Thinking Allowed: A trip to a war memorial

Somehow when you live in a city you often end up having seen less of the sites than tourists. While I grew up in Los Angeles it wasn't until I was an adult visiting that I got around to going up close to the iconic Hollywood sign. I am sure there are many Parisians who have never been up the Eiffel Tower. That being said, I have made a great effort of taking advantage of the sites the Australian capital has on offer. We are lucky to live in a small city with a large number of museums and national attractions so why not make the most of it. But until today I had not been into the Australian war memorial.

Australians take both their losses in the wars and their memorials very seriously. We know this to be a fact as there is an entire cookie (Anzac cookie) invented to remember soldiers. While I don't take politics and war very seriously I nonetheless do like cookies and have always felt compelled to visit this particular memorial which is always on the lists of must see places in Australia. Except, whenever I give the kids a choice between a war memorial and a park, or a war memorial and playing at home they generally choose the other choice. Finally today I got Sophia a bit excited about the memorial (I mentioned there was a kids section) and we got to see firsthand what all the hype was about.

I really don't usually like war museums and memorials but it was pretty great. It was a very large museum - to the point where we had to leave about halfway though due to hunger. I expected the kids to be bored, but, between numerous displays of war paraphernalia and stories, interactive screens, models of boats, many large dioramas of war scenes, fire on water, poppies everywhere, and pictures, they were captivated. They especially liked the large room full of war airplanes. And the kids section did not disappoint - they got to pretend to fly an airplane, explore trenches, walk through a submarine, and learn about war animals. War was a new concept to Sophia and she struggled to grasp the basic idea that people fight and kill each other. The whole concept was very absurd to her and I have to say I feel the same way. However, the fact that they had no idea, beyond the most basic premise, what the museum was really about and didn't read any of the signs probably made the experience even more fun. Plus, with the scorching hot sun out we were all happy for the air conditioning.

Sophia's favorite part of the museum was the fire on water and the kids section and she is eager to go back to see the rest of the museum. Tova seemed to most enjoy the airplanes and air conditioning. I think I liked the same parts as Tova best but also enjoyed the story of Horrie the dog. Horrie served in WWII with a soldier friend. When the soldier was sent back, despite his valor, Horrie was not allowed back into Australia due to quarantine laws. So, the soldier smuggled him into Australia in a backpack. A few years later the quarantine officials found out he had been smuggled into the country and requested he be brought into the offices to be put down. Not able to stand such poor treatment of a war hero the soldier went to the pound, got a similar looking dog and handed in the decoy to be put down. Horrie lived out the rest of his days a happy veteran.