Dealing with the public, part 2. The question

It's been a busy couple of weeks since the last post. Travelling and a birthday and getting ready for a new adventure have slowed down the writing frequency. Incidentally, this blog post was finished the day when we had a discussion of questions that drive us crazy in a staff meeting and I listened closely to see if I could garner some more insight into questions the visitors ask and how interpreters respond.

Whoever said,"There are no stupid questions" did not work in historical interpretation, or education in general. We get stupid questions and comments all the time.

"Teacher? Why are you dressed weird?"

At least, that's what we think.

The questions seem stupid to us at first, because we already know the answer and the crowds are simply ignorant.

Now, when I say ignorant, I want to address a negative stigma that we have attached to the word as a society. When I mean ignorant, I am not referring to some sort of prejudicial, misguided, or negative remark. They are making a question or a comment based on their limited or complete lack of knowledge.

They simply do not know.
Let that sink in for a second and think back on how we ask questions. If I knew all about the topic, why would I ask a question?

"Aren't you hot wearing that?"

Since we interpreters know; since we have the experience, training, and extensive knowledge, of course the question is stupid. We already know the answer, partly because we have answered the same question over and over again to the point that we mistakenly think everyone knows. One of my mentors over the years, a man named Steve Rose, made it a point early on in my training as a outdoor education instructor to remind us that it may be our umpteenth time doing or saying something, but it is their first time asking the question. That guidance has served me well over the years.  While others have mentioned similar thoughts, it was his mantra for long weeks over longer times when the fatigue of repetition has set in that kept me from responding harshly

Realizing that it is their first time and they will ask questions that have been answered with the last visitor is a mental exercise in customer service.

Make it a game. How many times can I get asked some variation of the Same Old Question Everyone Asks in a hour? In a day? Can you break that record? Can another interpreter break that record? One way of letting off that steam is the honest introduction,"We get that question a lot out here..." and give them the answer. This is about their experience, not your convenience.

"Teacher? Do you live here?"

Getting back to the interpreters' reaction to the stupid question, our own satisfaction in our knowledge and wisdom has given us a haughty arrogance, although this haughty ignorance can be subliminal and sometimes not perceptible at first. That is why the question is perceived as stupid. It is our own assumption about the very nature of the person who makes the question or comment.

Because they are asking a question, they are revealing their own ignorance in the content of the question. If they knew, they wouldn't ask. Our responsibility is to remove that ignorance by giving a affirming and correct answer delivered in a manner that the questioner can effectively receive. Never make stuff up. The hardest thing as an interpreter is to admit not knowing an answer to a question. It's humbling. If you are working in tandem with a staff member, bring the person with the question to your fellow staff member, introduce them to the knowledgeable staff member and have them repeat the question or rephrase the question. That makes it personal and shows that you are learning together while keeping them involved. Another method for answering when you don't know an answer and admitting you don't know either is trying to reason out an answer. For example, if the question is about a certain tool on the wall and have never seen it demonstrated, work with them and work up a couple ideas about what it is. Is it sharp? Does it have a handle? What could we use it for? The most important thing is to later find out the answer! If you got the question once, you will probably get it again. Hopefully that embarrassment you feel at not having an answer will prompt an earnest search not to be put in this situation again.

"Do you have a question?" "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Then there are these questions, "Is that fire real?" Resist the urge to give sarcastic answers. Especially with children. Children do not have the sophistication to understand sarcasm, not yet anyways. It is rude and patronizing. However, I've wondered what the fascination is with what is 'real' at interpretive sites. Is it because of our technological wizardry that we have blurred the lines of reality? 3D special effects, life-like images, life-like props, Hollywood magic, and the child's own sense of fantasy have led into a lot of the 'reality' questions. The urge for a sarcastic answer also stems from repetition and arrogance.

"Teacher? Is that gun real?"
"Yes"
"Can you shoot me with it?"
"No"

Sometimes you get the silly questions. In my opinion, you can give a straight answer or the occasional silly answer. Reading your audience is key for giving a silly answer, and it isn't always advisable. I was given a silly question the other day: "That's the biggest pig I've ever seen in my whole life! Are they rhino-pigs?" The questioner was a pre-teen girl and her giggly friends. Based on that and a few other observations, I decided that they were being silly, so I felt I could safely give a silly answer in response. "Yes, rhino-pigs are a common animal in North America; they are mostly used by the army, bred for their skills and magic." I said this with a smile. They giggled and moved on before I could give a thoughtful response on pig sizes, so that further cements my observation of silliness; they were interested in making small talk, not the size of pigs. They understood that I was joking. The silly answer is tough to gauge when would be appropriate, which is why I will rarely use it.

In the end, we have to come to the realization that we must have patience with the visitors and to hold back our frustrations at having to answer questions that would be quite frustratingly obvious to us, over and over again. Remember, it's probably their first time, so make a great first impression for them!

Site Visit: J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum

I visited the J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum in Claremore, OK with my extended family in the middle of August. They had never been and neither had I. But it was nearby, suggested donation admission, gave us something mutual to do, and probably had air conditioning (which it did). At first blink, it appeared to be a large room with an information desk asking for donations, dispensing information, and sporting a volunteer. A gift shop was nearby for the kitschy Route 66 and John Wayne souvenirs. I was given a hand out sheet which described J.M. Davis' beginning and how the collection came to be and indicated that the tour started to the right (I promptly folded it in quarters and put it away). The collection started with the hotel lobby of the former Mason Hotel that Mr. Davis had purchased and used it to show off his collection of firearms. The "hotel" display initially struck me as the old school museums where the entire collection was on display but with no interpretation to understand what it was I was looking at. There was a case with interpretive placards that had his first and last weapons acquired as well as the oldest, a Chinese hand cannon from the 1200's.


"Gee, that's a lot of guns I don't know anything about!"

But it was the meaningless display of weapons on the wall the gave me a false first impression of a guy who had a lot of things but didn't know what he had, so he put them all together to make some sort of weapon mosaic to adorn the walls. Like a child's collection of sea shells in a shoe box.


Making my way out of the room was the directory of where weapons were. It wasn't very helpful to understanding what I was about to invest my precious time. Immediately to that side was a display on Native American cultures, then a collection of beer steins. It appeared that Mr. Davis collected all sorts of things and they were on display in this museum, as well as a model train set, recruiting posters, saddles, spurs, and boot jacks. It was looking like a child's box of shells indeed.

At least the Native American stuff had some information
about what it was that we were looking at

Then came the guns. From all over the world by manufacturers big and small, machined perfection and homemade or modified, of all shapes, sizes, and functions. The basic feeling was overwhelming hopelessness, like having to find every 1967 penny out of a vault 3 feet deep in pennies. Lines of display cases with a 6in x 4in placard describing the weapon's caliber, country of origin, model, make, serial number if known, where it was made if known and maybe a little blurb about it. Such as "The standard rifle of the US army in WWII". Sometimes it was grouped by conflict, or by manufacturer, or by type all over the building. It was not very well laid out and it seemed that there was a lot of overlap. But the volume of display cases stretched on for quite some ways before suddenly turning to reveal more display cases.

A display on the Enfield rifle, a fairly typical display style for this museum

But if you are into firearms and have the patience and time to appreciate them, boy is this the place for you. You want 4 panels of muzzle loading long arms? How about a whole section of Smith and Wesson? Japanese WWII rifles? There were some interpretive sections where they took the time to highlight certain weapons or people who owned the weapon you see in front of you. But mostly it was like the panel display case above.

 As usual, with most modern weapon displays, I look for "my" weapon. The BAMFiest weapon to exist on sheer looks alone, the Lewis Gun.

Lewis Gun? Check!

I even found the extremely rare 1938 French sub machine gun; not one, but two!

The French only produced 1958 of the MAS-1938 before German
occupation and unknown amount after the war until 1946. The
barrel and the stock are at different angles, which was thought
to aid  in recoil. 

A whole display on notorious weapons and their owners...

In this display they had weapons from Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd,
Alvin Karpis (bandit), John Wesley Hardin (killer), and
 Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde, bank robbers)



Text reads: Pancho Villa, Bandit. This gun, a .44 Smith & Wesson Single
Action Revolver was purchased from Pablo Gonzales
by Merle A. Gill in 1933 in El Paso, Texas. Gonzales was a 
former member of Villa's band in 1917. This gun was one of many that
had been carried by Villa. The gun has am 8in barrel and shoots the
.44 "American" cartridge. This same type of gun was found on "Wild Bill"
Hickok when killed in Deadwood, S. Dakota in 1875 by Jack McCall

All manner of weapons were in the collection, including air guns, BB rifles, toys, and Sci-Fi weapons.

Text reads: "Disintegrator" - Buck Rodgers 25th Century.
With 800,000 Buck Rodgers pistols added to BB gun sales,
the company went over the million dollar sales mark in 1934.
Retail price $0.05/ Daisy MFG. CO.
Plymouth, Michigan. (12631)  

My family wanted to see a display that one of the members of their church had loaned for a display

An interpretive display on weapon making

on modern war and they managed to find it. I write managed because of the sheer size of the place made it difficult to find things. The kids were running out of steam and it was about lunch time and we were making it back to the entrance to leave when we found an interpretive display on how weapons were originally made in America. It looks like no one was supposed to be in there to talk to people and it was behind a bunch of display cases and if we had traveled one row over we would have never saw it. Which was a shame, because so much more could be done with it.


For being a "gun museum", 10 out of 10. For being a historical museum, well that can be tricky. Because it did have historical weapons, there was some labeling, there were interpretive areas that explain a weapon's significance. However, there were clear examples of just throwing weapons in a display without much interpretation at all. The interpretive aspects were hard find. I think it comes down to exhibit design. The museum suffered from poor museum design. Long rows of displays, inadequate mapping, inconsistent labeling methods, weird collections like the beer steins detracted from "historical" and "weapons" in the museum. While it could be argued that the steins were historical, it still doesn't fit will with the over all museum display. For those reasons I would give it a 7 out of 10. It's not a total waste of time, but can be overwhelming and frustrating if you are looking for something specific. Enjoy the interpretive placards and exhibits when and where you stumble upon them.


P.S. Can anyone explain to me how a pepperbox works? Does it revolve on an action (like a revolver)or after each firing you have to manually move the a loaded barrel?