SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) — The Springfield that exists in the mind of Matt Groening is a kind of American everything — hick pit stop, rosycheeked Rockwellian font of family values, cesspool of corruption, ethnic melting pot, boomtown gone to rust.

It’s what the creator of “The Simpsons,” the nation’s longest-running sitcom, used as a backdrop for 22-minute allegories about the American experience, beginning as earnest tales about a lowermiddle class nuclear family and expanding to encompass spoofs of presidential elections, the obesity epidemic and “Citizen Kane.”

It’s also, according to an interview posted online Tuesday, a real place. Groening told Smithsonian magazine that he was inspired by the television show “ Father Knows Best,” which was set in a town called Springfield. Springfield, Ore., is 100 miles south of Groening’s hometown of Portland.

“When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name,” Groening said. “I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S.

“In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, ‘This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield,’” he said. “And they do.”

The acknowledgement ends one of the longest-running mysteries in popular culture. But people in town on Tuesday weren’t quite sure what to do with the information.

“ He did?” asked convenience store manager Denise Pohrman. “ I think that’s a good thing. I think.”