Mom, apple pie

The Golly clan had a little reunion last weekend to celebrate my mother's eighty-fifth birthday. Helen Shuck Bye Golly is 85 years young. She looked great and seemed to really enjoy being surrounded by her five children, who converged on southern Indiana from five different states.

We all met in New Harmony, Indiana, at the suggestion of my brother Rock Golly, who had been there for a week-long business school orientation a couple of years ago. There is a hotel/conference center with a good restaurant. There are lots of things to see and do in a beautiful little town on the Wabash River with lots of history.

My sisters Jo Jo Golly and Jeanie Beanie Golly Gee shared a guest house with a garden and a couple of sitting rooms where we could all gather. Mom and Dad, Rock, sister Anna Banana Golly Gosh and her husband Fred Gosh stayed at the New Harmony Inn. Gven, Zelda, and I stayed at the Old Rooming House down the street. Nice comfy digs, and cheap.

The town is pretty amazing, full of gardens and public art, and not obnoxiously touristy. Quite a few building are still standing from the original 1814-1824 town center constructed by the breakaway Lutheran Rev. Rapp and his colony of Harmonists. According to the lovely tour guide, they were hard-working German separatists who were preparing for the Lord to return and end it all. So they built a town, and when the Lord didn't end it all, they sold the whole town and moved back to Economy, Pennsylvania, which was closer to markets for their products. She didn't say whether their beliefs changed along with the names of their towns.

Alas, the community didn't last long because, like the Shakers, they didn't believe in propagating their kind. They believed in work. So they built churches, factories, houses, farms, and towns. As the lovely tour guide put it, what else did they have to do?

Lots of structures remain from the next wave of utopian British socialists led by Robert Owen, who bought New Harmony from the Harmonists in 1824. The Workingman's Institute, for example, is still the oldest functioning public library in the state. There is also a theater and opera house, converted from a Community House that was like a coed dormitory for the celibate Harmonists. Owen and his group were scientists and other intellectuals who had big ideas about reforming civilization - or at least a little corner of it. Unfortunately, they didn't have the skills and know-how to make their vision happen, and the experiment essentially ceased.

One of my favorite places is the Roofless Church, built by Philip Johnson in 1960, a remarkable place sitting at the edge of town just off Main Street near the Inn. Inside a low wall are walkways, benches, a grove of trees, a couple of very modern, expressionistic sculptures, a tiny shrine-like installation with little icons, and a six-sided domed gathering place near one end, all overlooking a soybean field. Nextdoor there's a pottery studio and across the street the New Harmony Artists Guild.

Although it rained briefly, the weather was awesome for walking around looking at things and talking with the folks I've known all my life. Apparently we still have things to talk about. We all gathered at the Yellow Tavern on Church Street Friday night for a beer and a sandwich. Okay it was more than one beer, and it wasn't just any sandwich but a pork brain sandwich, and we ended up closing the place, but it was fun and just the right place to get together and catch up.

The next morning we managed to find each other at the Main Cafe for a hearty Hoosier breakfast. Then the men took off walking to explore the town, while the women went from one antique shop to another for an unbelieveably long and no doubt fascinating shopping adventure. We regrouped for a very nice dinner at the Red Geranium and then went to Jo's and Jean's for cake, coffee, and cards.

There were plenty of tales to tell, news to share, and progress reports on all the grandchildren, nieces, nephews, uncles, and aunts. Turns out Zelda was the only one of her generation who could make it, and she was a joy to have around. She's a good sport, and she has more tolerance of some of the crazy family dynamics than I do. The extended birthday party ended with eggs and apple pie for breakfast Sunday morning before the drive back to Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.