Confessions of a Gallery Guard: The Rubber Chicken Incident
I’ve seen baby dolls a few times, but the rubber chicken was a new one.
Being a family-oriented museum, we would get a lot of kids, and kids tend to bring toys or other things with them when they come to the museum. Sometimes it’s a blankie, sometimes it’s a baby doll. Sometimes it’s a lightsaber.
(The lightsaber one did actually happen — this kid, presumably after seeing the latest Star Wars movie, was dressed in a Luke Skywalker Halloween costume and tried to bring his lightsaber in with him. It was later in the afternoon and we all zeroed in on this kid as we watched him swing it around in the parking lot, and with patience waning, we braced ourselves for what was about to happen. My supervisor put the kibosh on that before he even stepped foot inside, and the poor kid sulked for most of his visit. But I digress.)
Sometimes, though, it’s a rubber chicken.
Last summer, not long after we re-opened after lockdown, this woman and her daughter (who couldn’t have been more than six or seven) came into the museum. It was in the morning so there wasn’t really anyone else there yet, and we all clocked the rubber chicken in the little girl’s hands immediately. Generally, we’re not bothered by toys unless the kid starts swinging…
