Looking for a flavorful, nutritious, and simple dish for summer? Whisk together your favorite balsamic vinegar and olive oil with salt and pepper to make a delicious vinaigrette and drizzle over vegetables hot off the grill. Our favorite flavors for this are our Tuscan Herb Balsamic and our Fresh Garlic Extra Virgin Olive OIl
We’ve been bringing great taste to you since 2012 from our inviting little shop in the heart of Brown County, Indiana.
We have curated a flavorful collection for your tasting pleasure with plenty to offer for foodies, the experienced cook, or the novice. It goes well beyond the high-quality olive oils and balsamics we built our reputation on. We’ve added jams, pastas, dipping oils, salsas, sauces, and much more. Come in for a tour of tastes and let us be your guide. You’ll be wild about our shop. Shop us online from anywhere, anytime at www.thewildolive.com
www.thewildolive.com | 37 W Main
| (812) 988-9453
Village Green Building
Cover: Cutting Stone for the Park
Keith Woods and Kevin Harden
~by Jack E. Harden
ourbrowncounty.com ourbrown@bluemarble.net Also online at issuu.com/ourbrowncounty OR search in the mobile app ISSUU and on Facebook for OUR BROWN COUNTY P.O. Box 157 Helmsburg, IN 47435 (812) 988-8807
Joe Lee is an illustrator and writer. He is the author of The History of Clowns for Beginners and Dante for Beginners and illustrator of six other titles, including Dada and Surealism for Beginners, and Music Theory for Beginners. He is an editorial cartoonist for the Bloomington Herald Times, a graduate of Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Clown College, and a veteran circus performer.
Jeff Tryon is a former news editor of The Brown County Democrat, a former region reporter for The Republic, and a former bureau chief for The Huntsville Times. Born and raised in Brown County, he currently lives with his wife, Sue, in a log cabin on the edge of Brown County State Park. He is a Baptist minister.
Jim Eagleman is a 40-year veteran naturalist with the IN DNR. In retirement, he is now a consultant. His program “Nature Ramblings” can be heard on WFHB radio, the Brown County Hour. He serves on the Sycamore Land Trust board. He enjoys reading, hiking, music, and birding. Jim and his wife Kay have lived here for more than 40 years.
Ryan Stacy and his wife recently moved to Pennsylvania and continues to stay connected with our Brown County. He appreciates good movies, good food, and enjoys cultural events. His other interests include reading, photography, and playing music.
Bob Gustin worked as a reporter, photographer, managing editor, and editor for daily newspapers in Colorado, Nebraska, and Indiana before retiring in 2011. He and his wife, Chris, operate Homestead Weaving Studio. She does the weaving while he gives studio tours, builds small looms, and expands his book and record collections. copyright 2021
Paige Langenderfer is a freelance writer and communications consultant. She writes for numerous publications. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from Indiana University and her Master’s degree in public relations management from IUPUI. Paige lives in Columbus with her husband and daughters.
Mark Blackwell no longer makes his home in Brown County where “the roadway is rough and the slopes are seamed with ravines and present a meatless, barren, backbone effect.” He now resides within sight of the sixth green of an undisclosed golf course. He was born in the middle of the last century and still spends considerable time there.
Julia Pearson wrote for a Franciscan magazine for ten years and served as its human interest editor. She and husband Bruce now reside in Lake Woebegone Country for life’s continuing adventures. Julia enjoys traveling and visiting museums of all types and sizes, with her children and grandchildren.
Boris Ladwig is a Columbusbased journalist who has worked in print, online and TV media in Indiana and Kentucky and has won awards for features, news, business, non-deadline news, First Amendment/community affairs and investigative reporting.
Cindy Steele is the publisher and editor of this magazine. She sells and designs ads, sometimes writes, takes photos, and creates the layout. For fun, she likes to play the guitar or banjo and sing.
*Jeff Danielson spent most of his childhood in Wales, Britain, and Scotland after his family moved there from Philadelphia. He attended IU in Bloomington then owned and operated the Runcible Spoon Café for 25 years until he sold it in 2001. He has since become immersed in nature photography. He and his wife D’Arcy live on the Brown County/Monroe County line.
Thanks, Mom, for making it happen!
Guess Photo
Lightspinner
Restoring the Stone
~by Julia Pearson
The Brown County State Park was founded in 1929 and has been a nature-lover’s retreat for nearly 1.3 million visitors annually. This past year it has been a refuge for COVID-weary souls. The largest of Indiana’s 24 state parks, it encompasses 15,776 acres. Visitors today will notice the renovation works going on in the park to restore the stonework put in by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).
The Brown County State Park is the beautiful resource we have now because of a previous national and global economic downturn. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was formed by the federal government after the stock market crash of 1929. The CCC was a New Deal program, established by executive order on April 5, 1933. It enlisted young men between the ages of 18 and 25 for renewable terms of six months and paid them $30 per month. The men received room and board in company/work camps and were required to send $22–$25 of their monthly pay back home to their families. Hundreds of
thousands of young men were employed on environmental projects and shaped the modern national and state park systems. It is estimated that 57,000 illiterate men learned to read and write in CCC camps. The U.S. Army organized the transportation of thousands of enrollees to work camps. With 300,000 men put to work by July 1, 1933, it is considered the most rapid peace time mobilization in our country’s history. Indiana’s state parks were built with the help of 64,000 enlistees during the 1930s under this program. With the mission to teach land management, soil conservation, and park construction, the CCC was under the command of the U.S. Army. Guided by the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, and the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, the CCC fought forest fires, planted trees, cleared and maintained access roads, and implemented soil-erosion controls. To encourage the use of America’s natural resources, bridges and campgrounds were
photos by Jack E. Harden
built. At the Brown County State Park, work was begun to correct severe soil erosion on June 1, 1934 with the CCC planting black locust, black walnut, pines, and spruces. They built many of the existing buildings, shelter houses, picnic tables, ovens, roads, trails, two log lookout towers, as well as Ogle Lake in 1934–35.
The story within the story starts with Thurman Harden, one of Brown County’s native sons who worked in the CCC stone mason crew from 1933–35. The stone was mined right there in the park itself. Pieces were cut by hand and then dry-stacked. Harden helped build the sandstone steps from the lower shelter house up to the Abe Martin Lodge, plus many other structures throughout the park. He and his wife, Avis, raised their family of two daughters and three sons in Brown County.
Now after 80 years, the elements have caused deterioration in the stonework, making today’s restoration work necessary. Property manager of the BC State Park, Doug Baird, says that the retaining wall and sidewalk at the parking lot of the upper shelter is about 500 feet long; and the stairway on Hiking Trail #2 between the Abe Martin Lodge and the lower shelter is several hundred feet long. Both are being worked on. He explains that a lot of the stone will be reused, but 40% needs to be replaced. The stone masons are going to great lengths to shape and chisel the stone to match the chisel marks of the originals to duplicate the CCC’s stonework. Heavy equipment is used to lift the pieces in place. Drainage is being installed at this time to limit the effects of future freezing and thawing. The parking lot is also being repaved.
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Weed Patch Music Company
Offering affordable instruments to inspire the beginner and locally handcrafted beauties to awe the professional
Musical instruments for all ages and skill levels Lessons, workshops, and more... Your favorite lil’ music store in Brown County, Indiana 58 E. Main St. Nashville (by courthouse) www.weedpatchmusicshop.com 812-200-3300
NEW LEAF
eclectic mix of creative items by local, regional, and global artists
Place Franklin & Van Buren Streets Nashville, IN • (812) 988-1058 www.amygreely.com
GALLERY AND MUSEUM
48 S. Van Buren Street
Nashville, IN 47448
812 988-6185
BrownCountyArtGuild.org
Morning Mist by Jeanne McLeish
photo by Michele Wedel
RESTORING STONE continued from 17
The replacement stone is coming from the Brown County Stone quarry, near the west entrance of the BC State Park, just a mile and a half from Nashville. It is family owned and operated by Thurman Harden’s son, Jack. Jack and his wife, Carolyn, raised their family in Brown County. They include Kevin, Brenda, Julia, and Jack. Kevin is carrying on the family business. Fittingly the address is named Harden’s Holler.
At the quarry, Kevin cuts the stone out of the ground and then splits and saws it to the required size. Besides providing the replacement stone, Kevin Harden and cousin Keith Woods are working with the current stone masons as the rehabilitation projects continue. To provide stabilization during the freeze/thaw conditions of Indiana winters, the stone is now drilled to insert metal poles for stabilization with a finishing cap on top. So three generations of Harden men have had their hands in the history of the Brown County State Park. Brown County stone can also be seen on buildings throughout the community: the Brown County YMCA, the Brown County Schools’ Eagle Park Ball Diamonds, and many shops and homes.
COMMON GROUNDS
CCC workers in the Brown County State Park during the 1930s.
Above: Keith Woods. Below: Kevin Harden.
Brown County Music Center
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Hoosier Buddy Liquors
Cold Beer, Fine Wines & Select Spirits
Cold Beer:
Hoosier Buddy o ers more than 150 di erent beers, including more than 80 craft, micro, and impor ts. We proudly o er a wide variety of beers from Indiana’s nest brewers
Fine Wines:
Hoosier Buddy is a wine -lovers type of store With more than 200 wines to choose from, we’ve got something for ever yone. Check out our “A ordable Impor ts” and “90+ Point” selections.
Select Spirits:
Hoosier Buddy o ers an ever expanding array of top -notch spirits. Our whiskey categor y alone includes more than 75 di erent choices. Whether you’re look ing for a Single Barrel Bourbon or a Single Malt from Islay— we stock them.
Van Buren •
IN (next to Subway) 812-988-2267
New Humane Society Shelter
~story and photos by Bob Gustin
The new, state-of-the-art Brown County Humane Society building is a reflection of the people and places around it, a culmination of planning, fundraising and dedicated volunteer work.
A grand opening is scheduled for the facility in mid-July, located just south of its old building near the intersection of state roads 46 and 135 east of Nashville.
Sue Ann Werling, president of the humane society, said pictures of various buildings around Brown County, both old and new, were sent to architects and planners, hoping to capture the spirit of the area.
Inside the wood and stone exterior, the $3.2 million facility has temperature-controlled dog kennels and cat cages, each offering the animals a choice to stay put or go outside in securely fenced areas. Features include a medical treatment room, a large dog-bathing station, offices, get-acquainted rooms, a community meeting space, a kitchen for volunteers, storage areas, and more.
Soundproofing keeps down the noise, and ventilation systems keep down the odors. Strategically placed hose fixtures will make kennel cleaning more efficient. Segregated areas are adapted to animal needs, including strays, puppies, and kittens, and
medical isolation rooms. Extra-large kennels can accommodate bonded pairs or extra-large dogs.
Construction began in April 2020.
A separate $225,000 fundraising drive provided furnishings and equipment. The medical treatment room is named in honor of longtime Bean Blossom veterinarian James Brester. That room, along with the ventilation and cleanliness features, made building the facility “like building a mini-hospital for animals,” Werling said.
Throughout the facility, placards honor major donors.
Big photos of dogs and cats, former residents of the humane society, line the walls. The large, well-lit lobby features an observation room where kittens romp freely, and discreet stations where those surrendering or adopting animals can interact with staff. Animal control officers dropping off strays after hours will have access to a holding area for pets without getting a volunteer out of bed in the middle of the night. While most of the building is no-frills, aimed at providing the best environment for both animals and their human visitors, Werling said one whimsical luxury was added: lobby ceiling tiles embossed with animal footprints leading from the front door to both cat and dog areas.
Throughout the shelter, steps were taken to make the building energy efficient, including LED lighting, quality insulation, and natural lighting.
The 9,000-square-foot animal shelter is a far cry from its nearby predecessor, which will now be used primarily for storage. That space will be a relief to humane society volunteers and officers, many of which now use their homes and garages to store items. The shelter will also use the building as a base for its SPOT program, the Serving Pets Outreach Team, which offers help to county pet owners.
A spacious parking lot is in front of the building. Behind it are the fenced spaces connected to inside animal areas, as well as larger fenced areas for exercise, and a fenced get-acquainted area. Behind that is a lagoon, created when earth was moved to level the area. It provides a peaceful view and handles the rainwater runoff.
Money for the new shelter was raised by a combination of donations and grants.
Werling said it was scary to undertake the large fundraising campaign, but she always thought the group could do it.
“It starts with the organization,” she said. “We have a very good reputation and do what we say we are going to do.
“People in this county truly care about animals and about doing the right things.”
Through the years, Werling has been both a major donor and a tireless volunteer for the humane society.
“I’m able to do both,” she said. “I have the passion and love to do both and I believe in the organization.” But she admits she gets the most joy from her volunteer work with animals.
Brown County Commissioner Jerry Pittman said the new facility is important because it saves county taxpayers money through a contract with the county to handle strays, and other arrangements would be more costly.
But the shelter has an economic impact in other ways too, he said, making the county a more desirable tourist destination. Pittman remembers seeing roving packs of stray dogs when he was a child here, tearing up property and threatening people. That is no longer a problem, and he credits the humane society programs with solving those issues.
In other ways, the new building reflects the community: “I think this facility says something about the people of Brown County,” he said. “People who care about animals usually treat other people well.”
Continued on 30
Brown County Antique Mall
Luminox Watches (used by Navy Seals)
The Brown County Humane Society has one of the lowest “kill rates” in the nation, with about 98 percent of the animals who come into the shelter being adopted. Werling said the small number of animals who do not survive are usually newborns which fail to thrive, or those with major medical problems. The survival rate is possible, Werling said, because of an aggressive spay and neuter program, fostering, working with rescue groups and other shelters, and extraordinary steps to get animals adopted.
“This place is magical,” she said. “It’s an amazing place to be. The board felt like this gets us into the future for the next 30 years, leaving something for future generations to enjoy.
“It’s not a sad place. It’s a happy place. When you walk in the building it makes you smile.”
Unlike its by-appointment-only “pandemic hours,” the new shelter is now open from noon to 5 p.m. every day except Tuesdays and Thursdays.
She said visitors to the area are invited to tour the facility and visit with the animals.
“We are all proud of our community.”
Relax in Beautiful
Brown County, Indiana
Sue Ann Werling, president of the Brown County Humane Society.
JOYCE’S ROCKS FOR THE HUMANE SOCIETY
WhenJoyce Sawyer retired as a campaign manager at Cummins Inc. in 2019, she found a way to express her need to make art, her love of cats, and her support of the Brown County Humane Society, all in a series of long-lasting creations.
She paints big-eyed animals on smooth Brown County rocks and sells them at Common Grounds Coffee Bar in Nashville, with all proceeds going to support the humane society.
The art part is not new. Sawyer studied fine arts at Indiana University before switching to business, and has painted landscapes, pet portraits, murals, and other subjects through the years.
She started painting animals on rocks she found around her house, which were once used as foundation filler. A couple of coats of gesso made the rocks smooth enough to paint on, and she figures she has painted about 100 of them since 2006, often making them to use as gifts. She uses acrylic paints, and a coat of waterproofing makes them more durable.
Story and photos by Bob Gustin.
“Retirement makes it feel like you have no purpose,” she said. So in December 2020, she began selling the rocks at Common Grounds in support of the humane society. Although some portraits are realistic, the cute ones are more popular because “they make people smile, and people need something to cheer them up.”
It’s the animal eyes, she said, and the emotion they capture, which make her rock paintings popular. They sell for $10 to $20 each at Common Grounds.
Why rocks? “I paint on anything that doesn’t move,” she said, “and canvas is expensive.”
Her support of the Brown County Humane Society began after she spoke “unkind words” to someone and started to feel bad about it. As a sort of penance, she wrote checks to charities and was impressed with the response she got from the humane society. That, combined with her love of cats, sealed the deal.
The painted rocks can be purchased at Commons Ground Coffee Bar, 66 N. Van Buren St. in Nashville. All proceeds from go to the Brown County Humane Society.
ChamberFest Brown County
~by Ryan Stacy
Throughout the uncertain days of 2020, we knew that the world after COVID would be forever different than the one we had left in the Before Times. Some of the changes we’ve seen as our community continues to re-open have been lamentable, but Brown County’s first-ever ChamberFest— six days of live classical music at various spots around Nashville—is a welcome new development. Running August 17 through 22, the festival features top-notch musical talent from across the country, performing in the small-group format known as chamber music, as well as receptions, an educational lecture, and a documentary film. Among the performers are Grammy winners Pacifica Quartet, who take the stage at the Brown County Playhouse on Sunday evening of the festival; Fry Street Quartet, the New York Times calls a “triumph of ensemble playing,” plays the Nashville United Methodist Church Friday night. Others you won’t want to miss include IU Jacobs School of Music faculty member Futaba Niekawa, performing with
the acclaimed five-piece Volante Winds; a voice and piano duet featuring baritone Bruno Sandes; and a piano trio featuring Andreas Ioannides of Indiana State University’s faculty, who’s also ChamberFest’s Artistic Director.
Other attractions at the festival speak to ChamberFest’s stated commitment to diversity and inclusivity, which were priorities in the planning process. A special performance for seniors is planned for Wednesday of the festival at the Brown County YMCA. Rising Tide: The Crossroads Project, a musical exploration-cum-documentary, screens at Brown County High School’s Auditorium on Thursday. Opportunities to interact with festival performers and fellow classical music fans are also on the agenda: the Hoosier Artist Gallery hosts an open house on Friday afternoon, and a reception at Brown County Art Guild follows Pacifica Quartet’s performance on Saturday night.
Current fans of the genre and newcomers alike are in for a moving personal experience, Andreas Ioannides says. “To hear chamber
music in an intimate space with beautiful acoustics is very memorable,” he promises. “It’s really beautiful music, but it’s also quite theatrical.”
You might notice that ChamberFest 2021’s lineup reveals a particular focus on Beethoven. That’s because the 250th anniversary of the beloved composer’s birth was in 2020—but, with the pandemic still in full swing, there weren’t many opportunities to celebrate. Better late than never, Andreas says. He explains, “We tried to include at least one piece of his each day of the festival, and Roman Ivanovitch’s lecture on Saturday afternoon will be about Beethoven as well.”
ChamberFest grew out of the efforts of Riversong, a nonprofit that began organizing music events in Illinois and New York a few years back. Andreas’s performance at one of them impressed Riversong co-founder Annie Hawk, who asked him to replace the organization’s departing
photos by Jeff Danielson
Brown County Playhouse
July 2 Summer of ‘69
July 3 Tribute to Elvis
July 9 Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville
July 17 The Best of Stream Showcase
July 24 Steve Plessinger with Michael Moulder
July 31 Fingerstyle Guitar
Competition & Concert
Aug. 6-8 You Can’t Take It With You
Aug. 21 ChamberFest
Pacifica Quartet Concert
70 S. Van Buren St. 812-988-6555 www.browncountyplayhouse.org
Country Heritage Winery
July 2 Kenan Rainwater
July 3 Robbie Bowden & Friends
July 9 Conner Berry Band
July 10 Bob Palindrome
July 16 Open Mic Night
July 17 Darrin Issac
July 23 Conner Berry Band
July 24 Stant & Moore
July 30 The Clearwater Band
July 31 Barry Johnson
Aug. 6 TBA
Aug. 7 Gary Applegate & Joe Rock
Aug. 13 Conner Berry Band
Aug. 14 TJ & Tyler Too
Aug. 20 Open Mic Night
Aug. 21 Bakersfield Bound
Aug. 27 TBA
Aug. 28 Darrin Issac
Music 6:00-9:00
225 Van Buren St. 812-988-8500 www.countryheritagewinery.com
Brown County Inn
Wed. Open Mic Night 6:00-9:00
Thurs. Hill Folk Music Series 6:00-8:00
Sat. Acoustic Brunch Noon-3:00
HILL FOLK MUSIC SERIES:
July 1 Will Scott & Steve Smith
July 8 Kenan Rainwater
July 15 Steve Smith
The schedule can change. Please check before making a trip.
July 22 Troubadours of Divine Bliss
July 29 Chris Wolf
Aug. 5 Will Scott & Dietrich Gosser
Aug. 12 Gordon Bonham
Aug. 19 Jan Bell
Aug. 26 Elkins Family
51 State Road 46 East 812-988-2291 www.browncountyinn.com
Hard Truth Hills
July 2 Jan Bell & Friends
July 3 Rusty Bladen Band
July 4 King Bee & The Stingers
July 9 The Cosmic Situation
July 10 Moonshine Mary
July 16 Aly Cutter
July 17 Rich Hardesty
July 23 Willow Hill
July 24 HARD TRUTH LUAU
Six Ways to Sunday 6-7
Island Breeze 7-9
Flame in the Valley 9-10
July 30 Henly
July 31 Isaac Rudd Band
Aug. 6 The Hammer & The Hatchet
Aug. 7 Groovesmash
Aug. 13 Bakersfield Bound
Aug. 14 Three to One
Aug. 20 JC Clements
Aug. 21 Dude
Aug. 27 Jack Whittle Trio
Aug. 28 Christine Kindred Band
most music 7:00-10:00 unless specified 418 Old State Road 46 812-720-4840
www.hardtruthhills.com
Story Inn
July 2 Gary Phelps 4-7
July 3 Don Elberg 2-5
Gary Phelps 6-9
July 4 Gary Phelps 12-3
Foxxy Lady Music 4-7
July 9 Yoga & Wine Tasting 6:30-8:30
July 10 Will Scott 2-5
Comedy Show 8:30-10:30
July 11 Zion Crossroads 2-5
July 23 Doug Dillman 4-7
July 24 Will Scott 2-5
Aug. 1 Foxxy Lady Music 4-7
Aug. 7 Zion Crossroads 2-5
Aug. 8 Will Scott 2-5
Paint & Sip 3:45-6:45
Aug. 13 Comedy Show 8:30-10:30
Yoga & Wine Tasting 6:30-8:30
Aug. 14 Stant & Moore 2-5
Aug. 15 Will Scott 2-5
Aug. 21 Gary Phelps 12-3
Story Wine Series 1-5
Gary Phelps 4-7
Foxxy Lady Music 4-7
Aug. 22 Don Elberg 2-5
Aug. 28 Gary Phelps 2-5
Aug. 29 Stant & Moore 2-5
6404 SR 135 S. 812-988-2273 www.storyinn.com
Big Woods Pizza
Live Music Tues. 5:00-8:00 44 North Van Buren St. 812-988-6004
Mike’s Music & Dance Barn
Mon. Line Dancing w/ Billy 6:30-9:00 2277 State Road 46 812-988-8636 www.mikesmusicbarn.com
Nashville Farmer’s Market
Sundays 11:00-2:00, Brown Co. Inn parking lot at State Road 135 & 46 intersection Local produce, herbs, bedding plants, flowers, food
Murder Mystery Dinner
July 10, Aug. 21, 6:30-8:30 Artists Colony Inn restaurant 105 S. Van Buren St. 812-988-0600 www.artistscolonyinn.com
Village Art Walk
Fourth Fridays, 4:00-7:00
April-October. Free self-guided walking tour of downtown Nashville art galleries
Pioneer Village Tours
Sat. & Sun. 11:00-3:00
Free to attend. Donations appreciated.
Fireworks
July 4 | Brown Co. High School 10:00 Brown Co. Lions Club
Snake Fest
July 17 | Brown Co. State Park Nature Center, 10-4, Snake displays, vendors, talks, crafts and more.
Area 51 Encounter
July 17 | Figtree in Helmsburg, Noon-7 Guests from Indiana MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) Learn from the experts and share your own experiences. Food for purchase. Proceeds benefit the Jackson Township Fire Department. 4865 Helmsburg Rd. Nashville, IN
Hippy Hill Dead Fest
July 30-31| Bill Monroe’s Music Park Music, food, vendors 5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422 https://billmonroemusicpark.com/
Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
July 30-31 | Fri. Party at BCI 7:00 Sat. Competition starts 11:00 am Concert 7:30 at Brown Co. Playhouse www.indianastringfest.com www.browncountyplayhouse.org
ChamberFest Brown Co.
Nashville United Methodist Church (NUMC), Brown Co. High School, Brown Co. Playhouse, Brown Co. History Center
Aug. 17 NUMC Concert
Aug. 18 NUMC Concert
Aug. 19 Rising Tide, The Crossroads Project BCHS Auditorium
Aug. 20 NUMC Concert
Aug. 21 Dr. Rowan Ivanovitch lecture Brown Co. History Center 4-5
Aug. 21 Pacifica Quartet Concert Brown Co. Playhouse
Aug. 22 NUMC Concert 3-4:30 www.chamberfestbrowncounty.com
Southern Indiana Blues Fest
Aug. 27-28 | Bill Monroe’s Music Park
Music, food, vendors
5163 N. SR 135 812-988-6422
https://billmonroemusicpark.com/
Brown County Dragway
480 Gatesville Road in Bean Blossom
Races take place on weekends through October, weather permitting Check Facebook for schedule
812-327-6968
45th 4th Street Festival Returns to Bloomington
The 4th Street Art Festival takes place in Bloomington on 4th Street between Grant St. and Indiana Ave. Labor Day weekend, September 4-5, 2021 from 10-6 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. This year there will be 80 booths instead of the usual 125 to allow space between each booth for social distancing. Music and spoken word stages, and community booths are virtual this year. There will be a children’s tent with a take-home project.
Most artists agree that it has been a challenging year financially and emotionally. Artists shifted to online sales, wholesaling their work to galleries and shops, and pop-up sales at their homes. Being off the road did provide some time to innovate. “Creativity is often sparked when one allows oneself to be still,” says potter Kris Busch, “Many of us have been able to put effort into creating new bodies of work without the pressure of considering how the public will react to it.”
Artists have missed interacting with patrons and other artists. Dawn Adams says, “There is nothing like interacting with a viewer who is taken with your work. Art is communication. It starts with the artist, moves into the artwork, and ends with the viewer.”
A large number of Brown County artists are juried into the show every year. Learn more at www.4thstreet.org.
10th Annual Indiana State Fingerstyle Guitar Festival
30 of the finest fingerstyle guitar players from around the world will converge in Brown County July 30-31. Artists compete for a handcrafted Thomas Roeger guitar, valued at $5,500, and the opportunity to play during an evening concert.
The competition and concert will also be live streamed in HD this year on Facebook Live and YouTube.
Friday, July 30 features the Party at Brown County Inn starting at 7:00. Performers include nationally-ranked guitarists and previous winners. This event is free to the public.
Saturday, July 31 is the Fingerstyle Competition which begins at 11:00 a.m. at the Brown County Playhouse. The top three winners will be announced at 2:00.
The event is one of only eight competitions worldwide to be accredited by the Walnut Valley Festival.
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with fingertips, fingernails, or picks. Prominent fingerstyle players include Chet Atkins and Merle Travis.
The Brown County Playhouse doors open at 10:00 a.m. on July 31. Competition starts at 11:00 a.m. The evening concert begins at 7:30.
Tickets are available online at www.indianastringfest.com or www.browncountyplayhouse.org and at the Brown County Playhouse 812-988-6555.
Sponsored by Nashville Spice Company, Arts Village Brown County, and House Concerts at Hondo’s.
~by Jeff Tryon
Summer is the natural time for reunions of all kinds. The weather is nice and people take vacations, or just try to be more out and about.
This summer, reunions take on an extra measure of meaning as we crawl out of our pandemic-enforced isolation like a horde of cicadas, craving human contact. We are eager to reconnect and catch up with old school chums, people we knew from church, and family members from near and far we have not seen in at least a year.
Recently, I attended the class reunion for the Brown County High School Class of 1973. I am always a little nervous to appear before this group of folks, who may or may not remember what an obnoxious smart aleck I was in my teens. All in all, they seem to have forgiven, or at least forgotten. A nice group, and, like me, considerably more mellow and wise these days, I expect.
You know how it is—at the ten-year reunion, everyone is striving to show off a little, everybody is decked out and at the height of their energy, eager for social encounters. By your 48th reunion, folks are a good bit more laid back, the drinking mostly iced tea.
Reunions
Year after next, for our 50th, we will demur to the “Brown County Alumni” group, which organizes a reunion every year and each year honors the class which is celebrating its golden anniversary.
The second Sunday in June brought the “Homecoming” celebration at Unity Baptist Church up on Spearsville Road. Homecoming Sunday typically includes an afternoon service where people who have previously attended return to share memories and reacquaint.
A few years back I had the distinct pleasure of bringing the message in the morning Homecoming service. I sang a solo of “Precious Memories” and preached on the Prodigal Son, undoubtedly one of the greatest reunion stories ever told.
Between the morning and afternoon sessions, there is a big pitch-in dinner, with everyone sitting at long tables to eat and enjoy fellowship together.
One year, I brought a pot of chicken and dumplings, just like mother used to make. During dinner, one of my cousins approached me asking if I had made them.
“I knew those were Arnold dumplings!” she laughed.
When I was young, this was a traditional “dinner on the grounds.” The meal would be served and eaten picnic style, in the shade of large trees on the cemetery property adjoining the church. Nowadays, there is a fine, large “fellowship hall” equipped with a kitchen and all the conveniences, including indoor plumbing.
Brown County is a natural place for reunion gatherings, and a spin through the State Park on almost any weekend will reveal dozens of family groups gathering to picnic, play, and be with one another.
My own family reunions have been a study in contrasts. While the Arnolds tend to be gregarious, outgoing, salt-of-the-earth types, my Tryon relatives are more often taciturn, diffident, self-contained.
If you randomly released ten Tryons into a large room full of 100 people socializing, within a very short period of time, all ten would be standing in a circle somewhere in the back talking quietly with one another. That’s just the way they are—they only truly like other Tryons.
I love my Arnold cousins. We were all kids together swimming or catching fireflies, playing outside while the adults visited—running wild in Brown County.
When we were at the funeral of my last Arnold aunt, I told my cousin, “We only see each other at
funerals, and now there aren’t going to be any more funerals.”
She got together with her Alabama counterpart in getting stuff done and for a few years they were throwing some bangin’ family reunions, alternating between “Down South” and “Up North.”
But, we overworked our strong organizers and arrangers, and the whole thing kind of ran out of steam. Maybe we’ll get back to it sometime soon.
The annual “Old Settlers” meeting goes back to 1877, but whether or not it will be held this year is still up in the air. It has been held in various places over the years, most recently at the Pioneer Village adjoining the Brown County History Center.
When I was young, Old Settlers was and seemed always to have been held at “Cluppers Grove” outside Bean Blossom. I recall an event in which boys would attempt to climb a greased pole to obtain a five dollar bill at the top.
Summer is reunion time, a time for coming together again after a period of separation. A time for social gatherings of certain groups of people who have not seen each other for some time.
But a part of reunion is union, unity. Reunion is the process of being brought together again as a unified whole. Along with simple human contact, I think we need to put an end to the stark division and conflict in our society.
Maybe a reunion is a good place to start.
gently used items to bene t Brown County. Accepting clothing and household item donations.
Art Gallery to Showcase the State Park
B~story and photos by Paige
Langenderfer
rown County artist and Hoosier Master Tim Greatbatch will be the first living artist to be showcased by the Brown County Art Gallery’s Collectors’ Showcase exhibition this October.
“Tim is a highly honored and collected artist, who in mid-life made a calculated choice to live and paint in Brown County, as did members of the early colony,” said Lyn Letsinger-Miller, President of the Brown County Art Gallery and Museum Board. “They left careers in cities and states at midlife and moved to Brown County to follow a career in fine art.”
As opposed to other Showcases, Tim’s art will be for sale with part of the proceeds benefiting the Brown County Art Gallery Foundation.
This year’s exhibit, titled “Brown County State Park: Indiana’s Crown Jewel,” features more than 80 paintings of the 16,000-acre state park.
“I am completely honored to be the first living artist showcased,” Tim said. “I had a lot of fun with this project. I love nature and I hope this exhibit encourages people to celebrate the park with me.”
This masterwork was a lifetime in the making for Tim, who is now 68. Growing up in Indianapolis, Tim
Tim Greatbatch putting finishing touches on “Reflections, Strahl Lake Cove.”
and his family visited Brown County and the state park often.
“I was about four years old the first time I saw the Brown County State Park vistas—and I was amazed by the views. Growing up in Indy, there was nothing like it,” Tim said.
Art was a passion from a young age for Tim.
“Our house was not close to other houses, so I didn’t have a lot of friends to play with. Instead, I would draw, and I got pretty good at it,” Tim said.
He also spent a lot of time playing the piano.
“I took my first piano lesson when I was 8 and instantly fell in love,” Tim said. “By the time I was 12, I was playing concertos with the Indianapolis Symphony.”
After high school, Tim studied piano at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and then graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
By the age of 40, Tim had achieved national recognition as a composer of contemporary orchestral and chamber music. He was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and guest lecturer at Swarthmore College and Princeton University.
But the pull of art was still in the back of his mind. Tim and his wife Lisa also recognized that they were ready for a change in scenery.
“I started thinking, ‘If I’m ever going to give art a try, I better start now. You only get one life, you know,” Tim said. “When you are young, living in a big city is fun, but as I got older I realized that I needed some space. I was tired of the concrete society.”
The couple moved to their secluded Brown County home in 2001.
“It was exactly what we needed. It gave us such a calm, relaxed feeling,” Tim said. “And there was a lot going on in the arts.”
Unlike his music career, Tim taught himself everything he knows about art.
“I became particularly fascinated with Monet,” he said. “I would go to museums and study his brush strokes and then come home and research and teach myself.”
In 2019, after nearly 20 years of practice, Tim came up with an idea to showcase both his work and a local landmark.
“I had revisited Monet’s “series” paintings. Monet became fascinated with the idea of
multiple paintings of a single subject under different effects of light (time of day, season, etc.),” Tim said. “Inspired by Monet’s experiments, I came up with the idea to paint the vistas of Brown County State park in different seasons and in different light.”
Over the next two years, Tim visited the park more than 100 times, studying, photographing, and sketching the park’s majestic landscapes.
“When I found a vista I liked, I would visit it several times to view it in different seasons and in different light,” Tim said. “I would then do a quick sketch for reference of what to include. I also took several pictures to help me recall specific structures in the hills and to help set the shadows, lighting, and colors. I quickly learned that studying how the light progressed and mental notes of the view were as important as my sketches and photos.”
Back at his home studio, Tim would combine the photographs and basic sketches into more refined sketches.
Continued on 46
He would then work on anywhere from seven to 10 paintings at a time, giving the paint time to dry as he built the layers of each piece.
“Each painting has a variety of brushwork and texture,” he said. “I wanted to give each painting a rich, finished look to show more richness of detail.”
An average sized painting (20x24 inches) took five to seven settings of one to three hours each.
In all, the exhibit will include 85 paintings of the park, featuring 50 vistas, two lakes, three creeks, a few trails, a wildflower meadow, and various park elements.
Every painting in the exhibit will include a description of what is featured in the painting, the location of the setting within the park, and a description of the view Tim used including season and time of day.
All 85 paintings will be displayed together at the Brown County Art Gallery from October 2 to November 14.
“We hope people even new to art might find a painting with meaning to them,” Tim said.
In addition to Tim’s work, the gallery will also feature work by the early artists in a separate exhibit called “The Long View.” These paintings will feature similar vistas, painted by some of Brown County’s most historic artists.
During the opening weekend, there will be a private tour with the artist, a public barbeque with local musicians, and a town hall forum featuring Tim and former park naturalist Jim Eagleman.
More info: <www.browncountyartgallery.org>.
Likewise, the choice of Brown County as the festival site was an easy one, he recalls. From its inception, the goal of ChamberFest’s Board of Directors was to bring live classical music— typically found only in larger cities—to a rural Indiana community. Brown County’s natural beauty and comfortable driving distance from Bloomington, Indianapolis, and Columbus made it an attractive prospect, he says, and Nashville fit the bill perfectly for its popularity as a tourist destination and its longstanding reputation as an arts oasis. By scheduling festival events with both locals and visitors in mind, Andreas hopes to see ChamberFest fit into everyone’s Brown County experience that week.
Another way festival planners hope to make it attractive to all is through its very alluring price tag. With the exception of the Pacifica Quartet’s performance at the Playhouse, admission to all events is free. (For those who want to guarantee their seats, paid reservations are also available on the ChamberFest website, however.) And despite the genre’s reputation, classical doesn’t mean overly fancy or stuffy at ChamberFest: flip-flops and cutoffs are as welcome as bowties and tealength dresses.
For those new to live chamber music, Andreas does offer some tips for making the most out of the experience. It helps to think of small-group performances as musical conversations, he says, so listen for the way the players move in and out of their parts, and how they react to one another. But mostly, he says, “Music speaks to everyone in different ways. Just pay attention to what stands out to you. Maybe it’s an instrument, or maybe the way the musicians look during the performance. There’s a lot for new audiences to be intrigued by.”
Artistic Director. When the idea for ChamberFest was floated, it was decided to hold it in Indiana. Andreas recruited Futaba Niekawa, a classmate from grad school who’s now on the faculty at Jacobs, to join the ChamberFest Board as its secretary, and soon longtime Brown County resident Phil McKown was chosen as its treasurer. The group’s close ties and relentless dedication to its vision for the festival made for an uncommonly comfortable collaboration, Andreas says.
Supporters from the Brown County Community Foundation to Target have signed on as sponsors, and Andreas says funding continues to come in.
“It’s the members of the community who provide the real support, though,” he notes. “We want to be able to continue to have ChamberFest every year, so we really depend on the people who attend to spread the word so we can grow and expand.”
More information on ChamberFest 2021 can be found at <www.chamberfestbrowncounty.com>.
CHAMBERFEST continued from 32
CROWN JEWEL continued from 45
Community Theater Returns to the Brown County Playhouse
~story and photos by Boris Ladwig
Community theater is returning to the Brown County Playhouse this fall with a Tony Awardwinning comedy.
Local officials hope the shows will spark a new era for the venue, with more community involvement, greater diversity of entertainment offerings, and perhaps, greater cash flow.
The theater’s unassuming exterior on Van Buren Street belies its surprisingly spacious interior, which features a concession stand/bar, gallery with works of local artists and a 425-seat auditorium that often welcomes locals and tourists to experience touring performers or movies on a 23-foot screen.
But when community theater veteran Mark Stolle moved to Brown County nearly three years ago, he thought the venue would be ideal to host plays in which community members act, build sets, design costumes, and perhaps even sing. He pushed for the performances in part because he missed acting.
“I wanted a place to play,” he said.
An electrical engineer by education, Stolle formerly owned a small business, but in his spare time he has been involved in community theater for more than 35 years and has acted in more than 30 productions, including Macbeth, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the comedy the Playhouse will host late summer.
When Stolle moved to Brown County from Liberty, he set out to bring community theater back to the Playhouse and got immediate support from the nonprofit’s board.
“We all on the board were thrilled with that,” said Patty Frensemeier, the board’s president.
Stolle joined the board, relaunched Theatre Brown County and, with community help, picked the play, secured a director, and scheduled auditions for March 2020. The pandemic forced a postponement of just over a year, but performances are planned for two weekends in September.
The Playhouse hosted auditions in mid-June, and about 20 people showed up to read for six roles. Stolle auditioned and will reprise his role as Vanya, which he had played in Richmond. All the other actors, however, are novices.
Sometimes in community theater, actors and staff recruit other talent: For example, the play’s director, John Elmore, convinced a physical trainer at the local YMCA to audition for a part that required a trim physique.
“He did a fantastic reading,” Elmore said.
Elmore, an Indiana University graduate who formerly worked at the Playhouse in the 1980s, retired from the entertainment industry and worked on commercials, TV shows, and blockbuster movies, including as assistant director on Spider-Man, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. He also has worked with Hollywood royalty, including Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway.
Elmore said that when he returned to Brown County and attended shows at the Playhouse he struck up conversations with Stolle and Hannah Estabrook, the venue’s executive director, and offered his services as director.
In mid-June, Stolle, Elmore, and Estabrook were still looking for community members to get involved with costume design, make-up, set decoration, and other offstage duties.
“You can’t have a production if those people don’t show up,” Stolle said.
And while Stolle promised that rehearsals for the actors would be fun, he and the board still want to put on good shows.
“We want to build a reputation that the Brown County Playhouse puts on quality productions,” he said.
Frensemeier and Estabrook said diversifying the venue’s entertainment offerings makes sense for many reasons, including community involvement and financial stability.
Frensemeier said that audiences consist primarily of tourists, but Playhouse officials envision the venue more as the community’s living room.
And, she said, it’s called the Playhouse, so that should mean it hosts plays.
Frensemeier, Estabrook, and Stolle said the plays also will add another revenue stream.
The nonprofit over the last decade has incurred some small losses, but the venue also has stayed in the black some years. About 40% of the nonprofit’s revenues come from ticket sales, with 60% coming from grants and donations.
Estabrook said bringing in touring artists costs a lot of money, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars. Putting on local plays costs a lot less, and while they may draw fewer spectators, the lower overhead can make them solidly profitable.
But Estabrook said bringing back community theater is about more than finances.
Community theater likely will get more local people involved in the Playhouse, including people who otherwise would have little to no connection to the venue.
Continued on 58
Courtesy photo of Mark Stolle in the Vanya role.
FIELD NOTES: The Milkweeds
~by Jim Eagleman
Each early summer milkweeds make a grand display near my home, filling abandoned fields and roadsides with dense clusters of yet-to-open, pinkish-purple flowers. Gazing out over rolling terrain, I see many individual patches containing dozens of soon-to-be mature milkweed plants. Some newly purchased native milkweed rootstocks for our natural area are slow to mature, but soon more young starts will appear. This growth pattern occurs because the perennial milkweed propagates by means of an underground root called a rhizome. Extending in all directions, the rhizome sends up a multitude of flowering stalks. Each colony of milkweeds in a field or garden may actually be a single clone of plants growing from a common root system.
Common milkweed, one of many genera, has a range from southwestern US deserts to the Rockies and across the east. Found in fields, waste areas, and roadsides, they don’t seem to have a preference where they grow. The milkweed genus, Asclipias
comprises nearly 100 species and most are native to North and South America.
The name Asclepias comes from Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine. He is usually depicted carrying a staff intertwined with a snake, the modern day symbol of medicine. So it comes as no surprise milkweeds have been used for a wide variety of ailments, experimentally, including asthma, dysentery, heart disease, stomachaches, snakebites, ringworm, warts, tapeworms, and even syphilis. Its popularity as a medicine may be related to the supply of a bitter, milky latex produced in a special system of tubes that branch throughout the plant.
The latex contains a substance identified as a cardiac glycoside. In small doses it can cause nausea and vomiting. In larger doses, as a poison to vertebrates. For the plant, the latex acts as a defense, visible when a leaf stem is pinched and the white liquid oozes out. When exposed to air it quickly dries and becomes sticky, gumming up the mandibles (mouthparts) of insects. Very few insects can tolerate the latex from milkweeds, but several are
Butterfly weed. photo by Michele Bland Pollock
specialized feeders on the plant, eating nothing else. These specialists, like the monarch caterpillar, have evolved a means of coping with the plant’s toxin. They don’t deactivate it but incorporate it into their blood, permeating every portion of their body. This makes them distasteful to predators like blue jays, since the food they eat is poisonous.
Of the 15 or so species of milkweed native to Indiana, most are found in open areas. A few are found in forested communities not densely shaded. The common purple milkweed is found more in open woodlands. Poke, variegated, whorled, and thinleafed milkweeds are also found in Indiana forested environments. I’m always on the lookout for these plants with a flower color unlike the solid dark red or purple color of the common. Another milkweed is the beautiful butterfly weed we see blooming along county roads. Its showy orange flowers are a standout, one of only a few to have this color, and the only milkweed with alternate leaves and colorless juice.
My milkweeds occupy several places in our recent hugel mounds created to improve soil. Their broad, usually paddle-shaped leaves make them easy to spot among other green plants struggling for sun and space. Now that cicada emergence is over, we’ll watch for another natural drama, the arriving pollinators as milkweed comes into bloom. It’s the monarch butterfly we know as chief pollinator but other insects will arrive, attracted to the fragrant scent, and rewarded with a meal of nectar. These include, but not limited to, bumble bees, yellowjackets, skippers, several species of moths, and the hummingbirds.
Later into fall, the feathery seeds of milkweed will take flight, a plume of fluff, lofting seeds like tiny parachutes. Tightly wrapped in a pointed husk about 3” in length, the spirally arranged seeds inside resemble a pine cone and gently fall out as the cone splits open and dries. The “silk” can be found in a variety of bird nest construction, including goldfinch and buntings.
One natural event gives way to another. It’s a schedule I track on the summer calendar as friends tell me what they see in their woods. It’s all part of the natural sequence, predictable and anticipated. Undeterred by COVID, nature reassures. It wasn’t interrupted and it certainly never disappoints. I am heartened and anxious as our lives slowly return to normal, and I’ll look for the milkweeds to grace our fields and gardens for yet another year.
20 STUDIOS 27 ARTISANS
Check out the Back Roads of Brown County website and social media pages for more about the artists and their work
Back Roads of Brown County Studio Tour BrownCountyStudioTour
COMMUNITY THEATER continued from 51
“Community theater will be a great draw for a new crowd … and that is very valuable,” she said.
In addition, as the theater adds costume, set design, and other capabilities, the plays can get bigger and more complex. The initial play has a cast of six and only one set.
As plays get bigger and require more actors, including children, the Playhouse may be able to draw more people into theater at a young age who may be more inclined to support the nonprofit as they get older. And when children get involved in plays, their friends, siblings, parents, and grandparents usually fill the auditorium.
Stolle said the value of adding community theater also lies in getting more people in the community involved in the performing arts.
“I know how important that was and how exciting that was at Richmond,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t get there as well.”
Stolle said he hopes next year’s lineup will include a drama and possibly another comedy, though he also may push for a musical.
Stolle is maintaining a Facebook group called Theatre Brown County where information regarding upcoming auditions and performances will be posted for those who are interested.
What: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a Tony Award-winning comedy by Christopher Durang.
Where: Brown County Playhouse
When: Sept. 10–12 and 17–19, with matinees on Sundays.
Significance: After years of absence, community theater is returning to the Playhouse.
Artists needed: The Playhouse and Theatre Brown County are looking for community members who want to contribute behind the scenes with costume design, set decoration, make-up, and other duties. If interested, contact director John Elmore at 323-855-4420.
Log Cabin
Morgantown,
Sounds of Summer
~by Mark Blackwell
The cicadas are loud this year. In fact, the only time I can hear them not being loud is when I am indoors. That is because I have air conditioning; which also doubles as “sound conditioning.” There was a time when the sounds of summer could not be avoided for very long, even indoors. Historians refer to that time as BA/C (Before Air Conditioning).
There is no specific year designating BA/C, it slides around somewhere between about 1965 for some folks and 1980 for myself. It was a time when the only things separating indoors from out-of-doors were screen doors and porches. The Before and the After A/C (AA/C) is noted, at least for some of us, as the time when a different set of sounds defined our experience.
In 1960 BA/C, a common summer morning started with birds singing, at roughly 5:00 a.m. You would hear them singing because you went to bed with your windows open.
Folks in the days BA/C needed to live with open windows to invite breezes through their homes to mitigate the heat of summer—but Nature was not always accommodating. As one went to sleep to the sounds of crickets and other nocturnal insects outside, there was also the soft Doppler hum of an oscillating fan. Thinking back on those days, I believe the steady hum of the fan was every bit as soporific as the cooling breezes it created.
Along with the hum of oscillating fans and whirring of night-time insects, one might hear a mournful train whistle in the distance. If you lived in a town you could hear the clinking of milk bottles being delivered.
On summer days you would hear the whisper of window blinds being lowered at late-morning to keep the afternoon sun at bay. Occasionally, you could also hear those suckers go slappetyslappety-bam as they got away from you and beat a noisy retreat back to the top of the window. And from next door you might hear the snicketysnickety-snickety of your neighbor’s reel mower. Another sound from back then is almost extinct now—the slow screech of a wooden screen door spring being stretched to its limit and then released to an accompanying holler of “DON’T SLAM THE…” from a distraught mother and then— BLAM!
For a lot of us, those sounds were lost with the fast fading slap of our sneakers on the way to a summer adventure.
Of course, those adventures didn’t amount to much but a neighborhood baseball game. It was usually a game without umpires or spectators but with its own unique sounds: the crack of hickory on horsehide and the slap of the ball in the leather pocket of a fielder’s mitt, and the cheers and jeers of the players as they assessed the artfulness of a play.
When there weren’t enough kids to get a ball game up, there might be heard the click of a shooter on an aggie or cat’s eye in a marble game. Or you might hear the chants of little girls skipping rope:
Cinderella, dressed in yella Went upstairs to kiss her fella She made a mistake And kissed a snake. How many doctors Did it take?
1,2,3,4…
Or you could catch the sound of hops and scrape of shoe soles as they danced along a hopscotch grid chalked on a sidewalk or drawn in the dirt of a country path.
Another, now extinct, sound was the thrumming of a propeller driven airliner as it crossed the summer sky on a flight plan to a destination only guessed at in our imaginations.
As the day relaxed into evening, mourning doves and red winged blackbirds signaled the setting sun. As the light grew dimmer on a BA/C summer day, somewhere in the distance an owl hoots its lonesome question, “Who? Who? Who?”
All of these sounds are remnants of memories of summers past, when indoors and outdoors weren’t as separated. It was a time when folks spent as much time outdoors as they did inside. It was a time when sitting on the porch in the cool of an evening was a natural part of winding down the day.
But even now, in our After A/C era, every once in a while, driving down a country road in Brown County, if you turn you’re A/C off and roll your windows down, you just might hear the crack of a bat on a well-worn baseball as you pass a new mown field of hay.
