TBW Daily Diary

Although it is no longer the community asset it once was, I am offended by the fact that, beginning today, the State Museum is assessing an admission fee. Being an old man I get in on the cheap but that doesn't soften the blow. And coming just before Independence Day makes it seem--well--un-American somehow.

In the early days the museum was the hub of neighborhood activity. Several clubs used the classroom for meetings and projects. Historic Harrisburg met there monthly for several years. There were frequent plays, readings, and concerts in the auditorium. One group presented several seasons of foreign films there. New art exhibits were greeted by marvelous receptions.

If memory serves correctly, the museum hit the heights when Fern Hetrick was director. She wanted it to be a "people place" and did what no one had done before. She shocked the purists by using china from the collections and--worse--brought out the elegant silver service from the USS Pennsylvania for mere mortals to use at receptions. She also arranged for summer movies on the plaza--grand old MGM musicals projected on the Archives tower. Ah, those were the days. God bless you, Fern.

But THE EVENT of the year was the Harrisburg Arts Festival during its Gilded Age. Art galore, dance, music, theater, film. The Harrisburg Symphony, choral societies, ballet, opera, school bands, plays performed in the period rooms, the Poet's Corner in the Archives garden. The biggest headache was the scheduling. With so much to squeeze into four days, it sometimes happened that two very desirable groups were scheduled opposite each other. This was a true celebration of the arts in Central Pennsylvania by artists in Pennsylvania, not the commercial traveling show that we have today. There was also a late-night coffee house for solo performers that was very popular.

One of the highlights of that golden era was a pirate ship built on the plaza as a playground for youngsters, the brain child of Charlie Speers. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of that. If anyone does, I would love to have a copy. E-mail me at thebarewall@verizon.net.

I did not intend for these posts to be more than a few lines a day, but so few people will now recall what a vibrant place the museum used to be that I felt obligated to make this report. I have not been to the museum more than once or twice in the last five years, but in the "old days" we were there two or three times a week.