Another field trip

Today we went to a museum in Binghamton not far from where I used to live. Once again the kids were fairly well behaved. I wish they were that well behaved all the time and not just when we're on trips like this one. They have some local history stuff in the museum, and one of the things on display was an 1882 drawing of Binghamton. The house I lived in until last month was in the drawing. I told my co-workers that and they didn't believe me until I told them that the house still had knobs sticking out of the walls from where the gas fixtures were. That was kind of fun. I knew the house was really old, but now I know it is as old as it is. It was in the middle of the developed area, so I am sure that it had been there for at least a few years. That was interesting.

They had another display up for the county bicentennial this year showing 200 years of local history. What I learned there is that a company built a clock in 1906 here in Endicott (1906 happens to be the year that the village of Endicott was officially founded). The company was called International Time Recording Company or something like that. Many years later that company became IBM. They still have about 1,000 employees at their office here. This area was developed primarily by the Endicott-Johnson company. It was a very large shoe factory and the company built houses for their employees. Many parts of Endicott and Johnson City (interestingly the Johnson family lived in Endicott and the Endicott family lived in JC) are full of houses that all look strikingly similar because they were all built by the company. I find this all very interesting. :)

I chatted rather briefly with my dad online last night. He asked me if I had lost their phone number, since I hadn't called in 2 days. That's when you know you talk to your parents a lot!