Last weekend Bob was able to meet up with another college colleague. They met in a town, Harrisonburg, half-way between where we are staying and where Barry (the college friend) and his family live. See below for photo of the meet-up.
On the way to Harrisonburg, Bob saw a sign for the Woodrow Wilson Museum in Staunton, VA. We checked out the website and decided we needed to go. Staunton (now pronounced Stanton) is a city of about 24,000 in nearby Augusta County. It is about a 30 minute drive from Charlottesville. It is super cute and can claim more than Woodrow Wilson as a famous son.
Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton and lived there for about 2 years while his father was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. While he grew up in Georgia and South Carolina during the Civil War (which led to his hatred of war and desire to stay out of WWI), he visited Staunton often to see family. He was the 28th president, a Democrat, and the first, and only, president to earn a Ph.D. The museum cost $8 per person and included a 30 minute tour of the Wilson home, a film on his life, as well as the museum.
The docents were very friendly and informative. We learned the origins of some common sayings from them (put it on the back burner, keep your irons in the fire, and mind your beeswax) as well the fact that the 3 “servants” (slaves) that supported the Wilson family were rented from their owners.
We also learned from the docents that because Staunton was not burned by the Yanks at the end of the Civil War it still has many of the original buildings from when it was in its hey day as the intersection of 2 railroads.
Peckish Travels 