R and J in the USA

June 26, 2024

Our tour of the Rhode Island State House in Providence would have been enjoyable on its own. Our tour guide, Tony, added to the experience.

Tony was fun and engaging and seemed to genuinely enjoy giving the tour. He also seemed to enjoy the content of the tour. He has probably given the same tour and the same talk hundreds of times. Perhaps even thousands of times. Yet there was nothing rote in his delivery or demeanor. He spoke as if the material was still new and interesting to him.

In addition to the textbook aspects of the building’s history, Rhode Island’s history, and the state legislature, he relayed behind the scenes anecdotes and lesser-known information that added color to the commentary. This moved the material beyond what we could have read for ourselves on Wikipedia.

He had a nice balance of sticking to the script while occasionally giving his own thoughts and interpretations on the histories. When he did inject his own thoughts and interpretations, he made it clear he was doing so, which we appreciated.

The State House is a beautiful building with an interesting history in a beautiful state with an interesting history. Tony’s enthusiasm for those histories enhanced the fun of learning about them.