Who gets tossed out of a museum?
I'll admit it. Aside from me, I know of no other person tossed out of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I blame it on atomic energy.
Most folks traverse the wonderful exhibits at Air & Space maintaining a sense of decorum. And most are satisfied to admire the various aircraft and spacecraft from afar. But, not I on that particular day in 1998.
My downfall was the Enola Gay exhibit in Gallery 103. Somehow, standing next to the very airplane that dropped the first atomic weapon in history drew me to that decision point where bank robbers open bank doors and regular schmoes like me become willful scofflaws. I decided to touch the airplane.
I milled around the exhibit casing the joint and waiting for the crowds to thin a bit before making my move. I located the barrier with the least distance between me the plane's nosegear.(see the attached image)
I considered the length of my arm's reach against the fulcrum presented at my stomach as I leaned in and determined it could be done.
I looked at the nosegear, then I looked at the security guard standing in the shadow near the main entrance door. I narrowed my eyes, fixed my glaze upon him and he upon me likewise in the fashion of two cowboys facing off in the dusty street in front of the saloon. It was him or me now.
The guard took a step forward from the shadows never breaking his gaze on me. "You aren't going to touch the exhibit are you?", he asked. "Yes, I am.", I croaked in my best Harry Callahan voice.
Doing so, he informed me, would be sufficient cause for him to escort me to the front door of the museum and throw me out. I replied, "That's fine."
At that precise moment I leaned over, stretched out and touched the nosewheel assembly; the guard grabbed me under the arm the way law enforcement officers are trained to do, and we silently made our way to one of the entrance doors on Independence Avenue. He released my arm and pushed me through the open door and I landed back in sunshine.
I turned around as he called out to me. "You can go around to the other side and come back in. I know why you touched it but I gotta do my do my job. Just don't touch any more exhibits today, brother."
I thanked him then walked around the building and re-entered the museum on the Mall side with a scofflaw's spring in the step and atomic glint in the eye. I had touched history.
Current Enola Gay exhibit at National Air & Space Museum: http://goo.gl/x4iwmE
Image: National Air & Space Museum, Washington, DC website.
#enolagay #nationalairandspacemuseum #hiroshima #littleboy #atomicenergy #atomicbomb #b29 #tibbets
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