When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man… well, not much really changed I guess.
Before continuing North from Bean Blossom, I decided to take a brief day trip Southwest to Bloomington, Indiana. I’d not visited the college town in decades, and besides I told myself I needed to restock the pantry at a market a bit larger than a Dollar General or IGA anyway.
I was around seven years old when my family moved to Bloomington Indiana so that my father could attend graduate school at Indiana University. During our time there we lived first in a re-purposed WWII barracks called Hoosier Courts, then the Campus View high rise, and finally a modest limestone and frame apartment building – the Banta Apartments. One of four housing units built in by the University in 1955, it was named after David D. Banta, the first Dean of the IU Law School. Banta was purpose-built student housing, featuring a townhouse floorplan to accommodate married couples with children.
Downstairs was a kitchen and living room. Upstairs were two bedrooms and the bathroom. Each apartment had its own patio and balcony porch.
When I began writing this, it was my intention to make a single post encompassing my remembrances of Banta sparked by my return visit. It quickly became apparent that the many stories I wanted to relate would make for an overly long piece for a blog format, so I have decided to roll it out in serialized form as I did with Kentucky Backwoods.
Why so much to tell? Although we lived in Bloomington for only 3 years, it was one of the happiest periods of my childhood resulting in many memories. This was a rare period when the entire family was getting along – both my father and mother as well as me and my sister (brother Dylan had yet to appear on the scene). Vietnam was in full swing, but Watergate wouldn’t shatter the people’s faith in their government for a few more years. For a kid in Bloomington in 1970, life was not much different than it was for Opie in Mayberry in 1962.
While our parents were busy with classes, we roamed about our housing units freely. As long are your folks knew generally where you were and you came home for lunch and supper, your time was your own. Besides there was no air conditioning at Banta. When it was hot the manicured lawns and shady trees of the University grounds were much more appealing than the inside of a cramped stuffy apartment.
So stay tuned for tales from Gowan’s Golden Age as a young lad in Indiana, before things like school, work and responsibilities made life so much more complicated. I promise each story will be as true as the cloudy glass of my memory will permit.
