When it comes to vacation souvenirs, I am not a shot glass and coffee mug girl. I always hit up the local bookstores, find a Christmas ornament or two, and sometimes buy a t-shirt if there’s one I really like.
While in Cody, Wyoming last year, we visited a few thrift stores including one that benefits the local senior center. It’s called the Thrift Barn and it’s right next to the senior center in Cody. We were actually there twice.
If you read the suitcase story last year, you can likely guess that we had to go back because I left something behind. There’s definitely a pattern to this behavior but I had good reason.
You see, I found these absolutely gorgeous wolf bookends for just $15 for the set. One depicts a female and baby while the other is a male. Had I been driving home from Wyoming, there would be no question they should come home with me. However, I was flying and bag space was at a premium.
They are just heavy enough and large enough that I wasn’t sure I should try to take them home. I think they weigh about ten pounds.
So I left them behind, went on with my day, and waited for the store to close to panic over my obviously poor judgment.
We rearranged our plans so we could go back the next morning and they were still there, waiting patiently for me to take them home. I looked into having UPS ship them home for me but the cheapest they could do was $75.
So I ended up buying a cheap luggage scale and some packing material, putting one in each bag and saying a prayer that they could withstand the baggage handling system of three airports.
Luckily, they made it home safe and I am quite thrilled to see them every day.
Long story short, just buy the thing when you see something you really like. Don’t be like me and require two trips for the things you regret leaving behind.
By the way, this is a really nice thrift store that’s nicely organized and fairly priced. I also like that they use it for outreach to get seniors into the senior center. While we were there, they approached an older man who shops regularly for books and invited him into the center to see the books he can borrow. I bet they talked him into staying for lunch too!
Remember the magic of these coin operated mechanical kiddie rides? They were typically horses, rockets or cars that entertained the kids with a gentle rocking motion. Often situated outside department stores, supermarkets and other places parents take their children, these rides were still common when I was a kid and offered for just a few cents. Of course, that was practically a hundred years ago and you just don’t see them as much these days.
That’s too bad because kids loved them and they brought a lot of smiles for a small investment compared to what it costs to entertain some kids today.
I have seen them still operating in movie theater lobbies and you see them as decor in retro restaurants where they’re treated like museum pieces. But at the Moose Creek Lodge and Suites in downtown Cody, Wyoming, this little pony works and is available for rides at the bargain basement price of fifty cents. I’m a little big for a ride but it still made me smile to see it here and accessible to anyone with two quarters in their pocket.
One of the things that surprised me most about the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is the vast array of items they have on display. They have so many interesting things that it’s difficult to know where to start but the thing that surprised me most was their collection of pop art.
To be clear, pop art isn’t what I would call my thing but there’s a lot to be said for the talent and creativity that goes into this style and I want to show you some of my favorite pieces from.an exhibit called Pop Goes The West.
First there’s this oil painting called Fall Scene which Robert Seabeck created in 1979. It shows a red Ford truck pulling a blue and white travel trailer in a scene that is absolutely striking. The artist called it a contemporary representation of the covered wagons that early pioneers used to access the American West. It is as fresh and relevant today as it must have been almost fifty years ago.
I also liked this one called Fool’s Gold by Rachel Mosely. The man, in traditional western garb, looks like he could step off the canvas and launch into a story about the stick horse that he’s holding. I don’t know if it was intentional but this 2020 piece reminds me of James Dean’s character Jett Rink in the movie Giant.
Then there was this piece from Jane Deschner’s Silhouette Series that’s a collage of vintage photos. She uses snapshots of strangers to tell stories that explore our shared human experience. I found this one especially interesting because these snapshots remind me of the ones I collect. Old black and white photos are easily found in junk shops and antique stores, long abandoned by descendents of their subjects. She has hand stitched these photos together, a symbolic reminder of how we are all connected by the human experience.
Here’s a closer look.
I perhaps liked this one best of all.
So, the next time you’re about to go marching by something because it’s not your thing, I urge you to stop for a quick look and maybe you’ll see something that makes you want to linger.
The first time I saw Heart Mountain, it was a bleak and dreary day. That suited the mood of what we were about to endure – an interpretive center that breathes life into the story of an internment camp where Japanese Americans were held during World War II.
The interpretive center here is one of the very best I’ve ever experienced as they do a wonderful job not just telling the story but making you feel something for strangers.
It’s called empathy and we don’t have enough of this emotion these days.
It is an undeniable fact that Japan was our enemy and an unwaveringly cruel one at that. We were at war and our government argued that Japanese immigrants on this soil could present a threat. Never mind that many of these people had lived here for years and were proud, loyal Americans. Many were young children who should have been attending school with their friends and working on their Boy Scout projects.
Our government drew an arbitrary line down the western part of the United States and said anyone west of the line had to be contained. Never mind those folks living in the entire rest of the country. We were only concerned about the Japanese Americans who lived in that small area.
These camps were in places like Colorado, California, Wyoming and Arizona. About 2/3 of the 120,000 people sent to these camps were American citizens.
Heart Mountain is located near Cody, Wyoming which must have felt like a forsaken place, too cold and windy for west coasters who came without decent clothes, shoes or coats for the cold weather.
They left behind jobs, homes and businesses. They left behind middle class status. They left behind people and places important to them. They were permitted to bring just what they could carry in a suitcase and forced to sell, store or give away the rest of their possessions. They were not permitted to have pets and were forced to leave them behind.
They were assigned small barracks with thin walls, potbelly stoves for heat, and not enough fuel to go around.
Yet, they created a community where their children were educated and where they formed social clubs that made life better in that place. Many remained patriotic, proudly flying their American flags and insisting that their country would not do this to them if it weren’t for the good of the nation.
I read a comment by a man who said that they could have been marched off to their deaths and wouldn’t have known better. They went because they thought it was the right thing to do.
Racism toward Asian American people wasn’t a new concept. White farmers and business people didn’t like the competition from these “lesser” neighbors. It was commonly believed that Asian people were innately inferior and could never be real Americans.
Can you imagine?
But it’s this kind of racism that allows otherwise reasonable people to buy whatever lies and hysteria politicians are selling. It is this kind of racism that justifies ignoring the Constitution of the United States in favor of cruel indifference and a refusal of due process to those who have done nothing wrong.
How do you teach democracy in an internment camp?
That’s one of many questions you’ll explore there.
Heart Mountain is one of the single most important places I have visited and one that every American should experience for themselves. Honestly, I am doing a horrible job telling you this story. That’s due in part because it is such a complicated story to unwind and relate in a blog. Entire books have been written about what we did to those people and about what happened to some of them when they left. It’s also because this is one of the most gut wrenching places I have seen.
Our tour started with a short video that gave an overview of the Heart Mountain story. By the time the lights went up, I knew we were in for a special experience. Everyone should know these stories because we are doomed to repeat our mistakes when we ignore our history. This white washing of American history because it makes people feel bad for things that weren’t their fault is absolutely one of the dumbest things I have heard. Learning from the mistakes of our culture and the people before us is part of being human.
After the video, there are interactive displays, photos, and artifacts to help you learn the stories and understand the challenges these folks faced here.
The last time I saw Heart Mountain was a couple of days later. We returned to walk a short trail at sunset. At the center of this trail is a monument to the approximately 750 young men and women who were Heart Mountain residents who served their nation’s armed forces during World War II. These are the same young people whose liberties were stripped away by that very government.
Fifteen of them gave their lives for that nation.
We were there at the end of a beautiful day as the setting sun began to stripe the sky with colors only found in nature. It felt a little like nature was paying tribute to those who served as well as those who were born and died here, the ones who lost their homes and livelihoods, the ones who started over with a bus ticket and $25 in their pocket along with the silence of their government.
If you ever find yourself in the Cody area, please go visit Heart Mountain and experience it for yourself. If you are so inclined, there are many books written about the internment camps. Perhaps try reading one of them for help grasping why this matters. Visit Heart Mountain online.
Did you know that Annie Oakley had a dog that let her shoot an apple off its head?
Yeah. Me neither.
If you find yourself at the Buffalo Bill Center Of The West, you’ll see an interesting framed photo on the wall. It’s of Annie Oakley as she’s lining up her shot, her dog Dave calmly sitting on a stool with said apple on his head.
By that time, Annie had left Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and was performing on her own. Dave was a much loved pet and constant companion for Annie and her husband Frank Butler. In other words, there was a lot riding on that dog’s ability to stay still.
Even if you could find a dog willing to remain so calm and still the first time, I can’t imagine a dog so trusting and stoic that it would do it again.
Modern travelers don’t really understand what a journey was like before cars and airplanes made it quick and easy to move around. The human experience has changed so much since the days of stagecoaches that we can’t imagine needing months to cross the country when airlines can get us there in a matter of hours. Days spent in a buggy on a trip my Elantra could finish in hours is unfathomable.
Just inside the Buffalo Bill Center Of The West stands an old sightseeing coach that was once used to give folks tours of Yellowstone. They called it the Yellowstone Observation Wagon. Pulled by a team of four horses, it followed a set route at 6-8 miles per hour. At that pace, the route took about six days. Your car could travel it in four to seven hours, according to their signage.
These coaches fell out of fashion with the rise of the automobile and were deemed unsafe after cars were allowed in Yellowstone in 1915. The horses were afraid of noisy cars so the touring companies closed down the fleet in 1917. Unfortunately, a retired sightseeing coach wasn’t in demand at the time and those that didn’t sell were piled up and burned. This coach at the Buffalo Bill Museum is a rare survivor.
Imagine how dusty and exhausting that trip would be. Plus, you were packed into the wagon with other people including some you might not want falling asleep on your shoulder! There was also a chance that the driver would need you to get out and walk and passengers were asked to not complain if this occurred.
After having spent a lot of time in the car that week, I was conscious of how cushy my ride was compared with what it might have been like in 1915. I need to apologize to my friend for how many times I complained about the journey from Cody to Casper! It could have been worse.
There are lots of grand treasures and tales to be found at the Buffalo Bill Museum. Learn more here and keep coming back for more of these stories.
