I N D I A N A S TAT E M U S E U M A N D H I S T O R I C S I T E S
CROSSROADS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER JULY 2022
Earlier this summer it was Culinary Camp week at the museum and egg drop soup was on the menu. Nicole Rife, the director of education engagement, and her helper, Allie Commons, are busy corralling 19 campers who are going to make this recipe. The goal is twofold: Get the kids – who will be going into first, second and third grade later this summer – to learn to cook something and to try a new food. They’d prepared an orzo salad the day before; the rest of the week would be bread and desserts. “That is the biggest carry-through for all of our camps: We just want them to try,” Rife says. “We don’t expect perfection. They might learn that they like something a lot; they might learn that they don’t like something.” To get started, she gathers the children in a circle. When they sit, she speaks to them in clear, precise language, using and explaining words like “ratio” that they might not know as she tells them things like why they put cornstarch in a recipe. “You’ll taste the soup and take a little home,” she tells them. “If you taste it and don’t like it, you’re not going to hurt my feelings.”
Before they do anything, each camper gets a hairnet and washes his or her hands. The campers are divided by tables and while Commons keeps an eye on the room, Rife calls the groups one by one to the supply table to work through the recipe – measure cornstarch, pepper, sugar and so on, crack and beat the eggs and mix everything together. (When one camper accidentally drops an egg on the floor, she shows them how to use salt to absorb a spill.) “The hardest thing at Culinary Camp is the amount of waiting because they have to come up to the supply table to get the ingredients,” Rife says. “We want to make sure we’re teaching them the proper ways to measure ingredients and talk about why we’re using the ingredients.” After they combine the ingredients in a large pot, the campers bring it back to each table, where there’s a hot plate. They stir and, when the time is right, add the beaten eggs. When all five tables have finished making their soup, Rife asks, “Hey, campers, you want to taste a little bit for a snack?” “Yay!” They come up and get a spoon and a small cup, and she goes around to each table and ladles some soup into each cup. A few campers are reluctant to try the soup, but ultimately everyone does.
Before they go home for the day, Rife pulls the campers together and they reflect on the recipe they made and what they thought. They generally liked the soup – some wanted less cornstarch, some wanted more. Some wanted thicker pieces of egg. Others didn’t. Many wanted more salt and pepper. One said, “I loved it. It tasted just like the restaurant’s.” “Then we talk about what we can add and change and how we can adapt a recipe for cooking,” Rife said. “Hearing them reflect on what they like and don’t like is so cool.” Culinary Camp is one of 18 weeklong camps, in addition to nine different day camps, the Indiana State Museum offers over seven weeks of summer. Throughout the week, campers get to take home food to share with their family, and one beamed as she told the group that her mother “wouldn’t stop eating” the orzo salad they had made at camp the day before. “There’s a sense of accomplishment,” Rife says, “because they made the food, and now they get to show off to their families.”
Mike Linderman is the western regional director for the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites and site manager at Angel Mounds State Historic Site in Evansville. He began working for the museum system in May 1993 on an archaeology dig at the Lanier Mansion State Historic Site. As the western regional director, Mike oversees operations at Angel Mounds, Vincennes and New Harmony state historic sites. He also manages staff, volunteers, programming and more at Angel Mounds. Mike lives close to downtown Evansville with his wife, Kate (who also used to work for the museum system), and daughters Mary Rachel (20, pictured right) and Josephine (16, pictured left).
STAFF SPOTLIGHT: MIKE LINDERMAN WHAT IS YOUR FUNNIEST WORK STORY? Well, in my 29 years there are many. I have seen some crazy things. One of the funniest would have to be the time we attempted to lower the water level behind one of the beaver dams at Angel Mounds. The water began backing up into areas that we did not want it in, so we thought we would make a notch in the dam using our old tractor with its front-end loader. No sooner had our maintenance guy made the notch, water surrounded the tractor, and it sank in the newly formed mud. It was the end of the day, so we decided we would leave it where it sat for the night and have a tow truck come the next day to pull it out of the muck. Overnight, the beaver rebuilt the dam and incorporated the tractor into the dam. The tow truck operator didn’t charge us for the work, saying he had never seen anything like that in all of his years.
WHERE IS THE MOST INTERESTING PLACE YOU'VE TRAVELED? I spent an entire summer with Ball State at a cultural field school in the Four Corners area of the southwestern U.S. We lived on the reservations with the people who lived there. It profoundly changed my life. I went out there clean shaven and came home with a beard, which I believe still bothers my mom. WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU'VE EVER RECEIVED? My first director of historic sites supervisor would listen to me go on and on about the things I found annoying/ infuriating about certain procedures and personalities we dealt with. One day, he stopped me and said, “Michael, you need to let this stuff go or it will consume you. Whatever it is will pass eventually.” Essentially, don’t sweat the small stuff. WHAT'S YOUR MOST PRIZED POSSESSION? My dad’s antique car collection.
WHAT SKILL WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO LEARN, AND WHY? I wish I was a knowledgeable auto mechanic like my dad and grandpa were. Dad was a soil conservationist by trade, but he was taught by my grandpa the finer points of keeping old stuff running. DO YOU HAVE A HIDDEN TALENT? WHAT IS IT? I am pretty good at restoring furniture, old radios and toys. Chalk paint is the enemy. WHAT'S THE MOST DARING THING YOU'VE EVER DONE? Not by choice, but surviving an F4 tornado that crossed Angel Mounds in 2005 and leveled the house we lived in was probably my most daring achievement. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN THE LAST YEAR? Being part of the repatriation at Angel Mounds State Historic Site. It was a project I never thought would happen in my lifetime.
AUGUST ANNIVERSARIES DENVER BAYS
JULIE SCHAEFER
JARRELL OLIVER
AMY AHLERSMEYER
CRYSTAL MAXEY
MADISON SCHNELL
Security – 3 years
Corydon Capitol – 1 year
ARTHUR BOOTH
SARAH GOTHE
MATTHEW PAGE
Gene Stratton-Porter – 3 years
Indiana Store – 1 year
CATHY DONNELLY
BETH CONWAY
SHAUN PAYNE
Corydon Capitol – 6 years
Marketing – 5 years
Limberlost – 5 years Experiences – 5 years
Marketing – 5 years
Levi and Catharine Coffin – 2 years
Facilities Maintenance – 1 year
Limberlost – 1 year
SECURITY UPDATE
Director of Security Tyriee Love
Security Manager Dustin Chavez
KEY CORE INSTALL UPDATE AT THE INDIANA STATE MUSEUM Thank you all for being patient during this new key core installation. We are nearing the end of phase one here at the Indiana State Museum. We have a few new parts to order and a few parts that need a little extra work. Many thanks to security team members Sara Johnson, Evelyn Taylor, Borden Fleetwood and Matthew Wardwell for helping make this change as smooth as possible and for taking the time to cut keys and place cores throughout the museum and administration areas of the building. Thanks to staff for your patience while we make this new shift and begin phase two of making sure everyone is comfortable with their new keys and has access to what they need. Phase one and two will most likely be completed over the next month before moving on to the final phase. If you have any questions or concerns about the new key system, please reach out to Dustin Chavez via email at dchavez@indianamuseum.org or stop by the security office.
CPR/AED AND FIRST AID CLASSES CPR, AED and First Aid classes have started, and we have three more classes this year. We will continue with the virtual class format and end with in-person testing on the dates listed below. To register, contact Dustin Chavez at dchavez@indianamuseum.org with the in-person test date you prefer. A link for the American Red Cross will be emailed to you to sign up. Once sign up is completed, participants have until the day of testing to complete the three-hour course. A calendar invite for in-person testing and more information will be provided closer to your test date. In-person testing will take a maximum of two hours. Remember, if you took the course last year, you are still good for another year. 2-HOUR IN-PERSON TESTING DATES: •
Thursday, Aug. 25 – 8 seats available
•
Thursday, Sept. 22 – 12 seats available
•
Thursday, Oct. 27 – 12 seats available
IMPORTANT NUMBERS TO PUT IN YOUR PHONE Security Non-Emergency 317.234.2454 | Security Emergency 317.234.2455 | After-Hours Security Mobile 317.509.5396
CANAL
NIGHTS
SHARE YOUR STORY IDEAS! Renee Bruck, manager of communication | 317.260.3506 | rbruck@indianamuseum.org