| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 15 February 2005 |
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There is also an Exploratorium sort of science museum (again smaller, but hands on) that they have on multiple floors so it is called a tree house. One of the floors give kids access to the worldwide web and computer games.
Returning to the main building there is an exhibit showing the origins of cowboy life and what the life was actually like, and they compare cowboy life to the myth in movies and TV shows. That was somewhat nostalgic since they showed on video clips of programs I would watch as a five-year-old. I thought this was a better exhibit on the West than Fort Worth had. The second floor had an exhibit on mummies and Ancient Egypt with the oddest exhibit being an opportunity to small the hand of a mummy.
There was an exhibit on Indians and one video on their 'mental technology,' a strange term for mysticism.
A room had a strange exhibit of animal products in furniture showing mostly chairs made of antlers.
We were a bit tired and it was getting toward 6 PM so we went back to the motel. We discovered that I had the refrigerator in the room turned up too much and it had frozen our soda. Opening a can was an interesting experience. At some point bugs had gotten into some of our snack stuff. I think they were probably still hiding in one of the boxes so I packed each one in a Ziplock bag. Sure enough, in a few minutes there were little bug in the Snackwells Ziplock. Ziplock bags turn out to be surprisingly useful on a trip. Each night I take things out of my pockets and put them in a Ziplock. That makes it a lot harder to leave things around. It is particularly useful if there is no table next to the bed and I have to leave things on the floor. I haven't had to, but some use them as inflatable pillows.
Because you have to open film canisters to know if the film in them is spent or fresh, I put two Ziplocks in a third. I label one 'new,' and one 'used.' it has been too warm to wear undershirts so I have one that I wear at night and took the rest and stuffed them in a Ziplock and put them in the trunk of the car.
We watched a 'Nova' on finding planets around other stars and worked on our logs.
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08/27/97--San Antonio, Texas: Museums and the Alamo:
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This has not been a good trip as far as small maladies. There seems to be a quiet epidemic of conjunctivitis at work. I have gotten it three times this year; I never had it before. The third time was a couple of days before the trip started. So the early parts of the trip I was seeing blurry out of my left eye. That went away, only to be replaced by a cold. Vitamin C, tends to keep colds light for me, but it let me down a bit this time. It still is not a bad cold like I used to get, but it refuses to leave and has become a cough. I first took Vitamin C for a cold twenty-five years ago last night. That turned out to be the first mild cold I could remember having for many years. I used to get a cold each year and it was always a doozy. Twenty-five years ago I was desperate, and Vitamin C seemed to really work for me. It has usually worked since. There seem to be just a few people for whom it works really well and I am one.
Well, speaking of twenty-five years ago, this is my 25th wedding anniversary. We probably won't do anything special, but I think we will try extra hard to express our love for each other. (not that way! But say, it isn't a bad idea!) We usually do that several times a day anyway. I actually am very systematic about it. I look for different ways to show it. On the 27th of every month I give Evelyn breakfast in bed, though when we travel it is usually in token. Two or three times a month I leave a chocolate on her pillow. I consider it very important to romance her constantly, on a daily basis. I think it has subtle effects on each of our attitudes on a subconscious level.
One of the women I work with apparently tried to raise Evelyn's consciousness at one point, organizing a group of women to get together and complain about their significant others. (This is an activity that I consider extremely destructive in any case. I would never air a serious complaint about Evelyn in front of other people. There might have been a time when I would, but I am a lot smarter now.)
'Don't you want things fairer around your house?' Evelyn was asked. 'They are fair now.' 'Well, don't you have to do most of the housework?' 'No, Mark does most.' 'He does? But don't you have to do the ugly jobs like cleaning the toilets?' 'Mark does that.' 'But don't you have to remind him when to do that?' 'He has a box of cards on his desk to tell him that.' At this point my co-worker gave up on Evelyn as a lost cause.
A couple of notes. Evelyn has maintained for years I do more housework than she does. It is very nice of her, but not true from my point of view. Just as well we don't resolve this agreement. I have a box on my desk at work with index cards and a divider for each day of the month. I will have cards that say things like 'clean sinks' and have in the upper corner a +21. That means when it comes up I add it to my list of things to do and then move the card twenty-one days into the future.
Anyway, Happy Anniversary to the joy of my life. As we go to historical sites they talk a lot about centuries. Now we know what one is. It is four of what we have had. Tomorrow it will be less than four.The Spanish Governors Palace shows the visitor what the most comfortable house in town was like during the time the Spanish ruled. Much of the decoration used wrought iron. There were three bedroom on the left, In the middle was what was unaccountably called a ballroom. It was something like ten by twenty feet. There were some nice gardens in the back, but overall it must been an uncomfortable way to live by modern standards. But I suppose it must have seemed cool and pleasant at the time. We wandered the house for about half an hour.
The Fort Sam Houston Medical Department Museum is only vaguely pointed to in the AAA book. It is between two roads. A little wandering and we found it. This museum has such marvels as Milk Sediment Testers and a glass eye. They have a wall with a timeline listing Presidents, Science/Technology, Medicine, Events, Surgeon General, and Army Medical Department Events. They have an army ambulance, little more than a wagon, from 1909. It has a sign that says 'Keep off.' That sounds like good advice even for 1909.
They have surgical instruments including saws and how-to pictures from the surgery manual on the best style for amputation.
I have to check my history. They have a picture called 'Evacuation of the Wounded from the Battle of the Little Big Horn.' I thought there were none.
One of the unusual exhibits is 'Agnes' a life-sized statue of a nude female. The 45th Surgical Hospital acquired the wood statue somewhere in Souel and it became a treasured mascot. The Army engineers tried to steal her, but the attempt was foiled. The mayor of Souel gave it to the unit in 1954 making it legal rather than loot.
The museum covers the history of the Army Medical Corps through Desert Storm.
A little further into the base is the Fort Sam Houston Museum. On display is a percussion pistol from 1842, a Hall carbine from 1836. There is a camel bell from the attempt to use camels in Texas. They proved not suited to the topography and they spooked the horses. They have Civil War guns, and a light cavalry saber. Geronimo was held here and legend says when taken up to a sixty- foot clock-tower he was frightened by the gonging of the clock and jumped sixty feet. Actually the claim is that he would not go near the edge because he was afraid of being pushed. He survived the fall by avoiding it entirely.
There is a display on moveable boards you leaf through in book fashion telling the story of Teddy Roosevelt and the Spanish American War.
There is also a fifty-five-minute film about the Spanish-American War and especially the charge up San Juan Hill. We watched the account of San Juan Hill, but the tape was too long to watch the whole thing.
The display continues into World War I showing uniforms and guns. Again with World War II we have uniforms and guns. Also ration books and bullets. Again they have a panel display of the fort and World War II. Similar displays for Korea, a small one for Vietnam. They have more for Desert Storm than Vietnam.
Outside the base we were going to go to a Cajun restaurant, but we passed a Thai-Chinese place. We both love Thai food. Actually they seem to have more Chinese than Thai. Their Hot and Sour soup was just okay. Their Thai iced coffee was not as good as at home, but it still was quite tasty. I had something they called Penang Nuan. It was beef in a coconut milk and hot pepper. They made it spicy for me on request. On the way out I traded some Thai with the owner. I exhausted my very limited Thai vocabulary thanking her ('Khap kun krahp'), telling her it was delicious ('Aroy'), and saying good-bye ('La-con').
From there we went to the Marriott and registered. This was one of the convention hotels for the World Science Fiction Convention. In the elevator on the way up we noticed a bag with a Lucent Technologies card for identification.
We went to the room, then went to the other hotel to register for the convention. From there it was over to the Alamo. I read bits and pieces about the history on some boards, but it did not all come together until I saw the film at the Alamo Museum.
Originally the Spanish built the missions to cement their control on the Texas area from the colonizing French who recognized the land was rich. The Spanish thought they could control the indigenous population better if they were Christianized. In 1691, San Antonio had its first mass performed in the area and a mission was established around 1724 which would become the Alamo. In 1778, diseases depopulated the mission. In 1793, the Texas missions started to be secularized and the first was the Alamo. About this time the mission was first called the Alamo or the Cottonwood. (Note that New Mexico has well-known places called The Cottonwoods and Fat Cottonwood, but in Spanish.) In 1835, the Alamo became a Mexican fort. General Martin Perfecto de Cos held the San Antonio region using the Alamo as a fort and the center of his command. The separatists captured region and the Alamo from Cos. Most Anglos in Texas thought that this meant they won the war.
So what was the separatist revolution all about? Well, Mexico declared independence from Spain in 1821. That was fifteen years earlier. In that time Mexico saw it was growing bananas and set out to prove that a country could be a banana republic. In fifteen years they had one emperor, eleven presidents, and one dictator. This is not the kind of atmosphere in which to grow rich. Santa Anna was elected President and in 1834 named himself dictator. He abolished the constitution of 1824, one similar to the United States Constitution. That bothered the Texans. Was freedom really an issue? Well, in a sense, but it was freedom for whites. Texas wanted slaves and Mexico would not let them have them. (See Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. One of the first acts of the Republic of Texas when it was formed was to order all free black people out. Thereafter until the end of the Civil War, slavery was perfectly legal in Texas. You didn't hear about that in the John Wayne movie.)
Santa Anna was aware of the Texian Anglo separatists and decided to put a stop to their revolution once and for all. He obtained some high-interest loans from the Church (who forbade usury by others). Santa Anna took the money and raised an army and marched against Texas with four thousand men. |
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