Ruminations on the Prosperity of Springfield

[Briar Lee]

Yesterday my wife and I traveled to see Wilson’s Creek Battlefield and I was once again impressed by the apparent prosperity of Springfield Missouri.

All my life I can remember, Springfield has been prosperous but not even close to as wealthy as today.

There is a new travel center called Buc-ee’s there, which rivals the pyramids of Gaza, and they don’t allow big semi trucks at all.



The “rest room crew” pays ten times what I earned scooping manure out of the Cattleman’s Auction Company fifty years ago (part time) and I had an excellent job then at $2 an hour.



Also in Springfield is a huge French’s Mustard plant, an Amazon warehouse as big as a ball stadium, and other manufacturing and service businesses on both sides of the interstate for miles upon miles. Most of them have help wanted signs, sometimes on big lit up billboards.

Fifty years ago the old men lined the buyer’s catwalks above us boys working below them and talked about how lazy young people were and how it was impossible to hire good help and how there was sure to be a crash that would make the Great Depression look prosperous by comparison, and they were dead wrong about Springfield, but gradually right about Humansville.


If a young person was lucky enough to be raised right, not get all messed up with wild women or bad companions or drugs and had a reliable vehicle, and was in good health, they should be just fine in Springfield Missouri.

If they had the blessing and privilege of a high school diploma from a truly crackerjack school like I enjoyed in Humansville they’d wind up making two hundred thousand dollars a year managing some place like Buck-ee’s.

No wonder all the little Humansvilles are hopeless islands of despair and poverty.

Good schools and good roads are killing rural America, because kids move to the Springfields, you know?

 

[dd57chevy]

Rumor has it that it's difficult for them to find Missouri help .

The main problem is the company's policy requiring employees to wear shoes & socks .

OKAY , OKAY I'm just kidding !

 

[Sig]

I went to St Louis a few years ago for a seminar....it was a crap hole....sorry.
Stopped in Joliet after to look at a car(1967 Jeep Pickup)....much better but still not my thing.
I couldn't wait to get back to my corn fields and the sound of Amish buggies clapping by.
Don't even get me started on Cincinnati!!

 

[Briar Lee]

Rumor has it that it's difficult for them to find Missouri help .

The main problem is the company's policy requiring employees to wear shoes & socks .

OKAY , OKAY I'm just kidding !

The people that claim hillbillies won’t work don’t post signs outside offering $20 an hour no experience necessary to clean rest rooms. Those employees at Buck-ee’s looked well dressed and groomed, clean, happy and efficient. The place looks like it makes more money than a mint.

At Wilson’s Creek, 17,500 Missouri and Arkansas boys fought all day in the blazing hot August sun. Over 500 died and there were about 2,000 severely wounded.

The 4,000 loyal Missouri boys got whipped that day. The Arkansawers and Rebel Missouri boys won, that day.

The loyal and true boys, had ten cannons. Those modern cannons saved those boys to fight another day. A century and a half later, you can still see loyal young Missouri boys fire the same cannons.

Event Details (U.S. National Park Service) - https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?id=7A69B0C6-DB2B-8B46-D2AD45326EAF46EA#:~:text=Cannons%20were%20integral%20to%20the,working%20together%20as%20a%20unit.

But today the Stars and Stripes flies all over the battlefield and also in Springfield. My ancestors kicked their asses back down South, freed their slaves, and bought up the land they left behind:


The only fly in that ointment is if you drive just an hour away from Springfield the houses are falling down with big BEWARE OF DOG signs in the yards.

Where do the poor, ignorant hillbillies get the money to shop at Dollar General?

 

[anotherbob]

Just a fun side note as a night owl I always love the extra pay for overnight. Also love when I can get that sweet holiday pay especially for the holidays I don't do anything for.

 

[BingBong]

Least diverse city, m/f ratio of 9/10, 33% of families single mothers (is that right?). That vacancies sign is like a food/services menu - it's what they know, obviously!

 

[huntertrw]

Ruminations on the Prosperity of Springfield​

When I read the title of this thread, this (sadly) was the first thing that came to mind:

​

 

[SSGT.]

Buc-ee's Holdings, Inc., commonly referred to as Buc-ee's, is an American chain of country stores, gas stations, and electric vehicle chargers created and owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, headquartered in Lake Jackson, a city south of Houston.[3] The chain was founded in 1982 in Clute next to Lake Jackson and began expansion with its first travel center in Luling south of Austin, Texas, in 2003. The company began expanding outside of Texas in 2018 with the opening of a location in Baldwin County, Alabama, and has since opened stores in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, and Virginia, with new locations planned for North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.[4][5][6]

As of June 2024, the largest Buc-ee's is located in Luling, Texas.[7] The chain has also become well known for the cleanliness of its bathrooms and its mascot. Buc-ee's has never permitted 18-wheelers at its locations, saying that "the company's parking lots and driveways aren't designed to accommodate truckers", a policy which has angered some truckers.[8][9]

The chain is popular compared to other gas stations due to its large customer base who have been shown to be frequent customers over a long period of time.[10][11][12] Its bathrooms have gained significant acclaim, winning the Cintas award for "Best Restroom in America" in 2012.[13][14]

History​

Arch "Beaver" Aplin
In 1982, founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin was a partner in the opening of a store in Clute, Texas, the first to bear the name "Buc-ee's". He formed the name Buc-ee's by combining his childhood nickname; the name of his Labrador Retriever, Buck; as well as the appeal of Ipana toothpaste's animated mascot, Bucky the beaver.[15][16] Aplin was born in Southeast Texas. His father was born in Harrisonburg, northeast of Alexandria, Louisiana, and Arch's grandparents live there.[17] Buc-ee's expanded and opened its first travel center in Luling in 2003.[17]

In 2012, Buc-ee's opened its largest travel center in New Braunfels, Texas, on Interstate 35. The New Braunfels location was the largest convenience store in the world at 68,000 square feet (6,300 m2),[18] but on June 26, 2023, the Sevierville, Tennessee, Buc-ee's opened, becoming the world's largest convenience store at 74,707 square feet (6,940.5 m2). The Sevierville store was surpassed in size by a new store in Luling, Texas, at 75,000 square feet (6967.7 m2) on June 10, 2024, replacing the original Luling travel center, which was 35,000 square feet (3251.6m²).[7] The New Braunfels location had the 2012 "Best Restroom in America" as named by Cintas.[14]

State	Locations
Texas	36
Alabama	4
Georgia	3
Florida	2
Tennessee
Kentucky
Missouri	1
South Carolina
Colorado
Mississippi
Virginia

​

 

[Briar Lee]

Buc-ee's Holdings, Inc., commonly referred to as Buc-ee's, is an American chain of country stores, gas stations, and electric vehicle chargers created and owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, headquartered in Lake Jackson, a city south of Houston.[3] The chain was founded in 1982 in Clute next to Lake Jackson and began expansion with its first travel center in Luling south of Austin, Texas, in 2003. The company began expanding outside of Texas in 2018 with the opening of a location in Baldwin County, Alabama, and has since opened stores in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, and Virginia, with new locations planned for North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.[4][5][6]

As of June 2024, the largest Buc-ee's is located in Luling, Texas.[7] The chain has also become well known for the cleanliness of its bathrooms and its mascot. Buc-ee's has never permitted 18-wheelers at its locations, saying that "the company's parking lots and driveways aren't designed to accommodate truckers", a policy which has angered some truckers.[8][9]

The chain is popular compared to other gas stations due to its large customer base who have been shown to be frequent customers over a long period of time.[10][11][12] Its bathrooms have gained significant acclaim, winning the Cintas award for "Best Restroom in America" in 2012.[13][14]

History​

Arch "Beaver" Aplin
In 1982, founder Arch "Beaver" Aplin was a partner in the opening of a store in Clute, Texas, the first to bear the name "Buc-ee's". He formed the name Buc-ee's by combining his childhood nickname; the name of his Labrador Retriever, Buck; as well as the appeal of Ipana toothpaste's animated mascot, Bucky the beaver.[15][16] Aplin was born in Southeast Texas. His father was born in Harrisonburg, northeast of Alexandria, Louisiana, and Arch's grandparents live there.[17] Buc-ee's expanded and opened its first travel center in Luling in 2003.[17]

In 2012, Buc-ee's opened its largest travel center in New Braunfels, Texas, on Interstate 35. The New Braunfels location was the largest convenience store in the world at 68,000 square feet (6,300 m2),[18] but on June 26, 2023, the Sevierville, Tennessee, Buc-ee's opened, becoming the world's largest convenience store at 74,707 square feet (6,940.5 m2). The Sevierville store was surpassed in size by a new store in Luling, Texas, at 75,000 square feet (6967.7 m2) on June 10, 2024, replacing the original Luling travel center, which was 35,000 square feet (3251.6m²).[7] The New Braunfels location had the 2012 "Best Restroom in America" as named by Cintas.[14]

State	Locations
Texas	36
Alabama	4
Georgia	3
Florida	2
Tennessee
Kentucky
Missouri	1
South Carolina
Colorado
Mississippi
Virginia

​

I sat outside Buc-ee’s being the one and only smoker in sight.

Words just fail to describe how big, clean, shiny and new everything was.

To build all that would eat into a billion dollars very quickly.

But above my head were huge jetliners coming into Springfield Regional that cost a couple hundred million each, so a billion dollars today isn’t what it was when I was a kid.

The huge, acres and acres sized parking lot was just packed with brand new shiny looking SUVs and there was a stream of mothers and their young daughters going into the place, no doubt to use the famously clean rest rooms without one trucker to leer at them.

In 1973, the Cattleman Auction Company near Collins, was brand new and was rumored to have cost a million dollars then, which would only be seven million today, and that surely was an underestimate.

They paid me $2 an hour as the lead supervisor to shovel manure, but $2.50 to stand in the alleys and herd cattle to rhe buyer’s assigned cattle pens.

If you went in the Cattleman’s Cafe there were teen aged waitresses in high heels and skirts that served you.

There was a teletype out in the lobby to keep the buyers up to date on market prices.

When one of the order buyer’s Cadillacs, Lincoln’s or Chrysler’s car horns started honking we’d send word to the Cafe to send a waitress to the ring to inform him his mobile phone was ringing.

In those days, the owners would occasionally sell a rodeo bull, that had been bucked out, and my job required me to stand on the other side of a new metal door with a hickory stick and wait for that bull to come out, where me and John Bobinmeyer would pen it in the Hormel Meat Company pens with the other cutters and canners.

There was a buyer’s promenade above our heads so the old men could look down on us and see the show.

Those waitresses would sashay in their high heels through the cow manure to bring us cheeseburgers and a Pepsi and we’d always tip them. They charged us full price.

In fifty years that brand new Buc-ee’s is going to look pretty run down and old, unless they keep it up, you know?

The Cattleman Auction Company is rusting to the ground across the road from the largest marijuana grow factory in Missouri, if not the world.

But that’s progress, I guess.

 

[SSGT.]

In Texas Buc-ee's claim to fame is the worlds cleanest restrooms

 

[Briar Lee]

In Texas Buc-ee's claim to fame is the worlds cleanest restrooms
View attachment 403228

In the middle sixties, the downtown part of Springfield that is decayed and run down (except for some gentrification) was shiny and new and prosperous and after church on a Sunday all the stores on the square stayed open until late.


My favorite store was Woolworth’s on the Northwest corner of the square.

The Springfield police department put undercover policemen in Woolworth’s rest rooms and busted some men for immoral behavior, and the newspapers carried it.

The next Sunday on the way to Springfield after church my mother had me promise under no circumstances would I go to Woolworth’s rest rooms without my father with me, or else, it would be bad, did I understand just what that meant, Van Bruce?

I innocently asked what the sudden danger was in going to Woolworth’s rest rooms was, and she said that sissies might get me if I went in there without my father and once again threatened me and Daddy both if I went without him.

I asked, Mama what’s a sissy, and she tried to have Daddy explain it to me, and I didn’t really believe such depravity as a boy who liked other boys was possible, but to be on the safe side I had Daddy go with me to the rest rooms, lest any sissies get me.

And there were long lines of fathers waiting with their sons to use the rest room.

So Woolworth’s put in dime pay toilets, which didn’t help at all. In fact the lines may have been longer.

Finally Woolworth’s took out the pay toilets, remodeled the rest room, and put a Springfield policeman in full uniform with a gun in the rest room.

After that the lines disappeared and things went back sort of to normal.

Then they built Battlefield Mall and the town square slowly died away.

Not only does Buc-ee’s forbid big trucks they do not sell propane at all, none.


If you’re out camping and need propane you can go anywhere you want to except Buc-ee’s.

Buc-ee’s is a multimillion dollar huge rest room with a convenience store and gas pumps and Tesla chargers attached.

No riff raff in sight except for an old man smoking out beside his Suburban while his wife used the rest room.

 

[The Benedictine]

Never been to a Buc-ees before. Now I just want to go there to shit.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

They're eating the pets of the people who live there.

 

[anotherbob]

In Texas Buc-ee's claim to fame is the worlds cleanest restrooms
View attachment 403228

I don't know if that says more about their bathrooms or the rest of them.

 

[SSGT.]

I don't know if that says more about their bathrooms or the rest of them.

It is a really cool store and while I can't say anything for the one store in Springfield, all of the ones on the Southeast Gulf Coast of Texas where the company was founded do allow tractor trailers. And sell most anything you can imagine from gourmet beef jerky to clothing, gas, propane, and a decent plate lunch.

I'm told that the only ones outside of Texas that are not franchise stores are the ones built in Georgia.

 

[telescopes]

@Briar Lee I have to disagree with everything you have said about Springfield. Ask a local from Reed Springs if they like going to Springfield. After Katrina, many people from out of state were moved to the area. It has become crime ridden and locals go in often locked and loaded. People in the area area don’t feel safe and in their mind it is as if St. Louis expanded its worst parts into the area. I’ve talked to too many people in the area to report anything differently. You can keep it. Just watch the local News for a couple of days. Armed crime and murders reported on almost any given day. Let’s be honest.

 

[huntertrw]

Never been to a Buc-ees before. Now I just want to go there to shit.

Then what you need is THIS!



Contact your travel agent today for BOVPPs (that's Buc-Ee's Oceanside Vacation Poop Packages) at select locations in Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina.

 

[rick3wood]

Buc-ee’s is a car stop not a truck stop, semi’s not allowed in parking lot, it’s a nice place to stop but on weekends especially Sunday it’s a mad house there lots of people.

 

[RL Bucktails]

There’s Bass Pro Shops.

 

[coming to_falling too]

I live about 30 miles east of Springfield. I only go there when absolutely necessary. I prefer to live amongst the hay fields.

It's not bad if you like heavy traffic and shady characters, though.