Mature Life Features

. . . Thirsty Thursday again,

BUT this time

it ties in with a marketing event —

Cheeseburger In Paradise.

So enjoy the food, booze and entertainment.

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There’s an inmate here

who obviously is

the sap in the family tree.

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Kansas City Links

Memories of Two States

By Sandy Katz

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —- Famous mice, presidents, cartoonists, jazz artists, and shopping-mall entrepreneurs mix and mingle through the history of this border-straddling metropolis that sprouted out of a trading post just east of the Kansas border on a bend of the Missouri River.

The first bridge to span the mighty Missouri was built here shortly after the Civic War, boosting business in the cattle industry as the railroad spread west.

Then, J. C. Nichols imported millions of dollars worth of century-old statuary to Kansas City and created the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza in 1922 amidst pig farms on the city’s outskirts. It was the first shopping center in the world designed to accommodate shoppers arriving by automobile. The 1914 Union Station, the nation’s second-largest train station, retrieved its elegance with a $250 million restoration begun a couple of dozen years ago.

Kansas City’s allure is best described by Rogers and Hammerstein in their song from the musical “Oklahoma:” “Everything is up to date in Kansas City.”

Getting up to date with Kansas City can be an enlightening tour.

For example, Walt Disney, who graduated from Kansas City Art Institute, fed a small mouse while at work in his Laugh-O-Gram studio. The little critter was the inspiration for the renowned Mickey Mouse.

A couple of museums in the 18th and Vine Historic District house memorials to and memorabilia from jazz and baseball “Who’s Who” who gathered there, including Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Lester Young, Satchel Paige, James “Cool Papa” Bell, and Josh Gibson.

From the Roaring ’20s to early ’40s, it was an entertainment center with no equal as more than 100 nightclubs, dance halls and vaudeville houses featured jazz.

A trip to neighboring Independence, M0, is a must to visit The Truman Presidential Museum and Library, which follows the history of the 33rd U.S. President, Harry S. Truman, who grew up and retired here.

Among the exhibits in a scale model of the Oval Office is his famous sign, “The Buck Stops Here.” Written on the other side is “I’m From Missouri.”

Just up the road a piece on the Kansas side of the border in Leavenworth, more widely known for its “Big House,” the first U.S. federal penitentiary