King Tut

King Tut is in the news today. Part of his gold-plated burial mask was broken during cleaning. The cleaning staff, apparently, hurriedly glued the broken bits back on with epoxy, further damaging this revered relic.

I saw the King Tut burial mask, his burial chamber and lots of relics from his tomb at the Chicago Museum of Natural History.  My dad took me, my younger brothers and my baby sister to see King Tut during a college break. I think it was at Christmas time.

There were huge crowds. Back then, selling admissions to museum galleries at fixed times was not common. Plus, no one sold tickets to museum shows online in the early seventies, which was when I was in college. People showed up and waited in long lines that snaked down the many stairs of the museum. I think there were three or four stories of stairs. The line to see King Tut snaked down the stairs and around the museum, almost going all the way around.

My dad took one look at the unanticipated line and told the big kids to keep an eye on the little kids. Then my dad rushed up the stairs to the ticket window.

He soon came back down with tickets for immediate entrance to the King Tut exhibit. He had told the ticket seller that he had a son at the bottom of the stairs in a wheelchair. This was also before all museums had wheelchair ramps. Dad had told her he didn't want to carry his son up unless he could be sure he would get tickets. The ticker seller sold my dad tickets and told him to bring his wheelchair son right on up.

Us kids were embarassed. We imagined that everyone standing in line might somehow know how unjustly we had gotten our tickets.  "But dad," someone said, "When we go up, the museum staff will see there is no kid in a wheelchair."  Dad said "No way. The place is a zoo, the staff won't know when we hand over our tickets how we got them. And they are all overwhelmed by the crowds."

Dad was right.  We all ran up those stairs, entered the museum and saw King Tut.

It was, I acknowledge, a fascinating show. I had read about King Tut's tomb several times. It was nice to actually see such amazing antiquities.

I carried the sting of mild shame for a little while but not too long. The exhibit was so interesting that I forgot about the dishonorable way my dad had gotten us to the top of that very, very long line.