Everything I Know about Kansas

 To be honest, I never gave the place much thought. I mean, there was The Wizard of Oz back in 1939. And there was that great band who did Leftoverture and other fine albums. And of late I have been enjoying their College Basketball team the Jayhawks. But that's about it.
      I happened to be standing in line next to someone from the Free State who was there with his wife(also from there I guess)getting stuff you can't yet get in Kansas. Or from Missouri, where they resided, except with a medical card. And yes, this was at our new business establishment. The one that opened up at the beginning of this year, and still has a line no matter how early you get there.
   
 They were originally from Topeka, which I knew was the state capital. Apparently, Topeka isn't much bigger than Springfield(pop. 117,000), and is just as unimposing as far as its buildings--maybe they have the same ordinance we do. Being one of those people who has one fact about damn near--actually, I should just say A LOT of things, I had one about Topeka. It was semi-featured in the movie Almost Famous, about the road band and the kid rock-journalist who tags along on their tour.
 
 My remark fell about as flat as Kansas itself. And I realized immediately that someplace as apparently backward and 'recognition deprived' as Topeka would make a huge deal out of something like this. They'd heard it too many times.
 
An awkward silence followed. I acknowledged my 'faux pas', which got a chuckle and dissolved the awkwardness. From there, we went our ways: them with their Vape Pens, en route to Chicago; and me with my old-school greenery back to the homestead to sample my new product.

 So here's what I know about Kansas. Still not much, but more than what I started with.

 It's a Midwestern State, the furthest point westward. Colorado lies to the west, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south and Nebraska to the north. Being a Plains State, they get extremes in weather: hot summers and frigid winters. The southern part of Kansas gets more tornadoes,being part of what's called Tornado Alley.
 
Their biggest city is Wichita, and their capital is Topeka. It was named after the Kansas River. The name Kansas comes from the Kansa or Kanza language of the Kaw Nation, an Indian tribe residing mostly in Oklahoma. Topeka is a Kanza word, meaning "a good place to grow potatoes".
 
The only other thing I know about Kansas is their long-standing rivalry with Missouri, which goes back to before the Civil War. Missouri became a State in 1821, some 40 years before Kansas would be recognized. Missouri was a slave state, whereas the territory to be later called Kansas was not.
 
Much fighting went on in these years, between those for and against slavery. Abolitionist John Brown and his sons were involved, as well as an anti-slavery contingent in Massachusetts. There are terms from this period which survive today. Those guarding the Kansas border were called Jayhawkers(the KU Jayhawks, a great basketball team, is noted at the beginning of this piece), and those defending Missouri were called Bushwackers. It was a period in history known as "bleeding Kansas".

 So there you have it. The sum total of my knowledge about the great State of Kansas. Who knows who I'll meet next at our local Dispensary..

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