Museum Epiphany

 In this blog, I mention The Museum (aka The Tallahassee Museum, aka The Tallahassee Museum of Natural History and Science, aka the Junior Museum - which is a name people still used even though the name changed over 30 years ago).

It's the place I go to two mornings a week to clean habitats and make animal diets.  It's 90% of my social life.  It gets me out of the house, dressed, and in the presence of people.  It's a big piece of my identity - "I volunteer at the Tallahassee Museum."

The epiphany that just hit me is that I'm devoted to it because I trust it.  Odd thing to say.  But I trust it to be there.  And over the last few years there hasn't been much to trust.   My broken record recital - in three years Bob, three friends, and six cats died.  Other friends moved out of town.  My favorite grocery store (Lucky's) closed.  My favorite fast-food place (Rickshaw Tacos) closed.  I went to the Korean grocery store and restaurant - closed.  Coming home one afternoon I thought I'd stop for a Blaze Pizza - it's now a place to get a Brazilian wax job (*not* what I wanted for lunch).   Sometimes I'd treat myself to a latte at the coffee shop  - it's now a teen clothing store.   In this blog I've written about how happy I was that a little pink food truck had opened on weekends only a half-mile from me.  My reward for taking my trash to the dump was to go pick up lunch.  I could have called ahead - but I preferred to order there and then chat with Rhonda while she cooked.

Alas, there were not enough customers out this way, and she has found a permanent location in town - 19 miles from me.   I wish her luck, but will miss her shrimp po'boys and her grilled chicken, and I will miss our conversations.

And so it goes.  Things just keep falling away.  But the Museum?  I first went there with my ROTC group to help build a hawk cage somewhere around 1972 or 73 (yes - 50 years!).  I started volunteering at special events in the late 90's.  After I got fired from my FSU job in 2003 I was hired part time in the education department (a job I kept even after I went back to school and started teaching).  After 14 years I quit that department (long story; not important) but stayed to volunteer in the animal department.  So 2023 will mark 20 straight years of working there.

So, yeah.  That explains my devotion to it.  And my gratitude - sometimes they are surprised when I thank them for letting me work there (they think the gratitude should be on their part).   The staff are my friends.  I enjoy working with the college students.  But above all - it's been there for over 60 years and shows no sign of shutting down.  It's a place where I belong.  A place I can trust to be there, and to welcome me.  As it said in the TV show Cheers - it's a place where they know my name.