Fire Extinguishers and other facts about Visitors
So, people that know me, know I work in this open air museum in a replica of a prehistoric farm
explaining about life in prehistory to whatever visitor stumbles on my door. There is a lot explaining
to do, for most people know of prehistoric times is " there were dinosaurs, mammoth and saber-
tooth tigers, and of course cavemen that dragged their women into the cave by their hair, whilst making intelligent comments such as " ahh" and " Urg." ( that must have resulted in a lot of " not now, honey, I have a headache' , though)
Without trying to seperate genders here, it *is* mostly men that remember that last fact, btw. women tend to remember things like 'it was back then human beings had such an amazing respect for nature and all creatures lived in harmony.' Sure thing. That's why the mammoth got extinct. Cavemen respected its meat. A lot.
Though both theories are amusing ( to me at least, I developed over 7000 ways to mock each one by now) there is very little evidence that either of them is actually true. At least once a week some visitor advices me to go read Jean Auel , because it will supposedly tell me all I need to know about prehistoric times. Fantasy, Fiction, Facts.. it all starts with an F so it must be relatively the same thing, right?
Anyway, to more effectively deal with this ignorance, the plan was to create a list of the ten most frequently asked questions and there answers about prehistoric times. On it are nice intelligent questions, such as " why is prehistory called prehistory" and " What timeperiods can prehistory be divided in" And other such questions we all hope people will ask one day, so we can hug, kiss, honour him, place him on a pedestal, carrying him around on our shoulders, carve him a statue and name him visitor of the century.
In reallity the most frequently asked questions are these:
Where is the nearest WC?/ Where can I get a cup of coffee?" ( varies)
Is this deer-skin/ fire/ water /bone real? ( usually) YES
Can I have this bone game/bronze jewelry/handmade thing with a lot of work into it? NO
When is the gladiator fight? See your program
Is this really your job? YES
What did you study to do this? None of your business, so don't expect an honest answer
Don't you feel bad that the animals whose fur you wear are now dead? Not in the slightest
and of course...
Did they have fire-extinguishers in that time?
The answer, of course, is no, and so, of course, knows the one asking.
The reason why we have them anyway isn't hard to guess either, with the open fire we use to heat the houses with and the roofs of straw.
The reason why they are in plain sight and not hidden away should also be clear. After all, you want people to be able to find the means to save themselves.
The reason people like to ask this is probebly because they want to be smart and funny. Hurray. They spotted the anachronism, and of course... it is very impressive they recognised that a fire extinguishers did not excist in prehistory ( especially concidering their all-together limited knowlegde of the subject as a whole)
Too bad for them I have lost my enthousiasm for the remarkable observation, and here I will reveal the reason for that:
Please. People.
You might think you have made the joke of the century, and concidering you don't often come to prehistoric house-replicas with fire-extinguisters in them, I am sure it is all new to you.
Me however.. I work at such a place. I hear that question an average of 5 times a day. Considering I work an avarage of four days a week, 8 months a year with visitors.. for five years in a row now....
I have heard the joke.
3200 times.
I have replied to it an equal amount of times.
And by now I am tempted to shut the first visitor asking me the first thing about fire-extinguisers in one of the farms, shut the door, light a fire in the straw roof and see if they can think of a reason why we have those anachronisms in plain sight....
if he can work his way out of there alive.
explaining about life in prehistory to whatever visitor stumbles on my door. There is a lot explaining
to do, for most people know of prehistoric times is " there were dinosaurs, mammoth and saber-
tooth tigers, and of course cavemen that dragged their women into the cave by their hair, whilst making intelligent comments such as " ahh" and " Urg." ( that must have resulted in a lot of " not now, honey, I have a headache' , though)
Without trying to seperate genders here, it *is* mostly men that remember that last fact, btw. women tend to remember things like 'it was back then human beings had such an amazing respect for nature and all creatures lived in harmony.' Sure thing. That's why the mammoth got extinct. Cavemen respected its meat. A lot.
Though both theories are amusing ( to me at least, I developed over 7000 ways to mock each one by now) there is very little evidence that either of them is actually true. At least once a week some visitor advices me to go read Jean Auel , because it will supposedly tell me all I need to know about prehistoric times. Fantasy, Fiction, Facts.. it all starts with an F so it must be relatively the same thing, right?
Anyway, to more effectively deal with this ignorance, the plan was to create a list of the ten most frequently asked questions and there answers about prehistoric times. On it are nice intelligent questions, such as " why is prehistory called prehistory" and " What timeperiods can prehistory be divided in" And other such questions we all hope people will ask one day, so we can hug, kiss, honour him, place him on a pedestal, carrying him around on our shoulders, carve him a statue and name him visitor of the century.
In reallity the most frequently asked questions are these:
Where is the nearest WC?/ Where can I get a cup of coffee?" ( varies)
Is this deer-skin/ fire/ water /bone real? ( usually) YES
Can I have this bone game/bronze jewelry/handmade thing with a lot of work into it? NO
When is the gladiator fight? See your program
Is this really your job? YES
What did you study to do this? None of your business, so don't expect an honest answer
Don't you feel bad that the animals whose fur you wear are now dead? Not in the slightest
and of course...
Did they have fire-extinguishers in that time?
The answer, of course, is no, and so, of course, knows the one asking.
The reason why we have them anyway isn't hard to guess either, with the open fire we use to heat the houses with and the roofs of straw.
The reason why they are in plain sight and not hidden away should also be clear. After all, you want people to be able to find the means to save themselves.
The reason people like to ask this is probebly because they want to be smart and funny. Hurray. They spotted the anachronism, and of course... it is very impressive they recognised that a fire extinguishers did not excist in prehistory ( especially concidering their all-together limited knowlegde of the subject as a whole)
Too bad for them I have lost my enthousiasm for the remarkable observation, and here I will reveal the reason for that:
Please. People.
You might think you have made the joke of the century, and concidering you don't often come to prehistoric house-replicas with fire-extinguisters in them, I am sure it is all new to you.
Me however.. I work at such a place. I hear that question an average of 5 times a day. Considering I work an avarage of four days a week, 8 months a year with visitors.. for five years in a row now....
I have heard the joke.
3200 times.
I have replied to it an equal amount of times.
And by now I am tempted to shut the first visitor asking me the first thing about fire-extinguisers in one of the farms, shut the door, light a fire in the straw roof and see if they can think of a reason why we have those anachronisms in plain sight....
if he can work his way out of there alive.