No matter where I am, I enjoy going to museums– I know that’s not always everyone’s cup of tea. Some people, like my sainted wife, can handle a museum or two; my idea of a dream vacation would be history/culture 24/7. Usually when I visit a museum, though, it’s either because I’m on vacation (or my guest(s) have come to visit on their vacation!), or there is a specific exhibit in town.

Of course, most historical exhibits revolve around days long gone, before I or most of my peers were born. But every so often, there’s something far more contemporary. Sometimes it’s great, and sometimes not so. During Deaf Way II, for example, the Smithsonian was at that time hosting “History Through Deaf Eyes,” the traveling exhibit about the Deaf community and its history. Naturally, there was a small segment near the end on DPN. As I stated in my last post, that was a historical event I was part of. No problem with that– I’m proud to have taken part in DPN, and always will be.

But now the Smithsonian is collecting material in preparation for an eventual exhibition on hip-hop; while I applaud the Smithsonian’s proactiveness in gathering items now, before they are consigned to landfills, recycling centers and the dustbins of history, it’s a bit jarring for me. Granted, as a deaf person, music isn’t a highlight in my life. Additionally, I was never into hip-hop or any of the audiocultural scenes of the last 20-30 years. BUT hip-hop has been around during my lifetime, and has often been referenced in various media since it began. So it’s a bit sobering to realize that hip-hop is “old” enough now that it’s being considered for a major show in our national museum.

A better example of how this kind of thing hits home for me would be the exhibit on plastics several years back at the Smithsonian; while it was fascinating due to the ubiquitousness of plastic in our society, the interesting text and artifacts jolted me back to reality when I saw on display a Big Wheel. Any child of the 70’s and 80’s will know immediately what I’m talking about– the plastic tricycle with the yellow handlebars and red body– you can see modern examples here. So why is something from *my* childhood now in a museum??? I was with a friend, and I called him over to look at it. For both of us, grown adult men, we suddenly felt our mortality for an instant- just a few wee seconds, sure, but long enough to realize that our youth wasn’t just yesterday, wasn’t just the stuff of (fairly) recent memories, but was now considered “vintage” enough to be on display at a museum– and the Smithsonian, at that.

So while I think the recognition of hip-hop is cool, and the Smithsonian’s active pursuit of history even as it happens commendable, I’m not sure I’m quite ready yet to be an example of living history, in the flesh. Check back with me in about 40 years, thank you.