out & about by Sheri Wren Haymore
STORYTELLING Recently, while listening to the radio, my husband remarked, “There are so many great musicians out there, but only a few make it big. Why is that?” Tom Petty happened to be singing, so I answered, “Storytelling, for one thing. People enjoy stories they can relate to.” When I visited the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, storytelling was the thing that struck me as I browsed the exhibits. Indeed, when I spoke with the museum’s Executive Director, Matt Edwards, he confirmed that the mission of the museum is to collect, preserve, and interpret the stories that are significant to this region. “We collect tangible pieces from the past, but we also interpret the stories that make the objects important for future generations,” he told me.
Matt explained the three-tier story interpretation that a visitor to the museum will experience. First, there is the movement of people into the region and how their culture impacts the character of who we are today. Native Americans were here first, of course, followed by other groups who arrived, each with their aspirations and plans. And there were people “brought” here: enslaved Africans, Italians recruited to work the quarry, Latinos brought in to work crops. All the varied people have added to the rich history of the region. The second tier, surprisingly, involves STEM (learning activities that include Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Our museum is the only history museum in North Carolina to receive a STEM grant from the Museum of Natural Sciences. The museum displays invite the visitor to marvel at early technology that helped form the region, such as the physics and geometry of a wagon wheel, a grist mill, the foundry process, and simple machines that impacted the community. 18 • SURRY LIVING August 2022 Issue
The third tier, said Matt, is people. “The biographies of the individuals whose stories make our community unique and who had an impact on their place and time are what we preserve,” he said. Each of us brings our own story – our unique interests and perspective – into whatever art form we experience, whether music, visual art, performing arts, or in this case, the art of our history museum. Quite a bit of artistic expression goes into telling the stories of the people and events that each exhibit portrays. My personal interest drew me to the colorful and comprehensive memorabilia of country music legend Donna Fargo and to wonder, What if there’s a child growing up right now in Surry County who will follow in Ms. Fargo’s footsteps? The interesting story of Jerry Hatcher and the Mount Airy Speedway caused me to think, What if the Speedway had grown into a NASCAR track? The fascinating record cutting lathe machine displayed beneath the bright neon WPAQ sign made me ask, What is the potential for growth in music recording in the region? The museum is a great asset, and it does more than house artifacts inside a building. Matt told me that because history happens “out there,” he is deeply invested in bringing the museum to the community. As part of community outreach, a thirty-foot-long walk-through mobile museum trailer begins touring soon as part of Surry 250 (Surry County’s 250th Anniversary Celebration.) There are twenty dates scheduled this year, plus stops at schools and retirement homes. The popular Ghost Tours are another way the museum collects local stories and interprets the history behind
