May 25th - May 31st

Monday was our last big day of kids because school is out for most folks now. I felt like things just fell into place. We were a little short with people to fill in so I had some extra responsibilities. There are 5 main points to the tour when we take a school group around. First, they start in the main museum and watch the 13 minute site film. It's fun to start there because I get to give all of the kids the big lecture about spitting out their gum and not taking flash photography when inside and not running or leaving the pathways and listening when the rangers are talking and so on and so forth. Then I get to take the group out on site. This week was fun because I got to take the group to three of the main areas out on site. I was in charge of the Flag Walk (a walkway with a flag and stone donated to us from every state), the bump gate (a gate specially designed by FDR to open when he tapped it with his bumper and close automatically behind him), and the Legacy Exhibit (Where the Unfinished Portrait is located). I have been watching and listening to the rangers very carefully trying to pick up on some of the stories and activities they do when they take the groups around and I am starting to pick up on a lot of them. Now I have developed my own way of showing off each exhibit. Everything is running so smoothly and I am not afraid of answering questions or taking the groups around by myself. There are few questions I can't answer now and when on comes along I just radio a nearby ranger if I don't know the answer
This week I got to feel out a bunch of new skills and opportunities. On Thursday we were very overstaffed, or what seemed like it to me. I wasn't sure what to do with myself for about the first hour. Then Loette, on of the rangers on staff, came and ushered me into the Artifact room. The artifact room is a huge room adjacent to the main body of the museum where all of the excess artifacts are kept in acid free paper and on acid free cardboard in huge cages. Our artifact room is the envy of a lot of different sites, or so I'm told. Loette is still going through and organizing most of the artifacts and cataloging them. That is what I did for the rest of the day. We pulled out a bunch of old pictures and some old soldiers uniforms and wheelchairs and everything under the sun. I would take pictures of each item and Loette would write down the artifact number and description. Eventually, this information will be entered into the computer for easy access. I had to wear white glove all day long that turn yellow pretty quickly because of all of the dust. I spent a lot of time sneezing. I really enjoyed it all. I am a total history buff, so to be able to see a lot of it in action was an incredible experience. I sorted through some old blankets that were given to FDR as a gift. They were all so intricate in detail and I thought about how it must have been when these were in their heyday. He would have taken them out and had them place on the bed or hung from the wall. There was one in particular that was given to him from Germany. It was a crocheted picture of a phoenix that had something written in Latin on it. It was very fragile and frayed at the ends but nonetheless beautiful.
Friday was a fun day as well. I got here and was told that I would be down in the gift shop all day. I had previously learned how to use the cash register, but hadn't gone very deep into the system yet. Diane, the gift shop manager, wanted me to do just that. I stood there and went through all the tabs and she explained what each one would do. I toyed around with some things and found where they print their daily reports. I could also keep up with the admissions totals and see how many of each age group had been admitted for the day. This really interests me because i enjoy paying attention to the demographics of the people who come here. I am always apt to ask people where they are visiting from and what made them come here instead of certain other sites in the area. This is definitely a heritage site. People come here because of the memories it stirs up from their own lives. So many people remember FDR and what they did for them or their families. Anyway, so I spent a lot of time getting to know where things were in the gift shop and what sort of items we sell to people.
At lunchtime I got a call from my boss and he wanted to pay for one of the interpretive rangers to go and take me to lunch to show appreciation for the work I have done here. I was surprised, but it was a very nice gesture. I spent the rest of the day with the "Terp" and we delivered fliers for upcoming programs and got to know the community a little bit better. We finally ended up in the Warm Springs Welcome center. It was the old train station that FDR would travel in and out of and they made it into a really nice welcome center. The lady working there, Sarah, was really nice. She talked to me for a longtime about the importance of hospitality and some of the career options in my field of study. She then invited me to come back and volunteer at the welcome center sometime. I think i might do it. It would be a chance to get a little more experience and that is what this summer is all about.
Today is Saturday and I am off tomorrow. Saturdays are kind of lazy days when I have the chance to catch up on journal entries and go down on site to help people out with breaks. On Monday I will start working with the secretary in the office learning about the duties that fall under her job. I will also spend some time with maintenance next week for a couple of days taking care of the grounds. I'm looking forward to it, but I am excited for my day of rest tomorrow! The little White House is definitely treating me well.