I must admit that I am a complete and total shopaholic when it comes to gift shops at historic sites. More than anything I just like to peruse the merchandise but I sometimes cringe at some of the items that are for sale.
Among the serious items such as books and documentaries, there are sprinklings of such things as historical lipbalm. Recently I ran across Johnny Reb mint julep flavored and Billy Yank U.S. mint flavored chapstick. I guess your lips choose your side of the Civil War.
On my recent trip to Andersonville, carefully hidden from view was a Andersonville play set. Yes, you can not only tour the former site of the prison camp, but if the mood strikes you then you can play it out. I guess it is not much different from kids playing war, but the kids pretending like their little figures are dying from starvation or diarrhea seems a little extreme. It make me wonder 100 years from now as the memories of the Holocaust become embedded in our distant memory, will there be Auschwitz play sets? Yes, it seems preposterous to think that would ever happen, but I'm sure survivors of Andersonville never could have predicted a cheap playset would eventually be sold at the place where they suffered.
Something to ponder.
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