I just received a few emails from people congratulating me on LinkedIn for my fifth year work anniversary. That was news to me! I started in the summer of ’09 as the Interpretive Projects Assistant and had a lot of memories working at CHS since. So of my favorite adventures in exhibits…
When I had to ask the deli at Stop N Shop if they can shrink wrap a fake piece of raw steak. Then I felt even weirder when they did it without missing a beat like they’ve done it before. (I have to explain—this “steak” now lives in the refrigerator in our 1980s kitchen in Making Connecticut.)
When CHS gathered its strongest and burliest men to extricate a 3 ton massive cast iron stove out a of a woman’s old house. How nobody broke something—finger, toe, hip, or stove—is beyond me.
When driving a moving truck transporting a traveling exhibit decided it wanted to excrete coolant from its engine on the middle of I-84. Kudos to U-Haul’s safety procedures when you break down, though. There were flares underneath the seat just in case…
Intern memory alert: Realizing how much cataloging architectural drawings in a windowless room, all day, without human interactive makes you start to act like Gollum.
When I had to drive back from Ikea in New Haven with my tiny Civic stocked to the brim with furniture for our newly renovated research center. I’m surprised I’m still alive today since I almost started my return journey going the wrong way on the highway.
And last but not least, asking my now girlfriend on our first date which so happened to be in the dress up colonial kitchen in Making Connecticut. I may or may not have been wearing a tricorn hat while doing so.
Good times…
Mike Messina is the Interpretive Projects Associate at the Connecticut Historical Society.
inside the CHS 