Possumblog

I am a moron.

But that's okay--I'm in pretty good company.

Last month our preacher went up to Anderson, Indiana to preach in a gospel meeting for a congregation up there and before he left, he e-mailed me to tie up some loose ends. In passing, I wished him success and asked him to be sure if he had some free time to get me some photos of the architecture there in the town.

Why?

Well, you see, I'm a moron. There is a town in Indiana named Columbus, and it is quite famous for the fact that despite its small size, it has a great many buildings designed by famous modern architects. It proudly, and rightly, boasts of its recognition by the American Institute of Architects as the the sixth among American cities for architectural innovation and design; a list in which it is surpassed only by Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, DC. That's some firepower, my friends.

But the name of the town is Columbus. Not Anderson. Anderson, while a lovely and hospitable town with a nice allotment of historic buildings, is not on the AIA list. It has a Carnegie library built in 1905, and a Paramount theater built in 1929. (The historic Alabama theater in Birmingham was built in 1927, and is equally rich in fantastic "Moorish style" ornament.) Still, it's not quite up there with Columbus.

BUT, not to be outdone, our intrepid evangelist went on and preached his meeting and took many pictures. Since this was last month, I had more or less forgotten about it all until Sunday, when he stopped and told me he'd gotten several shots of interesting buildings, but that he'd had a bit of difficulty with explaining my enthusiasm to his hosts. He walked around a bit in downtown Anderson, found someone from the local historical society, and had a nice tour, but he wasn't sure if he found what I was looking for.

Sometime in the middle of his recitation, it gradually dawned on me that it was possible I had told him the wrong town. 'Hmm--was it....ahhhh, hmm--seems like it started with a C instead....' Bad thoughts! I finally fessed up that I might have misdirected him to the wrong town, but I wanted the photos anyway and that I would be quite grateful for them.

I neglected to get them Sunday night, but that gave me time Sunday evening to get on the magical Google machine and type in a couple of words about famous Indiana architecture, and BINGO! Dern it all. Columbus! Stupid me.

So, Monday I wrote him a long apologetic e-mail (no, the OTHER kind of apologetic) and told him of my error in geonymics and that I was a moron and that I would get the photos from him last night after Bible study.

And I did. He showed me his photos, including one of the old post office and a lovely old church, and the Paramount. Looking intently at the marquee, he noted that a coming event was billed as "ASO FRIENDS PRESENT..."

He studied it carefully for a moment, and said, "Hmm--you know, I wonder if that could be something by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra?" Around here, that's the way the Orchestra bills itself--"the ASO."

I just stood there for a half-second, turned to him and quietly said, "Well, maybe, but it probably stands for the ANDERSON Symphony Orchestra."

He just closed his eyes and shook his head--even though it was unspoken, the mental "D'OH!" was plenty loud.

But it sure made me feel better!

Posted by Terry Oglesby at October 20, 2005 09:11 AM