and served in that capacity for something like 33 years. He was also the athletic director, golf coach, and assistant superintendent at various times. He had been an Ag teacher at Buda before that. Right before we moved away they consolidated with like 5 other towns to form the Bureau Valley School district, and are now known as the Bureau Valley Storm.

Go bear!

[Added later: An article in the Bureau County Republican]