Beautiful Birmingham weather today allowed us to walk around the Black Country Museum. We started our day a little later at 9:00 a.m. with a mini walk to the bus stop to take bus 126 to Dudley. The bus ride was really nice because we got to see apart the city we did not explore. The architecture in these areas are not as modern as the area we stay in. A lot of the house are covered in vines and more of a working class family area. It reminded me of the outskirts of Pittsburgh. My cousin lives in the countryside and it her house is a bit more rustic. In some way, this area felt like home. I did take picture of the gas station because gas is so expensive right now in the States and their gas prices are confusing. I am not sure if these prices are in pence, but they certainly are not pounds. No one would pay £157 for gas without revolting against the government. I know I sure would. Once we got to the area, we took a brisk walk of about 15 minutes to get to the museum. We took a bit of a shortcut and we thought for a minute that we would end up at the zoo instead. Google maps can be quite difficult and confusing over here, but we made it to our destination.
Black Country Museum is having a 60’s theme and some of the workers dressed as Go Go dancers. We thought they looked adorable, but they had to be freezing because the weather is a wet cold. Meaning it’s way colder than the weather app believes it is. The old cars and police cruiser made us feel like we were back in the old country. Learning about the coal mines was very interesting. I was not in shock that young boys starting from the age of 10 were forced to work in the mines. In this time period, there were no labor laws or regulations about children working. It is just sad that these children were exposed to the toxic fumes of the coal and died from the mines caving in. I was not fortunate to grow up in Pittsburgh to learn the history behind the coal mines. So getting an introduction to the history by Dr. Marks helped me understand the predatory company that caused these families to stay. They were so poor, they stole coal from the weigh station.
The school we went inside was super cool. The lessons were engaging and the people that participated were so funny the method actor almost cracked. She had one of my classmates ring the bell while we sang the nursery rhyme of the mouse and the clock. I nearly peed my pants when an older gentleman was using his wife as a scapegoat to get out of punishment for letting the tires out of the Vigor’s car. He said that his wife Fran made him do it. The teacher imitated that she was caning his hand as punishment and his fake screams were hilarious. This man would be a great comedian. Everyone was such a great sport about participating, that I would have stayed for another session.
