Joe's Museum
At 9 pm on Sunday evening, I joined my friend, Rachel, and her visiting aunt on a tour of Joe’s Museum. Joe, who’s known around town as “Joe, the waterman” after his former occupation, now works at his mother’s Mexican restaurant, Pepe’s. This was why our visit to his museum was so late; he only gives tours when he’s not working and Pepe’s closes at 9 on Sunday evenings. Otherwise, the tours are usually given at 10 pm.
We met him at Pepe’s and on the short walk over to his apartment (yes, his apartment is the museum), he only wore a t-shirt while the rest of us were wearing heavy winter parkas. When we go there, he told us to wait outside at the bottom of the staircase so he could contain his dog. Once we got the go ahead, we climbed the stairs and entered Joe’s Museum.
He’s had that stuffed polar bear for 20 years. Back then, he paid $15,000 for it. He said it’s been used in Coke commercials, been inquired about by the Smithsonian. All of the stuffed animals he has (and by no means am I showing all of them in this blog entry) were acquired legally, he says, and he has every legal right to possess them; he has the paperwork to prove it.
Joe, pictured above, says he started collecting in 1978, back when combing the beach in Barrow and keeping what you found was allowed. As he started accumulating more and more, people in Barrow would tell their friends and family who visited to go to Joe’s and see his collection. And that’s essentially how Joe’s Museum started.
Out of everything in the museum, from the polar bear to the lynx to the cases of ivory carvings, the most interesting aspect about the museum was Joe himself. He never stopped talking for more than a few seconds, and that was just to allow us to ask some questions. While many of his responses, one could tell, had been repeated hundreds of times, they all carried with them a sense of pride and sincerity that could not have been manufactured. Take Joe out of the Joe’s Museum and what do you have? A lifeless room with a bunch of old artifacts and stuffed animals.
We met him at Pepe’s and on the short walk over to his apartment (yes, his apartment is the museum), he only wore a t-shirt while the rest of us were wearing heavy winter parkas. When we go there, he told us to wait outside at the bottom of the staircase so he could contain his dog. Once we got the go ahead, we climbed the stairs and entered Joe’s Museum.
He’s had that stuffed polar bear for 20 years. Back then, he paid $15,000 for it. He said it’s been used in Coke commercials, been inquired about by the Smithsonian. All of the stuffed animals he has (and by no means am I showing all of them in this blog entry) were acquired legally, he says, and he has every legal right to possess them; he has the paperwork to prove it.
Joe, pictured above, says he started collecting in 1978, back when combing the beach in Barrow and keeping what you found was allowed. As he started accumulating more and more, people in Barrow would tell their friends and family who visited to go to Joe’s and see his collection. And that’s essentially how Joe’s Museum started. Out of everything in the museum, from the polar bear to the lynx to the cases of ivory carvings, the most interesting aspect about the museum was Joe himself. He never stopped talking for more than a few seconds, and that was just to allow us to ask some questions. While many of his responses, one could tell, had been repeated hundreds of times, they all carried with them a sense of pride and sincerity that could not have been manufactured. Take Joe out of the Joe’s Museum and what do you have? A lifeless room with a bunch of old artifacts and stuffed animals.
posted by Siapiau | 10:19 PM
1 Comments:
The stuffed human in the last photo looks so life-like, kudos to the taxidermist...
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