NOWHERE 40 YEARS AGO

Where are you going?   "Nowhere," I would answer

By Howard Taylor for the Taylors:

Teens in Charleston, Illinois during the mid and late 1960's had a "cool" place to go on Friday and Saturday night.  The problem was it was "Nowhere."
The year was 1966 and the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" was a hit.  Louise Taylor, a local Charleston personality and mother would have a contest to name her new teen center (dance hall).  She had won the contest to cause her competition, the Pego a-go-go to close.  Now the only place to go was her place.

The Hutton Family would have rock dances at their barn west of town.  Libby Baretto and his group would play there.  These were fun for teens.  Rene Hutton was a friend of Louise's and together they tried to provide fun for teens in Charleston and the area.

Gary Tate, lead singer of the popular "Rhythm's Children" won the contest on the new name.
Pepsi Cola, out of Mattoon Bottling Company, would erect a new sign on the front of the old former feed store at 4th and Van Buren in Charleston. 

Fire Captain, Mel Taylor, husband of Louise, was chief restorer of the old building.  It had an open loft above the entrance.  Vents were provided through a small window above the attic area.  A big fan was installed on the opposite wall.  This would be really good to carry the wonderful sounds of all the bands all over the neighborhood. 

Somehow, an old pot belly stove was acquired by the Taylors.  Ken Knoop was in charge of painting and decorating the old stove.  It would provide a little decoration for the barn red and white entranceway.  Mel built a ticket counter.   Harpster gas/heating was hired to install a large space heater, which on very cold nights didn't hardly provide enough heat.  When the 300+ kids would fill the auditorium the place would warm up.

Mel was very active in getting the old building ready.  A stage was built with sample carpet quilt carpet installed.  Soundproofing was placed on the wall.  Howard Taylor (me) built a strip of lights for the stage with a fancy switch system to provide different colors.  The Taylors were swinging.  The big man of the Taylor family was the famous Red Taylor, bass player extraordinaire for Rhythm's Children.  They actually started out as the Jesters.

Charleston had a brief history of teen centers, but none would succeed like the "Nowhere."  I guess the reason for the centers was the 60's Peace and Hippy movement.  EIU was in our neighborhood.  It was nothing to see long hair on boys, extremely long on girls, bright clothes, and then of course the guys with short hair and cruecuts like me.  Eastern had streakers, Charleston was having dances in different places, including the "Wicked Root," in the former E.L. Krackers restaurant/club-- and before that Orndorff's Market.  The Owl Teen Club on the east side of the square above the former Owl Drug, and later Teen Reach.  Pego-a-Go-Go was located on 6th street in an odd building with two levels.  It was a real neat place that had the new and much louder "Rhythm's Children." 

Mattoon and Savoy had the popular Bunny Hutch dance halls, and hosted the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Question Mark and the Mysterians.  Those places were large, but disappeared rather quickly, it seemed.  That was during the earlier 1960's.  Mattoon also had big dances out at the beautiful Mattoon Beach.  WCIA, Champaign TV station hosted "The Hop," dance/top ten show.  Kids from Charleston were often seen on it displaying the latest dances.

The summer of '66 was when I had a state job at Springfield, and came home to hear my brother's band, and boy did it sound different.  I think their sound was a combination of Rolling Stones and Young Rascals.  New amps had made their sound very loud, and the long solo bass runs of Red Taylor got the crowd excited.  They had a large and loyal following.  Drummer was Bill Harpster, lead guitar and singer was Jim Hite, rhythm guitar was Don Decker, and of course Red was bass. My ears still are muffled from the loudness of following the band around.

I was trying to go to college.  It took me six years to graduate, with all the disruptions in the 408 Madison teen center (Mel and Louise's house).  I was very conservative, but enjoyed watching Steve Sestena, the Louthan boys, Jimmy Hite, Gary Tate, Jim Garner, and other then wierdo's come in and out. Two great local drummers were  J.C. Marshall of Effingham, and Libby Baretto of Mattoon.  The last time I saw J.C., he was driving  a black hearse in Effingham in '71, when I was student teaching.  Libby moved to Texas to do evangilism. 

Louise Taylor (my mom) had been a rocker from the 50's.  She was a radio star in Central Illinois, and brought home sample records sent to her by her friends, including Chet Atkins and Leon McCullough (steel guitartists from the Texas Playboys).  She would play Elvis and Fat's Domino for the first time on WEIC.  The owner of a local restaurant, threatened to stop his sponsorship of her Toast of the Town radio show if she didn't stop playing the Fats Domino songs.  Old time fireman, Gene Hackett loved "I'm walk'n" by Fats.  She was a supporter of the new fledgling band "Artistics," with Jim Easter.  She was sponser of the Weatherettes-- a group of Charleston High School girls that served as tornado watchers and other activities.  They had really nice uniform dresses.  I remember a half-and-half dance in the old Charleston Jr. High gym.  Half square dance and half rock-n-roll.  They were fun.  Melvin Taylor was a very smooth dancer, that I never could do personally.  Red always was a good dancer, but never sang.   Many sock-hops and dances on the in the old Jefferson gym, and downtown square occurred before the Nowhere would open.

Max Wright's Shell at the corner of University and Lincoln would be the location of competitive dances with the city-sponsored dances at the swimming pool (where McDonald's  now stands).  The Rhythm's Children needed a place to play, and were too big and loud for the city version dances.  Large crowds gathered at the Shell station. 

A place was also needed for band practices.  Bill Harpster would play drums with them for some time, and then he would go into the Army to go to Vietnam.  The Nowhere would then be opened in the fall of '66, and that would be their official practice location.

The Nowhere was host to many bands over its years of dances.  The original 4th and Van Buren location would host the One-Eyed Jacks, a very young Reo-Speedwagon, the Mob, a band from Chicago, the Artistics, Reel Blues, Lothar and the Handpeople from Ft. Wayne, Indiana, a group from Belleville, and many others local and far away.  Chicago's The Mob, were on stage at the small Nowhere.  Special stage extensions and lighting was provided for the Blues Brothers-type show.  I can remember an all-black band from East St. Louis that were great.  They had a girl singer, similar to Aretha, and a male lead singer that performed like James Brown.  They came up here without equipment, so the Rhythm's Children loaned then their equipment.  That really was a very good show.

Olney, Tuscola, and Mattoon would also be the host location of many dance events.  the Rhythm's Children would play at all of them.  Red seemed to have a girl friend at all.  He survived these friendships unscathed, I believe. 

The boys were given a bus to use by my dad.  It was a very old school bus, that was used in my dad's transportation business a couple of years earlier.