Museum Startles

Last week the weather was fine so we went on a day trip to a lovely little village situated in a picturesque location by the water. We had read about a museum there and thought it would be an interesting place to visit. When we arrived we were startled to find that we weren't the only ones who were visiting that day. Both sides of the main street were lined with parked cars and the sidewalks were crowded with tourists who were making their way from shop to shop. We drove on and we could see the road clearing a few blocks ahead. We finally passed the parked cars and found plenty of parking away from the shops and restaurants. As I got out of the car I was pleasantly surprised to see the museum right across the street.

The museum was located inside a very old building (old for Canada, that is, probably less than 200 years old) that was once a busy carpenter's shop. Every available inch on the walls was covered with articles from bygone days, each one accompanied by a neatly printed card explaining the purpose of the item. I kept my eyes open for possible spanking-related items and I wasn't disappointed.

I don't have a cell phone with a camera (or even a cell phone without a camera) so I didn't take any pictures. All the pictures below were found on the internet just to give you an idea of what we saw. 

First, we stopped at a glass case displaying personal grooming things and saw a very old, very long, leather razor strop.

The razor strop was easily two feet (60 cm) long and doubled over. I'm sure it would have cracked had it been straightened out. Just as well it was no longer used for its intended purpose of warming someone's bottom. It looked positively evil!

In another area a display of cleaning goods included a giant carpet beater. It was easily twice as long and wide as the ones we have for play. I pointed it out to Ron, who smiled and said he liked ours better.

There was also a small corner devoted to items used in the schools of the 19th century. There was a slate, a wooden pencil box, maps, a tiny desk, quills, and of course, the tools of a teacher's trade:

a wooden yardstick, for keeping order

and a rubber-tipped teacher's pointer, supposedly for pointing to things on the blackboard or on a wall map. I know it was also useful for getting an idle pupil's attention. I've seen it in action.


Upstairs there were more displays of life way back then, including a little bedroom complete with quilts, a rocking chair and a doll's house. There were also collections of articles used in the dairy for making butter and cheese. At the cheese-making exhibit I saw a row of wooden paddles like the one below.

The paddles were aligned on their sides and there were at least a dozen of them. There was no card beside them so I don't know if they were a collection of cheese boards, or if they were somehow involved in the process of cutting the curds into small blocks. It was a very useful paddle rack.

On the way back downstairs we enjoyed an exhibit of early law enforcement  that included the actual door of a jail cell as well as various pairs of handcuffs, a jailer's leather belt, and a picture of the old jail itself.

It was quite a small museum and we were through in half an hour, but on the kink-o-meter I thought it scored quite high. Don't you?