Photos and Audio by Dan Dwyer

“Slow pitch softball is more about the people and the players and the atmosphere before and after the game than it is about the competition itself,” states Llyod Nelson head of the Murphysboro men’s softball league.

Men’s softball leagues are known for an easy going atmosphere and are generally used as a social gathering rather than an ultra competitive sport. The teams play at Riverside Park’s Chep Kessel Field. Construction of the diamond, which was part a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, began in 1938 and has approximate seating for 1,500 spectators. The field has played host to tryouts for two Major League Baseball teams, the New York Yankees (1948) and multiple times for the St. Louis Cardinals. This years league championships went to a local team known as the Side Bar.

Photos and Audio by Suzanne M. Caraker

For the past 20-years, the General John A. Logan Museum has had a home in Murphysboro.

Michael Jones, the director of the Museum, has been there since the beginning and was one of the driving forces to the opening of the museum. “It’s funny where Logan pops up, he is a national figure and I don’t think a lot of people in Murphysboro or Carbondale or Marion, you know, any of Southern Illinois realize he’s a national figure,” Jones said.

Photos by Diana Soliwon and Julia Rendleman, audio by Diana Soliwon

The B & W Lounge at 12 N. 13th Street is more affectionately known as Marge’s bar by the regulars who have patroned it since 1975.

The bar is owned and operated by Margaret Hand, 83, who has lived in Murphysboro since 1942. Hand said that while her husband is who originally bought the bar, she’s always been the boss. Domestic beers are $1.75, but after that, expect “just simple drinks. Nothin’ fancy.”

These days the bar and its regulars serve as an extended home and family for Hand. She said since her husband, parents and siblings have all passed away, she thinks of the people who have been coming in since they were old enough to drink as her kids.

It’s clear the sentiment has been returned: For most of them, her nickname is “Ma.”