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Trying to figure out the museum I went to as a kid in Chicago in the summer of 1999 - Maybe someone can help? (tucson.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So, back when I was about 9/10 ish (1999) I remember going to museum with my grandparents that contained a few key things that stood with me over 2 decades later.

The first, and creepiest was an animatronic of a homeless/drug addict in an alley or on a bench. This is the “anchor” memory, it’s hard to forget such a creepy thing.

The second was a more hands on focused kids area where I spent a majority of my time.

The last was a restaurant with some TVs installed around the eating area somewhere in the building - I distinctly seeing ads for the new Tarzan movie, so I’m thinking this was the summer of 99ish.

It could also have been the Chicago Childrens Museum, but when looking at older pictures absolutely nothing stands out to me as memorable - additionally they don’t have any on-site restaurants that I can see from my research.

After lots of internet sleuthing, I think but can’t confirm, that it is the Museum of Science and Industry. Some of the pictures of some of the exhibits seem really familiar.

I suppose the key thing preventing my brain from saying “This is the one” is lack of anyone else mentioning such an animatronic at any of these places.

I asked my grandma, but she’s pretty deep in dementia and doesn’t really recall those experiences anymore. 😢

So /c/Chicago, are any of you old enough to remember such an exhibit from 99? If so, what museum was that?

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[–] Int 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I grew up and live in Chicago, your explanation sorta sounds like this exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Edit: I forgot to include there’s a statue of a man on a bench, there’s a few small tvs around the exhibit and it includes a 50s themed diner/ice cream shop.

Anything seem familiar? I’m intrigued lol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dear commenters - it appears that your instance is not federating outwards. That is, it appears to be unable to send messages to other instance inboxes. (Verified with both tucson.social and beehaw.org)

I do see your comments on your main instance, but I cannot reply to them from beehaw or tucson.social - I can however make new posts in the thread without issue.

I encourage y'all to reach out to your Admin and have them check that federation activity hasn't been accidentally blocked on outbound connections. This can be verified with a cursory glance at the lemmy logs, and will show that any external address is unreachable - either blocked or DNS is unresolvable. Most of these issues can be resolved with a docker daemon restart and sometimes a firewall restart (before the docker daemon restart).

EDIT: NEVERMIND - The missing comments seem to be stemming from the fact that the instance the user is posting from is blocked on beehaw.org (and consequently tucson.social since we share blocklists).

I'm gonna re-review my blocking of some of these more general instances like I did with lemmy.world.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It sounds like you're talking about the Museum of Science and Industry. There's a huge interactive kids area. I don't recall any specific animatronics, but my first time visiting was several years after the 90s.

Do you remember a doll house?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

MSI is also weirdly located - like, if it had been the Field museum, op world probably remember/associate it with the lake, the aquarium; that whole area is contiguous and memorable; ARTIC is the same way with downtown, probably mag mile too - but (usually) when you go to MSI, you get in the car, get out in the MSI parking lot, enjoy the museum, then get back in the car, and go home - so, harder to remember its context. I could understand remembering the museum but the memory being a bit disassociated.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

As a kid we were members of MSI, and I loved that place. They would host overnights pretty often, my mom and I would find special places each time to sleep. That museum holds a very special place in my heart.