This was a place I visited several times as a child and I have wanted for years to bring my children. Cecily and I definitely enjoyed it more than her brothers. Just too much reading for the boys to "get into it". I learned so much from the exhibits, though... it's kind of like you travel back in time and are walking the streets centuries ago, when immigrants from all different countries began to move here and settle this great state. I learned "why" some of them came, and "what" they did to survive once they came. I spent alot of time, reading and learning about my own ancestors... the German immigrants, Irish, Italian and Polish. It was also fun to look at the Belgium exhibit because some of our dear friends growing up were featured in it. Their family was one of the first Belgium families to move to San Antonio! My mother believes her own grandmother was also one of the first Irish families to settle the area. We learned about the native Indians, the War with Mexico and slavery. We walked through a replica of a sharecropper's shack and how humbling it was to see how they lived.
It was refreshing to be reminded how, in a lot of ways, life used to be so simple. Back when my grandparents were children, very few material things were needed to enjoy life. Life was hard work but it was good. I love the stories, the pictures and the historical treasures... and I am hopeful that my own children will love learning about history as much as I do once they are older... because there really is SO much to learn from history.
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