[log in to unmask] wrote:

>     As to theme parks I will continue to avoid the Auschwitz Gift
>     Shop. And Chernobyl has become a hot spot for eco tourism.
>
> People are curious.  And we - or at least I - cannot expect them to 
> drop the socially-programmed activity of consumption even if touring a 
> horror site.

I would not stop them either. My personal preference is to look for 
places with no or obscure labels. When you visit the San Jacinto 
Monument east of Houston they do not tell you there that the surrounding 
lakes were described as red with the color depth of blood. Even when 
there is a curiosity regarding history it is often a cleansed and 
packaged history that we encounter if we are not ourselves historians by 
avocation or profession to go look further for ourselves.

>     Was not a precursor to Disneyland Colonial Williamsburg?
>
> And what was the precursor to CW?  Coney Island's fantasy areas would 
> be my guess.

Sacriligious to inquire, I suppose, but I would be curious to know the 
social/historical background of our historic theme villages. Not through 
the eyes of proponents of the habit. The historian Daniel Boorstein 
wrote an essay about this as I recall... I should go look for it. 
Greenfield Village, Ford's little collection of buildings in Dearborn is 
an interesting example. Besides his industrial fame he was a very quirky 
fellow. If you had enough money and too much time to meddle what 
building would you purchase and relocate?

>      As an aside, I bought on e-bay one of the medals that the
>     worker's who ran into the reactor and dropped sandbags were given. 
>
> Interesting, the Russian tradition of striking event-specific medals, 
> one we used to share up through 1900.  Would have been thoughtful to 
> strike some September 11th medals, but then everyone would have been 
> scrambling and politicking for one, interpreting a medal for 
> demonstrated heroism with being a victim.   Katrina medals.  Mt. St. 
> Helens.  Governor Dean, Robert Byrd, others for warning against Iraq.  
> A civil rights era medal.
>  
> How much was the medal?  Where was it sold from?

I do not remember exactly. There were several choices available. The 
greatest variation was if it came with the original box, or not. I went 
for the box. As I recall it was on the scale of $3.00 from someone on 
Staten Island. If you knew what you were looking for I bet you could 
pick one up at the flea market down near Canal on a Saturday morning.

We can have struck a BP medal if it suits you. Or better yet, a really 
large belt buckle! I saw a storefront full of enormous belt buckles 
yesterday and was curious who would wear them. Like at my age I need 
something heavy to keep my pants down from rising upwards.

][<en

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