"Living history" museums are like senior citizen housing centers. They're remarkable reminders of the past, they dress and smell a little strangely, and all of the residents are effectively trapped there, waiting for people to visit. Every year, fourth-graders on field trips and old people collectively go on pilgrimages to places that people used to live in before highways and the Internet were invented, staffed by actors wearing period costumes and pretending the world was frozen in place 300 years ago by some kind of time ray.
The actors choose to live there, taking on the role on a daily basis. Their kids, on the other hand, have no choice. We spoke to one of the former children who grew up in Colonial Williamsburg during the late '80s and who took a break from partying like it's 1699 to tell us ...
#5. You Can't Have Anything Modern Be Visible In Your House
#4. Tourists Have No Respect For Boundaries
#3. We Have Actors Who Pretend To Be Slaves (And That Gets Awkward)
#2. The Kids Are (Unpaid) Performers
#1. We're Literally Keeping the Past Alive
