What is THAT?!

by Bob Buddemeier

Sarah Karnatz is at it again.  The Queen of Resident Sensory Experience is long-famed for her attention to taste buds and sociability.  She has more recently branched out into movies, music and dance.  And now, a new frontier – stimulating your inherent appreciation of the strange.  For the month of February, Sarah’s Olde Curiosity Shoppe will be on display in the cases along the Manor hallway to the dining room.  Peculiar objects galore are available for your viewing pleasure.

Sarah and Ian, among other oddities

When asked how the display came about, Sarah explained: “We had just gone into a full lockdown (again) and I wanted to see what we COULD do. Rita Derbas had a huge list of fun ideas, and I I loved this one, so I ran with it.  I love unusual things (who doesn’t?) and I figured if I could get a bunch of odd items together people would want to see them!  Maybe it would get residents out of their houses for a bit, and hopefully spark up a conversation over an item.  If residents were checking their mail or headed to the gym or just out for a walk, they could peel off and go have a look  — it would be an RVM  ‘destination’.”

Even Sarah could not hope to achieve an accomplishment of this magnitude on the basis of personal weirdness alone – she has had the help of some of our more voluntarily peculiar residents in assembling the array of oddities.

“There has been a LOT of resident interest in this display, which is awesome! I had a feeling that there were some odd and unusual item around campus and I was not disappointed!”  Sarah said. “I had a ton of voicemails and my email was flooded with pictures.  Also, I was getting a lot of really beautiful, original items that were not quite ‘odd’ or ‘weird’, so from that sprang another idea — RVM’s Cabinet of Treasures. That is for a later time.”

Sarah”s original intention had been to challenge our collective knowledge by posting the items without identification for people to figure out on their own.  However, on second thought, “To avoid the 458,234 emails I foresee coming inquiring as to what is what in the cabinet, I am going to have notes/identifications on or near the objects,” she said.

Even under pandemic conditions, most residents have occasion to go to the Manor at least once a month.  When you are there, crank your curiosity dial over to full clockwise and wander into our very own Museum of the Twilight Zone.  You’ll be glad (or at least surprised) to see all that’s there.

Sarah’s final comment on the project:  “It feels like we are alwys being told no, can’t do this, can’t do that – I really just wanted this to be something that we could do.”