Greg and Kat's blog

My parents were in town for this (artificially-long) weekend. That was nice, with the usual stress of a parental visit: they are nice people that I’m glad I don’t live with anymore. But, I don’t want to talk about that…

On Saturday, we went to Greensboro. We went to Stamey’s BBQ for lunch. Kat and I are now officially proponents of the western-North-Carolina-style BBQ. After lunch, we went, somewhat randomly, to a local museum. My parents were very alarmed that the museum wasn’t in the AAA Guide—they also marvelled that there was a hotel near their’s that wasn’t in the Guide.

The museum primarily commemorated some battle in the Revolutionary War. Here’s what I learned about that battle:

The Americans outnumbered the British. The Americans were led by a brilliant tactician who arranged the troops in three lines. The British broke through the first line. The British broke through the second line. The third line was made up of the most experienced and skilled fighters. They bravely retreated and lived to fight another day (except the ones that died before they retreated, presumably).

So, the British technically won, and captured the courthouse, or whatever. But they suffered heavy casulaties and some had to go back towards the coast for supplies. Pussies.

There are, like, three local museums to this battle. They named the town after the brilliant tactician who lost despite having greater numbers and the home-field advantage. Sigh.

That aside, the highlight of the museum was probably the coolest exhibit I have ever seen. It was a collection of US Bicentenial (1976) memorabilia that this museum took because nobody else wanted it. The brilliant part was that the descriptions of the “artifacts” were openly mocking of the cultural significance of the pieces. I snapped some pictures of the descriptions to give you an idea.

I talked to the guy working there. He said he has to fight with the manager to continue the exhibit as-is: “You can’t write that!” “Don’t worry, nobody reads them.” “So, why do we have this exhibit?” “For me!”

Bottom line: when you’re in Greensboro, go to the “Colonial Heritage Center”.