PRISON RIOT - GERBILS

The Pantagraph had a large front-page article w/pictures about the Pontiac Prison Riot 30 years ago today. It was a major riot with deaths, injuries, fires, etc. Quite the news at the time. We remember it well, as 30 years ago on this day, we were driving to Pontiac to buy Angela some gerbils complete with cage, an exercise circle, tubes to crawl through, etc. for her 10th birthday. As soon as we left Minonk and headed east, we could see the smoke and eventually flames and wondered what in the world the big fire was. We had the radio on and soon heard that there was a riot and fire at the prison. Funny how some things stick in your mind and anytime I hear any reference to that prison riot I think about Angela and her gerbils. And, by the way, she raised gerbils for quite awhile and when all the babies got big enough, we took them to the high school and fed them to the snakes in the biology lab.