Vamos! A cool day in very hot Springfield, Missouri

In which Sid and Doris see a fine new town museum.

Over breakfast we read the local paper. They report that a member of the public has taken the opportunity to speak to the town council in session. He was wearing a yellow star to draw attention to the fact that the requirement to wear a Covid mask inside or being encouraged to get vaccinated is a prelude to a new Holocaust, though it is not clear who will be doing the imprisoning and industrial murdering. There is a very small sigh to be had from learning he needed to have someone else fill out the form requesting the opportunity to speak at the meeting.

We also see how hot the day will be. Though we are not in the Middle East we do have a very large Shriner Mosque. This is a concert and convention venue built by Shriners, a Masonic style club that wore fezs and seem to have venerated Abu Ben Adam. Only slightly more odd than other religiously motivated building.

Our immediate destination is the new History Museum, USA Today’s America’s Best New Attraction. It is a great visit and we see almost all the galleries. Sid will pick on two, the Civil war and Route 66.

Springfield is in Missouri which is the North of the South and at the time was on the Western border from where slaves could escape to Kansas. To maintain balance in Congress in 1820 Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. At the time slavery was not permitted north of latitude 36′ 30″ with the exception of Missouri. In 1854 this Missouri Compromise was declared unconstitutional. The state was divided between Union and Confederate sympathisers. By the end of the war in 1865 110,000 had served in the Union Army and 40,000 with the Confederates. Springfield was first taken by the Confederates then taken back and successfully defended by the Union Army.

Deaths in the Civil War, to include civilians, were about 650,000 or the same as deaths in all other US wars put together.

Once the war was over Springfield was soon at a crossroads of road and rail traffic. At its peak the railway employed 8,000 people in Springfield, but roads won out in the end. The museum has a section on how the new road network of even numbered east to west main roads and odd numbered north to south roads was planned. The route from Chicago to Los Angeles did not cross the continent from edge to edge so its original number of 60 was challenged, resulting in intense political pressure. Every governor wanted key routes and junctions in their state.

Eventually route 66 was established on 11 November 1926 and did bring prosperity to towns along the road. Later on Interstates bypassed these roads through towns and Route 66 was removed from the US road system in 1985. It is kept alive as Historic Route 66 and in some states as State Route 66.

In any normal year Springfield would have a Route 66 festival with 300 old cars and music to suit. But not this year, maybe next. Perhaps it depends on people getting vaccinated.

Meanwhile there is just one old car which doesn’t have a radio, but we are going to drive round the square anyway.

PS Springfield is also the name of the town where the Simpsons live, although it is possible this was chosen because it was one of the most common town names in America.  But not the most common, apparently.

PPS While we are sitting in the hotel working on this the receptionist has just been speaking to someone on the phone: “I dunno where you are but it’s just hot as Hades here.”