It Used to Be Legal to Shoot Bank Robbers in Virginia

    Friday Nov 8th  - Staunton, VA 

This is how our trip works: We have a map where we placed pushpins on places where we might want to go. 

But the trip is also very loosely planned because of the scope and not enough time before we left. 

So in addition to what we sort of planned, we sometimes stop at a local visitor center along the way to see if there is anything interesting in the area. 

Just about every place has something interesting, though few would merit a special trip.

Staunton, Va was an exception. It would have merited a special trip. 

After spending the night in the local Walmart parking lot (more on this in a later post,) we stop off in the morning at the visitor center, We get a whole bunch of suggestions from the charming local ambassador. We decide on the glass blowing shop and the self-guided architectural tour of the historic downtown. 

Jason making Christmas ornaments 

Glow in the dark glassware!

Historic Downtown. The self guide pamphlet told us about most buildings. History, style of architecture, what was unique about each one, etc. 

   

Our favorite building was this bank: 

The tellers were given handguns to use in case of bank robbery

 But the president and cashier got shotguns

The bank used to print its own  money

But after the Federal Reserve Bank was created, only the federal government could mint money. 

This painting is of President Woodrow Wilson signing the Federal Reserve Act on Dec 23, 1913 

Fun fact 1: Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton and his Presidential Library and Museum is in Staunton
Fun fact 2: I used to work for the Federal Reserve Bank (sometime after 1913) 

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We ended our walking tour with the Reform temple House of Israel. It was founded in 1876 by former major in the Confederate army. The Temple was running a program, "Did your ancestor serve in the civil war?” 

Fun fact 3: I can state unequivocally that none of our ancestors fought in the civil war.