Week 9:This week was certainly a busy week for us education interns at the Greensboro History Museum. We had two summer program groups come this week, and we finally hosted the 1970s Flashback Day. The two groups that visited the museum on Tuesday and Wednesday were vastly different. 

On Tuesday, it was an extremely small group of about ten young children, most were nine and under, and a few 11-year-olds. Instead of breaking this small group into three smaller groups and running 3 activities at once, we just all traveled from station to station. We had eight Volunteens, so it ended up being a more hands-on training and watching day for them to see how the Summer Program is run on a smaller scale. 

As for Wednesday, this was a 65+ group of kids ranging from 6 to about 13 with many older kids. We had many of the same Volunteens from the day before because of our desperate plea earlier for them to come and volunteer the next day for this large group. Instead of the typical three stations rotating at a time, we had all six stations going at the same time, and one big floor rotation at the end of three stations. To save time, we cut out showing the students the second floor of the museum. Overall, it went very well. We did go a little over the time limit and there were a few issues, but everyone made it on the bus safe and with handfuls of arts and crafts and fun memories. 

Saturday was a big day for the museum. We all got up bright and early to set up. The fellow education interns and I decided to do a group costume, and we all dressed up as The Scooby Doo Gang, or Mystery Incorporated. We had every character except our own Scooby Doo. For a large part of the day, we all got to run around the museum and do our little activities, and when we all finally were in the same place long enough, our costumes would be better recognized.  

The Greensboro History Museum 2025 Education Interns: AJ Bly, AJ Merriman, Robin Tucker, and Kennedy Gray

After setting up, I would largely be going from place to place, checking how things were running. I also had a few minor tasks like writing thank you cards for some of our outside guests helping us with the event, and congratulation cards for contest winners.  

I largely helped with the costume contest sign-up until it was time to start setting up for the Bake Off. After everything was set up, we had two chocolate chess pies, two orange Jello molds (there were originally three, but one contestant accidentally had a mishap in the car ride over and dropped her Jello), and four Hummingbird Cakes.  

There was a fairly large audience in the museum auditorium watching the Bake Off. All of my judges showed up, and I was extremely grateful to the UNCG Dietitian for agreeing to participate in this event. Everything was truly delicious, and it was amazing to see all of the effort that each contestant put into their dish.

Most people afterwards came up to tell me that this was their first time making their dish/using an old recipe from the 1970s. It was a great experience, and I would love to do something like this again in the future. 

After the Bake Off, I was sized and selected clothes by the stylist in charge of the fashion show. I got to wear and walk on the auditorium stage in a lovely vintage outfit with a beautiful blue dress, a brooch, a pearl handbag, and a headscarf. I would have to make a quick change into my second outfit, which was a vintage yellow jacket over the red skirt I wore for my Velma costume. Both outfits were paired with my red Mary Jane shoes.  

Following the fashion show, I helped around a little bit, checking in on different activities. My supervisor, Catherine, pulled me aside near the end of the chaos of the event, to show me that one of our past summer program participant groups had mailed us a thank you card signed by all of the students, telling us that they had a wonderful time. It was very kind and made me feel really happy that they enjoyed their experience at the museum. Catherine would make my day even more special by telling me this was the first time the museum had received a thank-you card from a Summer Program group. 

By the end of the day and we slowly but surely started cleaning up and taking down signs, tables, and tents inside and outside. After helping the fashion stylist to her car with her rack of clothes, I made it back to the museum, and we all got to take group photos as the finishing touch to a spectacularly groovy event.