This scene from the once glorious National Wax Museum of Lancaster County Heritage, shows how local kids survived the summer heat in Lancaster County. Whether it was fishing, swimming, or swinging from a rope, the kids here seem to really enjoy the satisfaction of cool water quenching the scorching heat. This first photograph shows the tableau in its heyday, with clean water and children that did not have broken hands and grime on them. The museum, which closed in December, was hopefully going to relocate its collection somewhere else in Lancaster County, but I suppose these effort failed. Now, almost all of the figures and sets will be auctioned of on May 19th. So any of you history fans out there can own your own wax figures (actually, vinyl).
This boy had been swinging into the water for nearly forty years.
This boy looks like it has been a rough forty years for him also.
He used to hold something in his hand, but his thumb broke off. Luckily, using the traditional Amish invention of electrical tape, he is as good as new.
Except for the bad peeling on her legs and feet, this young girl seems to have held up pretty well.
This kid, who was fishing in the first picture, lost his pole and gained some wear and tear.
One kid who made it into the water isn't looking too good now. I get raisin fingers after a half an hour. This kid was in there forty years.Except for the first picture, all photos are from Jennings Auction Group.
Tags: Discover Lancaster Lancaster County Wax Museum Wax Figure Amish Swimming Hole
I first visited the museum in 1969, its opening year, as a little boy from New York with a summer camp group from Syosset. The trip also took us to the National Civil War Wax Museum in Gettysburg, perhaps the most influential trip in my life. On subsequent visits in the next 37 years, I would toss a quarter near a tree in the swimming hole scene to see if it was there on my following visit. It never was. There was a true magic to the scene as you crossed the Burr-Truss recreated covered bridge and could hear the waterfall in the near distance, the humidity from the moisture, the sense of the transition from the real world to the world in wax (in all deference to Lily Santangelo!).
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