Old Town Greensboro

We come out of the gun collection displays and cross the foyer to another doorway.  It's like walking back in time.

Each room here is set up as though you were walking into a storefront:  hotel, drugstore, barber shop, schoolhouse, firehouse.  Even the streetlights are period.  There are several antique cars including the one in the mural:

The hotel, of course, housed the telephone operators.  How old am I?  I actually, in one of the first jobs I ever had, (at the Sears Fashion Center on Harry Hines Blvd. in Dallas) worked a switchboard that required me to literally plug in the call much like what is done on this switchboard!

I remember having a large ring on my right hand and, after I plugged in a call, that ring caught on a wire from another call and disconnected it.  (Not cool.)

There was an advertisement  for Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company posted on the wall that I thought was interesting:

You might not be able to read this but here is some of what it says:
Have you ever considered the Advantages of having a Telephone in your Home?
The Telephone ...
Overtakes Telegrams
Outstrips Messenger Boys
Lengthens your life (??)
Calls the Carriage (not the Taxi, not the car, the "Carriage")
Reserves the Berths (I'm guessing on the train?)
It lengthens your days (by saving time ?)
Reduces your worries
Saves your temper

Our Rates Always Reasonable (Someone needs to share that sales pitch with today's AT&T !!!)

Notice the fire engine is a STEAM engine.  John was telling me that a firehouse dog was essential because it was used to chase neighborhood dogs away from the horses pulling the engine.  (How'd he know that??)

They had a picture of one of the horses used to pull this.  He was HUGE!  He would have made John look small!  He was so well known in the region that, when he was retired, there were newspaper articles about him as far away as Richmond, Virginia.

This is really an awesome museum - who knew! - in a CHURCH.  And there is so much more...