jonmac wrote:
>
> Listers,
> A small anecdote from BMIHT happenings over the weekend. Saturday afternoon
> saw a Mum and Dad with four kids - whether all theirs or not, I don't know.
> Suffice it to say the kids were everywhere, climbing over the exhibits,
> opening doors and generally being an absolute pest. At different times
> during their visit, those of us who were in attendance, challenged both
> kids and parents with progressively more severity to behave themselves in
> the interests of their own safety - as well in an attempt to ensure the
> vehicles remained undamaged. The parents were oblivious to the kids antics
> and just whined "they're having fun."
One of the better auto museums in the Boston, Massachusetts area is the
Larz Anderson museum--lots of interesting cars, up to and including
Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 Cadillac parade car. And, I suppose, foresight
has caused them to rope off all the cars. Maybe that's not the spirit of
the BMIHT, but as museum pieces, they deserve better treatment. If we
respect artifacts as needing to be preserved, then they should be
preserved. And wear and tear and abuse should be curbed, whenever
possible.
When I lived in England in the mid-1950s, Stonehenge was just out there
in the open for anyone to visit, walk on, sit on (and, unfortunately, to
chip off little hunks and take home). Never got the chance to visit it.
Now, it's fenced off because it hadn't been preserved. Do I lament the
opportunity to walk around that site up close? Yes. Do I understand why
it was done? Equally, yes.
There's something in people that makes them want to touch something old
and precious, perhaps because it is, or because its lines are smooth and
flowing... who hasn't had to urge to reach out and sneak a feel of a
beautiful piece of sculpture in a museum or gallery?
But, kids obviously see the cars in the BMIHT as a toy or a family car,
and get boisterous. That's when one sees the need for a prominent sign
at the entrance that the cars inside are valuable, and that parents need
to control their children, or they will be ejected (well, perhaps
slightly more polite, but equally forceful, language would do). <g>
> When they'd gone (which was just before we chucked them out) a tour of the
> Triumph's section revealed a Triumph 2000 Saloon with a kicked-in front
> licence plate.
Time to get that was before they left, and charge `em.... <g>
Cheers.
--
My other Triumph runs, but....
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