Every step into the State Historical Society of Missouri is an enriching experience. Yeah, I got the chhance to tell my story last year. But honestly, it’s more fun to learn. Last month was a photo essay recounting the Beatles’ uplifting deliverance to the Eleven Point River (in a packed house I may have been the youngest attendee. Hey Gen Xers and Millennials, Come Together). This week I attended the world premiere of the short film Soaring Together: A Tuskegee Airmen Story, focusing on the friendship between World War II Tuskegee Airmen James Shipley of Tipton, Missouri, and Harry Stewart Jr. of Queens, New York. Acting on a tip that Shipley was alive and well in his Tipton hometown, Jeremy Amick’s thorough research resulted in three laudable things: 1) Jeremy’s biography of Shipley, detailing “his life and experiences, including his service and coming of age in a segregated community”; 2) the film was inspired by the book;

and 3) the strong bond of friendship between author and subject. (The octogenarian Shipley called Jeremy “my white grandson.”) I first met Jeremy, chronicler of several military bios, when we were guests on Hal Dulle’s Saturday morning radio show. Now showing at SHSMO’s museum: 100 years of Route 66.

(Somebody told me it goes through Saint Louie). The hits just keep on comin’. I’m grateful to live in Columbia.