see the spam museum

See my previous entry…but if you’re in the area and have a spare hour-it only takes about that long to mine the museum’s riches-see the museum.

I hope to post some pictures later this week or next.

Yes, the trip is complete and a rather odd experience. I went during Halloween weekend so although there was no costumed mascot named Spammy-what, that seems like a no-brainer!-there were dozens of costumed kiddies around. It seems the museum hosts a lot of little mini-events for the local population.

Anyway, the place wasn’t as kitschy as I’d hoped, probably because it is a corporate-sponsored look at Hormel products. But I learned a lot about the connection between Spam and WWII; apparently the government co-opted the factories to support wartime productions, so all those stories you hear from vets eating canned Spam have a really strong basis in reality (vs. collective memory).

I was also relatively pleased to see that the museum didn’t entirely whitewash some of the distasteful elements of meat-production facilities. There was this odd display that featured the office of the Hormel CEO. Among the books on his desk was Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, a radical critique of Chicago’s meat-production factories written in 1906 and roughly contemporary with Hormel’s emergence as a national factor. Odd, but my partner suggested it might be there to suggest a difference between Chicago factories and Hormel.

And it’s not as if the place was utterly devoid of kitschiness. There were lots of references to Spam’s international, cultlike following—including videos of people incorporating Spam into local dishes. (My fave? The Korean Spam/kimchi combination.) And the museum did make reference to Spamalot. I could have bought a special tin of Spam which honors Monty Python’s contribution to the Hormel legacy. As a vegetarian, I passed and instead bought an all-American souvenir…a t-shirt.

Would I go again? Naw, once is enough. Would I go out of my way to see the Austin, MN museum (as I did, coming from Minneapolis…about an 1 1/2 hour drive)? Naw, it’s really not that impressive and the town is rather depressingly small and industrial. Would I visit the Spam Museum if I were driving past Austin on I-90 and looking for a quick break to stretch my legs and see some real Midwest Americana? You betcha!

I’ve got my AAA Trip-Tix for the Spam Museum, located in Austin, Minnesota. I’m taking a little detour in a business trip to the Minneapolis at the end of the month, and seeing the museum is irresistable. I think it’s even more appropriate that I’m going so near to Halloween—there’s something alternately nightmarish and fun about Spam. I do wonder if I’ll get to see a costumed mascot, thus confirming Halloween-Spam connection. Unfortunately, I won’t get to see the Spammobile. (But c’mon, it’s not like it’s the Oscar-Mayer WeinerMobile!)

Oh, and have I mentioned there’s no admission fee to the museum?

Of course, that sandwich won’t be made of Spam…. But I’m headed to the Spam museum at the end of this month. I have to be in the general area for business, I’m planning a little pleasure detour. By then I’ll hopefully have a new digital camera to record the moment for posterity!

There’s so much going for a little road trip to this place.

First, there’s the kitsch value. C’mon, the place gets a write-up in Roadside America!
(http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/MNAUSspam.html)

Second, it’s really not that far from where I live, making a roadtrip very do-able. That’s important because I can never get enough roadtripping…well, at least I couldn’t when gas prices were lower.

Third, I kinda like the packaging. Very colorful.

Fourth, Hormel has a sense of humor—how can they not, after Spam got picked up for junk emails?

Fifth, I grew up eating Spam at my late grandmother’s house. She came of age in the depression and had a lifelong affection for the stuff. I don’t really remember what it tastes like, but whenever I see a meatlike substance in a squarish loaf I think of her and smile.

And the sixth, and last, reason? I’m a vegetarian, which makes a visit to the Spam museum truly a tourist experience I would never have in my everyday life! (No, I’m not volunteering to taste-test.)

Learn more about Spam and the Museum here: http://www.spam.com/