So. Had I not begun writing a history of Missouri, never would I have known that there was a clash known as the Honey War back in 1839. Never would have known that a Reverend John Meacham, an African American educator, set up a "Freedom School"  - on a boat anchored in the Mississippi River. Why? Because Missouri lawmakers, in 1847, made it illegal to teach a slave to read or write.  (Sheesh.)  And I never knew that there used to be a little sandbar in the Mississippi where hotheads, including a couple of future MO governors & a future US Senator, Thos Hart Benton -  used to go to fight duels!   What was the place called? "Bloody Island."
    Shoot, I've been learning things I never knew about Ma Barker, "Black Jack" Pershing, Bald Knobbers, the Veiled Prophet, cattle drives, musicians, gangsters, painters - what a fierce part of the world I've been living in!
      Off I go to the shipper to send 18 Laura Ingalls Wilder Coloring Books off to one of the little houses of her girlhood, one of her many homes before weary, stressed out Laura & Almanzo, a.k.a. Bessie & Manly Wilder, came to settle in Mansfield, MO. August 1894. Just for you to know.