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...

Feedback. Feedback. Feedback.

I'm not getting any feedback from you guys.  I mean, I'm getting great numbers in my stats, but no comments, no questions.  Let's see, I must not be boring you to death or my numbers wouldn't keep growing and growing.  But I wonder if I'm exciting any curiosity about the places we go.  Don't you want to know the names of the companies that we travel for?  They're the ones making all of this possible.  (Well, them and God.)  Do you have any traveler questions we might be able to answer for you?

I'm going to keep doing this regardless.  It all started because of GSR's. (That stands for Grandparent Status Reports.)  Our kids and grandkids and other family members can check in on us at any time by virtue of the ol' blog.  I get to share a smattering of vacation photos (OH NO! THE DREADED VACATION PICTURES!!!!) and a lil' chit-chat about what we've been up to.

But, what about y'all?  Want more pictures?  less?  More information on a particular topic? or are you Googling your own?  ARE YOU LEARNING ANYTHING?  We homeschooled our sons (wa-a-a-a-y before homeschooling was cool - or even legal) and one of the reasons was because I love watching them learn.  Have you ever consciously "watched" someone learn?  I mean, anticipate a learning moment and actually watched their little minds "get it."  Scrunched up lil' faces agonizing over a word or a concept, then, suddenly relax all of those muscles, and the light bulb effect kicks in?  It is such a JOY to me to know someone LEARNED!  Now THAT's fun stuff.  So, are you learning anything?

We are.  We are history buffs.  We've lived a fairly long time.  We've learned a bit in school, through movies, books, previous vacations.  But with all that we've absorbed over the years, we constantly have "Ah-ha" moments now.  "Who knew," has become one of our most frequent comments to each other.  We're learning the most interesting things in the strangest of locations.  There is so much out here in the world that we are literally tripping over it.

They say that if you want to delay the onset of Alzheimer's keeping the mind active is a major way to do that.  We figure we've put off the Alzheimer's until maybe the next CENTURY now! 

So, come on, guys, click the ol' "Comment" button at the bottom of the blog and give us some feedback!  Who are you people?

Greensboro Historical Museum

This is what John has decided on.  It's attached to a Presbyterian Church!  I'm actually just kind of playing along.  A museum.  Inside a church.  How good could this be?

We step inside, and there is an ancient gatekeeper who suggests to us to start at the top and work our way down.  Take the circular staircase or the elevator.  At least, he says, that's what he's been told to tell visitors.  (I'm thinkin', in for a penny, in for a pound and head for the stairs.)

Surprise, surprise, surprise.  Inside this church we find one of the largest, most comprehensive, best documented collection of Civil War weapons anywhere - and a 770-page book copyrighted in 1996 cataloging all of it!

There is a separate showcase for each source for the guns - mostly rifles.  John was pleased to find one dedicated to Texas:

And that some of the guns were manufactured in Tyler!

 

 And a bit of Texas history, too. (#16)

This was pretty cool.  Most everyone knows about the Derringer - a tiny lil' pocket pistol usually good for one shot; sometimes you see a double-barrel Derringer that will give you two shots.  How about a FOUR-barrel ?

Curiosity took over, and I did a lil' research.  Did you know they make a SIXTEEN-barrel now?  and one that shoots SHOTGUN shells?  What kind of kick must that puppy have !?!

There was more than just weapons:

There was much more to this museum - too much to relate in a single posting - so you will have to check back over the next SEVERAL days to get a clue to just some of it.  This place deserves your personal attention, so definitely put it on your to-do list.

Panning for Gold in North Carolina? at a Castle?

A few weeks ago we drove down to Greensboro, North Carolina.  We saw an exit for a castle.  Interesting.  We visited a castle while we were in Connecticut, Gillett Castle, and it was really, really cool.  So, we take the exit.

It's Saturday and they only allow you in on tours Monday thru Friday.  Bummer.  Weekends are for weddings.  Ok. We'll just have to come back.  So, we went back to our original plan and ended up at the Guilford County American Revolutionary battlefield.  Good enough.

Yesterday we were planning our weekend and decided to go back to the castle - but we couldn't remember it's name or much else about finding it.  I decided to Google "North Carolina castles," and we were VERY surprised to find out that there are a TON of castles in North Carolina.  (Makes ya' wonder how many there are in other states ...)  I spy one on the list in Guilford County and figure that must be it.  One click and another surprise:  It was originally a mill for crushing ore and picking out GOLD.  In fact, we could actually PAN for gold if we want!  Who knew?  Gold in North Carolina! 

The Castle McCullock website says:  "Following the discovery of gold in North Carolina, an enterprising Cornish engineer named Charles McCulloch came to the gold fields of Jamestown, North Carolina to build a gold refinery. He brought with him the architecture of England and the latest technological development, the steam engine. McCulloch Gold Mill was built in 1832 and operated for many year..."

Turns out the California gold rush of 1849 pulled all the miners out of the Carolinas and on to California.  Sutters Mill made the history books; North Carolina didn't.  The Civil War rolls around and Castle McCullock ends up as a Confederate hospital for awhile.

There is a "history" tab at the bottom of the website, and when I click on it I discover that the castle virtually ceased to exist a long, long time ago.  About the only thing left standing was the chimney and a part of a wall with a window opening.  It's been rebuilt now, but the gold story is more interesting to us than the castle itself.

Ultimately we decide not to go to Castle McCullock.  It seems to be more a wedding site than a tourist attraction.  John begins to research other things to do in Greensboro...

A Traveler's Request

Well, we know for certain that this contract won't be extended again, so January 4th, 2012 will be our last day here.  One of the neat things about being a traveler is that you can request that the companies look for a place that holds some kind of particular interest for you.

John and I are interested in EVERYWHERE, but come spring John wants to attend a conference in Arizona to get in some CEU's (Continuing Education Units) before renewing his license at the end of 2012.  So, we've let the companies know that, if there's an opening in the southwest of the country, that would be our preference.  Might happen, might not.  You see, we believe that God is in control - and he's done a pretty good job so far!

Now, just in case, we give them preference #2 and #3.  It's gettin' kinda chilly up here in the north, so I'm thinkin' the Florida Keys might be nice.  If we HAVE to be cold, maybe Alaska would be another choice.  We usually tell the companies to give us "drive time," but I don't know what it would be like driving through the Yukon Territory in mid-January.

I've been through the Yukon.  Going catty-wampus (that's Texan for corner to corner) across the Yukon is like driving Texas top to bottom - it's a long, LONG way.  My momma and I decided a few years back to visit Alaska.  She was almost 80 and I was almost 50 (well, 79 and 49), and I don't like hotels or flying, so I told Momma we were gonna drive it - just the two of us.  What a trip that was!  We were gone 22 days and pitched a tent 19 of them.  We even shamed a few 20-30-40 year olds into pitching their tents, too.  They figured if two lil' ol' white-haired ladies all alone could brave the elements and wildlife then they ought to be able to manage it.

We took so many pictures of black bear that we finally gave up.  Figured we'd never get back to Texas if we stopped and took pictures of every one of 'em.  Eagle, moose, elk, deer, big-horn sheep, Dahl sheep, fox, coyote, antelope - you name it, we saw it and caught them on tape.  Even grizzlies.

And so, if you want to be a traveler and name your preference for a location, so be it.  Maybe you want to semi-retire and just stay sort of close to home.  YOU are the boss working for yourself.  You tell 'em, baby.

Amish Country

To reach Gettysburg from Philadelphia we travel through Amish country.  My, oh my, how beautiful it is!

They manage a lot of the dairies here.

This has been Amish country "forever" and the Amish are against violence of any kind, so it is particularly sad that they were caught up in the war between the states at Gettysburg.  Eighty percent of America's Amish are located in Pennsylvania, but the numbers are growing because of having lots of children (average seven per family.)  Contrary to statistics in other Christian religions, the Amish church has a really high membership retention rate - in the high 70 percent range.

The Amish are exempt from forced education of their children beyond the eighth grade on religious belief grounds, and they do not accept social security or any other form of government support.  They were possibly the first to believe in separation of church and state.

We saw several buggies out and about this Sunday morning as we drove through.  Not wanting to be intrusive I snapped this quick pic as we were driving by at about 50 mph.  Can you tell that their buggy has a glass windshield?  And this horse appears to have dainty hooves, but we noticed most of the horses were possibly Morgans.  (For you non-horsemen, a Morgan is like a Clydesdale - think Budwieser.)  Their legs and hooves were massive, their hindquarters, too.  All the better to draw the farm machinery around as Amish people don't go in for modern technology.

You know how we have automobile dealerships?  How cool is it that the Amish have buggy dealerships?  I guess I thought they were, like, made one at a time to order, but no.  There on a street corner was a whole sales lot full of buggies.  I love it!  Wish I could buy one and drive it back to Texas.  Whoo-hoo, that would be fun!  Yes, sir, it surely would be.

Leaving the German/Dutch Pennsylvania Amish country behind in the mist, we travel on to Gettysburg.

Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia

 Ah, Ben!  He was but a young man when he moved to Philly.  He left a huge mark on our country, but it's nothing compared with the mark he left on Philadelphia!

At the age of 12, Ben was apprenticed to his older brother who owned a print shop.  At 15, Ben authored the "Silence Dogood" letters to the editor of his brother's newspaper.  (Remember the movie, "National Treasure.")  At 17, Ben abandoned his apprenticeship due to frequent beatings by his brother and the general lack of appreciate for his abilities and work ethic by his bro.  Ben hopped a ship from Boston to New York, moseyed across New Jersey and eventually caught a boat to Philadelphia.

He arrived virtually penniless, was taken in by the family of his future wife, found work in a print shop and ultimately, believing he was a better printer than the owner, opened his own business.  He was noticed for his hard work, excellent skills and diligence and began getting bigger and better contracts.  He began to franchise his printing company into other cities. (Think McDonald's or Starbucks.)

The rest, as they say, is history.

Franklin became our first Postmaster General and made it PROFITABLE!  (Now HE might be worth cloning for that reason alone...)

You can go into this location above and they will hand-stamp your postcard, letter, or parcel with Ben Franklin's signature.  That's pretty cool.  Notice the tunnel to the right side of the picture.  This leads back into the courtyard of the last piece of property Franklin owned.

Imagine his carriage coming and going through here carrying him about his many duties and business.  Living to the very ancient age of 84 (Thirty-five was considered old age back then) he became unable to walk and had to be carried in a chair contraption by hired men from house to carriage and carriage to offices.

Throughout his life, if Franklin realized a need he put all of his energies into filling that need:  the first library company, the first fire insurance company, Union Fire (if you bought a policy you were given the bonus of a "fire-extinguisher" - two buckets), organized night watchmen (more for fire warning than crime) which evolved into the Philadelphia police department, he invented the lightening rod to prevent house fires, promoted hatches in roofs so people could climb out and put out roof fires before they spread, invented the Franklin stove and refused to patent it so that everyone would have access to the "technology," established the Philosophical Society, set up university scholarships...  If it was too big a job for one man, like setting up healthcare facilities that evolved into the Pennsylvania Hospital, Franklin brought people together to fill needs corporately.

Amazingly, his scholarship fund is still active today, the Philosophical Society still exists, the hospital is still there, and his fire insurance company is still selling policies.  Some of you might recognize the insurance logo of four hands clasping each others wrists:

Just as the owners of Jefferson's rooms in Philadelphia were allowed to tear down that building, so, too, was Franklin's last home allowed to be torn down.  (WHO WOULD BE CRAZY ENOUGH TO DO THAT?!  Oh.  Family.  Figures.)  So, the National Park Service did something unique here.  They simply built a framework of steel, known as the Ghost House, to show size and location of Franklin's final home.  There are viewing kiosks to underground museums, too.  The second framework is the home he built for his illegitimate son?  or his nephew?  (senior moment) whom he set up (surprise!) a print shop business for.

20,000 people attended Benjamin Franklin's funeral.  That's a lot of people for today, but this was in 1790!  Pretty neat guy.

Hundreds of Original Portraits! (a MUST see)

Think of all the photographs of portraits of our Founding Fathers and folks of that period that you've seen reproduced in textbooks and elsewhere.  We were surprised to find a lot of the ORIGINAL portraits here in Philadelphia in - of all places - the Second Bank building. (Architecture reminiscent of the Parthenon in Greece. Did you know there used to be a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee on the University campus?)  (That lil' aside won't cost you a thing - just a memory from when I was about ten years old living in Nashville...)

Those aren't wrinkles on Fulton's face - that's just what happens to old, OLD paintings.  Look at the SKILL that portrait painter had!  You can even see the "five o'clock shadow" and a sparkle in his eye!  Look at the shadow between his face and shirt collar in the lower right hand corner.  Astonishing attention to detail!  So cool!  And there are some 200 original portraits right here.

I'm sure you recognize George Washington's long nose...

You may not recognize this fella by himself  (look at that detail!), but how about the whole picture:

There are portraits of ladies:

And they talk about Texas women with big hair!

Is this me? or Martha Washington?

Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant

And Indians (they weren't called Native Americans then).  (Note: If you click on the picture it enlarges.) 

This is another one of those screen prints.  Can you make out the Indians?  They must be coming to the gallery to get a peek at their chief.  I love the screen prints.  We'd be in a building focused on whatever artifact was being showcased, and suddenly I would notice another print.  Wish I could have this one at home in our log cabin.  How cool would that be?

There's Ben Franklin (He's everywhere in Philly)

and John Paul Jones

 There are statues:

Mmmm.  I could go on and on, but as I say, there are HUNDREDS of these items in this building.  They are presented in a variety of formats and it is all beautifully done.  Don't say, "It's just a bunch of old paintings" and pass up this building.  It's well worth the trip inside.  If you have young children, get them to start looking for items in the paintings that might catch their interest.  Pretty soon they'll be studying the portraits themselves.  And don't forget the Indians out the window... 

Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia

Not much on Thomas in Philadelphia, which seems kind of strange because of his key role in accomplishing the task at hand.

 
Someone thoughtlessly tore down his quarters there, but a re-creation has been attempted and is known as the Declaration House because that is where Jefferson sequestered himself and penned the original document.  The National Park Service has brought in period pieces of furniture and set things up how Jefferson most likely had things arranged.

Notice the violin on the table along with his quill pens and ink.  (No, that's not a double exposure.  The viewing wall is glass and you get a ghostly reflection of me.  Sorry.)

It causes one to look pensively out the window of the second floor, in the direction of what is now Independence Hall, easily imagining how Jefferson himself would have blindly stared, mulling, musing, contemplating the very precise wording necessary for this most historic document.

These two rooms pretty much made up his home in Philadelphia during this period.  In the next photo, notice the broken pieces of coin on the nightstand.

They would break the one-dollar coin into eight pieces (hence the term, "pieces of eight" that you might connect with pirates.)  Ever heard the football cheer, "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar..." again, a reference to the eight bits or pieces that make up a dollar.  Also, "not worth two bits."  On and on.  Now you know where the "bits" came from.

Notice the paper money.  After declaring independence and putting together the Articles of Confederation that governed the united states, the American government began to issue "Continental dollars."  Unfortunately, the Articles provided no way for the central government to raise money and so there was nothing behind the dollars.  Eventually the paper was all but worthless and people coined the phrase, "Not worth a Continental."  Originally worth $8 apiece, the government agreed to redeem them at 1/100th of that value. This lack of providing a revenue stream to fund the defense of the united states (among other things) led to the desperate need for another document now known as our Constitution.

The two hooks with wooden handles were use to pull his boots on.  There are several snuff boxes, and look at that key!  Man, if that wouldn't weight your britches down ...

On a side note, when the seat of American government relocated to Washington, D.C. the Adamses moved into only a partially completed White House.  Thomas Jefferson, our third president, was really the first to live in the finished residence.

America's First Supreme Court

Again, remember that our first "capital" was not in Washington, D.C.; our first capital was in New York City and then in 1790, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Washington, D.C. didn't even exist at the founding of our country (it was a swamp - in some ways I guess it still is!), George Washington never presided over the government in D.C., and the White House's first occupants was not George Washington but John and Abigail Adams in 1800.  As most of us women know, birthing takes a considerable amount of time.  And so it was with the birthing of America.

The three branches of government in America were not established in 1776; they were established through the blood, sweat, tears, and success of the Constitutional Convention's completion of our current Constitution in 1787 in Philadelphia.

The first three Articles of the Constitution are based on the Bible's book of Isaiah, chapter 33, verse 22:  "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king..."

Article I establishes Congress, the lawgiver.
Article II establishes the Presidency, the executive branch (America's form of "king"ship.)
Article III establishes the Supreme Court, the judiciary.

 

Initially, the Supreme Court met in the Merchants Exchange Building in New York City in 1789 after Washington was sworn in as our first president and began to appoint justices.  When the national capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the Court moved with it, establishing Chambers first in what is now Independence Hall and later in the Philadelphia City Hall located next to Independence Hall.


In the beginning, Supreme Court Justices were required to "ride the circuit" across the nation at least twice a year in order to make sure they would be aware of local opinion and state law.  Travel in the late 1700's was a pretty miserable, exhausting activity.  (Holiday Inn hadn't been invented yet...) For this reason, George Washington had an extremely difficult time getting men to agree to serve on the Supreme Court. 

After Chief Justice John Jay...

threatened to resign because of the circuit riding requirement, in 1793 Congress reduced it to one trip per year.  Almost 100 years later, Congress dropped even that provision.  Now, qualified men and women refuse to even attempt to be appointed because of the "miserable, exhausting" Congressional interrogations!

But, back to Philadelphia...

This was where the Supreme Court hearings took place in Philadelphia.  The Supreme Court seems to have been very much the step-child of the American government.  When the seat of government was moved to D.C., the Court was "loaned" space in the Capital Building.  They were moved about six times within the building before former president William Howard Taft (1909 - 1913), now the Chief Justice (that would be a cool job for a retiring president - there have been even fewer Chief Justices than presidents.) The Supreme Court was moved about six times within the building before former president William Howard Taft, now the Chief Justice, persuaded Congress in 1929 to authorize a building of their own.  The Court moved into their permanent home in 1935.

The Court now consists of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.

Going through old buildings and visiting monuments is more than looking at buildings and monuments.  They have a story to tell us about our beginnings.  If we know where we came from we can better plan where we ought to be going.  Travelers, please take advantage of the opportunities put before you in every location you go.  What you find may be more valuable than the paycheck ... maybe. :-)

The Liberty Bell

There has been, since the very beginning, many tributes to the Liberty Bell.  This chair, I thought, was one of the most unique.  The landscape is what the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania State Hall looked like at it's earliest.  The State House bell, now known as the Liberty Bell, hung first in the bell tower over the State Hall.

This is the actual Liberty Bell.  It was originally cast in England by Whitechapel Foundry in 1751, arrived in Philadelphia in 1752, and was hung in March, 1753 to commemorate Pennsylvania's 50th birthday.   The clapper broke the bell as it was hung up to try the sound.  Pass and Stowe (think about the movie, "National Treasure") were given the bell to melt down and recast.  Hoping to make it less brittle they added some copper to the original metal, but this resulted in a sound that was not at all pleasing.  Pass and Stowe again broke up the bell, melted it down, recast it a second time and hung - all 2,080 pounds of it - in June, 1753.

The sound was still not acceptable, so Whitechapel was asked to cast a completely new one.  When it arrived from England it's sound was no better, so they hung the new one elsewhere and kept what we now know as the Liberty Bell in the State House belfry.

The Liberty Bell was rung often, but it specifically "tolled when Benjamin Franklin was sent to England to address Colonial grievances, it tolled when King George III ascended to the throne in 1761, and it tolled to call together the people of Philadelphia to discuss the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765...
It continued tolling for the First Continental Congress in 1774, the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 and its most resonant tolling was on July 8, 1776, when it summoned the citizenry for the reading of the Declaration of Independence."

"In October 1777, the British occupied Philadelphia. Weeks earlier all bells, including the Liberty Bell, were removed from the city. It was well understood that, if left, they would likely be melted down and used for cannon. The Liberty Bell was removed from the city and hidden in the floorboards of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania." 

The bell rang last in February, 1846 to honor the birthday of George Washington.  Cracked again, they filed the edges of the crack to prevent them from vibrating against each other when the clapper struck the bell, and continued ringing it.  About noon on that day it cracked in a zig-zag compound way and essentially silencing it.


X-rays show attempts to repair the final crack, and another photo shows a "spider" that was installed to help the bell support it's own weight:

Surprising to me is the fact that the American Revolution was not responsible for the State House bell becoming the "Liberty" bell.  The fact is, the abolitionists gave it that name in 1837, referencing the inscription on it from the Bible book of Leviticus, chapter 25, verse 10: "...proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."  


The Liberty Bell has since become THE symbol of liberty for the WHOLE world - not just America.


There is so much more to this story.  The Liberty Bell Center, located in front of the Pennsylvania State House/Independence Hall, has an enormous amount of information concerning the Bell.  What you have read here is just the tip of an iceberg of information.  It's a must-see for yourself.

Mother Nature Strikes Again

Well, doogies!  I guess Mother Nature didn't think two Hawaiian tsunami's, a rare east coast earthquake, and a hurricane weren't enough.  Now we get a very rare October snowstorm that knocked out power to millions here on the east coast.  Maybe our kids were right when they teasingly said trouble follows us!  All I can say is, trouble better hang on 'cause we'll be movin' on in a few weeks to who-knows-where!

Don't cha just love it!