Published: May 01, 2009 02:44 pm      

Gulley offers nostalgic look at adolescence

DANVILLE — He’s become Indiana’s Garrison Keillor, the archetypal raconteur of small-town life.

Starting with a church newsletter essay almost two decades ago, Philip Gulley started his writing career, waxing nostalgic about growing up in Danville, a place you could “toss a kid into and not have a lot to worry about.”

“It’s still kind of that way,” said Gulley, who remains a Danville resident. “I had a lot of freedom I don’t think kids have today.”

He recounts his adolescence in humorous, poignant books such as Hometown Tales, the Harmony series, and his latest, I Love You, Miss Huddleston. Gulley celebrates the release of that last one with a hometown performance at 8 p.m. today at the Royal Theater, 59 S. Washington St., Danville. Indiana-based folk artist Tim Grimm will also perform.

Gulley also will sign copies of I Love You, Miss Huddleston from 7 to 8:45 p.m. Monday at the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library.

For someone who now recalls his upbringing so fondly in written and spoken form (including hosting the show “Porch Talk” on PBS affiliate WFYI), Gulley couldn’t wait to get out of Danville when he was 18. He lived for a time in Plainfield and became pastor of Irvington Friends Meeting in Indianapolis after studying theology and sociology at Marian College and enrolling in the Christian Theological Seminary.

But Gulley eventually came home. Aside from his writing, he’s also now pastor of Fairfield Friends Meeting House in Camby.

“As I was out in the world, it began to occur to me that what I had here was actually pretty good,” Gulley said of Danville. “It was a great town to grow up in during the ’60s and ’70s.”

That’s chronicled in I Love You, Miss Huddleston, an archive of awkward adolescence named after the sixth-grade teacher Gulley had a crush on. He’s hilariously documented his experiences enough to know you have to change the names and/or circumstances in order to protect other people’s anonymity, without changing the gist of the story.

“Obviously when you set out to write something that involves other people, you don’t want to intentionally hurt anyone,” Gulley said. “But neither do you want it to be just saccharine sweet.”

Gulley still retains that sense of community in his life. His home features a big porch (naturally) and a chair collection. As his sentimental stories evoke, the porch is still a gathering place for Gulley, especially in the summer.

“That tends to be our evening pursuit,” he said. “People come over and we just sit and visit.”

Such a concept still exists, but Gulley is well aware of the changing times. He sees it in his two sons, who use texting and popular social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace.

“I used to kind of tease them about that and say it wasn’t a significant community,” Gulley said. “Then I observed the feeling of connection and belonging they experience through those venues is every bit as real and genuine as the community I experienced. I don’t think the front porch will always be the arena in which we find community. But the human need for community will never change. We’ll just find it in different ways.”

In fact Gulley started his own Facebook profile about a month ago. He already has about 400 friends, many of whom he’s slowly getting to know.

“It’s a different kind of knowing, but I now know several hundred people that I didn’t know last month,” he said.

But the past will always have a special place in Gulley’s heart.

“I always enjoy reminiscing,” he said. “Some people spend a lot of money going to a therapist. I have the capacity to be comforted by good memories.”

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Online:

www.philipgulleybooks.com



wade.coggeshall@flyergroup.com