December 27, 1992

The tape is labeled 'Museum - December 27, 1992' and I find no reason to doubt that date. It can't be much earlier as it's clearly winter and I'm wearing the Ramones concert T-shirt I got October 30, 1992. It would make sense that I'd wear it later that year in an effort to show it off to my friends, some of which I wasn't seeing regularly anymore after I'd graduated from high school in June 1992.

I watched the tape a few years ago in order to pull off some interesting moments for a 'home video' type collection DVD. In doing so, I cut the 40-50 minutes down to about 7. The camcorder gets passed around a lot so there's a great deal of really shaky cam and messing around. The messing around was good for the other project but last night I watched it/skimmed it in an effort to see if there were any images I could pull from it in order to compare and contrast the Museum as it appeared then to how it looks now. The messing around is less good for this project.

The good news is that there's some areas captured that have changed drastically from then to now. I don't know if there are any decent stills I can pull from the tape to show this, but I'm interested in trying. Two areas in particular would be good for this: the main area on the first floor and the Temples, Tells and Tombs exhibit on the second floor.

The main area on the first floor held the entrance to the building at that time, along with two gift shops and a coat check area. It was a very open area at that time. Now, the entrances are on the ground floor. The area that used to be the entrance on One holds a butterfly exhibit. The once open area is very crowded with new exhibits. Big change.

Temples, Tells, and Tombs was new (to me anyway) in 1992 and was removed in 2007 to make way for the enlarged traveling exhibit space where the Titanic relics are currently. The bulk of the items from that exhibit still on display are currently on the third floor and the wikipedia article for the Museum says they will be there permanently come next year. There are some signs that this is starting to occur now but, if the plan is to accomplish this in the area those items are currently located in, it will be a greatly cut down version of the exhibit. Still better than nothing.

I also have proof that the humpback whale skeleton was on the ground floor at the time. I'm not misremembering.

Some of my entertainment in watching it last night came from listening to myself. In a number of ways, I have not changed. Upon seeing the mummy in Temples, Tells, and Tombs, I immediately start telling my friends where he used to reside in the Museum, down on the first floor, in the Rise to Civilization exhibit. Some of my jokes are even the same from then to now. Some of my jokes were created by my friends that day and are stuck in my head. We must have had fun.

Good deal.