Sure, you’ve heard of the Super Bowl, and it happens on a Sunday, but it’s not nearly as exciting as Super Museum Sunday in Savannah.  On this Sunday, many, many museums offer free admission.  It’s a chance to visit art and history on the cheap – always a plus.

It being my first year in Savannah, I decided to take full advantage of it.  Dee and I started out with the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum.  The Eighth Air Force was instrumental in the Allies winning World War II, so you can imagine how much history there is to be shared.  And airplanes to look at.

I discovered that I am apparently the only person in my family that didn’t already know Jimmy Stewart was in the Air Force.  But I was excited about that story.  Good ole Jimmy Stewart, right?

I’m not really a fan of airplanes (who knew?) but this snippet of history was fascinating. Apparently there was a comics character called Lace or “Miss Lace,” created by Milton Caniff, the same person who gave us Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon.  (You would have to be old to remember them – I barely do, and wasn’t a big fan of them.)  But Miss Lace was developed for GI’s in WWII and her character seems to have walked the line between sex siren and girl next door.   I could write a whole essay on that, from today perspective.

We were about to leave the museum when I noticed a table with books and a woman seated behind it with a pen – yes! An author signing!  Of course I had to stop.  The books are an adventure, time-travel series – the main characters are in middle school, and there are four books – The Snipesville Chronicles.   I only bought the first one, Don’t Know Where, Don’t Know When.  ($11.00, well spent.)  Just reading the foreword has been delightful, and I have a feeling I’ll have to buy the other three.

After we had exhausted the pleasures of the Mighty Eight Museum, Dee dropped me off downtown to meet up with Julia and Terry to check out some other places (while he pursued other Sunday afternoon interests.)  While waiting, I discovered this tasty treat.

Yes, it’s a milkshake – vanilla – with two shots of espresso  Could not have been lovelier.  And only $5.50!!

Having finished that quickly, I was ready to visit the home of Juliet Gordon Low, aka Daisy, founder of the Girl Scouts.  I had a book about her when I was a child, so it was like visiting an old friend.  I did learn some new things – or things I had forgotten.

Juliet became deaf in one ear following an incident with a piece of rice thrown at her wedding.  I am not making this up.  The piece of rice lodged itself in her ear and would not budge.  Eventually, in the efforts to get it out, the doctor (presumably) punctured her eardrum.  Her friends often commented, laughing, that if you tried to tell Juliet “no,” she just “turned her deaf ear to you so she couldn’t hear you.”

Juliet was an adventurer, and one of my childhood heroes.

(Drawing of a car about to slide backwards off a cliff.  In Daisy’s handwriting, it reads, “It was a perfect miracle that I was not killed, love to Anna and to you, yours, Daisy.  Below that, typed, it says, “Daisy was quite the  traveler.  In this 1923 letter to Mary Gale Carter, she illustrates a harrowing adventure.) 

I had not realized there was actually a comic book about her, but was so delighted by it that I had to buy a copy in the book store.   (I know, free museum, $16 for books, and $5.50 for the coffee milkshake, and another $8 for girl scout cookies…)  I posted a page from the comic book below – they have a large one on display.  But you can check out the whole comic book here.

(Picture is a page from a comic book, picturing Juliet in England as a nurse and a creator of iron gates.)

Juliet was an artist – she painted and sculpted and did iron work and many other things, but most importantly for us, she was driven to create a program for girls that would teach them how to do all the things themselves.

(My sister and I standing behind the statue of Juliet Low in the garden.)  

You might think that we were worn out from all the museum-ing, and we did need a small snack to refresh our energy, but we still had a couple of good museums left in us.  I will pause here and come back later to tell you about the King-Tisdel Cottage and the Beach Institute (named after Alfred Ely Beach, and not the sandy area by the ocean.)