Entry #24.3 / 16th July 2022
Thanks to Holly’s instructions, I managed to locate and get to the museum within ten minutes. I thought due to the museum topic as well, the place would be packed. But I was wrong – there was hardly anyone there. The building that hosted the museum, though, was eye-catching. It looked like it had been polished hourly, both the floors and the walls, and its spaciousness made me believe that it once was a place where people came for those old-timer balls. Waltz and other types of romantic dances would take place.
Unsure of where to go or what to do, I slowly approached the desk that held queue ropes just before it. Zig-zagging my way through, I waited for the single male employee to gesture to me.
He did so the moment I stopped, and I felt a bit nervous as I walked right up to the desk.
“Hi!” I began with a wide, nervous smile. “I have a ticket?” Why am I asking?
The male employee, Edward, gave me a small smile. “Brilliant.”
I reached for the back pocket of my shorts and passed over the ticket.
Once Edward typed something into the computer; after reading through my ticket, he reached over for something on his desk. “Right, so I’m going to give you this pin to wear.” He passed me over said pin that had a white star with a yellow background. “This will show anyone working here that you’ve paid for it. And if you head up that spiral staircase,” he then leaned forward slightly and followed to where he was pointing to in another spacious room. “That will lead you up to the museum and theatre, where another showing will happen in another ten minutes.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What is it showing?”
“It’s basically a short film of the summarised history of the American Revolution and of George Washington during that time,” Edward explained. “You don’t have to see it, but it is included, so I recommend it.”
“How long is it?”
“Around ten minutes.”
I hummed in thought as I strapped the pin to my top. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Enjoy.”
I smiled gratefully at Edward as I made my way into the next spacious room.
It wasn’t hard to track down the spiral staircase—it was the first thing you saw due to how much it dominated the room. Reaching for the rail connected to the white wall, I made my way up the spiral staircase. When I reached the top, there was a sign with the time of the next showing in the theatre in the first room on the left.
Having a mini-debate in my mind, I ended up shrugging. Fuck it.
I strolled into the almost empty theatre. Most people were sitting in the middle, taking up three rows. I sat in the fourth, unseated row, and my back groaned with pleasure as the backpack left my shoulders.
Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to pack everything in one bag.
Sitting down, I briefly glanced through my phone while waiting for the short film to begin. Getting lost in the digital world; I didn’t even notice two people coming to join the fourth row until a soft “excuse me” grabbed my attention.
I blinked and whipped my head upwards. “Oh, sorry!” I breathed out as I saw a man and a boy with small smiles as I sprang upwards. “Sorry!” I picked up my backpack and pressed myself into the fold-in seat.
“No problem,” the man said as he and his son passed me to move further into the seating row.
Wow. Could I be any more British?
Once I got comfortable in my seat again, the doors to the theatre closed, and an employee stood at the front of the theatre, with everyone going quiet.
***
The short film was informative. I learned more about George Washington – which my knowledge of before was zero. Whilst he was admirable and stood for the independence of his country and his people, there was a whole lot of grey too. The number one is that he was a slave owner and often struggled with the concept of giving freedom to the slaves. Hearing that… It wasn’t easy to, and I know many people would defend that mindset of “it was a different time.” Which, yes, it was a completely different time, but…
It’s important that it’s highlighted. Despite the important work and accomplishments that George Washington achieved, he still stood for something that didn’t match morality, especially the morality that we know today.
Plus, it shows that even good people can have bad parts to them too. That no individual is perfect. And it’s how we learn today – understanding the wrong parts of historic people so we can improve in the present.
At the end of the short film, they showcased the tent that George Washington used during the war and, unfortunately, Robert E. Lee used during the Civil War.
Obviously, I didn’t really want to stare at the tent for that long.
Don’t get me wrong, it was cool that something that old was still well preserved, but the Robert E. Lee part made it a bit less cool.
After that, I went through the museum and bloody hell – talk about information overload!
The first part of the museum, which showed and discussed the events leading up to and explaining the reasons behind the revolution, was interesting. Yes, it was a bit of an information load, and I probably hadn’t fully retained everything I read, but the gist of the reasons was understood. And I loved hearing about different people at the time and their thoughts and feelings.
There was even a statue display of George Washington himself breaking up a fight between two camp soldiers, which a young boy witnessed at the time.
Towards the end, there were more displays of the weaponry and military plans of the war, which didn’t hold my attention for very long. I’m not really a big war strategy person, though I know someone who is.
Dad would love this museum. I thought as I came towards the end of the museum, my brain fried and high on all the information.
Once I fully exited the museum, I made my way into the gift shop and headed straight for the books.
If Dad can’t be here, then I can get him a book about it to show I was thinking about him. Confused about what book to get him, I asked the gift shop assistant.
“I would give this book a try,” Candice collected the said blue book with the year 1775 printed on the front. “It goes over the events and battles leading to it in a way that’s easy to read.”
I smiled, “Thanks.”
Wanting something to immortalise my time somehow here, I looked around the gift shop until I stopped by a couple of bracelets.
Like in Washington, D.C., with the Lincoln coin/compass necklace, I was drawn to one in particular. I picked up one of the bracelets with an engraving: “Enjoy the Journey.”
Putting the two items on the counter, I bought both without a second thought.
***