September birthday and learning about Merriam

First of all, thank you everyone for the birthday wishes! I am so grateful for all the wonderful people God has placed in my life. Love you all!!!

Last night, we had a double Birthday party for myself and Jessica Judy (whose birthday is Thursday!). We had a fun tailgate and game at the Royals. Finally, the Royals won at a game I attended! And they had 2 home runs! I was mad at myself because I had made a birthday sign and I left it in the car. But we still got on the jumbotron!

Jill, JJ, me, Angie and Bree at the tailgate

Jason and Adam getting ready to cheer on Moustakas and it worked- he had a home run!

For the past several months, I have been commuting to Olathe everyday for work. On my drive there, I go through Merriam, Kansas. Up until this year, I had no idea that Merriam even existed. But I pass by the Visitor's Center everyday and see their beautiful fountain. I finally stopped to take a picture and record it in my fountains count. I ended up learning quite a few interesting things about Merriam.

No. 77- Shawnee Mission Pkwy & I-35, Merriam, KS

 The first thing I noticed was they had a second fountain with a sculpture of some bears. I found this to be very odd, as there are no bears anywhere near here. Why would they do this? I found my answer as I began to read about Merriam. Back in the 1880's, Merriam opened up the first private recreation attraction in the Kansas City area and it included a zoo (hence, the bears!), carousel, lagoon for boating, picnic area, and more! How fun does that sound!! The park was designed by George Kessler who later became instrumental in creating KC's famous parks and boulevards. They had 3 bears in what was known as the "Bear Pit." The bears often escaped and eventually, only one remained in the zoo!! The park later closed in the early 1900's.

I began thinking about this. Most of you know, I have issues with Kansas because it is very suburbia-land, with no unique character. But what is really sad to me, is learning about something really cool that used to exist in a place like Merriam but now, it's literally just a place that you drive through to get somewhere else. Blame the interstate for cutting it in half, blame the success of chain franchises, blame white flight, whatever. The point is, I find it very sad that what sits on this land that used to be the Bear Pit is now a Krispy Kreme donut shop and a Kmart.

Fountain No. 78- Bear Pit

The other really cool thing I learned about Merriam was its rich history in ending segregation in public education. This picture below is of Ester Brown who fought to equalize education for black and white students. This later paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education which officially ended school segregation.

Thanks again for reading and til next time...Laura