Original sodafountain beverages, crabcakes, Scrapple fries, nostalgic, traditional farming tools, historical artifacts from the past, peach ice cream, why, we must be in Delaware!

You would be 100% percent correct, sitting at the crossroad of Rural America and individuals from major cities where they call their office, it was an honor to be present at the ribbon cutting of the Crossroads exhibit at the Greater Harrington Historical Society.

As Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long arrived, and Delaware Humanities Executive Director Michele Anstine, Carol Harsh from the Museum on Main Street Program connection with this exhibit, former student and now Delaware Humanities Community Program officer, Danielle Levredge, Harrington legend and Greater Harrington Historical Society curator, Doug Poore, the mayor, police chief, Harrington board members, and MORE, all under one roof as the Cross Roads exhibit opened the first time this evening – one major theme was evident – Rural crossroads lead to major highways of culture that we find all around us in cities miles away from these amazing Rural destinations.

You absolutely do NOT want to miss this exhibit for the next three months at the Greater Harrington Historical Society. On coming back from Los Angeles and seeing Carol Harsh’s workshop on the Museum on Main Street Forum I had no idea how impactful and meaningful exhibits such as Crossroads could reflect what many people take for granted when it comes to Delaware.

It was familiar and welcoming to see a familiar face from the conference such as Ms. Harsh’s, encouraging to see former students like Danielle Levredge take projects that we tackled at high school and turn them into real life changes – and yet, this is what small town rural creativty does, changes, grows, and still retains a sense of history.

As I took this exhibit all in this evening, enjoying the amazing taste of an original Old Fashioned Sods Drinks – originally from Burton’s Sports Shop- and taking in the amazing artifacts, this was everything the temporary exhibit Crossroads was meant to give back to visitors, keep what is a town’s legacy, and show a path forward of what the future will hold for community amid its changes.

Being a part of Delaware Humnaities, and coming back from the National Humanities Conference, I beagn to see, thanks to the CrossRoads opening exhibit, how all roads do indeed come through rural american stories. Do not hesitate for one minute. but visit this great exhibit thanks to Delaware Humanities, The Greater Harrington Historical Society Museum, The Smithsonian, and so many more- exhibits like this provide an opportunity for the value of stories, rural America, to be represented in its full light.

An interesting comments was made- that someone was grateful that this event put Harrington on the map. The response was Harrington was already on the map, it was just letting others be aware and surprised what is within that map that evades the overall glance most people will see. Absolute. This exhibit is one small example of how this is possible, and how change occurs in the perimter of retianing a rural community history.

Don’t miss it!

The next few days you will see posts that come from the Humanities Conference, as the previous post, that show paths to tie communities to the growth, while retaining the value of those locations n the first place.