Poem for passing through Springfield

01/28/2010 10:36 EST

Poem for passing through Springfield

Malaise or Evolution?

Driving through Springfield just off 95, where we lived 30, no 40, years ago when Dad was transferred here from VietNam, I noticed a few little changes.

What a surprise to see Mickey Dee’s now a Saigon City selling pho and an orange neon sign saying, OPEN. Gone are those golden arches touting how many billions sold. Where is that idealist on the bus on the way to Lee High School dividing the Earth’s population and wondering how many days McDonald’s could feed us all?

And Pizza Hut is now Kabul Kabob. (I imagine Paul Simon’s “My Little Town” song floating through my multi-media mind…) Do we invade countries then adopt the cuisine of their refugees?

My old Little League field is now an office complex that has my destination, a coin counting machine so that cup full of $64.04 minus a few wheat pennies and silver dimes, will keep things from bouncing. (And Joni Mitchell’s “Pave Paradise, Put Up A Parking Lot is enervating cells in my auditory cortex…)


We’re just doing the best we can. Or are we? Depression era Marine Corps parents had flabby kids who woke up too slowly to join the struggle. (And Jackson Browne’s “struggle for the legal tender..)

Free Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors Exhibit at National Geo. every Wed 6pm

At National Geographic Society Museum at 17th and M Sts., until March 31 when the exhibit leaves, 200 free day-of tickets will be available for the 6:00 p.m. exhibition viewing every Wednesday. Tickets will be distributed at 5:30 p.m. with a limit of two tickets per person. $5 for an audio tour was well worth it.

An entire necropolis of an army made of clay with 100 rivers of mercury was discovered in X'ian province from the Qin dynasty, just after the Warring States period in China.

"Qin Shihuang, the first creator of a unified dynasty in Chinese history, died at the age of 50 during his tour of inspection. Emperor Qin Shihuang's experience, life and merits and demerits are noticeable, even the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum sitting at the foot of Lishan Mountain has drawn great attention due to many unresolved mysteries."