As you can see, we are traveling faster than we have for a while. We want to get back to Iowa for August 27, when our reservation in one of our favorite campgrounds begins. BTW - I have a 2-hour dental appointment scheduled for Monday the 31 to take care of this chipped tooth. I can’t wait to get back - maybe you can detect the sarcasm in that last remark. Meanwhile, we’re in Seneca Falls, NY, home of the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. We also found some other museums that we want to visit and think we can do them all in one day. We’re trying to keep to our schedule: 1 day of travel, 1 day of exploring and 1 day of rest and relaxation.
New York puts signs like this along its highways. The first sign reads something like: ‘You can wait, text stop coming up.’ Then, this sign appears when the rest/test stop is the next exit.
I’m in the process of planning what we want to do next spring and summer. We have some friends who are just finishing up a 3-month trip in Alaska and have been sending us some wonderful pictures. The kind of pictures that make me want to head up to Alaska - right now. On the other hand, there are some hikes that I’d like to do in Europe and, since we’re not getting any younger, we’d better do them while we can. Thus, I’m torn: Alaska or Europe? Ah, I just can’t seem to make up my mind. Just as soon as I decide on Europe, I change my mind and decide on Alaska. Then, just as I decide on Alaska, I change my mind and decide on Europe. Should I toss a coin? I want to make up my mind soon so I can begin to plan where to spend January - March: if we want to go to Alaska, we’ll spend time in southern California and move up the coast. If we want to go to Europe, we’ll spend time further east, probably Texas and fly from there.
I’ve got to decide soon. Ah, maybe tomorrow.
Meanwhile we’re in Seneca Falls, NY where the Women’s Rights National HS is. We parked by the canal and noticed some of their canal boats waiting for people to rent them. Cool. We detoured and talked with the owner about rentals and where you could go on them. We asked if we could take a look in one - not for this trip but for the future. (I saw the canal boats in England and thought it would be cool to rent one for a week and ply our way up and down the canals. Maybe we could do it here although their canal system is much more extensive.) Here are some pictures I took. What could be cozier and more fun?
And, here’s someone going through the training. Oops, don’t run into that cement.
We then walked up the hill to the Women’s Rights NHS.
Interesting with lots of displays showing how Women’s Rights has evolved along with some other thoughts. There were some displays about clothing. Here’s one about corsets and how constraining and damaging they were.
But, then they also showed some men’s fashion and they looked almost as constraining.
No wonder, Amelia Bloomer was popular. Here’s her fashion statement. Aha - the first woman to wear ‘pants.’
Next we walked down to the ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Museum. Huh? Well, it seems that Frank Capra visited and walked through Seneca Falls right before he began work on the movie. Barber Tommy Belissima cut his hair right after he got out of the army placing him in Seneca Falls right at the time he was developing his script for ‘It’s A Wonderful Life.’ The names Rochester, Buffalo, Elmira, Cornell and Partridge (a prominent name in Seneca Falls) were not in pre-Seneca Falls scripts.
He also made several significant changes to his original script which come right from Seneca Falls stories. Thus, many think that Seneca Falls is the ‘real’ Bedford Falls in the finished script. Every December they have Bedford Falls Days and celebrate the movie. 2 of the stars in the movie, the two daughters of Jimmy Stewart come and speak and join in the fun. The Post Office even cancels letters and post cards with the words ‘Bedford Falls’ for a month. Lots of people send their Christmas cards to the Post Office as far in advance as September asking the Post Office to hold off canceling them until they have the Bedford Falls cancellation stamp. How cool is that?
The museum is a lovingly attended museum by volunteers in the town. They have a display case for each and every one of the stars: Jimmy Stewart,handle Donna Reed and all the rest showing not only scenes from the movie but also scenes from other movies the star was in. Lots of quotes from everyone in the film and from Frank Capra also.
There was one picture showing the whole case which was so big that the photographer had to pan the group. Jimmy Stewart and Frank Capra posed on the right end of the picture and, as the photographer was panning to the other end, they ran in back of him and posed on the left end. Thus, they are at both ends of the picture.
We also saw this fine group in their period clothing.
All kidding aside the movie is timeless and is still shown on TV around Christmas. Frank Capra intended it to show humanity at its best, to renew people’s faith in themselves and others. It proclaims the value of each individual to society and vividly shows how each life touches many others. A great message for the post-WWII period when so many had died and people were looking for uplifting themes.
We also enjoyed the Waterways and Industry Museum in town which was more a history museum of the town. Because they had so many falls, factories built right on the river to use the water powers. Here are the falls and some of the factories. Originally there were quite a few falls when there were lots of factories but when electricity was invented and factories did not need to be built on falls, they ‘smoothed’ them out to make only a few and then they eliminated them all together and put in locks to make the Erie Canal and boats could carry goods up and down. Now, it’s not so much the commercial boats but pleasure boats that go through the locks.
There, you have it - there are no falls in Seneca Falls.
I was intrigued by the iron company in Seneca Falls and its products. Each iron was a certain weight and each weight was used for something different. Here is the line-up of weights between 2 and 10 (second row from the top).
And, is here is what you might iron with the #4, #5 and #6 irons.
Then they had an iron from England that you put hot coals into. Of course these irons smoked and note that the ‘chimney, faces the person ironing. These were not popular.
A woman from Iowa invented an iron that had a detachable handle. Great idea: now the iron handle wouldn’t be hot since only the iron part needed to be heated and - you could buy several irons but needed only one handle. Clever.
‘Optimist: Person who travels on nothing from nowhere to happiness.’
Mark Twain
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