Peaceful day for the main attraction

June 15, 2009 09:13 am

— ELDON — For all the fuss of Gothic Days, the house at the center of the celebration was curiously quiet for much of Saturday morning.
The American Gothic House is within earshot of the sirens from firetrucks that led the parade, but the sound was indirect, echoing off the hills and woods that surround the house. Calls from red wing blackbirds and quieter croaks from the frogs in a small pond were louder and more constant. The occasional breeze rattled the reeds at the pond’s edge.
Crunching gravel announced Craig Timmer’s arrival with his sons, Mikey and Danny, as well as their friend Jared Ewert. They live northwest of Chicago, a fair distance from Eldon. And they were not in town for Gothic Days. Timmer brought them to Fairfield for the power wagon rally and decided to make the trip over so they could see the house.
“Quite a few years ago I saw the house,” he recalled.
Chicago has its own ties to the house. The art institute there is the home of Grant Wood’s famous painting. Ewert said seeing the house itself was “pretty cool,” but Danny Timmer found it didn’t match his expectations. The painting gives a single view of the building, while seeing it in person means the view shifts with every step.
“I always thought that it would look like the drawings, not a real house,” he said.
The group stayed long enough to get a good look. The center adjacent to the house wasn’t open, so they walked around the site and, like most visitors, took a picture of themselves standing in front in roughly the spot Wood’s figures stood.
Then they were gone again, leaving the house to the birds and frogs again.
Jim and Marilyn Keltner were the next to arrive. The couple lives in Warren County. Like the previous visitors, the Keltners were surprised to find Eldon gathered along the main street watching a parade.
The Keltners were bound for Ottumwa on this trip. Eldon was a side visit.
“We just saw the sign and we were traveling out this way,” Jim said.
The couple travels with Homer, a small doll that has seen better days. It’s the family’s version of the traveling dolls sent out by schoolchildren in hopes people will take pictures at various locations and send them back.
“He’s not a very handsome guy, but we like him,” said Marilyn.
American Gothic has been called the most parodied painting in human history. It’s hard to disagree. The varying images include everyone from Bugs Bunny to Pauley Shore, though Bugs’ career survived.
The Keltners did not plan the visit, but they see it as the kind of thing that makes Iowa Iowa. Few other places can claim a location so immediately recognizable.
“Everyone should see the Gothic House if they’re in Iowa,” Jim said.
Dewitt Shelton’s actions showed a similar view when he arrived a few minutes later with his wife, his son and his son’s fiancée. Their visit came after a dinner conversation in which the house came up. He pointed out that the house was nearby. His son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law live in Kansas City and Des Moines, respectively. Neither had seen the house before.
So the family loaded up the car Saturday morning and came to Eldon.
They followed the Keltners up to the house, taking time to read the plaque on the side porch and, like everyone else, taking a couple pictures. Both families stayed about 10 minutes, walking around the house and the center’s grounds.
More people started trickling in as the parade in town wrapped up. One woman drove up on the road that runs nearest the house, hopped out and took a picture before heading off again, all without turning off the car’s engine.
Eldon’s celebrations were well under way and more people started making the pilgrimage up to the house. Nature ceased to have a near-exclusive claim on the site.
The house, of course, showed no indication it was aware of the change. For one day, it was again a center of attention. There is still something that draws people from all over the Midwest to see a house they know but have often never seen.
Matt Milner can be reached at (641) 683-5359 or via e-mail at mwmilner@mchsi.com

Photos

The American Gothic House was quiet for much of Saturday morning as the rest of Eldon's festivities took place in its name. A trickle of visitors increased after the parade wrapped up at 11 a.m.