6:30 PM |
The West Virginia State Museum is an amazing place. Its website sucks. Just take it from me that you should see it. It goes chronologically from prehistoric times on. Each of these eras has sound effects and narration. There are also "discovery rooms" where you can actually see museum-type stuff. My mother wore those shoes in the fifties section. I have inherited her alligator ones from Lord & Taylor. You could use real alligator then, not mock croc. My grandmother had all the hats. When I was finished, I was a little bit disappointed that there wasn't any, well backwoods, kinds of things. So I stopped at the desk. This is Jim Mitchell, Curator, on the left. He will tell you that he is Jim Mitchell, the curator, on many occasions during an animated discussions. I asked him if there was someplace I could learn more about the culture of Appalachia (apple-ate-chea). Well, apparently Appalachia isn't just the part of West Virginia I got lost in, but the enitre string of mountains from Maine to, oh, wherever. It's Apple-at-chia. Boy was I red in the face. After I learned that Jim Mitchell, Curator, plays the dulcimer among a myriad of musical intruments and knows practically everything about everything (mostly true), it turned out that he was trained at Winterthur. The Delaware instution is about 20 minutes from my house. Robert (I think, forgive me whoever you are), lived in Newark Delaware for three years. That's New Ark to all you foreigners. Jim Mitchell, Curator, had a bit of a friendly bet with some other curator about the pronunication. It turns out that there are 18 Newarks in the United States, and 12 of those pronounce it New Ark, not Newerk, like in New Jersey. Take that, other curator.