Archive for December, 2008

Happy Birthday, Joel Chandler Harris!

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Today would have been Joel Chandler Harris‘ 163rd birthday if he had defied everything* we know about the human body.

Instead, he passed away at the age of 63 in 1908.

I wish I could show you a picture of the sweet (literally) birthday cake we had for him at Victorian Christmas – complete with “163″ birthday candles – but our camera choked once again.

Regardless, join me in wishing Mr. Harris a happy birthday!  I’ll be eating leftover cake in his honor all day.

*Tortoises seem to have no such restraints.

Brer Rabbit Stories by Akbar Imhotep

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Akbar has been telling stories at the Wren’s Nest since the beginning of time.

.

But only now have I gotten my hands on his album of Brer Rabbit stories.  We’ve got ‘em for sale at the Wren’s Nest, but I’ll also put the stories up on our main Stories page.

Here, listen to these two stories while I’m fooling around, getting the rest uploaded.

Akbar Imhotep — How Brer Coon Gets His Meat

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Akbar Imhotep — How Brer Bear Lost His Tail

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The echo in the recording wasn’t my idea, no sir, but I’ll take it.

Victorian Christmas and Joel Chandler Harris Birthday Extravaganza Tomorrow!

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Hey there!  Remember me?  I’m the one who didn’t go to Salt Lake City to see the outsides of many museums and the insides of a handful.  Not that I’m bitter.

I’m writing to remind you of your afternoon plans for tomorrow.

You know, when you come to the Wren’s Nest between noon and 4pm for a tour of the home, storytelling, and libations, all for free.

Bonus: Birthday cake that might even have “Happy Birthday Mr. Harris!” spelled correctly on it!  Yesterday’s ordering experience left me with some uncertainty.

To whet your appetite for Christmas decorations and good company, I give you this:

Hi Asian Cajuns! Hi Imani!  Thanks for your help decorating and see you all tomorrow!

Salt Lake City, Utah — The Beehive House, Home of Brigham Young

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Saturday: The Beehive House is the historic home of Brigham Young, who some call the American Moses.  Me, I just call him the Briggity Briggity Briggity Mack for short.

The Beehive House has a lot going for it — excellent downtown location, nearby attractions, free admission, 9 am to 9 pm hours(!), and surprisingly excellent transit access.

(No kidding — Salt Lake City’s light rail network is nothing to sneeze at.  They’ve got at least three more lines to be delivered by 2015.)

Plus, I’m not sure if there are always fur protests across the street, but it was definitely an added bonus.

Where things get weird is the execution of the museum.  First off, instead of volunteers or part-time staff, there are missionaries.

Our docents, Sister Kai and Sister Gasmin, were on 18 month mission trips from Hawaii and the Philippines, respectively.

They each held a copy of the Book of Mormon for the entirety of our visit.

The house feels like a crazy labyrinth when you’re inside, but the tour itself only lasts for about 20 minutes.  Half of the information on the tour skims the history of the Brigham Young, his (ahem, extensive) family, and his home.  The other half is a wacky adventure in proselytism.

I can’t say we were surprised by such an overtly religious presentation, but it did make me wonder — just how objective can volunteers or staff of any museum remain when giving a tour?

If your job is your honest-to-goodness vocation, I’d say it’s impossible.  If you can’t or won’t separate history from, say, divine prophecy that relatively few people recognize as truth, there’s obviously going to be a disconnect.

I do my best not to be too subjective.  Then again, I’m a direct descendant of Joel Chandler Harris and our mission is to preserve his legacy.  How different is my tour than Sister Kai’s tour?  I guess there’s less talk of the appropriateness of polygamy.  And I can wear short sleeves if I want.

But I’m still preaching, to the choir or otherwise.

The Beehive Museum did offer candy at the end of the tour, which was a nice touch.  Then they made you fill out a tour survey, which was mostly a thinly veiled opportunity to collect your contact information so they can send someone to your house and talk to you about the Church.

Topics Discussed: Is Skiing in Jeans a Sign of Idiocy or Confidence or Both, Tithing Can Spur Economic Development Like Whoa, Was Sister Kai Born With a Sly Sense of Humor or Was She Trained That Way, White Corn Tortillas

From Denver, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah — Three Quick House Museum Stops

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Thanksgiving:  We had another long day of driving ahead —

532 miles to Salt Lake City.

We considered imposing on our hosts — “Hey!  Why not invite us to Thanksgiving dinner with your extended family!” — to stay another day and really see the sites.  But frankly, I’m not that excited about house museums.

Thanksgiving week is perhaps not the best time to tour house museums because they’re not so much open as they are closed.  In some ways, this was helpful — at this point in the trip Susie wanted nothing more than to be out of the car, and Hazel had conceded defeat.  In other ways, well, we didn’t get to go inside too many museums.

Regardless, we hit the road and stopped by three museums en route to Salt Lake.

First, the home of “Unsinkable” Molly Brown.

Fans of the film Titanic will no doubt remember Molly Margaret Brown as the unforgettable something something.  I still haven’t seen that one.

The exterior was surprisingly graphic.

Just down the street was the Byers-Evans House Museum.

It had decidedly less frontal nudity than the Molly Brown House.  Both houses have what looks like an excellent location: the heart of the Golden Triangle Museum District.  I’ll have to go back.

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Farther up the road, we looked for the Historic Governor’s Mansion in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  Unfortunately, I really had to go to the bathroom, so we gave up and headed straight to Laramie.  We stumbled upon the Historic Ivinson Mansion.

It’s the home of the Laramie Plains Museum.

By this point it was snowing and getting dark, and we were so over Wyoming.

Not far before the Utah line we stopped at the Flying J in Rock Springs for Thanksgiving dinner.

We had grilled chicken sandwiches.  They were reasonable.

Topics Discussed: Bailey White’s Thanksgiving Stories on NPR, How Butch Cassidy Was a Real Dude Surprisingly Enough

Just West of Atwood, Kansas on U.S. Route 36

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Wednesday: …

I got pulled over for doing 80 in a 65.

Did I get a ticket?  No, no I did not.

Maybe it’s my boyish good looks or maybe it’s my voice cracking in front of police officers, but I’ve been pulled over for speeding six times in my life, and I’ve never gotten a ticket.

Topics Discussed: Shucks Officer, It Being Almost Thanksgiving and All

Red Cloud, Nebraska — Willa Cather Childhood Home

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Wednesday: Red Cloud, Nebraska is a town just north of the Kansas border with a population just north of 1000.

It’s also the hometown of Willa Cather.

Thanks to Christa T for the suggestion.

We pulled into Red Cloud at quarter til one, with plenty of time to spare for the 1:30 tour.  There are about seven different sites in Red Cloud on the Willa Cather tour, so we were I was pretty stoked.

Soon we realized three things:

1. The Willa Cather Foundation was open that day in the AM but closed in the PM.
2. Red Cloud is a town where an author’s home helps drive the economy.
3. Everyone knew who we were within four minutes.  And I mean everyone.

We stopped in for questions, coffee, and internet at the Cather & Company Booksellers.  The owner let Susie bring Hazel inside, and was shocked that the foundation was closed.  Apparently, they usually only close for about three days each year.

We picked up a map of all the sites, but grossly overestimated the size of the town.  We drove to Willa Cather’s childhood home, approximately 2/3 of a block away.

After peeking in the windows, we stopped in Cutter’s Cafe, the best place to eat in Red Cloud.

This time we drove approximately 1/3 of a block to get there.  On our way in, three boys in the front seat of a pickup simultaneously turned 180° to check out Susie and Hazel walking down the street.

When we walked into Cutter’s the manager said, “We were wondering when you’d mosey on in!  I was on the phone with the book store when they let your dog inside.”

The man at the bar next to her said, “And I was at the newspaper office when I saw you walk by with that dog.  I was surprised nobody came out to interview you!”  Celebrities!

We ordered the special–a feast of spaghetti and meatballs–and asked permission to tie Hazel up outside.

…she has dependency issues.

In the end, I didn’t really mind missing out on seeing the Cather House–we had too much fun getting to know the characters around town.

But what I did miss was talking to the folks at the Willa Cather Foundation to see what it was like to have your author’s home anchor the local tourist industry.  Which, in the words of the Cather and Company Bookstore and Coffeehouse owner, was what kept her business afloat.

Topics Discussed — Toto (the band), Chicago’s Power Ballads, Other Songs on MacGyver’s iPod Shuffle, Toto (the dog)

From St. Louis, Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas to Denver, Colorado

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Tuesday: We thanked David for letting us stay with him in St. Louis, picked up Hazel from the cleaners, and headed for Kansas City.

Wednesday: We had planned on seeing a few house museums in Kansas City (most notably, that of Alexander Majors — the guy who founded the Pony Express), but our gracious Kansas City host Suzannah had to leave early.  Plus, we needed to be in Denver to stay with Tom and Lauren at a reasonable hour.

Couch-hopping around Thanksgiving forced us to stray from our my ideal itinerary.  Oh well.

Just before 8 am

we took off for Denver by way of Red Cloud, Nebraska.  Sorry, Kansas City.

St. Louis, Missouri — Scott Joplin House

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Tuesday: Our last stop before picking Hazel up from the cleaners was the Scott Joplin House.

(Actually a ladies vest)

This was the first house on our trip that wasn’t opulent, which was refreshing. The coolest part was easily the player piano. Our docent gave us a taste of Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag–

Our docent was all about Scott Joplin and very excited to play. It was great. He told us we were too late to receive the tour, but then proceeded to gush about the house and Joplin, basically giving us the tour.

The ground floor has a few exhibits and player pianos, plus a gift shop. You have to go upstairs to see Joplin’s apartment.

Joplin lived in the apartment between 1900 and 1903. Several people lived here after Joplin, so little of the furniture is original. In this case, however, I don’t think that the original artifacts are as nearly as important as the music and the space.

Topics Discussed — Malts from Crown Candy Kitchen, How Great It Is When You Order a Malt or a Milkshake And They Give You the Silver Mixer Thing

St. Louis, Missouri — Campbell House Museum

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Tuesday: The Campbell House Museum was closed when we arrived, but we stumbled upon a special tour and got to go inside. Booya.

The Campbell House is one of those enormous and over the top homes that belonged to a wealthy family and blah blah blah.

I mean, the place is super nice, and that’s fun for a while. For example, this fireplace is sweet–

But while luxury and historic preservation are all well and good, it’s the stories that make the museum.

Luckily, the Campbell House recognized this and devoted a significant part of the tour to the lives and memories of the servants.

Even better, they had restored the extensive system of bells the servants used to respond to the whims of the folks who occupied the home. It’s like an old-timey intercom system.

Unrelated, I also love it when house museums leave evidence of their restorations.

It’s so telling of an old house’s craftsmanship, how easily and quickly a house can decay, and how dedicated individuals can perform feats of brilliance provided they have a truckload of funding. The restoration was really, truly remarkable.

Better yet, they have a full-time staff of one (who was not even close to above working the cash register), and we met a board member who was busy vacuuming the floors. Our docents were volunteers and true students of the house and the history. It’s a great house museum, sure, but only because they run what seems like a marvelous organization.

Susie wanted me to mention that they saved the best part for last. In the carriage house, they’ve got the original carriages that belonged to the Campbell Family.

We weren’t allowed to take ‘em for a spin.

Topics Discussed — Helicopter Parents, Clingy Children, How I Forgot My Business Cards, Gentrification, Gift Shops with Unrelated and/or Ridiculous Wares, Christopher Radko