CMSI memories -- Share your memories of the California Museum of Science & Industry

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Date Posted: 14:21:22 06/07/06 Wed
Author: charles hobbs
Subject: CMSI memories

"Many of those who come to the museum, especially on weekends, when it isn't full of schoolchildren bused in from all over, are from the neighborhood, the southern section of the city; black children, many with their parents. Sometimes they come with picnic baskets to make a day of it."

Our family was one of these....I remember picnics in Exposition Park (usually KFC or Jim Dandy chicken) along with visits to the museums. The first time I remember CMSI was when I was about three (and whining for a coke most of the day!)

Kindergarten or 1st Grade, we'd load into yellow buses and travel to the museums. I remember coming home from one of these trips and going to sleep early, because I was just overwhelmed....

When I was much older (say, first year in college), I got there on my own (using the RTD buses) a couple of times.

Here a a few specific memories:

* Mathematica, of course. (one time a little kid crawled under it and had to be shooed out!). I remember the balls in the funnel, the moebius strip, and a few of the other math-related exhibits as well.

* The train layout. We kids would run after the train as it passed by, our feet clanking on the floor, and museum staff/chaperones barking "WALK!"

* The chicken incubators. (I wasn't really into those)

* The electrical stuff, such as the telephones and the tic-tac-toe computers, which you could never beat. (One time there was some kid hogging the tic-tac-toe games all day)

* There was a blue, moving "Wheel of Progress" with a
"Please Do Not Touch" sign above it.

* Speaking of not touching, anyone remember the men's rooms, with the sign "Automatic Valves -- Do Not Touch" over the urinals?

* Later on, more corporate-sponsored stuff, like a GM driving simulator. ("Keep your foot on the gas until you get to the curve!). If you crashed, it would show a scene of your "funeral" with some guy weeping "He oversteered!".

* I also remember the earthquake simulator (this was in the mid-80's), the McDonalds as an exhibit, and a computer program that designed bicycles.

The new museum is nice, but not quite the same.

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