Visitors

Yesterday I spent an extra day at the museum.  Arriving in time to help 60 kids buy things in the shop I discovered they were not buying anything, an office failure at their end which meant the teachers did not know they were to bring cash!  So instead i stood in the WW2 part and answered questions wrongly concerning the war. 
The kids portrayed Evacuees very well and were keen to discover what we had to show them.  However the question on the worksheet asked "What was the last item to come of rationing?"  
Naturally I did not know and from the choice before us "Butter, Meat, Cheese, Sugar, Sweets," I discussed with one dimwit (he may end up working in a museum) whether sugar, which was imported, might be the item.  Sugar or sweets I thought as sweets came of the ration in 1954.  
The answer naturally was meat!
Meat came of the ration in 1954, sweets in 1953!  A previous attempt to deration sweets occurred in 1948 but the panic buying led to shortages and it was put back on ration.  By 1953 prices had risen and attitudes changed.  Not that I remember this as you know...
This was a good school.  The teachers were good, the kids happy and bright, for the most part, and the teachers preferred us to Duxford and the huge airforce collection there.  We were cosier and more suitable for the kids, Duxford, which is worth visiting, is huge! 
I came home exhausted, brain work you see, I'm not used to it.

Waking at around seven this morning I was glad it was Wednesday as I could go back to sleep.  
At 7:20 am I realised it was in fact Tuesday and I could not!  This was disappointing.
The mist was close to fog in some areas, quite thick like some people I know, and hung about until it turned into drizzle later on.  This is a warm, mild winter, which is worrying.
One result is the number of spiders appearing in the house.  One or two quite big ones, not the usual types have been seen around.  I chased one out the other day but not sure if he went, not sure if he was a he as last night I found several dozen wee ones on the ceiling.  I cleared them out by applying a feather duster (made from nylon I bet) and running them under the bath tap to kill them, cruel man that I am.  Later there were more, and twice more I went back and cleared out others.  It is I believe normal for such beasties to give birth to a hundred at a time, I hope I caught them all.

  
Today it was back to the museum in the mist to be made to rush around Tesco for stuff no-one had bought and to be met by several folks with 'learning difficulties' before we had even opened.  Quite a contrast between these and yesterdays folks.  These are adults who remain children.  Sad in many ways but happy enough with what we offered them today.  This group come often and enjoy their visit, well chaperoned by young ladies who understand the needs.  A worthy job that.
Later another two women brought a 12 year old who was very disabled mentally and physically.   the idea is to give them some stimulus, sometimes this is very difficult.  Actually I just remembered another regular visitor is a young lad with problems came also.  This appears to be the day for them. 
Not that much history discovered by most of them but they enjoyed their visit and got something out of the time.