The last time I went to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, I was 4 years old. The only thing I could remember from that trip was the giant heart exhibit. I took my family there today, as part of my ongoing first real vacation in years. My five year old, Corry, came running out of the heart obviously as excited as I had been at his age. He insisted that I go back in with him, which I was happy to do, as I wanted to relive my earlier childhood memories.
The first thing I discovered is that it was a little harder to get through at 36 than 4. Obviously, I am a not quite as small as I used to be. Thinking about it from a different perspective, I imagined that the arteries and veins were smaller from the buildup of plaque and cholesterol Pondering it from that point of view makes me want to swear off double cheesburgers for life. (Okay, not really, but I might cut down a bit).
The biggest things at the Institute were Corry's eyes when we entered the "Train Factory". The Baldwin 60000 locomotive is a permanent exhibit. He has always been a fan of trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine, but he has never been this close to one. He studied the big drive wheels, the pistons, the coal tender. I don't think he realized that he was actually walking all around it, it seemed to me that he was floating. Kristy was chosen to be the engineer for the 24 foot round trip the locomotive makes and Corry sat in her lap attentively watching her push the throttle, break and horn.
I wonder how much of this he will remember 30 years from now. Of course, I will take him back several more times before then.
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