After watching this clip from A Christmas Story, you will have experienced the anticipation, elation, and then the final disappointment that my two oldest Darlings experienced a few days ago when we went to our town's museum. I had pumped them up with excitement about the dinosaur exhibit, and the mummified hand on display. We're getting ready to study Egypt in school, so this was particularly relevant. I had even discussed and explained provenance so that the Darlings would understand how fortunate we were to have this special, limited time exhibit. I couldn't believe that an eight and six year old actually "got" provenance.
We first walk through the dinosaur exhibit. It was basically a prehistoric "Small World." It's just robots that creak up and down, and maybe have a
pre-recorded roar. Well, that's a good intro, I guess. Let's get to the fossils. We walk out into an open space that has a triceratops skeleton, t-rex scull, and a few other smaller skeletons. As these historical monsters loom over us and the stroller, I read the info cards to Darlings. Each card ended with replica. Replica, replica, replica. What the heck? We want some REAL dinosaurs. Even my Second Darling asked, "so if they're replicas, how is that different from a model airplane?" I had to concede that to me, there wasn't much difference. "So where are the real dinosaurs, Mommy?"
Diversion. Let's go check out the mummified hand. Oooooooo. We traipse upstairs to the "Early Peoples" exhibit. We blaze through, truthfully uncaring at this point, about the people of the Lower Pecos Valley. We want some mummies! Jackpot! There's a mummified person, in a full-on fetal position, placed down inside a Plexiglas box. "Wow guys. That person died right there and was buried under so much ash, etc. that he stayed just like that. Let's see if they know if it was a man or a woman." As I scan the info card, replica appears once again- mocking me. And the greatest injustice - the mummified hand was absent. Probably because it was the one real thing in the display, it had to be removed to make the replicas less conspicuous. Tell me this - can a museum be a museum if it's full of replicas?
So, the Darlings and I felt like we got the shaft. We want some real stuff! So, now I'm on the search for some real historical mummies and dinosaur fossils. I'm checking into Houston and Dallas' museums. We'll see. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll eventually end up at the Smithsonian. cha-ching
Maybe now, the silly little video clip makes sense. Darling One and Two, and I very much felt like Ralphie as he decoded the secret code. Just to note: Darling Three was content to dig in the fake sand for fake dinosaur bones.
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