Last night was the monthly AAUW meeting. This one was a little different; we were getting a tour of the local historical museum (the Three Valley Museum).

As is typical of many people, I think, I never go to see the attractions in my town. A couple other people had never been in the museum, either. (It's only been in its current home a few years).

It was pretty fascinating. I find any kind of "how people used to live" museum interesting, but it's even more so when it's your own town and you actually know people who are related to people featured in the museum. (I go to church with the grandson of Dr. Haynie, one of the well-known doctors here (in the 1930s, I think, was when he started his practice?)

It was interesting because I live in a pretty rural area and so a lot of the "old ways" (agriculturally and such) were hung on to for longer than in some parts of the country.

I was actually kind of gratified by how many of the old agricultural implements I recognized (and a few, I've actually used...we had one of the old "push" cultivators, my dad bought it at an auction somewhere and we used it in the garden).

And a lot of the other "older" stuff, I recognized from my grandmother's house - she had an old wringer-type washer (well, not gasoline powered like the one in the museum - hers was electric and was pink like Pepto-Bismol). And the rug beater. And the old Victrola that took cylinders rather than flat records.

Again - I'm really only 2 generations removed from a lot of this stuff, because my parents were older when they had me, and their parents were older when they had them. So I can look at a lot of the stuff from the 1910s and 20s and 30s and think, "Ah yes, I remember Grandma talking about that."

I'm also kind of a, what would you call it, social history? (where it's how people lived, what they wore, how they cooked, what kind of entertainment was popular) buff, so I knew a lot of the stuff already. But it was still cool seeing it.

They had everything on display - a series of model rooms from a house of the 1920s, old letter sweaters from the various schools in the area, agricultural stuff. They had a couple of cars - a model A from 1931 and a 1948 (IIRC) Buick straight-eight. (I think I impressed the other ladies because I knew the difference between a straight-eight and a V-8. I don't know where I picked that bit of knowledge up, but I have lots of bits of random knowledge like that. Maybe I overheard my dad and granddad talking about it when I was a little kid and I just remembered.).

The old Buick was particularly interesting; standing next to it I realized just how small passenger cars have become over the years - it was almost as tall as my minivan and I am sure it was longer. And heavier. I'm sure its gas mileage was horribly low but the thing was a tank, it looked like if it got into a wreck with a modern car, the modern car would just bounce off of it like a Nerf ball.

They also had displays on the three tribes (Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Caddo) that historically lived in this area. We were moving kind of fast at that point (it was a tour led by a docent) so I didn't have time to read all the information, I want to go back and look more closely at it. (Also, they had a Choctaw Bible, and I wanted to look more closely at it to see if I could figure out what book they had it open to...I don't know a word of Choctaw but it's kind of fascinating to look at a book you know well in a totally different language). So I want to go back at some point.

And if I ever have anyone visiting me from "away," now I know what to do with them that's interesting, even if it's raining. (There's a lot of interesting outdoor stuff to do, not as many things for when it's cold or the weather is bad).

And the museum is free - it's supported by members (I'm a member, it's only $15 for an individual for a year) and by donations.