8 Things Missouri Gave The Rest Of The World

Missouri is definitely the Show Me State, but we made sure to show people a lot of great stuff, too! 

Here I'll list a few things that came from our very state. Some of them you might know, and some might be a surprise!

1.  The Ice Cream Cone.

This was invented at the World's Fair in St Louis in 1904.  A waffle vendor was right next to an ice cream vendor, and the ice cream vendor ran out of dishes. So, our Syrian friend Ernest Hamwi wasn't going to let anybody down - he started rolling waffles to put the ice cream in, and wa-la!

2.  Jiminy Cricket. 

No, I'm not talking about Walt Disney. Sure, he kicked around in Kansas City for a while, but he's from Chicago.  I'm talking about Cliff Edwards. Cliff Edwards was the voice of Jiminy Cricket! He was a very famous singer and actor for most of his life, and had a number one hit with "Singin In The Rain".

3.  The Microchip.

Some of us can't even imagine life without cell phones, tablets, or computers.  It's certainly changed our way of life.  And the guy responsible? Jack Kilby, born in Jefferson City!

4.  7-Up. 

7-Up was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime soda, but... that doesn't really roll off the tongue. So it was shortened to 7- Up. Charles Leiper Grigg created it in St. Louis in 1929.

5.  The Eight Track Tape.

My father had a ton of these in the seventies, and was very hesitant to switch to cassettes or even CDS for years, because he'd been burned so badly by the move away from eight track tapes.  Well, the guy who invented those things and a little something you may have heard of called the Lear Jet, Bill Lear, was born right here in Missouri.

6.  Iced Tea. 

Here's another one from the infamous World's Fair in St Louis.  The story goes that a vendor,  Richard Blechyden, was trying to sell tea, but it was a very warm day, so he was having trouble getting people to want to drink it. So, he just added ice and made it a cold drink instead!

7.  Monster Trucks. 

Missourian Bob Chandler created the first monster truck in the 70s. In 1981, Chandler set up two cars in a field, crushed them with his “Big Foot” truck and videotaped the event as a promotion tool for his truck shop. It really was effective, because two years later he was a pro sponsored by Ford.

8.  Pancake Mix.

Two dudes decided to buy a flour mill in 1888 - Chris Rutt and Charles G. Underwood.  They decided to bag up self rising flour to their pancakes to make them super easy and tasty.  Aunt Jemima was born in St Joseph!

So there you have it, Missouri and it's many joys. What else would you add to the list?

Giftingly yours,

Behka