7.13.2011

A Little Stop: Springfield, Massachusetts

Hello, everyone!  I know that it has been a while, but we’ve not had access to internet.  So, we will be posting multiple editions of the Rambling Bauers today spanning from Massachusetts to Maine, and back again.  It’s your own personal tour of New England!  Here we go…Would you like pretzels and a soda?

On the way to Vermont from Connecticut, Bilbo asked to stop in the small city of Springfield in western Massachusetts where the sport of basketball was invented and a whole lot of firearms have been made. 

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We opted to just drive by the Basketball Hall of Fame and spend more time in the FREEEEEEE National Park Museum.  We don’t really care about basketball so this was a really easy decision. 

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The Springfield Armory was in kind of a weird location—in the middle of a community college, which include a large field area where a bunch of training future law officers were beating up dummies and yelling.  At one time, this museum housed the primary armory for American military arms.  In conjunction with the Harpers Ferry Armory, located in our beautiful state of WV, the Springfield Armory was commissioned to arm our troops during the American Revolution and subsequent wars. The armory in Harpers Ferry was burned down during the Civil War, but Springfield survived a rebellion and continued to produce arms until 1968. 

In the museum we found what seemed like almost every rifle made by Springfield and host of other weaponry, like pistols and hand cannons, and older things, like swords and spears.  They had quite a few exhibits demonstrating the evolution of warfare, of which Bilbo’s favorite cases included complete sets of weapons used by different members of the Axis and Allies during WWII. 

 

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With Bilbo’s manly sites seen, we left Springfield for Vermont.  Our lovely experiences there will be coming live to you, in Technicolor soon!  Until next time… 

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