Living History Museum

2012-11-02

In addition to teaching English, I also work as a tour guide at a local history museum.

The museum is called Alabama Constitution Village because it is the location where Alabama’s state constitution was written in 1819.

It is called a living history museum because we demonstrate what life was like in 1819. We make candles, cook over an open fire, give tours of buildings from 1819, and teach school children dances that were popular then. We also have a blacksmith, who shows how nails were made by hand. These are only a few of the activities we do.

All of the guides dress in the fashion of 1819. We cannot carry cell phones, water bottles, or wear wristwatches. We give tours to school groups and to the general public.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas, the village is transformed into “Santa’s Village.” Then the guides are supposed to be elves. We keep two reindeer at the village during that month and we do many Christmas-related activities with school children. It is our busiest time of the year. Although Santa’s Village is fun, I prefer the historical tours.

Below are two pictures of me in my historical costume.

In one, I am giving a tour. I am explaining the uses of herbs in 1819 to a group of tourists.

There are also two pictures of Santa’s Village. One photo shows the reindeer we had last year; the other shows some of the guides or “elves.”

I am the second person from the right seated on the front row. My hair looks red in this photo, but it is actually dark brown. All of us usually wear elf hats, but it had rained on the day this picture was taken and many of our hats were too wet to wear in the photo.

Santa’s Village will start again soon. I expect it to be very busy, exhausting, and fun.

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