Educating Young Skulls Full of Mush

I've been leading docent tours at the Southern Arizona Transportation Museum. One of the things I love about this is getting to educate a few young skulls full of mush, but sometimes it does gets depressing.

For those of you who are not familiar with southern Arizona, this museum and modern day railroad depot is built at the site of the old railroad depot where Wyatt Earp gunned down Frank Stillwell, and there is a statue of Wyatt and Doc behind the main building. Needless to say, that is my favorite spot for interpretation.

I always begin by asking if anyone has ever heard of Wyatt Earp. Most days virtually all of the hands go up, but the other day I actually had a few kids who had never heard of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Tombstone, or the Gunfight (near) the O.K. Corral. I then asked if anyone had seen the movie "Tombstone" and only a couple of hands went up. Everyone else, including a few of the adults, just gave me the Bambi in the headlights stare. Perhaps the weather was a factor. I can only describe today as being stinking hot. But then again, as someone I once knew often used to say, some mothers have them. So Auntie Gayle immediately got into her story telling mode and gave them just a bit of an education. Whether or not it meant anything is another thing entirely.

Well folks, I don't think it's just Hollywood that's dumbing down our society. At least when I'm dealing with folks who've seen the movie "Tombstone" I have a starting point and from there I can point out what was fact and what was fiction. But when I just get blank stares I do get a bit depressed. What can I say. The schools are doing a fantastic job of dumbing down our kids. But on the other hand maybe I shouldn't complain too much. As long as the schools keep producing graduates who are completely uninformed but supposedly have high self-esteem, we authors and living historians will have a job, right?

My thought for the day.

GM