114 Docent Learning Curve

No Civil War hoopskirts when standing behind
a narrow counter!  I wear normal clothes!

What I have learned

As a museum docent

Each Sunday in the summer and fall I volunteer as a docent at the Old Court House Civil War Museum.

Although the second floor exhibits are self guided, we give an introduction to the courthouse and the museum in the courtroom before we sent people upstairs.


I enjoy talking about history, but the most fascinating part of the job is the interaction with the visitors. Each person or group is different and I have learned a great deal.


Involve the kids. 

I used to be frustrated trying to get my message across when the parents were distracted trying to keep the children quiet and listening. I quickly learned to turn the kids into junior docents and then everyone enjoyed it. Part of the explanation of the courtroom is to describe how the courtroom worked. I direct children from place to place in the courtroom from the clerk of the court's desk to the judge's desk (where they have to pound their fists and say "Guilty") to the sheriff's desk where the witness (a child) is sworn in. They also assume parts of a jury member and the defendant. We frequently have to pause for photo opportunities!

Give very specific instructions to children. 

I used to ask children to open to the drawer at the clerk's desk and tell me what they see. "Nothing," they say. Now I ask them if they see any writing. I have also learned to tell the parents to go with them because children frequently cannot read the cursive signatures that the clerks wrote in the drawer. They can decipher the dates that accompany the signatures. The dates range from 1850 and on.

Assume nothing about what people know or don't know about history. 

I have been consistently amazed at what adults and children don't know about the Civil War. I talk about Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, because there is a curse addressed to Davis in the upstairs graffiti. I don't expect people to remember who he was but some people do, including many visitors from overseas!

But I am surprised that people don't remember John Brown--not even the song! I also erroneously expect people to have a general idea about when the war happened. Then, there are occasionally individuals who have to tell me everything they know about the war and I try for patience.

Enjoy the wonderful connections. 

Every couple of weeks someone comes in who had a ancestor who fought in the area. We try to write down each connection so we have a record. The Battlefields Foundation invited all descendants of soldiers who fought in the 3rd Battle of Winchester to come to the courthouse museum a few years ago--what a great turnout with many remarkable stories!  

One visitor from a number of years ago really amazed us. Aaron Underwood of the 1st U.S. Cavalry lost his i.d. badge at the Battle of Cedar Creek. We were not able to discover much about Underwood because his service record showed that he went west with his unit after the war and deserted in Kansas July 28, 1866. A man who was visiting the museum said he was a descendant. He said that Underwood deserted and had an Indian wife and child. His Indian family died and he returned home to Ohio. Deserters were not closely tracked in those days. Underwood remarried and had children. And a descendant of those children came to visit!

The arrow points to the U in Underwood.
Many i.d. badges had the image of McClellan on the reverse side.

You never know who will buy what. 

I try to guess who will pay the entrance fee to tour the exhibit and who won't and don't have a very good guessing record. Likewise, I cannot predict whether people will buy anything or not or what they will buy. 

Last week a gentleman told me he had lot of Civil War books and that our gift shop had a nice collection. He asked me which were my favorites and why. I told him about four titles and he brought three of them!

The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation took over the museum this February and there is much work to do to refresh/redesign the exhibits. 

Some people pay their money and spend 10 to 15 minutes upstairs; others stay for hours. Either way, visitors are always complimentary. And I find them all very interesting!

                     Trish

113 Provocative THREE

What Is It about
The Number THREE?

Well, dear blog readers and Facebook friends, I find myself hung up on the number THREE these past couple of weeks. Why is THREE such a provocative number? 

Oh, my! I found so many reasons that are either scientific or superstitious or are an amalgamation of the two ends of the spectrum. Think Three Blind Mice, The Three Little Pigs, the Trinity, or three wishes from the genie in the old lamp washed up on the beach. Lots and lots of threes! 

According to Pythagoras (580 -500 BCE), the numbers one through ten had mystical meanings attached to one’s soul. The highest (best) number was ten. But Pythagoras considered three as the “fortune number” connected with good endings. (OKAY, I am waiting for the good endings!) I should go buy a lottery ticket!

Here is a very brief, watered-down version of number mysticism: Three is the first prime number. The triangle is the most stable shape as it is composed of three sides and three angles. 

Think of the old three-legged stool versus the four-legged table with the matchbook under one leg to keep it balanced. In our Base 10 system, the fraction 1/3 is .3333333333….. Recapping this tiny bit of history, three has had a long, long history in all parts of life.

Next, three is an integral part of religion. In Hinduism, there are three steps in karma. In Judaism, three is the connecting number between two things. Some scholars say if a thing is done three times it is permanent. The Trinity in Christianity is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Three, Three, Three!

In my mind the most compelling reason we continue to think in threes in this modern age may be gleaned from the psychology of how our brains operate. We are taught at a young age to make connections. We learn to see patterns. 

We find sequences in stories and in how to perform tasks. Three is also at the root of literature: the beginning, the middle, and the end. Many scholars and authors speak of the three ages of man.

I keep thinking of the Three Little Pigs. The big bad wolf comes and blows down houses one and two of the three pigs. Aha, on the third house, built of brick, the wolf fails. Third try – the house stands. Hmmm…this goes back to Pythagoras seeing three as the good ending.

Here is what I have learned. We are the ones who are keeping THREE alive. We look for patterns and clusters we learned in childhood, both in church and in school. We all have anecdotes to support the “3 Cluster” of either good things or bad things. For example, in February of 2014, Sid Caesar, Shirley Temple, and Philip Seymour Hoffman all died very near to each other. 

This week, the painter came to scrape the shutters after all the pretty mulch was laid. My so-called clean mulch is dotted with white paint!! (The painter was to have come in June.) My car battery died, and our front porch door (house 1808) will not unlock. This lock business in a real mess as the knob and lock is older than I am!! Okay, I see three bad – not terrible – but three irritating things all happening at one. This clustering of events happens often enough I hear myself saying: “Well, A just happened and then B just happened; what is going to happen next?” I am waiting for the third thing!

One psychologist suggested a very simple way to prove our brains are clustering. Dump a bag of M&Ms on the table. Do not touch them. Just look at them for a few seconds and notice your mind sees clusters (maybe five orange in a group) or patterns (green, red, green and in another place there is also green, red, green). 

The theory is that we tend to see patterns in random events. The coin-flip test is also a common one. Rarely does one believe it, but in 100 coin flips, a streak of six heads or six tails in a row is statistically a near certainty. When we see streaks or clusters, we forget the other 94 random events. 

 
My brain is struck with three even though I know that seeing the pattern and making the 1-2-3 connection is a learned behavior. YET – I am sitting here wondering what the next three things will be! I hope they have good endings!

AND

             Superstitious Glenne

112 Whatever the weather

Whatever the weather

As summer winds down, my thoughts turn to highlights of the warm, warm weather.

No heavy coats, no boots, no gloves, no scarves, no hats--therefore, the laundry is much lighter as many of those items are laundered on a weekly basis.

No slippery sidewalks, no snow banks, no car windshields to scrap, no ugly, dirty piles of ice that freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw --- therefore, mobility is easier and quicker so more time to relax in the summer months and celebrate birthdays outside.

No cold winds blowing, no sleet, no freezing rain, and no snow-- there were some fierce rains and storms but nothing that lingered

so beach trips were uninterrupted with sandy activities and more.

I only wish we could save some of the heat and store it up for those cold, cold days of winter when there is no break from the low temperatures.

Fall is approaching and hopefully it will be mild as last year’s season. We were enjoying tropical weather through the holiday season into New Year’s Day. It may seem strange not to have snow and cold for Christmas, but I will take it any day. I guess as I analyze my thoughts I have to call myself a fair weather addict. 

This summer has been called the warmest ever-- that really seems hard to believe but records have the figures to prove it. If this continues, we may have warmer and warmer summers thrust upon us in the near future. I only hope it will be comfortable and tolerable and ease the cold of winter. This year was extreme but definitely manageable with air conditioning and adjusting activities to certain times of the day.

Weather is always a popular topic of conversation. I remember as my mother got older she would talk about the weather whenever we called each other or even when we wrote letters. I find myself doing the same thing with my children especially when they live in another state. I often hear myself commenting on the weather and thinking how did I come to this--channeling my mother. Still not sure why, but I guess it is something we all have in common and endure.

It is something we all experience, every day, all our lives--a rather obvious observation. It determines what we wear (jackets, raincoats, etc.), what activities we can enjoy, how our hair behaves, how many layers we put on or take off, what we take with us (umbrellas, scarves, hats).

We listen to the forecasts, watch the weather channel, maps, and progress of storms more diligently than anything else in our lives. If it rains, we are often heard asking--was this in the forecast, was it supposed to rain today, is it going to rain tomorrow.

And heaven forbid if the forecast is wrong--we berate and denigrate the forecasters, who try as they may, can never be 100 percent correct.

My advice is enjoy the rest of the summer, hope for a mild winter, and keep an eye out for those blasted forecasts of the first snow of winter – hopefully there won’t be much!!

Frances      

111 Man versus Dog

Why Can't a Man Be More 

Like a Dog?

Recently I heard Rex Harrison sing, "Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?" That may be started the idea of this blog . . . or maybe I just love photos of cute Jack Russells and other dogs!

Dogs are alway estastic to see you!

Dogs wait faithfully for you to
come home and never call
to ask "Where are you?"

Dogs love the food you give them,
whether fast food, canned or bagged

Dogs love to go shopping!

Dogs can't lie. They never say
"Well, it wan't me!'

Wherever you are going,
dogs want to come along.

Dogs are always ready to party!

Dogs hang on your every word!

I am not stating that Tootsie (or any other dog) is perfect.

In fact

Why Can't A Dog Be More Like a Woman?

Women generally avoid unflattering photo poses.

Women do not roll in dirt and other nasties!

Women wipe their
feet when entering
the house.

Women don't go running when they hear the word,
"BATH!"

Whatever, we love our Jack!

Trish