So today was a "Behind the Scenes Tour" at the museum. This is the 4th weekend in a row that I've been at the museum,(and I'm working the next 2) not to mention I have to be there every Weds. night to do train the docent wannabees :) anyways... Phil offered to swap tours with me since I had the late shift for the day, but I told him I'd be fine. I'm soooo glad I didn't swap with him.
Today history came to life on my tours. On my first tour I had a 94 year old man who lived in La Casa Nueva (one of the houses at the museum) during the 20's. I had to priveledge of giving his family the tour of the house, and then he told me what he remembered growing up there and how he slept in one of the houses and what his jobs were at the ranch and then when we were in the courtyard of La Casa Nueva, we have a picture of the servants and workers on the ranch on display. There is a picture of him, his mother, brother and sister. He took the picture and said, this is me, and pointed to each by name. He even remembered taking it. It was soooo cool. I use that picture everytime I give a tour, and now when people ask is anyone who lived here still alive, I can say yes, Gavino, the little boy here, and I had him on my tour recently. I was sooo excited. It was like history jumped out the picture and into 2009 from 1926.
Throughout the rest of the day other members of Gavino's family were there (they had a reunion at the museum).
As if that wasn't enough excitement for me on the same tour that I had Gavino, I also had Pio Pico's great grandson. Pio Pico is another important player in the story we tell at the museum.
So because we had such a historical day.... we called Josette, a volunteer at the museum and... the great great grandaughter of Workman, to come so she could meet Gavino (since her dad and Gavino were friends) and Phillip (since their great grandfathers were friends)
It was soo cool to watch history come alive. I hear teachers discussing how they want their topics to come alive in their classroom, and while it's cool as a teacher to see it happen, it was so much more fun to have it come alive for me today.... Oo I still have chills! So yeah... I'm a nerd, but I love it!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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1 comment:
Love it! I love days like that as well. When we were at Mt. Rushmore, we met one of the guys that helped blast the heads - he even lost a finger doing it! So glad you got to have that experience!
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