It occurs to me that an”Egyptbuff” who doesn’t write about Egypt is confusing. So… I first fell in love with ancient Egypt when I was 9 and saw faces that looked like mine in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dark eyes, full lips, olive skin. Wow, my blond hair was the only difference. Since then I have learned much about the ancients and still love and admire their civilization. I was fortunate to live within walking distance from the museum, and live in a time when you could allow a child to go to the museum with a friend of the same age. No way will I allow my grandchildren to do that today. What, walk a mile & a half to go UNESCORTED to a museum filled with strangers?
I would visit the museum at least once a month. All the collections were familiar to me. This came in handy when I started teaching, the class could get at least one trip and all it would cost was the fee for the half day school bus. I had the least expensive trips in the school and lots of parents who came to help watch the kids. My classes filled me with pride as the very well dressed people from the upper east side would ask if we were from an international private school. I loved telling them that we were a parochial school in southeastern Queens. That that you elitists!
Today I have more books on Ancient Egypt than most branches of the libreries. My kids could research their papers right at home. I try to keep current of the latest finds and refinements of the history of Egypt. Dr. Hawas and Salima Hakram are my idols. Someday I may even visit Dier El Medina and Dier El Bahari myself, costs and politics have always gotten in the way. So now gentle reader you know why I’m Egyptbuff.