Return of Memoryfest - Day 12/31

[bironic]

12. Pre-school

I remember visiting a museum when we were very young that had a bare room in it where you'd mill about, and then the lights would go off, you'd strike a pose, a bright light would flash, and a few moments later the lights would come back up and you could see everyone's silhouettes on the wall. I'd say it was like magic except my dad was a science teacher, so half the fun was listening to him explain how it worked.


We visited a lot of museums back then, and while I remember things about each of them, I can't place this particular memory. I was just telling my sister I couldn't remember if this exhibit was in Sesame Place or some science museum, but she's positive it was the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia. (That's a story in itself; our parents told us that the next museum we went to was called the "Please Don't Touch Museum" so we knew to keep our hands off the displays. For years afterwards I believed that was its actual name.)

WTF

Comments

[synn.livejournal.com]

Have an icon! *points to icon*

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

... the next museum we went to was called the "Please Don't Touch Museum" ...

*blinks*

Oh, a memory! Yes ... um ... for many years I used to have a recurring dream (not a nightmare) of being in a dimly-lit museum. I was always in an area where there were lots of glass cases holding ancient turquoise jewelry.

Nothing ever happened in the dreams -- I was always just walking around, looking at the exhibits.

I haven't had one of these dreams for a long time, but I still remember them.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Do you think the dream stems from a place you visited when you were very young?

Funny you should comment on this post after a few days off -- it was the "Please Don't Touch Museum" that came to mind when you wrote about the "don't touch" room. Quite different connotations there.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

and then the lights would go off, you'd strike a pose, a bright light would flash, and a few moments later the lights would come back up and you could see everyone's silhouettes on the wall.

Hey, I went to one of those not all that long ago - saw the fabulous Omnimax movie on sea creatures as well *g*

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

daasgrrl!

I need your help!

*roams over to your LJ to ask you a question*

*apologizes to bironic for the brief threadjack* :-)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, neat. All the museum websites I checked don't seem to this exhibit anymore; I'm glad they're not all gone.

And yay Omnimax. That wasn't the one that showed last year in London, with James Cameron and submersible cameras capturing never-before-seen creatures of the deep?

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Admittedly, it was a completely deserted exhibit, which might explain a lot *g*

A little rummage around shows you mean "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea" - no, not that one. It was just called "Deep Sea", and narrated by Kate Winslet and Johnny Depp. The creatures were just amazing, though - pretty much the equivalent of alien life on earth, some of them.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Hm, no, it wasn't "Volcanoes of the Deep," although by coincidence my father and I just watched that one on video last week. But it wasn't narrated by Kate & Johnny either, so it doesn't matter. :)

it was a completely deserted exhibit, which might explain a lot

*sniff* Kids these days, they just can't appreciate old-school entertainments.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. There's also Aliens of the Deep. Yes, I know it doesn't matter, but you know how it is XD

[bironic.livejournal.com]

(spam!) Yes, that's the one -- I remember the title, and a quick Google search confirms it was directed by James Cameron.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

...And, not to skip over the best part of your comment, but yes, it's always fascinating to learn about creatures that live deep underwater or in hot springs or in other extreme conditions. I think the fact that they strike us as being so bizarre and puzzle the world's best scientists is a sign that our imaginings of what actual alien life might be like is woefully limited.

[daasgrrl.livejournal.com]

I tend to think actual alien life may not even be comprehensible - like we may even have fallen over it but it's so different our senses aren't able to process it. Or something. Almost by definition, we take our concept of 'alien' life from the things we can see and comprehend.

(Just my contribution to the spammage *g*)

[bironic.livejournal.com]

It's true -- some alien species could be so radically different from anything we could conceive of, or beyond what we could comprehend even if it were explained to us, that we wouldn't know it if we saw it. Like trying to explain the third dimension to an inhabitant of a two-dimensional world, or trying to imagine a new color.

On the other hand, there's the idea that conditions might occur on another planet similar to those that gave rise to life on Earth, leading to a comparable evolution of carbon-based life forms that produces intelligent life we could identify and attempt to communicate with.

I don't know which one is more likely, if one has to be more likely than the other, but they're both so much fun to think about.

[thewlisian-afer.livejournal.com]

The Girl Scouts around here do this thing every year (or at least they used to when I was a Girl Scout -- dunno if they still do) where they go to the NYS museum in Albany and ... well, I guess the point is to learn. We got packets we had to fill out and there were craft activities and trivia games and all kinds of stuff. It was always a lot of fun but the best part was we got to spend the night in the museum. My troop always chose to sleep in the area with the displays about animals of the northeast. One year I woke up in the middle of the night to my friend Ashley gripping my arm tight enough that it hurt and shaking it. She insisted that the life-sized deer that we were sleeping near had been moving. Neither of us slept the rest of the night and obviously we didn't see it move anymore. But deer still freak me out.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I wish we'd had an opportunity to stay overnight in a museum, even if I'd probably have been as scared as your friend. When the Museum of Natural History announced the start of those school sleepovers leading up to the release of "Night at the Museum," I was a little jealous of all the kids who'd get to spend the night in there. :)

[mer-duff.livejournal.com]

When I was twelve my friend KC invited me to go to Victoria with her for the day. I think her father had a meeting and her mother had things to do on her own, so I was invited to keep KC company. I remember we went to the Royal BC Museum in the morning and had tea at the Empress, which made us feel very grown-up, and then we were allowed to wander on our own. We went to the Royal London Wax Museum and what was then called Land of the Little People (now the more PC Miniature World), which I adored in all it's somewhat cheesy splendour.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun. Plus things tend to be more exciting when you're young and unsupervised.

On our trip to Vancouver we spent one day on Vancouver Island (minus ferry time) and about an hour in Victoria and didn't get to visit any of the places you mention, although we had a lovely time and Butchart Gardens was beautiful.

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

I must have a warped mind. The first thing I thought of when I read your memory was the description of the shadows of victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That in turn led to this memory:

On the door of the basement bathroom in my family home hung a small, unadorned metal plaque with Japanese characters on it. Every time we kids would ask what it said, my dad would make up a new translation, such as "No boogie men allowed." It was only as an adult that I discovered that the plaque came from a destroyed factory in the ruins of Nagasaki, where my dad had been posted as part of the occupying force after WWII.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Not so warped, I don't think. When I first learned about the flash after a nuclear explosion, this was what I thought of.

As for your memory: haunting and amusing, and disturbing for being amusing. It's sweet that your dad made a game out of an object that could have traumatized you at that age if he'd told you its origins, but it's also creepy to think about making jokes about something like that. Nice and thought-provoking, similar to some of the issues you confront in studying reactions to tragedies such as Nagasaki or the Holocaust, the ways in which people deal with what happened.

(Also, I hope the thing wasn't radioactive.)

[elynittria.livejournal.com]

As for your memory: haunting and amusing, and disturbing for being amusing.

Yep. Much later, he explained to me that he kept the plaque as a reminder of the devastation and of what human beings were capable of doing to other people. Then he showed me the pictures he had taken of Nagasaki. *Shudder* (Hopefully, the plaque wasn't radioactive! I've often wondered...)

Since the plaque was from a factory, he figured no one had a personal connection to it or would miss it. As a naval officer, he was issued a (genuine) samurai sword during the occupation. About 20 years or so ago, he managed to track down the descendants of the original owner and sent the sword back to Japan to them. I always thought that was so cool of him.

Reposted to fix error.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That is very cool -- first to have it, and then to be conscientious enough to try to return it.

I wonder what it was like for him to make up those silly translations of the plaque for you. Did he feel good that he could protect you from the true story, guilty for belittling it, grateful that you didn't have to experience what the children in Nagasaki did...?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:) I remember those too. Also an area where you stood behind a garbage can and had your picture taken as if you were Oscar.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

There's a similar place around here called the Experimentarium where I've been in a similar room. It was very interesting. I used to love that place because it was so scientific and science was my favourite subject.
But that isn't actually the memory - consider it a bonus ;-)

In 9th grad I was in London for the first time. It was a school trip to both Wales and London. What I remember clearest from London itself is not seeing a musical (STarlight Express). No, it's The Imperial War Museum with the display of a V2 rocket. It's huge. Even to a 14-year old.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Even after spending a semester and four vacations in London, I still haven't made it to the Imperial War Museum! Sacrilege. But I do know what you mean about the sheer size of those rockets, and being doubly awed when you're not adult-sized yet; our family went to quite a few space museums/exhibits when my sister and I were kids, including the Kennedy Center in Florida where the rockets are twice your height lying on their sides. Really cool stuff, right? :)

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

See, that would be really huge rockets! :-D And I know I'd love to go there some day.

[nicocoer.livejournal.com]

WHen I was little (I don't remember how young- younger then fourth grade, I think, maybe even pre-school aged. . .) I was visiting my Aunt Lisa in NYC. That in and of it self isn't a big deal, as we still do that about twice a year, but the time in particular is the first time I remember ever going to the Met.

My mother's side of the family is rather large- she has 4 sisters and 1 brother- so It was a fairly large group. That side of the family is also rather artistic, and everyone wanted to go to the Modern Art section of the museum. I HATED modern art when I was little, and wanted to see the historical artefacts else where or look at older art work. So, I slowly slipped off. I remember moving through the byzantine artefacts on the same floor as the lobby, and I remember looking into a room that someone had painted to look like it was furnished with lots of books and windows and everything.

My family finally caught up with me in the Medieval exhibit- the one with the huge suits of armor mounted to look like people were actually in them, including a suit of equestrian armor. I cried when I got yelled at- they took me into an alcove next to a suit of armor and told me off for having wandered off by myself in the Met.

That day we also saw the egyptian exhibit- I remember the little building in the big room that was used as a kind of eating or resting area. It was still there, a little draber then I remembered it, when I last went to the Met. At least then I was old enough to wander about by myself!

I eventually learned to appriciate modern art- enough so that when I found out I wouldn't get to my Aunt's before the rest of the group went to the MOMA last visit, I was angery. :(

~N~

[bironic.livejournal.com]

(How sad is it that when you mentioned your Aunt Lisa, the first thing that came to mind was fanfic about Cuddy's nieces and nephews?)

Despite living close to NYC and taking numerous trips into the city to visit museums, especially the Museum of Natural History, for some reason we didn't go to the Met until I was older. It was impressive then, so it must have been really intimidating/exciting for a child. You were very brave for wandering off into the medieval section!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the 'little building' in the center of the main Egyptian room is the Temple of Dendur. It was very exciting for us to see that on our first visit because it had been in the Sesame Street movie, "Please Don't Eat the Pictures." *g*