More than GERMAN culture

    There’s this museum in Walnut Creek.
    It’s named The German Culture Museum.
    Not the greatest name, but 30 years ago it seemed to fit.  Maybe it sounds like a bit of a yawner, but sometimes the establishment belies a Plain-Jane name.
    Times and tastes change.  For example; hey, just 60 years ago the only thing associated with Google was Barney, while Apple meant crisp fruit and warm pie.  And McDonald was Old and had a farm, not a hamburger.
    Who would guess that a museum which purported to enlighten folks regarding the culture of “Deutsch” might house John D. Rockefeller’s family surrey?
    Or that within its walls one would stumble across a “Rat Recreation” photo of  a handful of youths with countless dead rats on a string.  And this is what they called “entertainment” during the Great Depression.
    Or a grisly diagram showing how far pieces of a steam boiler – and its operating crew – were thrown after one of the most shattering events in Walnut Creek history.
    Then, there’s the story of the corpse in the potato bin, a life mask of Abraham Lincoln, and the story of the eccentric Father of Amish Country, a pioneer Amishman who published a book, always wore a white suit and built a chair for Jesus to sit in when he arrived for His second coming.
    Sounds like German culture and a lot more.