Yesterday was International Museum Day. Museum, from Old Latin meaning home of the muses. Seriously. Well, they had to live somewhere.

Museums are good places. I can say that now but there was a time when, to me, they were no more than where they keep the dinosaurs. In fact, I thought that “museum” was from Old Bedrockian and really meant “where they keep the dinosaurs.” Fortunately I didn’t pass that trait on to my daughter, nor did any of the rest of my generation pass that on to their offspring. I can tell because there are indeed museums without a single bone under their roofs.

Although our town has a terrific natural history museum with a dandy collection of bones there are others dedicated to art, local history, and scientific accomplishments . But don’t stop there. Anything can be museumable. If your town is the home of something there is probably a museum dedicated to it. Trolleys, hand puppets, kitchen appliances, and carpenters’ tools have multiple museums devoted to them. There are other permanent exhibits dedicated to matchsticks, roller skates, and the moist towelette. And don’t forget the living museums such as Colonial Willimasburg or Salem, Massachusetts. There is actually a living history museum exploring places replicating history and historical events called, appropriately enough, the Living History Museum.  Anything can be, and has been enshrined for current and future devotees.

Whether as large as the Louvre in Paris or as small as Manhattan’s Mmuseumm, as diverse as the Smithsonian or as single minded as the Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska there is probably a museum out there that you’ll like. What would you want to see memorialized in Greater Museumland?

Somewhere along the way I missed International Museum Day on my personal list of special days. Otherwise I would have posted this last week so we could all have some time to plan on visiting someplace special given to something special. Go ahead and mark yesterday’s date down on your 2017 calendar so we don’t miss next year’s celebration. But please, don’t wait until May 18, 2017 before you visit a museum. This weekend will do.

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?