A Couple of Suspicious Characters

Earlier today, D and I visited the Charlotte Nature Museum--mostly to see the Butterfly Pavilion, where we witnessed several new butterflies hatching out of their chrysalises! Very cool. We also got to see a bunch of bonus critters, including live owls, a mink, and baby mice.

But here's the weird thing. When we paid for our admission, the nice old lady at the front desk asked for our zip code. And then she asked D for her driver's license, and held it until we left the museum. I thought it was a bit strange, but didn't say anything at the time--hell, we'd already been fingerprinted at Universal Studios, and the license had our old address anyway.

We discussed it afterward, and the only thing we can think of is that the lady had been trained to be suspicious of two adults, by themselves, visiting what was clearly intended to be children's museum. And the only reason they would have been trained that way is if there had been some kind of incident, either at that museum or another in the area, in which children had run afoul of such evildoers.

The fact that we paid cash probably didn't help.

Anyway, it's a bit of a sad commentary on our times that people have to think about these things. But what do I know? It might have been something else entirely. Maybe the lady was taking night classes to become a bartender, and she wanted to see what a real California driver's license looked like. Maybe the locals just don't like us blue-staters. It could be anything!

~CKL