Local museums add to Springfield?s reputation

Last week's Rusty Saber mentioned things that irk me. I know, I know, the Christmas season isn't a time for negative reflections.

I should give up being a curmudgeon and accentuate only warm and fuzzy positives. I can do that.

Last week, I said that hate was too harsh a word to de-scribe ordinary dislikes, I used irk. The opposite of hate is love, also misused.

For instance, I don't really love rocky road ice cream; I may say I do, but I only like it. Love should be reserved for feelings about spouse, children, other loved ones, close friends, humanity in general and the country.

The opposite of irk must be like. No naysayer I; what follows are things I like. I like the new American National Fish and Wildlife Museum. Most people who visit it will probably like it, too. If you are ex-pecting it to be another Disney-land, loaded with all the special effects of a "Star Wars" movie, forget it.

What it is, is a well-designed museum with striking displays highlighting the distinctiveness of the Ozarks ... er, well, that is, everything but the shark tank.

The museum is highly educational, even for the most seasoned Ozarks natives. Doubt-less, schools will be lining up for educational field trips. Stu-dents elementary through graduate can learn a lot about nature in the Ozarks.

Once word of the museum gets around, it is likely to be-come a major national tourist attraction. Located alongside the Bass Pro Shops, Missouri's No. 1 tourist attraction, a double-barrel bonanza is in place to make Springfield the destination of choice for a lot of tourists.

Trust me, folks, when far from home, tell people you're from Springfield, and they are likely to say, "We drove by Springfield on the way to Branson," or "Springfield, that's where that Bass Pro place' is." Some may call it "that Pro Bass place," for reasons completely unknown to me. Even if they have the name wrong, they know where it is.

I have a feeling that it won't be long until people will recognize Springfield as the home of "that wildlife place."

Tourists visiting both Bass Pro and the museum might stay longer, perhaps one or more nights, especially if they take in the sights of Jordan Valley Park, the eclectic music offerings of downtown nightclubs, various restaurants, motels, shopping, whatever. Anything wrong with that?

I like the museum and I'm not irked that there is talk of putting a walkway between it and Bass Pro. Easy access from one tour-ist attraction to another certainly caters to the customers, which sounds a lot like a good business practice.

As a sometime tourist myself, I certainly appreciate any efforts to make it easier for me to spend money. I like the idea of the walkway. To some, that's not politically correct; but I've nev-er been accused of being politically correct. I don't intend to start now.

Speaking of museums, I like the History Museum for Spring-field & Greene County. To be truthful, I am on the museum's board of directors; however, I'm on the board because I like the museum, which is located on the third floor of the old City Hall Building.

To some, the museum is one of Springfield's best kept se-crets, a secret worth knowing about. It's dedicated to preserving the history of the Ozarks. We appear to be preoccupied with purging ourselves of ev-erything old in the name of progress. Oops, I'm getting into something that irks me.

I'm proud to be affiliated with an organization dedicated to the preservation of our history. Trips to Wonders of Wildlife and the History Museum will endow you with a hearty appreciation for what our part of the world is all about.

I think that I won't be the only one who will like the changes being made to the Highway 65 Bypass at Sunshine. No doubt about it, the Missouri Depart-ment of Transportation has carved out for itself a massive road building project; however, it's being completed with minimum disruption of traffic. I like anything, and I mean anything, that helps traffic move along.

I sort of like not being an old curmudgeon for a change. Act-ually, I have other things I like. It irks me that I don't have room to mention them. Bah, humbug!

(Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury Un-iversity.)