Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm in the studio today with Evan Mitchell, Taylorville, Illinois. Evan, how's it going? You've been involved in a lot of music projects in the area over the years. Do you want to list some of those projects that you've done?
Evan Mitchell:
Well, most notably would probably be my one-man band where I play several instruments at once. I've also been involved with various punk rock bands, one from the early 2000s called Self-Abused and a... more recent band that used to play at Black Sheep Cafe called Eggman. I ran with some Decatur guys in a band called the Habitual Line Steppers, and I could probably name about 12 more if I wanted to.
Jeff Williams:
Holy smokes, you've got it all going on. Taylorville, Illinois… one of the craziest shows that we ever played! (And) we played all over North America. All heck was breaking loose when we played a show in Taylorville. (Location) kind of just off the square a little bit.
Evan Mitchell:
The Cork and Keg!
Jeff Williams:
Yes, that was crazy. I was… we even stopped (playing) and I was like amazed. I said, you people are…. you people are crazy! And that just (was like), their heads were exploding. It was nuts! I don't even know why, but it seemed like, and in the middle of it all, there was like somebody trying to play pool. Like why all this stuff is going on around. And then like one of the chain links that was holding up like a, some sort of a sign like above it, came swinging down. The girl who's playing pool just stepped back, let it swing a couple times, and then took her shot! And this during, it was like the show was going on too! I was thinking, “what is going on?” Anyway, okay. Evan Mitchell, you played, your one-man band played one of those “Musical Chairs” events at The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space that we did. Ricki Marvel was on that show. I can't remember who else was in on it. but it was…? Boone, that's right. Boone played that show. That's right, man.
Evan Mitchell:
Boone… That was a lot of fun.
Jeff Williams:
That was a lot of fun. That was a really good lineup. And in that case, it was everybody played like 2 songs maybe, then took a break. Next band would play two songs or the next performers would play and then it would come back through. So, you did maybe two or three of these like mini micro sets?
Evan Mitchell:
I thought it was particularly interesting and outside the box because it wasn't like you were watching a total set from a band and then seeing the next band. Everybody took turns in a circle, and you caught a little bit of everybody throughout the night.
Jeff Williams:
Everybody, I like that. First off, it's not like this hierarchy of, oh, the “last” band, but also if people could only stay for like 1/2 an hour ahead of taking off to go to work or go do whatever they needed to do… you could see everybody perform. If you had 25, 30 minutes, you could catch at least one set of everybody, not like, “well, you haven't played yet, I got to get the heck out of here”. Anyway, I know you were up in the area because you were playing a show with Doom Buggy and Bruiser Queen at George Ranks. So, I knew you were in the area and wanted to track you down before you left town again. Now, part of the reason that I also wanted to bring Evan in was to talk about his involvement with Taylorville and his efforts to get a skateboard park in the area. Do you want to talk about the history of that?
Evan Mitchell:
Well, sure. We've needed a skate park for a long time. Taylorville has always had a incredible skateboarding community. In the late 90s, we were offered a small space at the public park, and the deal was that we had to pay for it ourselves, and they would supply the space. And unfortunately, some mishandling of funds with our fundraising, and it kind of made that go kaput back in the 90s. After a young man, 2020, I believe, named Zaden Dudra passed away, due to very unfortunate circumstances with a drunk driver. He was a well-liked skateboarder in the community. His mother spoke at his funeral and said that he was just excited about trying to get a skate park in Taylorville. And I was friends with his mother, and I remember what it was like to be a young man trying to get a skate park in Taylorville. So I approached city officials in the park and said, “hey, is that deal still on the table where if we raise our own money, you'll give us the space?” And there was a little bit of bickering back and forth. But eventually the park said, “yes, that offer is still on the table”.
Jeff Williams:
Nice. In which park is that… in Taylorville?
Evan Mitchell:
The Zaydin Dudra Memorial Skatepark is at the Don Bragg Sports Complex. There’re a few ball diamonds and football field and a playground where the main park in Taylorville Manors Park is more nature-focused and has a swimming pool. You know, times are hard, especially in these small rural communities, and it wasn't easy coming up with the money. And we managed to come up with $25,000, which wasn't much, but by a couple small fixtures from American Ramp Company out of Rolla, Missouri. And then a well-known skateboarder who's competed, he's sponsored by Red Bull, I believe, from Effingham named Dino Tull. He's competed in the Tampa Am (skateboard competition). He was so touched by our story that he said, well, I tell you what, if I can get Effingham to upgrade their skate park, you can have our old fixtures.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
Evan Mitchell:
And so just in the middle of winter, it was very difficult to move them. We received 3 four-foot tall quarter pipes and a 15-foot long fly box. And now, I mean, considering that we're only a population of 11,400, we've got a considerable skate park now. Nice, They were about 20 years old, but because they're steel, they're aging well, incredibly well. But the Effingham Park District and this gentleman, Dino Toll, arranged for those to be donated to us.
Jeff Williams:
So I remember seeing, I was in Gibson City, and I saw that they had a park over there. It's pretty nice. It's like a pump park, and then it also has freestyle area, It has a half pipe and actually has one wall that goes up like quite a bit of vert, on it. Yeah. Are you familiar with that park over there? I can remember that was also, I think, a situation. It looks like there's a dedication on it. from a family or something that after somebody, they'd lost somebody.
Evan Mitchell:
Unfortunately, that seems to be the case in rural Illinois with these small towns. It's usually from a young person that's a skateboarder losing their life that the community finally says, okay, we should do this.
Jeff Williams:
Right. Yeah, man. And I know that I believe I've seen at least a pump park (almost like a rollercoaster sidewalk, where you can ‘push’ or ‘pump’ over is and keep your momentum going without even needing to push with your leg), I think it was in Shelbyville.
Evan Mitchell:
Yes, that's my personal favorite.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, yeah, that's cool. I ran it and I didn't have my board with me. I was over there just like passing through and I was like, oh, man, I wish I had my board with me, but I ran on it some. So, is the (Taylorville Skateboard Park) now a completed thing?
Evan Mitchell:
No, it isn't. We still have double the space. With costs rising… constantly. We decided to spend what little money we had and get half the concrete poured and bought some fixtures before things got too expensive. So, we're still able to raise money and receive donations to double the size of it and get better fixtures if we want to.
Jeff Williams:
Nice. I just talked about this the other day on a different segment. Once a community or some people who have reservations realize it's a good thing, it's not something to be... afraid of. It's just from a lack of knowledge or understanding that they have a certain amount of fear or trepidation or also fear of somebody maybe getting injured. But it's nice when you can get your foot in and then people realize this is actually a good thing for the area. It's able to be utilized the right way. You still have space where you can add on to it as time goes on.
Evan Mitchell:
Yes, you know, the next generation, you know, the thing about skateboarding is that it's constantly evolving. So, the things that we have out there now may not be popular in a few years. And so, it's up to the next generation to how they want to utilize the rest of this space and what type of fixtures they would like to see.
Jeff Williams:
I remember like when my brother and I had a huge half pipe in our backyard way back. I didn't really help much. It was mostly my brother, Bruce, and a lot of his (friends), well, they were my friends too, but he really worked on it a lot. And the thing is, in a way, we didn't really realize how, at the time, fortunate we were when we had these two (skateboard parks) ... When I was around 14, 15 years old, we had a park in Springfield called Country Surf-N, like way back. It was like right behind the fairgrounds. It had these huge like snake runs. It wasn't really a (snake run), it was sort of a bowl, sort of like a pool, but it had strange rollouts and it had a big freestyle area and then this huge super-sized bowl. It was so big you couldn't really keep your momentum in it. was cool, but you could tell it wasn't made by people who had skateboarded A lot. It was almost like they'd seen pictures and then they just were like, maybe this will work. Don't get me wrong, it was absolutely fantastic to have that. And another one called Alli-Skator, which was near the corner of 19th and North Grand in Springfield. But here again, those transitions were nuts! They were so almost like these pods that were supposed to be like individual half pipes, but they were all connected, sort of like a snake run would be. But those transitions were hard, man. You'd be up on the ramp and then when you'd come back down, it was just this (hard jarring hit), every time! It was this super hard transition. I loved it, but it was tough to negotiate. And if you went down, that was it because… it did not have smooth (surface) back then they called either shotcrete or gunite overlay (surfaces) that were really smooth. It was just this like really coarse surface and man, it would tear you up! You would catch your knee pads and just pull them right down and, it was gnarly. But also, I appreciated the fact that we did have that back then, but they went away, but they were quite extensive projects that there was no way for anybody to maintain them. I was too young to even think about trying to get involved with the city to see if there was some sort of a way to try to turn it into public spaces. And of course, then there's like, SkankSkates came along later. And now our Springfield has Centennial Park, which is a really nice park. And then there's Comer Cox and another one too.
Evan Mitchell:
And Isles.
Jeff Williams:
Isles, yeah, the Isles Park, freestyle, more or less. It's kind of nice to have, with Taylorville also… different options in the area, not too far away, where you can go and skate different places, kind of mix it up and meet the different skaters from the different communities too.
Evan Mitchell:
Yeah, 20 years ago, it's like the only options for me as a young skateboarder were Springfield, Champaign, or Belleville. And now there's, as you had mentioned, Gibson City, there's Litchfield.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, Litchfield has one? Okay.
Evan Mitchell:
Lovington, Illinois.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, Lovington? Okay.
Evan Mitchell:
Yes, Lovington has one too. And you can make a whole day of loading up the car with your buddies and hitting all these little skate parks in these podunk towns!
Jeff Williams:
Yeah. Well, another thing that's really nice is to the ones that I can think of are free where you can go and it's just part of the public park systems. That's a huge thing too. I mean, where you can go and access these. Like you said, just load the car up with some friends and go spend a few hours here, a few hours there… not too far apart. And Decatur has one also, that's right.
Evan Mitchell:
I believe Pawnee has one.
Jeff Williams:
Really, Pawnee? I love it, man. Well, okay, well, once again, Evan Mitchell we have in from Taylorville, Illinois, in Evan Mitchell's one-man band, and also very involved in getting the skateboard park going over in Taylorville, Illinois. So I know you've got to run to get to a show, so thanks a lot for coming in. I know I've been harping on you, and I hope I didn't bug you too much trying to get you in here, but I just thought it'd be important. Yeah, thanks a lot, Evan.
Evan Mitchell:
Thanks for having me.
Jeff Williams:
And once again, I'd like to thank Evan Mitchell for coming by and giving us some background (information) about the Zaden Dudra Memorial Skateboard Park located on the Don Bragg Sports Complex in Taylorville, Illinois. We touched on some other skateboard parks in the area, but here's a more extensive list for everyone.
- In Springfield, you have Centennial Park, Comer Cox Park, Isles Park. Those are part of the Springfield Park District. SkankSkates, which is an indoor skate facility, that's a pay facility, but you've got the indoor option there.
- Some other parks in Central Illinois that also have skateboard parks, and most of these are parks that run through the town's park district:
- Spalding Park in Champaign
- Roundhouse Skateboard Park in Mattoon, Illinois
- Dudley in Macomb
- the Ron Stucker Memorial Skateboard Park in Jacksonville, Illinois
- D-Town Skate Park in Fairview Park in Decatur, Illinois
- Handelmeyer Park in Effingham
- Chillicothe Skate Park in Chillicothe
- the Ed Day Memorial Skateboard Park is found in Gibson City, Illinois
- Shelbyville has at least a pump park (may now have ramps)
- Becker Park and Fun Du Lac Park, both in Peoria, have smaller freestyle areas and some ramps
- Mineral Springs Park, Peak in Illinois, not too far from that little pond that you can pedal boats around in
- Richmond Park in Villa Grove, Illinois, wee little town, but it's got a park
- Litchfield Skate Park, which is near the corner of Edwards and Jackson
- Thomas L. Conn Park in Lovington, Illinois.
That's not a complete list.
That'll just get you started. Something not to be overlooked, skateboard parks that fall under the jurisdiction of a park in whatever community, city, town that you're in. I try not to overlook the fact that these are free parks a lot of times and try to clean up a little bit if I see some stuff that maybe needs cleaned. Find out who a person is that you can talk to that maybe helps keep the skateboard area maintained. A lot of times the park can designate an area for skateboarding, but they might not have the resources to fully maintain it. So, it's up to people in the community who support. So anytime you can help them out, give them a hand, either financially or by cleaning up, keep the place swept. It all helps out and helps build a community. Thanks for listening.
