Looking for the perfect 4th of July family holiday destination?
This one’s a GAS.
Only in the South — land of my birth — would folks erect a museum dedicated to beans. That’s right. Bush Brothers & Co., the baked bean guys, are opening a museum and visitors’ center this weekend in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, at the site of the company’s original general store.
Cool beans.
Granted, the television commercials for Bush’s Baked Beans — you know, the ones featuring Jay Bush and his sneaky yet lovable dog Duke — are pretty funny. That alone may spark some curiosity about the place.
But the museum doesn’t sound like it has as much of a sense of humor about beans as Jay and his dog do. The attractions sound fairly standard — a theater showing the TV ads; a display of the original canning tools; a kiosk where you can put yourself in a photo with Duke; and a giant replica of a bean’s journey from field to can.
That’s it? A bean museum that doesn’t poke even a little fun at itself? No innuendo — implied or overt — about the bean and its relationship to the more, well, smelly aspects of our person? Heck, they could have at the very least had Beano sponsor the visitors’ center.
Let’s face it, the movie studios have made several small fortunes laughing at pee, poop and farts. I hate to see the first bean museum lose out due to good manners.
