I live in Illinois, but I’ve barely been south of the capital city of Springfield, so there is a slim chance I’ll ever visit Chester, the town of all things Popeye, even though it’s only a 5 and a half drive from Chicago. Located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River Valley, the town was founded by Samuel Smith in 1829. It was named after the hometown (Chester, England) of his wife Jane Thomas, which I have visited by the way.
The Popeye connection comes from the cartoon’s creator, E.C. Segar, who was born and raised in this small town. In 1977, a park was named in Segar’s honor, which is home to a six-foot-tall bronze statue of Popeye, and since 1980 has been the site of the annual Popeye Picnic, a weekend-long event that celebrates the character with a parade, film festival and other activities. Almost a decade ago, Chester launched the ambitious “Popeye & Friends Character Trail,” which links a series of statues, like Olive Oyl, Swee’Pea and Bluto, around the town. Additional statues will be unveiled at the rate of one per year until 2020 when a bust of Segar at his birthplace will mark the cartoonist’s 125th birthday. These people are really into Popeye!
But let’s not forget the museum. It’s basically a big room in the back of a store named Spinach Can Collectibles, where every inch is dedicated to Popeye. There are over 2,000 items on display, some dating back to 1931, two years after Popeye first appeared in a comic strip. But again there is a connection to Segar the cartoonist. The museum is located in a historic building, once owned by the man who was the inspiration for the character, “Wimpy”, where Segar supposedly worked. Anyway, let’s finish this long-winded post with the immortal words of Popeye: “I’m strong to the finish, ‘cause I eats me spinach, I’m Popeye the sailor man! (toot, toot)”
