Mike Hartnett > Quotes

“At the northeast edge of Lincoln sat the reason we came to town: Lincoln College—a small, private junior college founded as a Presbyterian school for ministerial students shortly after the Civil War. The only college named for Abraham Lincoln before his assassination,”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“Most Friday afternoons after four, anyone from the college who was thirsty for beer or conversation would drop into a local bar named Bachelors III. (This was when the drinking age had been lowered to nineteen, and before it was raised again.)”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“That was the last straw. Now innocent kids were being dragged into Cheryl’s problem. Finally the dean agreed to call Cheryl’s mother in Louisville. He told her the entire story: Barbara was afraid she’d find Cheryl dead from an overdose one day. They both told the mother that Cheryl needed to be put in a drug rehab program back in Kentucky. The mother responded, “Why Kentucky? Isn’t there a rehab program in Illinois you could send her to?” The dean shouted, “She’s YOUR daughter!” “Oh, okay,” the mother said.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“… whether all that finally began to seem less real, more like something they dreamed, so that instead of being stuck there, they could go on and by the grace of God lead their own lives, undestroyed by what was not their doing.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“Lincoln’s teachers were almost too good. Some students would become so excited about a field that they’d decide to major in it. A couple of years later, after being taught by university professors who weren’t so caring, so personal, so charismatic, they’d conclude that earth science wasn’t so interesting after all.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“Lincoln was just far enough away from bigger towns that it developed its own friendly character; it wasn’t a suburb. No matter where they worked—thirty miles away in Bloomington, Springfield, or Decatur, or sixty miles away in Champaign or Peoria—residents felt living in Lincoln was worth the drive. Why? Because small-town stereotypes were true.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“Darwin, a freshman art major from a Chicago, was attending Lincoln on a wrestling scholarship. He was married, and Lincoln didn’t have facilities for married students, so I helped him find an apartment near campus through the local public housing office. I didn’t realize what type of person Darwin was until the next day when he sat in my waiting room for forty-five minutes just to say thanks for helping him find the apartment.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“They both told the mother that Cheryl needed to be put in a drug rehab program back in Kentucky. The mother responded, “Why Kentucky? Isn’t there a rehab program in Illinois you could send her to?” The dean shouted, “She’s YOUR daughter!” “Oh, okay,” the mother said.”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir

“As Dickens said, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
The years in Lincoln, Illinois, were both. Great friends, great students, great life. Then the murders started. *A Tale of Two Cities”
― Mike Hartnett, And I Cried, Too: Confronting Evil in a Small Town, a memoir