Author: Tom
Fighting the Second of Three Global Wars
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/11May21-Kermit-Bell-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:01 — 2.1MB)For Kermit Bell, the Korean was just the second of three world conflicts he would find himself in…
How the Batchtown Farm Kid Made it to West Point
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/10May21-Kermit-Bell-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:01 — 2.1MB)Kermit Bell never intended to make a career in the military…but by the time he retired from the army he…
Master of Mountain Unicycling
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/07May21-Rough-Terrain-Unicycling.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Many of us remember the struggle of learning to ride a bike as a kid. Eventually we mastered it…and perhaps…
The Cozy Dog
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/06May21-Route-66-Cozy-Dog.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Route 66 is full of pieces of Americana…and in central Illinois you’ll find a drive in over 70 years old…and…
Cruising in the Land Yacht
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/05May21-Route-66-Pontiac-Illinois-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)If you asked someone in the U.S. to name a famous foreign highway, maybe they’d mention the German Autobahn or…
Museum of the Mother Road
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/04May21-Route-66-Pontiac-Illinois-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s the museum of the Mother Road. And you know you’ve got quite a historic route when there is an…
Crossing the Ohio at Cave in Rock
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/03May21-Cave-in-Rock-Illinois-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s the end of the road in Illinois, and if you want to go further south on Route 1, you’ll…
Cave In Rock
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/30Apr21-Cave-in-Rock-Illinois-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It was a dangerous portion of the Ohio River – not because of the current, but because of who might…
The Cattlemen’s Steakhouse
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/29Apr21-Cattlemens-Steakhouse-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)You might go to a fancy clothing store to get measured for a suit. But where do you go to…
Beer for Breakfast
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/28Apr21-Cattlemens-Steakhouse-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Why are nurses on the night shift eating breakfast in the Oklahoma City Stockyards? In a moment we’ll take you…
Karlock’s Kars & Pop Culture Museum
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/27Apr21-Karlocks-Cars-Hannibal-MO.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Inside a building once used as a produce house way back in 1860, you’ll find a most interesting museum of…
The Pandemics of the 1800s
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/26Apr21-Mark-Twain-Drug-Store-3.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When the Mark Twain boyhood home was working on some new exhibits over a year ago, they thought they were…
Mark Twain’s Hannibal
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/23Apr21-Mark-Twain-Drug-Store-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The events we experience as a child can have a big impact on our future. That was the case for…
The Famous Man Above the Drug Store
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/22Apr21-Mark-Twain-Drug-Store-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)The second story of an old drug store may not seem to be a place of historical significance, and in…
The $175,000 Banjo
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/21Apr21-American-Banjo-Museum-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)When I was in fifth grade I wanted to play the trumpet. My parents scratched together $300 for a used…
Dueling Banjos
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/20Apr21-American-Banjo-Museum-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)You’ve heard of dueling banjos…now multiply it times several hundred. It’s a unique convention of sights and sounds that entertains…
The Monopoly Patent
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/19Apr21-Macomb-Illinois-Monopoly-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)Charles Darrow had a great new board game he sold to Parker Brothers – Monopoly. The only problem was, Charles…
The Game Board Patent
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/16Apr21-Macomb-Illinois-Monopoly-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)If you invented something you might get a patent. That’s what Lizzie did, but her patent was quite a story…
Preparing for Abe’s Debate
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/15Apr21-Macomb-Illinois-Lincoln-2.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)It’s probably the most famous debate in American history – the Lincoln Douglas debates. While the two where vying for…
Picture of a Rugged Abe
http://americancountryside.com/wp-content/gems/2021/04/14Apr21-Macomb-Illinois-Lincoln-1.mp3Podcast: Download (Duration: 3:00 — 2.1MB)These days it’s not a bid deal at all to take a picture. The bigger problem is figuring out what…