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An Annotated
Tripperography
Traipsing through
our fair environs - 25 July 1990
An introduction and statement of purpose, consisting mostly of platitudes
I am no longer young enough to endorse. An Editor's note (written by me)
explained: "Ingalls loves to write and he loves to explore. Unfortunately,
we can't trust him with anything important around here. To keep him out
of our hair, we've decided to send him out on the road."
Antebellum, postdiluvian
- 10 Aug. 1990
The first column recounts a trip to Weston, Mo., an antebellum Missouri
River town that hasn't been on the river since 1881. My friend Kevin was
looking for pictures of "American stuff" to take with him to
Japan. Serendipitously, our trip coincided with the annual Reason to Ride
rally sponsored by Kawasaki. And what, I ask, could be more American than
riding your Japanese motorcycle to the McCormick distillery to taste peach
vodka?
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Far West
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Far West, but not
west enough - 24 Aug. 1990 - Read
it
Before Brigham Young led them to Salt Lake, the Latter Day Saints had
plans to settle in Western Missouri. Big plans. God told them so. The
locals disagreed.
Out Lonejack way
- 7 Sept. 1990
Missouri has had a wine industry since the mid 1800s. Most of it centers
around the old German towns of Herman and Berger in the Ozarks, where
the Budweiser crowd came for a change of pace. At an increasing number
of fests (Maifest, Octoberfest, Wurstfest) brats and funnel cakes were
chased with sweet Vidals and Seyvals and Rieslings (and the sidewalks
were hosed down daily). Off this well-beaten track, smaller wineries around
the state were indulging the quixotic struggle of making wine in Missouri's
roller coaster climate. I paid a visit one of these, the tiny Bynum Winery
in Lonejack, Mo.
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Abilene, Kan.
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Are you D.R.A.T.E.L.?
- 21 Sept. 1990
I went to Abilene, Kansas, to have a look at a particularly well-kept
movie house from the 1920s. My horn-rimmed glasses led many people there
to assume I was Doing Research At The Eisenhower Library (DRATEL). Abilene
is also the home of the Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame, by the way, but
no one assumed I was going there.
No copies remain (my mother thinks she has one somewhere but hasn't been able to dig it out yet. We shall see...)
Valentine &
the Benton Home - 5 Oct. 1990
Thomas Hart Benton, that is. The cantankerous American painter, muralist,
and sculptor spent the last three and a half decades of his life in Kansas
City, Mo. The house and studio that he and his tiny wife shared has since
become a state historic site. I thought the house was in the Valentine
neighborhood. I was wrong. It is a nice place and the ranger on duty that
day could not have been cuter.
Poetry, Petticoat
Lane and a dead rat - 19 Oct. 1991
No rats were harmed during the writing of this column, but the heirs of
one local historiatrix got their noses out of joint when I exercised the
Fair Use doctrine of the copyright laws. Oh, well.
It's all in a name
(or was) - 2 Nov. 1990 - Read it
Poking into the history of and disputes about several street names in
the greater Kansas City area.
Fragrant fudge-like
clods between the heel and sole - 16 Nov. 1990 - Read it
I was very excited to receive a press pass (my first) to the American
Royal, Kansas City's annual celebration of all the fun you can have with
livestock: riding it, roping it, cleaning up after it, and (sometimes)
eating it. I did a fair amount of grousing in the two columns about the
dilapidated state of the American Royal arena. The building was later
renovated and the facilities for the Royal upgraded in time for the 100th
anniversary of the event in 1999. A very good thing, indeed.
Como se Llama?
- 30 Nov. 1990 - Read it
More fun at the Royal, including a stop at the llama competition. Please
pardon the pun (and all the alliteration).
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Mill Creek Viaduct 1990
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Where my hair grows,
there grow I - 7 Dec. 1990 - Read it
A goof headline that I was surprised to see in print. I figured they'd
go with "The Bridge to Nowhere." The bridge in question was
the Mill Creek Viaduct, a remnant of Kansas City's streetcar system, at
its peak one of the most extensive in the nation. Designed in 1928 by
Edward Buehler Delk, the bridge outlasted both the creek (which was diverted
below ground) and the streetcars (which stopped running in 1959). It stood
as a beautiful urban ruin until was finally demolished in 1996.
The Red Cars of
the Strang Line - 14 Dec. 1990 - Read
it
Overland Park, Kansas, spraws just over State Line Road from Kansas City,
Mo. Having assumed it had always been a car haven, I was surprised to
find out the Strang Land Company had built a railway to lure people to
those sunny suburban retreats. Poking around at the Johnson County Historical
Society, I came across a sales pamphlet from the 1920s. My, how things
have changed.
A Trolleybarn Requiem
- 11 Jan. 1991
The View's offices were near 48th & Troost. To get there from where
I lived, I passed through a part of town referred to as the Trolleybarn
neighborhood. The neighborhood took its name from the fact that the maintenance
and storage facilities for the city's streetcar system where once located
there. But why were all the houses being demolished or carted off one
by one?
University Park:
What fresh hell is this? - 25 Jan. 1991
The Trolleybarn saga continues. This was basically a screed lashing out
at the University for destroying the neighborhood to make way for a research
park that I thought was unnecessary and poorly conceived. It didn't occur
to me until the issue was out that publishing this was perhaps not the
best move for a University employee. My supervisor at the time almost
giggled himself blue, but I never heard a peep from anyone else at UMKC.
War, Peace and
the Rosedale Arch - 8 Feb. 1991 - Read
it
The advent of Bush the Elder's Desert Storm was the impetus to visit a
World War I memorial in the Rosedale section of Kansas City, Kansas. Unhappy
days that, at the moment, seem to be here again.
Busman's Holiday:
A California Notebook - 22 Feb. 1991
Berkeley Conversations - 8 March 1991
Of Mice and Malls Monterey/Cannery Row - 22 March 1991
I took a trip to visit friends and family in the Bay Area and it occurred
to me that I could write off the trip if I wrote a column about it. Once
I got going, I wrote three. Seven months later I packed up my troubles
and moved them to Berkeley.
Troubles with Bunnies
- 4 April 1991
Every year at Easter, large fiberglass rabbits appear on the Country
Club Plaza. They sit there in the spring rain, dressed in suits, their
electric eyes glowing. I found the ones with red eyes particularly disturbing.
Scenes from a Mall
Without Walls - April 1991
A visit to the Hypermart, basically a Wal-Mart with a gland problem. The
View folded before this one ran. The Hypermart has since been renamed
a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
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