Yesterday I made my initial visit to “the City” to sit for a
while at the
Although Historic St. Mary's City has been open since March, sickness,
weather, and a variety of other reasons prevented me from docent duty at the
Chapel until yesterday. Although it
sometimes seems a chore (gotta get my stuff, put it in the car, drive down
there, walk out to the Chapel), every time at the end of the day I am glad I did
it. Yesterday was graduation at the adjoining
college so there were lots of folks around.
In my stint from about 11 to 4, I had 45 folks visiting the Chapel,
which (unfortunately) is an unusually high number. Some of that number includes
kids, who always enjoy the amazing acoustics inside the building. Meaning screaming at the top of their lungs. I had one family group with five kids (maybe
seven on down), who ran around so fast I had difficulty counting them. Sort of like the lady in the shoe…
I always enjoy talking to the visitors, at least the non
screaming kind. They have interesting questions
about the chapel and its history and reconstruction (“It’s really on the
original (1667) foundation? Wow!”) and
most are at least somewhat interested in the colony’s history and Lord
Baltimore. Or at a minimum, they are
polite enough to listen to me for a while.
It’s interesting to try to read them and figure out when to shut
up. Loss of eye contact, fidgeting, looking
toward the door, single word responses, all indicate that it is time for the
docent to say “thanks for coming, enjoy the rest of your tour”. Some just kind of come into the chapel, quickly
look around and leave without asking any questions. How can you come into a building that looks
like
And not be impressed or take the time to look around a
bit and learn more?.. But they are the exception rather
than the rule. Most people like to hear
about the place. In between groups it
gets very quiet inside the building and I took a few pictures yesterday with
the light coming through the windows. Very
calming, but in a way maybe not surprising for a religious site.
I did have one visitor that didn’t stop, as it was being
harried by a bunch of bluejays in the trees next to the road. Eventually a red tailed hawk appeared and
departed for quieter quarters. Hearing
the commotion, I knew something was up and kept the camera ready, and was lucky
enough to get a quick shot
Finally the flow of patrons stopped and I packed up my
stuff, and left the peaceful still life scenes
Inside and headed down the outside path
toward home (well, the parking lot, but that’s not so
glamorous. And I was glad I took the time.. Great place.
come visit sometime
the quiz
I did have a winner in the quiz about “what drink does this
stuff make?” posed in the last edition.
Of the hundreds (well, one) respondents, he/she anonymously pegged a Sazerac. which
is correct. The question was asked by them “why Angostura?”. Good question. While Peychaud’s is the
classic choice for bitters, I was surprised to see more than one (there are
many) of the recipes calls for both. “Three
dashes of Peychaud’s, one of Angostura’s”.
Part of my exhaustive research will require sampling drinks made several ways. Science is so demanding. Of course it is highly subjective, but
finding what one likes is a good reward for diligent experimentation. Stay tuned!
Or contemplate while you
DFD
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