Bucolia, October 1966

Bucolia is not, as near as I can tell, a word. Bucolic means pastoral or rural and conveys a sense of peace to me.  Bucolia is an imagined pastoral place where things are at peace. I like to think I grew up there.

Bucolia is characterized by rhythms and cycles.  Crops are planted and harvested.  Cows are fed and milked. School is defined as the time between Labor Day to Memorial Day.  Everything, every day is ordered, predictable, expected... That is probably why a weekend in October 1966 stands out.

Columbus Union Depot, Track 4 looking west.

For some reason, Aunt Alice needed help. Alice is Mom's sister and Mom was needed in Indiana because Grandma and Grandpa were sick. Early on a rainy Friday morning, Dad drove us to Columbus Union Station just north of downtown. There she took my sister and boarded a train for Terre Haute. That left me and Dad to tough it out for a weekend. Nancy Sinatra was singing "These Boots are Made For Walking" on the radio.

Laurel and Hardy form Thicker Than Water

I was in Mrs. Botche's class and that is probably the most profound thing I remember about the Second Grade. I couldn't tell you what we learned that day.  I was anticipating Friday night.  The PTA had planned an important meeting, and to ensure participation, they held a Pancake Dinner.  So I endured the rigors of Second Grade, spent two hours after school with Dad - he was the Principal - and finally, pancakes.  Even better, after the children ate, they showed Laurel and Hardy movies in the Gym.  Wow!  Life could not have been better.

It had been a long and day.  Saturday's weather was more rain, so playing outside in the leaves was not an option.  Actually, Saturday wasn't that good, even though I wanted it to be.

Sunday morning came, thankfully.  At the time, Dad had a part-time job as Choir Director for a church in Whitehall, which at the time, was a blue-collar suburb of Columbus.  A large portion of people in Whitehall worked for North American Aviation making the T-2 Buckeye, the U.S. Navy's intermediate training aircraft.

Dad had told me we were going to do something after church that would be a treat. We changed from 'Church Clothes' to regular clothes and drove a couple blocks to the Holiday Inn and ate lunch.  Then, back in the car and down Broad Street to the Center of Science and Industry (COSI).

I had no idea what wonders awaited.  This place had everything!  It was the playground of the future.

COSI's Old Building, circa 1990

There was Foucault's Pendulum, Western Electric's Videophone, The Transparent Talking Women, The Street of Yesteryear, and the Planetarium.  Each second at COSI was absolutely golden with new things to see and to learn.

Mom and Chris made it home early in the week and I was happy to see them arrive safely.  Mom had a lot to tell Dad, so I didn't talk a lot as the routine of life returned.

237 West Main Street, Alexandria, Ohio

It was the twilight of the passenger train.  Soon Columbus Union Depot was torn down and the tracks ripped up to make room for the Columbus Convention Center, Nationwide Plaza, a storage yard for Columbus' road salt, and I-670, a freeway to connect Downtown to the Airport.  COSI would eventually move to the site of the former Columbus Central High School.  The Holiday Inn has gone out of business and is now something else. As of a couple years ago, the church in Whitehall could barely fill the pews and is a shadow of itself when new.

In fact, all that is left is Bucolia...   a weekend that could never happen again.