Suprise History Lesson

One of my jobs at the Quabog Valley CDC (which is not the center for disease control, despite popular opinion) is to drive around to all the town halls and libraries in our service region and deliver our catalogs. I get to drive around with Kelsey, my fellow Commonwealth Corps intern, and see the beautiful western MA countryside like a couple of leaf peepers. We also attempt to schmooze with the local public servants on the side.

It's been pretty cool seeing all the different town buildings, and how they range from the very new and very huge, to the very old and quiant. One of the town halls (I can't remeber which one, but I want to say it was Brookfield) had a little museum-like display put out in the halls of the town offices. One of the cases turned out to be a bizarre tribute to 19th century male facial hair.

The case was full of ceramic shaving mugs, boxes of moustache wax, and a rather grand collection of moustache cups, which was something I didn't know existed.



Apparently, in the age of big-front-wheel-bicycles, moustaches were so cool a special cup was invented to protect ones meticulously groomed whiskers. The cusp of the cup was designed to keep your handlebar dry, and keep your hot tea from melting your moustache wax.