Know Your Capitals

Jerry and I were both born and raised in Streator, Illinois. In it's "heyday" it was home to two large glass manufacturing plants. It was known as "The Glass Container Capital of the World." There was a sign proclaiming that as you drove into town. Back in the 70s, we had a somewhat smart-ass friend named Bill. When he came to Streator one weekend, he wanted us to show him the capital building. We drove him by the larger of the two factories...but he was disappointed.

Now we live in Georgia between the towns of Covington and Conyers. They are in two different counties. Conyers is in Rockdale County. Interstate 20 runs through both counties, but the Rockdale portion has planted crepe myrtle trees along the fences that line either side of the road. At one time there was a sign by the exit to the interstate that read, "Crepe Myrtle Capital". Even though the trees are still there, we can't remember having seen the sign for quite some time.

One day last week, President Obama was going to Elkhart, Indiana to talk about the progress of the stimulus package. The news commentator said Elkhart was "The RV Capital of the World." That got me to thinking. What does it take to become a "world capital"? Can the Chamber of Commerce just put up a sign and that's it? Do you need to have some sort of proof? Who decides these things? Is there a book like Guiness has for world records? And then can you just take the sign down -- like in the case of Rockdale County -- if the trees start to look a little bedraggled after several years of drought? Does the 2nd place town then get to be the capital? What about Streator now that glass containers are not in demand as much as they were back in the early 1900s? Do they still have bragging rights?

I had all I could do when I was in school to learn the capitals of each of the states. I don't think I could ever learn all these additional capitals.