“Springfield, Springfield, it’s a hell of a town” was an old song on The Simpsons.
I know they were talking about the fictional town, and not my hometown of Springfield, MO, but I love it all the same.
I sing it to myself whenever I see the sign for the city limits. I feel this is true, and the longer I live here, the more people I talk to, the more true it becomes. Missouri as a state is one of the most historic areas in the entire nation, and Springfield is a part of that rich history. After I retire from the HVAC industry, my idea is to spend a couple of years organizing all the research I have done on Springfield, so I can write a book about it. As a fun piece of trivia, were you aware that as of 2010 there were sixty seven different populated areas in the USA named Springfield? And yet even with all of those places, Springfield, MO is the richest in history and cultural significance. I am not saying that the history of Springfield is bright and cheery, in fact it has a lot of dark periods, but it makes for fascinating research. For the time being this is all just research, because my job installing central HVAC systems into new housing construction projects keeps me too busy for anything else. Since the population of Springfield keeps growing, there is always a new complex, building, or subdivision of homes that requires my HVAC expertise. So I do the work now, and will focus on my book later in life.