- Would you spend seven times the value of your home just to renovate it and not just to make it look nicer, but to make it into the craziest, wildest place you've ever seen?

- You've got me interested in this, but "You Gotta See This".

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) We have a lot of great stories to share with you today, but you have been talking constantly about this tree house story.

You've gotta tell me more.

- Have you ever lived in a tree house or wanted to live in a tree house?

- No, and no.

- As a boy did, it seemed like cool to be outside and that's not exactly what this house is.

It's sort of like if you had an industrial children's museum in a, a residential area.

It's just-- - Wow.

- Check it out.

(soft music) As a kid, Tom Kirk liked to draw.

He still likes art, but on a bigger scale, much, much bigger.

The 48-year-old has been turning his Bloomington home into what might be described as an industrial playground and tree house.

(soft music continues) The exterior is surrounded with metal sculptures that stretch and twist every which way.

And inside and out, you'll find crowded swirls of rebar, winches, ropes, tiles, crane buckets, hoists, gears, pulleys, stained glass, spiral staircases, and fanciful sculptures.

Plus there's the occasional appliance and faucet.

After all, it is a house.

- I call it a livable sculpture.

I mean, everything does make sense.

You know, we have a refrigerator, we have a stove.

I just put it inside of something.

So it's no different than any other house.

I mean, we have everything that everybody else has.

We just arrange it a little bit different.

First I was in a demolition business, so we started a demolition company, or I did, I don't even know when, 25 years ago.

And then my brother and I, Tim, we bought a disposal company and we merged a partnership, my brother and I.

And that was around maybe 15, 16 years ago.

- [Phil] With both, he learned how to deconstruct and move things, especially big things.

That skill would come in handy starting eight years ago when after a divorce he moved into a quiet neighborhood of ranch houses.

- When I originally bought it, it was a ranch.

I don't even remember what color it was.

Just a regular old, very small home.

(soft music continues) - [Phil] Small, regular, not for long.

(soft music continues) - Some of it happened on accident.

I, I wanted to remodel the home and which I started to do.

And right off the bat, I decided I wanted a really big rock in the front yard.

And I didn't know this till later on, but what I was using and what I found was art, was art therapy.

It was my therapy to kind of help me through the hard times and just to get me going again.

- [Phil] Quickly, Kirk rediscovered his childhood passion for art.

- So I just kept building and building and building and I realized like, wow, this is, this is pretty amazing.

I love doing it.

And it was really important to me and important enough that it shifted my focus that I wanted to focus on the arts and design and building and structural stuff.

And I, and I loved it.

It's just, it's a passion now.

I go to bed and I can't wait to get up 'cause I wanna build, I want to make things.

Create.

- [Phil] Outside, his art goes way beyond a typical bird bath or rock garden.

Some designs seem to have a life of their own.

- [Kirk] I was gonna take rebar and wrap it around rocks and I was gonna take these rocks and I wanted to sculpt this massive tree.

And same thing, I started it as a tree and it ended up being a huge flower.

So the base of it kind of looks like a tree and then it shapes up into this, you know, beautiful flower.

So it was just an, it was, it took its own shape.

- [Phil] Kirk says he has been careful to adhere to all zoning codes.

He hears an occasional complaint about his work, but he says he mostly gets compliments, especially when he hosts his yearly open house, which draws hundreds of visitors.

- What I found is the people that come here are either curious or supportive or fascinated and that's the energy I like to be around.

(soft music continues) I believe I paid $105,000 for the home and probably out of pocket I've probably got 700,000 in the house.

(soft music continues) - $700,000.

That's quite the investment - And a lot of that was put into the house in terms of redoing this and that and decorations and all this stuff.

And we're gonna take you on a tour inside in just a little bit.

- Our next story is more human interest, I would say.

Have you ever heard of a lava bomb?

- All I know about lava bombs is I would not want to get hit by one, like this young lady got hit.

- I mean she overcame so much.

In fact, she was on a vacation, got hit by a lava bomb and now she's Miss Illinois.

Check it out.

- [Announcer] Our new Miss Illinois 2023, Jessica Tilton.

(upbeat music) (soft music) (crowd cheering) - [Julie] Washing native, Jessica Tilton sparkles and shines as she was crowned Miss Illinois 2023.

- [Announcer] Take your first walk.

♪ Stand a little taller ♪ ♪ Doesn't ♪ - [Julie] She's the epitome of grace, beauty and intelligence.

As Miss Illinois and current medical student, you wouldn't believe that just a few years ago people wondered if she would ever walk again.

When she was just 20 years old, she took a trip with her family to Hawaii.

There they booked a tourist boat trip on the Sunrise Ocean Lava tour to get an up close look at a live volcano.

That's when her life changed forever.

(lava exploding) (people screaming) (water splashing) Jessica's tour boat was hit by a lava bomb.

(soft music) (soft music continues) - My family and I took a Sunrise Ocean lava tour in Hawaii, which is a Coast Guard regulated tour.

It's very safe.

Unfortunately the captain of our boat veered too close to the shore and there was an underwater explosion, so a lava bomb.

And fortunately, but unfortunately I was the only one seriously injured.

And it just rained down, these giant four or five foot glowing boulders ash lava.

And you pretty much knew you were dead.

But I was struck on my side and I was, I had a shattered pelvis, femur, tibia and sacrum.

And I'm lucky to be here right now.

I had a collapsed lung.

I was in the hospital for another month.

I had two back to back eight hour surgeries to save my life.

And by the grace of God I'm here today.

I had to relearn how to walk.

I was like wheelchair bound for three months and I took a leave of absence from Bradley University where I was a student at the time.

But being able to heal and grow from that has really showed me that this world is full of opportunities.

- [Julie] It opened our eyes to how important medical professionals are to the community.

- A neurosurgeon from France, he was on board as well and he stayed with me and he sat with me for a very long time, before even checking on his own family.

And I thank him so much.

I don't know his name, I don't know anything about him.

I wish so much to have his contact information because he was there for me and in the hospital when I was in the first ER before I was life flighted to the next island over to have my surgeries.

He was even there and he checked on me and it, it really just resonates with me today that medical professionals have, you know, such a vast need in our community, just even outside of the operating room where you find a lot of 'em.

So he's been so impactful and really inspiring in my healing journey as well.

- [Julie] She has some scars and permanent nerve damage that caused the loss of feeling to the outside of her leg and the lower back as well.

But that doesn't slow Jessica down.

It's inspired her and her love to study medicine.

- It took a whole medical team to really get me to where I am.

It started in Hawaii and I was with the rehabilitation hospital, the Pacific.

But I stayed there for about two weeks and they took me from barely being able to sit up 'cause I was laying flat for two weeks, I couldn't move pretty much, to being able to sit up in a wheelchair and you know, hopefully make it home, which I was able to do and be a little bit comfortable with that.

And once I was back home here, I had home health helped me for I think about a month or so 'til I was able to actually go in and see my physical therapist, which was Hailey from Midwest Orthopedic and I love her.

She stayed with me for about three to four years and really saw my journey from barely being able to, you know, stand up in a walker to walk down and graduate with my bachelor's and master's degree and then head off to med school.

- [Julie] One of her proudest moments was representing Illinois in the Miss America pageant of 2023.

- I honestly would say that walking on Miss America stage was something I had never dreamed of.

And to go from not being able to walk to relearning to walk to being there is a very surreal experience and I'm incredibly lucky to have it.

- [Julie] Lucky, hardworking and smart.

We can't wait to see what's next for Jessica Tilton.

(hopeful music) (audience cheering) (upbeat music) - I'm Tulinh Tran and I am the graphic designer and nonprofit coordinator.

Charlene is our research team member and Nicole is our community coordinator and we are a team of four girls promoting the Pop the Bubble PR campaign.

(upbeat music continues) Bradley Bubble is just where people are comfortable and I would say it's mostly just campus, the places where all the college kids just normally go to.

- There's no involvement in the curator community or if you do go out into community it's just to, yeah, like essentials.

We were all classmates.

But I think with the classmate, it grew into a friendship, I would say.

We're all taking a capstone course in public relations.

It's one of the requirements for our program and for our majors.

- We were asked to pick a social issue and for me, I feel like we all wanted to choose something that would not help, only help our day, but college students going forward after us.

- So we were trying to think of a fun, unique idea and we really wanted to involve our campus with it and involve college students and people our age.

- [Tulinh] Having this project to help students pop the bubble right when they enter college is important to make sure that they find their home away from home.

- [Jeannie] Basically we're doing like kind of like a fun business fair where businesses are coming, promoting themselves, handing out coupons or discounts and we're just gonna make it fun and get people excited to bench off and be like, oh I didn't know this was here.

And more involved in the community overall.

Honestly, our goal is just to get more people aware of what one can do on the weekends or if they have free time so they don't feel limited and bored on campus.

- And so I think that's why we were passionate to start the Pop the Bubble campaign - At work, I received an email from the organization asking me if I wanted to attend.

They gave me a little information about what this was and I thought absolutely, a great opportunity to reach, you know, the students.

Peoria is such a diverse community and we have so many different opportunities.

- We need to advocate more on spreading word that these students are doing something that has progressive change within the community of Peoria and can create long lasting impacts.

- Just coming here like gave us plans.

So having more of a presence constantly on campus just reminds students that there are these things off campus that you can do together and to appreciate the community and to support the community as well.

- The more that you get out into the community that you may be, you know, on campus from the more you learn about your area.

It's not just what's on that, that separate section.

You know, there's so many other things that go on outside of that and it just diversifies what your experience is overall as a student.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - We're not gonna be here next semester.

There's gonna be new generations coming in and I think it's important that we're leaving something behind and something people can like look into and then continue on after us.

I think it's what's really important and what's really cool and awesome about this class.

- I think it just gives us a reminder that there is more outside of Bradley University and we need to recognize that pattern of these communities and these businesses have supported us, we should support them.

- So we created a brochure about different businesses.

So we partnered with the Campus Life ambassadors, which is a program helping freshmen when they start off at Bradley and they will be handing out our flyers to the incoming freshmen and incoming classes to come so they immediately, when they start off on campus, they can see what is available in the Peoria area.

- So if we get Bradley University students to come out and explore around the local spots and support local businesses, I think that not only Peoria could thrive, but Bradley University students can go away with more experiences in the college career.

There's so much more to Peoria outside of the Bradley bubble.

- [All] Pop the Bradley bubble.

(uplifting music) (phone ringing) - I gotta answer that.

- [Customer] We probably got somebody.

(phone continues ringing) - Fortman's Westside.

This is Jim.

- [Phil] For almost 70 years, Jim Fortman grinned and laughed behind his barber chair, cutting hair and cutting up.

At age 86, Fortman still brims and barks with the energy and enthusiasm of a carnival barker and his barbershop doubled as a long running set for a comedy show, be loved by host and customers alike.

- I love the just being with people.

Just being with people.

I just, I socialize.

How many people can stand there all day long and get a new person every half hour and talk to 'em and get involved in their family and, and just become friends, become part of the family.

- [Phil] Jim grew up in Morton and his dad ran a barbershop in East Peoria.

As Jim started studying accounting at Bradley University, his dad made a suggestion.

- My dad says, why don't you go to Barber College first and then you can come out here and work with me while you're going through school.

- [Phil] Jim liked cutting hair more than crunching numbers.

So he went to work at the barbershop taking over when his dad died a few years later.

Back then, as he raised two kids with wife Diane, business boomed.

- And I had three chairs going out there on Meadows Avenue for 43 years, and we were busy.

- [Phil] The fun continued when he moved his shop to Morton.

The only real change over those 69 years, haircuts went from $1 to $18.

He's done hundreds of thousands of haircuts, that's according to regulars, like 66-year-old Dan Ogden, a customer for almost all of his life.

As with many customers, there'd be plenty of give and take.

There's the give.

- I like to tease Jim and tell him I've been coming back ever since till he gets it right, so.

(Jim laughing) And he always tells me that's his business model.

What are you talking about?

- Yeah.

- [Phil] And the take.

- Well actually he didn't tell you the truth.

He's been kicked outta most of the nice shops.

But I got a lot of those guys.

- Yeah.

- And they're the fun people.

- [Phil] In fact, those fun people might have shared a few cans of suds during happy hour at the shop.

- When I was working, I always got a haircut on Friday night about 5:30.

So I was coming in and it was like coming into a party.

They were all, they were all here early.

- [Phil] They'd also have some serious conversations.

You know, that axiom about avoiding politics and religion?

Those made for frequent topics at Jim's busy shop.

- That's why we're full.

Yeah, no, we, we are not afraid to mention the good Lord.

And we're not afraid to mention having a good time too.

That's what it's all about though.

That's what it's all about.

- [Phil] Robert Finley enjoyed friendly visits every three weeks for more than three decades.

That's almost 500 haircuts, each a treasured respite from otherwise busy days.

- Oh no, I look forward to it.

I look, I like the, the fun times we have together.

Jim is always has a wonderful supply of jokes to share.

Some of them he can even share publicly.

- [Phil] But no joke, this spring Jim decided to hang up his clippers.

He talked to us a week before his last day, April 19th.

- Emotionally, there's been a lot of tears shed in the last couple weeks.

It really has, a lot of hugs, a lot of gifts.

It's tough right now, telling you that, it really is.

But you, you, you're leaving family.

- [Phil] As his customers face the challenge of finding a new barber, Jim likely won't be leaving barbering.

Not entirely.

He and his wife are moving into a local retirement home.

Friends there have already asked if he'll be willing to rev up his clippers.

- If we're we're gonna work on it to see if I can't at least cut their hair out there.

- [Phil] At the new place, count on Jim Fortman to make new friends just like always.

And he won't forget the old ones.

- But I can't tell you, the luckiest guy in the world.

Really, really, I am, you know, from my marriage to my kids, to my, you know, my family out here.

I miss 'em.

I'm gonna miss 'em a lot.

(upbeat music) - Earlier in the show, we showed you Tom Kirk's house and some of his eclectic sculptures.

It was amazing.

- And it's incredible.

We gave you a little taste of what he's been doing on the inside.

Now let's take a full tour of this work in progress.

(soft music) For Tom Kirk, the unconventional overhaul of his home has been a family affair.

- I wanted to introduce my family.

They've helped me through the process, through support and physical help.

And this is my partner, Sara.

- Hello.

- This is our baby, Ivy.

Say hello.

And this is my oldest daughter Addison.

- Hello.

- And we're missing one daughter, Avery.

Avery's at school today, taking a science test.

(soft music continues) We're making memories and we're doing things together and you know, we, I call it treasure seeking or hunting or finding things.

Like they have gone with me all over the place, looking at locations, bringing materials back, bringing metals back.

Addison runs the crane and Addison set this thing in here.

- [Phil] Addison, who after high school plans to study welding, often helps her dad inside and outside the house.

The work often impresses newcomers.

- Most of my friends that I brought over here though, they've, they've been used to it 'cause they've been seeing it for so long.

But if I bring a new friend over, they're, they're always amazed of like what we're doing.

- [Phil] And what they've been doing is remarkable.

- So this room right now, we're standing inside of a drag line bucket.

It's a 55 yard bucket and the empty weight of the bucket is 67,000 pounds.

And I flipped it upside down to create a room space.

(soft music continues) - [Phil] At some point, Kirk might turn the place into an Airbnb, so others can enjoy it too.

- So we're standing beside the bird's nest, where I bet we're probably 30, 30 some feet in the air and this'll become, you know, a space where you could just sit and chill or hang out or take a nap or sleep in it.

- [Phil] But his immediate plan is to live there with his daughters, partner, Sara and baby Ivy.

For her, it'll be like growing up in a fantasy playhouse.

- I think she's gonna have a lot of fun and it's gonna be probably a whole different universe in here for her.

And she's gonna have fun playing hide and seek.

And eventually she'll have friends and I'm sure they're gonna have a party here at some point.

And she's gonna be like, look at my dad's cool house.

- [Phil] He has more ideas, but he is running outta space on his lot.

That's why he has been creating a sculpture park on property he owns in downtown Bloomington.

The lot features works by himself and others.

(soft music continues) Much of it, a mishmash of repurposed metal and newly poured concrete.

Plus he owns a nearby building that could hold even more artworks.

- And what I envision there would be displaying arts, structural collections of some sort, things that are not mine, but turn it into a business model that I view as very similar to the City Museum in St. Louis.

I love that place.

- [Phil] For now though, he is busy with a final push at his home.

He hopes to get done by this summer and hold an open house in July.

- And now we just need to make everything flow together, touch, make it be able to function, create spaces that you could be comfortable in.

And again, at the end of the day, if you can look past that to me, it'll just be just like another house.

This is making me feel every day like I made it.

I'm who I want to be.

I'm living the life that I wanna live.

I made it, but it's just the beginning.

It was, it was a trophy.

But now I want the bigger trophy.

(soft music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to Sweet Rocking Worth Township Illinois in my garage for yet another episode of Eight Track Time Machine where we take a look back at the sounds and the songs of the finest of pop music.

the eight track era.

Now when it comes to drama, few bands can touch the Eagles.

By the mid 70s, they were on top of the world just smoking along, but still with success comes pressure.

And for "Hotel California", the album, they were feeling a little bit of, boy, what do we do now?

How do we make this great?

And Don Henley says, "you know what, let's take a look at the dichotomy of nightmares versus dreams."

In other words, sometimes the you have the American dream and it can become a nightmare.

And for some of the songs, that sort of rang true really easily, like with "Life in the Fast Lane", "New Kid in Town", There's good things happening, there's bad things happening.

But that dream nightmare situation became all too real and brutally real to guitarist Don Felder.

Now Felder's guitar work was key to the Eagle's sound, but he always wanted to do more singing.

He sang some background, but he never got to sing lead.

And according to Felder, the band promised him, oh you can sing lead the next album.

You can sing lead the next album.

And it just kept going on and on, right?

So he came up with this idea for a song called "Victim of Love" and he's like, here's my song, I wanna sing it.

And so the band's like, okay, let's give it a try.

And so they go to the recording studio and the music sounds good, but Felder's vocals well take after take after take kind of butchered it and they're just kind of going, what are we gonna do?

What are we gonna do?

Well, they did something that was rather tricky, might be the nicest way you could put it, that during a break, they're like, yeah, hey Don Felder, that was all really good.

The manager, Irving Azoff wants to take you to dinner.

Hey Irving, don't you wanna take Don to dinner?

And he's like, yeah, okay.

So out to dinner they go.

Felder's away, the rest of the band gets together, they do a new take of the song with Don Henley on lead.

And guess which one ends up on the album?

Don Henley's version.

And it's a really good song.

The problem is Felder was torqued.

He felt betrayed, he was angry.

He's like, you promised me this.

The rest of the band was like, hey, it's a good song.

We did well and you know, we really didn't promise you totally this, that and the other.

And from there things just got worse and worse and worse.

Until one night Felder got so angry he smashed his guitar, stomped off the stage and boom, that was the end of the Eagles, at least for quite a few years.

Now, ever since, different band members have had different versions about what really happened.

This here, this there.

But like the song says, "talk is for losers and fools" ♪ Talk is for losers and fools ♪ - Well that is certainly a lesson learned from Eight Track Time Machine.

- You know, I'm gonna be careful the next time you suggest I leave early for lunch.

There's no telling me what you'll do.

Will she do it?

Will she betray me?

Ahlah the Eagles.

Tune in next time for-- - "You Gotta See This".

(upbeat music) Absolutely, she survived a lava dom, lava dom.

(both babbling) - That's Scooby lava dabba doo.

Three.

- Let's do.

(both laughing) - Okay.

Only on "You Gotta See This" with enthusiasm.

- Oh.

Oh, how about I sing background?

She just says that on up.

Ready?

- Okay, three.

Only on, "You Gotta See This".

- Ah.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)