On Jesse James.

We took Flat Stanley into the town of Liberty, Missouri, yesterday. We went to the fountain near where slaves were sold on the square downtown and peeked at the Jesse James Bank Museum. The first daylight bank robbery took place there. A post detailing our adventure should appear here soon.

Elf and Emperor are VERY interested in learning more about Jesse James. I don't get it. I suppose some other time we could trek to nearby Kearney (pronounced CAR-knee) and see his house or even go to St. Joseph and see the bullet holes in the wall where he was shot dead. Elf and Emperor say they want THAT for a field trip... looking at hideouts and houses and whatnot. And they wanna see his gravesite, too!

Well, I kinda would rather have gone off looking at the pumpkin patch again, but there you go. What is it about outlaws and bad guys that little boys want to hear about? Because if I could make up characters like, say, the Number Nine Bandit and the Division Desperado Gang somehow relate to their maths, they'd be doing college-level stuff now. D has sarcastically informed me that we missed an entire Jesse James FESTIVAL in Kearney about a month ago. It's true!

I just don't get it. An entire festival, complete with boy beauty contests, all for an outlaw murderer. Well, they call them Jesse James "look-alike" contests. But still.