MONTICELLO — ‘Sowing your wild oats’ is a phrase that could describe a 17-year-old Stephen Lyons a few decades ago.

MONTICELLO — There was music at Allerton Park last year, but it was of the mobile variety with people driving through the park and listening to specially-recorded concerts on their radios as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered public events and festivals.

Creating art in Allerton Park sounds like a dream, especially for those with a creative bent.

Monticello High School graduate (Class of 1981) and talented clarinetist Master Sgt. John Mula has now played for seven presidential inaugurations – George W. Bush through last week’s for Joe Biden – as part of the Marine Band, which has performed at the event since 1801.

Allerton Park & Retreat Center’s In Residence program will take flight this winter as the Monticello park hosts Chicago-based multimedia artist, educator and University of Illinois alumnus John E. Bannon.

Friends of Lincoln Trail Homestead State Park and Memorial, along with Looking for Lincoln, Decatur Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Chris Vallillo is proud to announce they will host Lincoln, The Great Communicator online.

People won’t actually see Viktor Krauss and his band playing as they cruise and stroll through Allerton Park and Retreat Center for its unique Summer Solstice Concert Cruise the evening of June 20.

Cerro Gordo, is a tiny village about 15 minutes outside of Decatur. Population: 1,339. Many students attend Cerro Gordo schools from preschool to high school graduation.

The Monticello High School Thespians and Monticello Theatre Association will present “The Incomplete Life and Random Death of Molly Denholtz,” by Ian McWethy at 7 p.m. on Jan. 3 and 4 at MTA’s Phoenix Theatre, 1406 N. Market St., Monticello.