My name is Michael Legel. That’s pronounced Lā•gŭl — not Lē•gŭl or any number of wrong variations. (Legal has an A in it ... at the end I think) I normally correct people, spell it for them, and then say, “It is spelled the same forward as backwards.” It is a proud European name originally spelled Löegel. The ö (o with oomlats) was dropped upon immigration to America because that character isn’t on American typewriters.

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I started this Blog on August 6^th, 2006 for a few reasons. At the time I was having trouble with Verizon. They were screwing up pages on a web site I had set up for news of the Georgetowne Jr. High class of 1969. We had started having reunions and I was posting information on that site when it began to have problems. I was ready to move to a new provider and as I shopped around I realized I could get lots of storage space for a reasonable price. At the same time I had been emailing friends & family daily with jokes, videos, pictures, etc. This was beginning to get cumbersome trying to remember what I had sent before, who had slow internet so I didn’t clog them up with a 5 meg movie, etc. So I quit emailing the stuff and started the Blog ... both to keep the Georgetowne Jr. High stuff on the Internets but also to show the jokes, etc. And the final reason at the time and the one which influenced the name “The Legel Report” was because I wanted to have a means for family to share news. Once upon a time I gathered the family gossip and put it together into a family newsletter which I mailed from here ... Tall Weed Acres. I found it to be too time consuming and stopped doing it but always continued to look for an easy way for family to stay in touch. This seemed to fit the bill. I soon found another reason for the Blog ... I love to gab. It is a ready opportunity to drag out my soapbox whenever I want and carry on about whatever I want.

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Most of the people who frequent this madhouse already know too much about me but I will share a little stuff for any newcomers who wander in. I was born in Cook County, Chicago on July 5^th, 1955. (You do the math!) At the time, my father was in Korea. My Mom took me to Okinawa, Japan at a very early age and my parents often joked that I learned Japanese from the gardener Poppa-san before I learned English from them. Of course I can remember only a very few words (of either language) and I suspect that is only because I had heard them repeated over the years by my parents. We moved around a lot while my father was enlisted in the Air Force. He finally quit the service and we ended up living in Marquette Heights, IL, in 1964. I have lived in the Pekin / Peoria Illinois area ever since. I graduated from Pekin High School in 1973 and I was a Chink ... not a Dragon ... or whatever they are since they quit being Chinks. I didn’t quit.

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And now I shall fast forward through a number of my “early years” where I “experimented” a lot with good things, bad things, legal things and otherwise. I did inhale (as Obama has said, “I thought that was the point?”) and I did not dodge the draft but it fortunately (for everybody concerned) it dodged me. I suspect the only thing pertinent between those days and these days is that I went to Caterpillar right out of high school. I participated and graduated from their 4 year Toolmaker course. I was and am a toolmaker with a lot of detours along the way.

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I worked at Caterpillar for 30 years, retiring most fittingly on Labor Day (Sept. 1^st) 2003. I got bounced out of my Toolmaker job in 1983 when Raygun ruined our economy. I ended up in the Tech Center at Mossville for the remainder of my Caterpillar years running all manner of machinery making mostly research and prove design parts. I participated very much in my union (UAW Local 974) right up until just before my retirement. I weathered all of the strikes and initiated at least one of them. I was not nor have I ever been a Scab. That’s probably enough on that subject for most people but I felt it must be said.

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I met Tracey in February, 1984. She was a nursing student at St. Francis School of Nursing in Peoria. We were engaged on Friday, April 13^th, 1984 and we had planned on getting married on Friday, July 13^th, 1984. We changed the wedding date to July 7^th because my sister’s husband had Guard duty on the planned weekend. (They didn’t show up at the wedding after all anyway). We were married at 13:13 just to keep the lucky 13s on a roll. Tracey and I honeymooned in Colorado ... driving all over the state in a 1980 4 wheel drive pickup with a camper on it. Several times we camped above the tree line in the mountains, but we managed to stay warm.

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We have 3 sons. Noah was born on Earth Day (April 22^nd) 1988. A year later on Noah’s 1^st birthday we moved to a rural area off Allentown Rd. just north and west of Tremont. It was RR#1 Box 41 when we moved there but the address has since been changed to 22023 Allentown Rd. Tremont, IL 61568. Aaron & Ben were born on July 15^th, 1991. Yes, they are twins ... fraternal, not identical. Noah graduated from Tremont High School in May, 2006.

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So now that you know more about us than you wanted to know ... please enjoy the site. Anyone and everyone is welcome to offer jokes, discussion, whatever — so long as we keep it civilized. If you want to edit or remove a comment just let me know and it will be done immediately if it is your comment. We can talk about what to do about it if it is not your comment. I don’t want to get all moral and prudish but on the other hand I have different fingers. (Sorry about that, it just creeps into my thought process) I don’t want to have a lot of profanity or bullying but I also enjoy a good “dirty joke” now and then. Don’t be shy ... just let me know if I or others cross your line. Let us all just play nice and get along with each other!

My email address is mjlegel@frontier.com

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Oh ... And we can discuss “The Meaning of Life” along the way!

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[Update June 2, 2008]  Tracey bought a motorcycle! It is a three wheeled Piaggio MP3 250.  It has two wheels up front and an automatic clutch.