memories

I took a stroll back in time today

    Time had a lot to do with it too.
    I got up at 9:30, showered, then talked with my nephew in Switzerland.  We talked until about 10:00.
    I know it was a church day, but it was also the last day for the terracotta warriors at the Field Museum.  And it was late.. so I went to Chicago, finally getting out at 10:30.
    I had forgotten how amazing the Field Museum is.
    I had gone with classes there in the past, and as a kid growing up in Chicago,  and had favorite parts I loved to visit:  Sue, the Pawnee Earth Lodge, the mummies, dinosaurs, Bushman, and the lions of Tsavo, to name a few.
    Here's where it gets weird.
    I know I went to Lincoln Park Zoo when I was a kid and saw Bushman.  I can see him sitting behind his iron bars, a huge beast of a gorilla.  I know I remember that.
    But he died in 1951.  I would have been 3.  So, I guess my memory is not accurate.  Go figure.
    And the Lions of Tsavo.....I know I had seen those peculiar looking animals preserved forever in the museum, but never knew the story until I watched a movie called Ghost and the Darkness. Basic story:  British engineers are trying to build a railroad in Kenya, and two lions terrorize the crew, causing them to run off.  Hunters come to track down the lions.
    The lions are thought to have killed somewhere between 28 and over 100 people, with 35 being the number most likely.  The hunter was visiting the Field in the 1920s and offered to sell the lions to the museum.  He had been using their skins as rugs.  The museum bought them, had a taxidermist recreate the beasts, and put them on display.
    Sitting in the earth lodge, it seemed smaller.  And not in the same area it used to occupy.  I asked a docent and yup, in 2002 or so the lodge was moved, scaled down, and the human figures on the roof removed.
    It's still a place of calm and peacefulness.
    The warriors are amazing.  There are only a few, but the pictures and displays were super neat.
    The emperor Qin, pronounced Chin, had over 7,000 of these life size soldiers created to guard his tomb.  Sounded like a giant ego trip to me.
    He also built a wall........wait a minute, I see a pattern here.
     Anyway, here are some pictures.
   

Lions of Tsavo...they are males, but lack manes

This is Sue's skull....the actual skull is in a case on the second floor.  Weighing 600 pounds, it was too heavy to use on the first floor dino