Gift Shop Report
By Sue McMahan
In the gift shop there is a new supply of Pat Flynn's cards. The new selections, Pat says, were inspired by the desert "flower show" this spring. We still have Mockle flower cards too and another nice assortment from a Borrego Springs artist.
The company that makes the "Advice from..." tee shirts has some cute youth sized shirts which we ordered. They feature bugs, frogs, "icky creatures", and such. Two of the designs glow in the dark. A perfect gift for Grandma.
The next time Betty and I get together, we'll be putting in orders for kid's stuff. This has become necessary since we were visited by 50 Fourth Graders from Friendly Hills Elementary in Joshua Tree on June 10th. They cleared us out of some of the most popular merchandise. This time the favorite items were Mood Rings and Harmonicas. Go figure! Candy supplies are also low so we'll be restocking.
As far as the school tour that day, because it was Fourth Grade rather than the usual Third, the format was different. Doris Lawless and Jim Woolsey talked about the four people groups who have called our desert home. Jim talked about miners. The new mine display in the corner which Marilyn Fernald and Bruce Arnett have created makes a perfect classroom for this subject and the kids really "dug" hearing about the artifacts on display. The questionaire Doris and I developed for this age group is designed to make them understand what they're seeing and put the artifacts into context for the time period. To make this work for large groups we divide them into smaller groups. While one group is in the display room, another group is in the classroom. There I talk about the Homesteaders and how the school came to be built, making note of the differences in a classroom in 1927 and a present classroom. Meanwhile Carolyn Luke and Nolan Lockwood have a third group in the gift shop where they are extremely busy. After about 25 minutes the groups rotate so all are exposed to the complete museum. It makes for a busy morning and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the bus departed for Luckie Park for swimming and a picnic. This was the final day for this school year. We'll recoup this summer because next fall it all begins again.
Last month on May 9th we welcomed three Third grade classes from Palm Vista Elementary. The school is close enough for the children, teachers, and chaperones to walk down the hill to the museum. The visit was going as scheduled until I got in a hurry, made a misstep on the steps of the museum porch, fell, and ended up with two really nice paramedics insisting I needed to get stitches. I pointed out that we had 90 third grades who had come to see the museum and could I put it off for an hour and a half? To which they replied, "No Ma'am." Luckily Hank Garvin had come over to see why an Emergency Vehicle was at the museum and offered to drive me to Yucca Valley to see the doctor as I really didn't want to go in an ambulance or sit in the Emergency Room. So Joyce Tisdale and Doris managed to pull off the impossible, conducting the usual tour, even allowing time for shopping. Now that is dedication. What a team!
