Memories from the Hall of Justice

When I visited the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal a week ago, all I had was the intention of seeing the new Mummies exhibit. On the way to it, I was thinking about my childhood memories visiting the children's museum and in line to get in the exhibit, I thought about the past visiting exhibits I've gone to over the years, including Bodies, Pompeii and Titanic. It wasn't until I wrote about my experience seeing the Mummies exhibit that I made a huge realization: Most of the childhood memories I have from places I went to during my childhood were at the Cincinnati Museum Center. This immensely confused me.

First off, I love animals, so I thought all of these years The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden or Newport Aquarium would bring more memories for me. But, as I started thinking more about my memories from the museum, I could come up with a memory for each exhibit.

The children’s museum brought me the fondest memories. From the forest jungle gym to the water works station (where I would be sopping wet afterwards, to my mom's disdain), I loved it all. I remember acting as a cashier or getting groceries at the grocery store in the town area. I remember going to the construction zone and diving in the foam-block pit. There was so much to do that I loved that I really couldn't tell you my favorite area.

In the museum of natural history and science, I remember running past the history section and getting close to the bat cave area. That part was my least favorite because the bat cave was dark and very realistic (I still don't like going in there). My favorite was going through the ice age area and looking at the screen just before going in the polar cave. The screen, which is still there, shows ice age and the path the snow and ice went down in the United States (the Cincinnati is a gold mine when it comes to fossils). From there, I saw the fossils and some of the extinct animals. The one that scared me the most (that's also still there today) was the giant sloth, since you see it from behind a wall you go past and it takes you by surprise.

From this section of the museum, I also remember the riverboat area where they have an entire set that looks like the former banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, when riverboats were prevalent. There are also store facades, some of which you can go into. You used to be able to dress up in clothes from the times, which I liked to do because I was little and thought it was funny. However, that is no longer the case today.

The only part from the Cincinnati History Museum that I remember enjoying was the model train display. I loved how tiny the trains were and how elaborate and large the display was and still is. They also had additional displays in another part of the museum during holidays like Christmas and Halloween when they offered themed areas (They still do for Christmas, but not sure on Halloween).

And of course, I could never forget my experiences from the OMNIMAX Theater. For one school field trip , we saw a film that had natural disasters in it as third graders and of course many students, like myself, were terrified. When the screen surrounds you like it does and the sound is so powerful, it can be intimidating and you have to be careful when taking kids there. I think the teachers learned their lesson.

It's amazing how many memories I have there and all of the ones I noted aren't even from my teenage years. You just never know how meaningful a place is until you really think about it.

The next time you visit somewhere that you remember going to as a kid, think about whether or not you have many memories from there that you can remember. You may be as shocked as I was, but grateful you have them.

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