Lil' Me and the Museum
Digging up childhood memories with a member of NHMLAC's staff. Share your favorite memories with us!
The author pictured in front of the "Time Ribbon," an illustrated timeline depicting Ice Age L.A., on a visit to the museum at La Brea Tar Pits (then the George C. Page Museum) circa 1996-7.
Los Angeles ranks as one of the world’s top capitals for museums. As a preschooler, I was fortunate to live near Miracle Mile, home to Los Angeles’s museum row. My mother frequently dressed me up and we rode the bus down Wilshire Boulevard to eat lunch at the historic Original Market before she let me walk around Hancock Park and roll down the hills located at the side of the museum at La Brea Tar Pits.
Photo by Gina Cholick
Being around 4 years old, I was fascinated by the famous tar pits smell, the iconic (and tragic) lake pit scene, and fossils displayed in the museum. The saber-tooth cats and their fearsome teeth, the majestic Columbian mammoth, and condors with spread boney wings. I was amazed that in the same place I was standing—a museum surrounded by a bustling metropolis with infamous rush hour traffic—once lived such unique animals and plants. And, that people continued making new fossil discoveries on site! It all seemed incredible.
Photo by Gina Cholick
By Gina Cholick
Perhaps a mounted skeleton of a saber-toothed cat caught your eye?
Did you plant your feet on the same ground where giant creatures once roamed?
Where did your sneakers lead you when you arrived at La Brea Tar Pits?
As an adult, it was surreal to reenter the museum at La Brea Tar Pits, this time as a member of the staff. I was immediately brought back to my childhood and the feelings of wonder and mystery the Tar Pits inspired in me all those years ago. Through my work, I feel incredibly lucky to share the wonder of the Tar Pits to Angelenos and worldwide visitors alike as NHMLAC’s Communication Manager.
