133.366 - 2016 project and Conestoga wagons

every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates

Conestoga wagons

what?  have I ever even seen one?  for real, I mean?  what's that got to do with appreciation?  but actually, I may have.  on that terrible trip across the midwest that our family took, I think in 1949.  I don't remember it with any clarity, of course, just that it was awful.  six people who didn't much like each other, crammed into one of those terrible cars of the time, who drove from Baton Rouge to New York City by way of Springfield, Illinois, and other historical places.  why?  because there were no freeways, and no direct route from BR to NYC, and we needed doses of American history, we kids of whom I was the oldest and had been rescued from the second grade.  (the second grade in this country back then was hell.  it was a rerun of the first grade without the fun.  or at least that's how it started.  oh, and I had hated first grade.)  what the hell were we to make of American history taught geographically on that trip?  but somewhere in or near Springfield, if I remember right, we were dragged through a museum where we were supposed to not talk, not ask questions, and not touch anything.  again if I remember correctly, a genuine, real Conestoga wagon stood in the museum, "pulled" by four stuffed horses.  sigh.  I ducked under the purple rope or whatever the museum used back then, and was headed for the horses and the driver's seat when some museum person who smelled good snatched me up and returned me to my parents.  like Victoria, they were Not Amused.  but personal anecdote aside, Conestoga wagons were a Real Thing.  they were not invented for western movies, although so many, many western movies used them!  they were invented to carry cargo first.  but they were the ideal size to carry the possessions of a more-or-less middle-class family, and the tools they'd need to get started as farmers when they knew damn near nothing about farming.  yes, hundreds, thousands of families bought one apiece for a one-way trip into the unknown.  for those who got where they thought they were going, and not every family did, the Conestoga provided temporary shelter while the man tried to build a log cabin out of prairie grass.  (no one I know of has ever accused settlers of being smart, but the ones who survived were a helluva lot smarter after than before their trip.)  once the family had real shelter, the Conestoga could become firewood, or could become the wagon for farm produce and for supplies the family had to buy in town.  the Conestoga was useful in so many ways, including as decorations for western movies, that I give it a resounding appreciation.  it was more useful than the Jeep!