Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

Since 1923 • For a greater Loyola

The Maroon

Tour the city, home of the wolf pack

The center of the Children’s Museum has become a symbol of the city of New Orleans. The museum is a place where people of all ages can go and enjoy the simplicities of childhood.
LORA GHAWALY/THE MAROON
The center of the Children’s Museum has become a symbol of the city of New Orleans. The museum is a place where people of all ages can go and enjoy the simplicities of childhood.

New Orleans stereotypes abroad could probably be summarized through the Mardi Gras trifecta of beads, boobs and booze.

However, residents of the city know that the essence of New Orleans life is beyond that. It is wonderful to attend school in a place where the Voodoo shops are a few blocks from the cathedral, but even the extraordinary can become routine when it is part of everyday life. To make sure you keep the “new” in New Orleans, become a tourist in your own town. Do the cliché things (they have become cliché for a reason), but also try something different.

New Orleans has a lot to offer. The Children’s Museum. Mention its name and watch your New Orleans friend’s eyes go starry with childhood memories. Get ready for the inevitable onslaught of “Oh my gosh, do you remember…?”

Since other places like FunWorks or Celebration Station are now defunct, the Children’s Museum seems to hold a special place in the hearts of New Orleans residents. Small wonder, since it is the home of a small rock-climbing wall, the freeze-frame room, “The Boat” in the Port of New Orleans area of the museum and “The Bubble.” It is impossible to have a bad day when you are standing inside a bubble that is twice as tall as you. Fact.

The Children’s Museum opened in 1986, and since then its staff have promoted its mission of hands-on learning experiences. Though its educational intentions are admirable, the overriding function of the museum seems to be allowing its visitors to play and interact with each other.

There are informative exhibits like the life-size exhibit of a pair of eyes, and then there are places like the Kid’s Café. Children can “serve” their friends and family plastic food from the toy kitchen. It’s hilarious to watch a four-year-old girl triumphantly place a cake stand with a toy scoop of rice and an empty hot dog bun in front of her father.

The museum may not be on the typical college student’s list of must-visit places in the city, but it is well worth a few hours on a lazy Sunday. And if you’re too embarrassed to go on your own, offer to bring the next child you babysit. They’re the perfect cover for shopping at the mini Winn-Dixie Store “as if the Backstreet Boys were coming to dinner at your house.”

Just maintain some dignity and resist the urge to fight the child for the cashier position.

Lora Ghawaly can be reached at [email protected]

 

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