Whenever friends visit, I try to make sure they see Rochester and surroundings in the best light possible, so they'll want to return. This past week, when my friend Nanette visited from Florida, miserable weather prevented us from taking too much advantage of the wonderful outdoors. Last year, we went to the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn, so this year we had to go to the Susan B. Anthony House. Although their website is mum on the subject, you can only see the house by going on a tour (which is good, because without a docent, you'd just be looking at furniture). And tours seem to be at random times, based on when visitors show up. So when we arrived, two tours were already in progress, and the staff at reception weren't keen to start another one for us, or to ask us to wait for more people to arrive. Instead, we joined a tour already in progress (each one only had 3 people). We had hoped that at the end the guide would take us back to the room we'd missed, and give us the details that she kept referring to having mentioned earlier, but these hopes were not realized.
In any case, even though this was my third time on this tour, I learned something new, and Nanette also enjoyed the tour. I think I will choke up every time I hear the story of how Miss Anthony voted. And I don't think I will tire of taking visitors to tour the house - it's such an important part of history, and it's right here in Rochester!
On our way out, I signed their petition to have Anthony's birthday declared a holiday, although I think it's in vain, and I still think Election Day would be a more appropriate holiday in her honor. Of course, I can imagine there is one political party who wouldn't want to make it easier for people to vote...
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