News from Utopia
February, 2008
by Danny Schweers
I've been hanging around book shelves, listening.
I was standing next to Gordon Hesse in the Arden Library (Biblioteque, Hallowed Hall of Learning, High School Smooching Palace, Sleep Laboratory, Den of Little Know Facts of Doubtless Value) when he learned he might be nominated to serve as Ardencroft chair. I cannot remember how he took it. It may have been stunned disbelief, guarded assessment, or quiet panic. My attention was focused on the fellow passing on the rumor, Pat Toman, who actually is the current Ardencroft chair. Pat looked like he might welcome the competition. Then Carl Falco surprised me by announcing he would head up Gordon's campaign committee, thinking it might be fun and afford an opportunity to be playfully devious. Imagine that: a fun, playful election!
(If you are reading this many decades from now, you should know that elections are on all our minds these days. The presidential candidates strike serious poses to show they have the raw guts to guide our country through the perilous times ahead. Ann Richards became governor of Texas in 1991 by riding Harleys and shooting doves with shotguns. If Hillary Clinton is to win this year - 2008 - she has to convince America she's tougher than any man out there, even a bona fide prisoner-of-war like John McCain. So, no, our presidential elections are not fun, or likely to be, though they are easy to make fun of.)
Gordon, Pat and Carl were in the Arden Library calculating whether a dozen grown men could sit in front of the fire on folding chairs. Her Royal Highness, the Empress of the Library Gild, Elizabeth Varley, assured us that 18 small children had no problem sitting there in miniature chairs without a fire. You do the math. Gordon, Pat and other members of the Arden Literary Brotherhood (also known as the Arden Fur Trappers, the Majong Savants, and S.N.A.G. [Sensitive New-Age Guys]) will meet at the library this month to discuss the 1954 sci-fi vampire thriller, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. John DiGiovanni will lead the lusty males in a galloping discussion of apocalyptic fear, justified homicide, and the distinctions between zombies and blood-sucking night-stalkers. Ken Morrison will pour the tea.
Gordon (now mentioned in three paragraphs running) has a salty book in the Arden Library, All Summer Long: Tales & Lore of Lifeguarding on the Atlantic. Another book is in the works, about his 388,883 minutes in prison in communist Cuba. He was an unwelcome, and unwilling, guest of that workers' paradise. A link to Gordon's list of recommended books is on the Library Gild page of the Arden Club website, www.ardenclub.com.
I hang out at Barnes and Noble, too. There, I learned that Roberta Perkins enjoys reading mystery novels for relaxation, books such as those by Rita Mae Brown, Margaret Coel, and Nevada Barr (as well as Victoria Thompson, Barbara Hambly, P.B. Ryan, and Miriam Grace Monfredo). Roberta is one of the many volunteers at the Arden Craft Shop Museum, where she works on the oral history project. Soon she will interview Barney King, an artist and (dare I say it) a "theater person".
Barney recently went to an Ardensingers board meeting to show them his rough sketch for a poster for Gilbert & Sullivan's "Patience". He made the mistake of staying after his presentation. Immediately he was elected to the Ardensinger board of directors. Barney didn't say it was a fun election, but he did think it was funny he could get elected just by showing up.
When my wife and I first expressed interest in Arden as a place to buy a home, our real estate agent warned us not to move here. They told us, "It's full of theater people!" Our agent must have been thinking of Barney. And the Ozers. Ron Ozer is in Sweeney Todd at the Drama League, Emily Ozer will be in Goldilocks at City Theater at Opera Delaware Studios, and Lily Ozer will be in Children of Eden at Delaware Children's Theater. Dorinda Dove, Ron's wife and mother of the two girls, has plenty of drama in her life without acting: she's a midwife.
Perusing the fat paperbacks at the Arden International Airport gift shop (before catching a flight to Erehwon), I overheard someone say more theater people are moving to Arden. Two theater people in Arden (who shall remain anonymous) helped other theater people purchase a house here, Pendulum Place, the former home of Johanna Schroeder. The realtor? Tom Wheeler, who we've seen on stage many times in Shakespeare productions.
You can learn a lot hanging around bookshelves, and you don't even need to open a book!