In a message dated 2/19/99 3:19:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

> the historic [now] "walking street" is a mall-like environment of
>  tourist shops -- endless mugs, crystals, ersatz memoribilia, etc. that
>  tourists like to buy. There was one authentic historic site, which depicted
>  the city at a particular historic period, but for the most part it was a
>  historic "theme park" -- crowded with large, ice cream-slurping tourists.

A contrast to this, for me, was going to Acapulco for a Building Stone
Institute conference. There is all that marketed sense of romance for
Acapulco, the cliff diving, the beach, scuba, golf, fishing & night spots for
celebrities. I was a bit put off by the police jeeps with machine guns mounted
in the rear. When Kathy & I tour we like to get to the authentic, the real
place where residents frequent. We talked the taxi driver into not taking us
to the gold outlet, it was not an easy task as he did not believe what we were
asking, but to go over the hill. I have felt more comfortable wandering around
alone in Bed Sty and Harlem than I felt then in over-the-hill Acapulco.

I think in part the "theme park" is a sanitized version of reality simply with
the idea to keep ourselves in a familiar comfort zone. McDonalds makes it by
selling the same cheeseburger wherever you go, no shocking surprizes --
therefore McDonalds becomes a metaphor of sanitized reality. What does
Colonial Williamsburg become? If we have to put up with mugs & doodads as the
cost of our sense of personal security then I think many people are willing to
sacrifice historic authenticity. I was put off by Boonesboro because the log
construction seemed so 50's, then again, it seemed so quaintly 50's. Whereas,
for Daniel authenticity would imply a realistic fear that the next group of
tourists he met may be out to maim, scalp and abduct his children into
slavery. Some of the most authentic America I ever saw was while being
stranded on the highway, with no money, hungry with my thumb out and not too
sure where I was going. I'm not inclined to seek out the experience of walking
through slum areas of Detroit without a map again, so give me a theme park or
a mall and I'm happy. I'm sure a few Vietnam Vets saw authentic landscapes and
would prefer not to revisit the event. If we want to get really authentic I
suppose we could go so far as Civil War re-enactments in which we conscript
from the general populace and then cut their legs with a handsaw off while
dosing them with whisky and opium tablets.

As to Florida, I think Wickee Watchee is kool! Has anyone noticed the icecream
stains on the historic sidewalk?

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