I started my day by sprinting down the block to catch our bus. We made it! I was so excited to ride a double decker bus. It was exciting as a tourist, but also very efficient since they can fit twice the amount of people on each bus. We sat on the top deck and made a plan for laying out our research project, which we are presenting on Monday. After about half an hour we arrived at the Black Country Living Museum.

We started by touring a mine shaft. We all wore hard hats which looked a little silly. When you entered the mine, it was pitch black, and the ceiling was so low we had to crouch. In the 1950s, conditions in the mine were very dangerous. There were regularly accidents leading to injury and death. Children were also required to work at ages as low as 10, and they worked very long hours in the dark. I can’t complain about our nursing shifts compared to that.

Next we went to the school house, where an actor pretended to be our teacher. He told us that, at this time, it was expensive to be sent to school. It was a one room schoolhouse which sat about 200 students, each learning different subjects at once.  Because it was expensive, each family would send their smartest child to school. That child would come home and teach the day’s lessons to their siblings. He asked us if we would be the child sent to school in our own families. I hope so, but I have three siblings which is a lot of competition. He then had us recite the alphabet and our times tables. When a student disrupted, he had them stand in the corner and face the wall. They also used hitting or writing lines as punishment in these schoolhouses, but thankfully all we had to do was stand in the corner. 

After that we had some free time to walk around. We had some delicious fish and chips for lunch and tried 50s style sodas. We walked around and explored some shops set up like they would have been in the 50s. We explored the record shop, candy store, and even a salon where someone was actually getting his hair cut. There were also several people performing live music, and actors dressed up as though they lived in this town. I was impressed they were able to stay in character when we asked questions.

We had a bit of extra time at the end of the day, so we went to the fair. We played a shooting game, and I was quite bad at loading and firing the gun. I didn’t make a single shot! The worker said he was surprised we were so inexperienced with guns. He thought guns were very popular in America, and assumed we’d all had experience with them. He’s not the first person we’ve met to ask us about how often we encounter guns in the US. I thought this was interesting, especially because most other countries do not have a protected right to arms. This is something I never thought about before this trip, because it’s normal for us to hear about gun rights and gun violence in the US. 

Tonight we plan to do a little shopping and explore some new areas of Birmingham! I was grateful for a day off school, and I’m excited for our day trip to Oxford tomorrow!

Shooting BB guns at the fair

Phone booth!