Today is the first day of IU Northwest's fall semester. Two years ago, having just retired, it felt strange not to be in the classroom, but in the meantime I've found things to keep me busy, including serving on the promotion and tenure committee for History colleague Jerry Pierce. Thus, over the weekend I read articles of his dealing with Heresy in thirteenth-century Italy. I spent most of the week transcribing a three-hour interview I did with Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez for a book we're doing together.
My replacement, modern American History professor Nicole Anslover, starts today. I talked to her at a reception for new faculty last week about a course she's teaching on the 1960s and offered to give her some books I kept from when I taught the course. She's using two good books, Isserman and Kazin's "America Divided" and Bloom and Breines' "Takin' It to the Street," a reader. At the recption was A & S Dean Mark Hoyer, a fellow U. of Maryland grad, only when I was getting my PhD in 1970 he was in elementary school nearby. Both the university and his school were located near Route 1, and when students went into the street after Nixon's invasion of Cambodia, state troopers chased them with tear gas and clubs. Mark said the smell of the tear gas permeated his classroom. Rick Hug brought his daughter LeeAnn, who had my Fifties class, to the reception. During the 15-minute break I would play Rock 'n' Roll songs using a boom box.
Bowling started last Wednesday. I rolled a 515 and the Electrical Engineers (my team) won two out of three games. The league, called "Sheet and Tin," goes back more than a half-century when the teams were U.S. Steel employees. Our captain, Bill Batalis, is over 80 years old and was on the team during the 1950s. Most of the other guys, being engineers, are big Purdue fans. They tell me that back in the early 1970s they won the league championship two or three times in a row and adopted Tricky Dick Nixon's 1972 slogan "Four more years."
My wife Toni has been working on photo albums of our family trip east that included visits to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland (especially loved the punk rock exhibit) and Niagara Falls (learned that the first successful person to go over the Falls was a 62 year-old woman).
Thursday Jeff Manes interviewed me for his Sunday Post-Tribune "Salts" column in connection with my forthcoming Steel Shavings issue subtitled "Out to pasture but Still Kickin': A retirement Journal, 2007-2008." yes, it's all about me. Actually it covers numerous momentous events, from the historic election and the Phillies winning the World Series to personal doings and the deaths of Studs Terkel and David Halberstam, two tireless heroes of mine who combined impeccible scholarship with a style that reached vast audiences.
Friday I talked to two of Steve McShane's "Senior College" classes on Calumet Region history. The folks were attentive and had lots of questions. They appreciated the free copies I gave them of my Postwar issue "Age of Anxiety," featuring the "Jail Diary" of Red Scare political prisoner Kathryn Hyndman, and many of them bought my "Gary's First Hundred Year's" centennial issue at the bargain price ("today only," I said) of five dollars. I did a special reading of an excerpt called "Ides of March, 2003: A day in the Life of a City and Some of its People." I had some of them read lines taken from student journals. 95 year-old Bruce Ayers, son of Miller realtor Gene Ayers, was a volunteer and did a great job. My favorite paragraph is about "B.W.," whose ambition was to become a rap star. His journal mentioned cruising around in a Pontiac 6000 listening to 50 Cent's "In Da Club." He especially liked the track "High All the Time." B.W. wrote of being at a Gary service station when a crackhead begged him for ten dollars for gas. His journal entry read: "He didn't even have a car. Then he offered to pump my gas, which pissed me off. I stopped into a barbershop and witnessed a cop jump out of a squad car and chase someone. The barbers and I hoped the manwould get away." Before bed B.W. wrote some raps in his notebook. In one class a fellow named Armando did B.W. with a Latin accent. There were just two men in that class so I asked for women volunteers with deep voices.
Went to see Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" on Saturday. Some critics panned it for not having concert footage, but I thought it was great. In part it deal with the coming out of a gay guy - almost like the follow-up to Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." There's a simulation of a LSD trip that is extraordinary. Toni wouldn't like the fact that the heavy is the main character's Jewish mother, but the actress deserves an Academy Award. Eugene Levy plays Max Yasgur, the dairy farmer where the concert was held, and Emile Hirsch, so good in "Into the Wild" and "Milk" is great as a troubled young Vietnam vet. Getting to the theater early I sat in on 15 minutes of the Quentin Tarentino "Inglourious Basterds" flick. People in a bar were playing a game where there's a card placed on their foreheads and they try to guess the famous name. The scene ended very violently.
Brought former colleague Paul Kern up to date on campus doings. Looks like the administration is forcing the History Department to combine with Political Science. Sent Paul a review I did of "Tycoon's War" and he fortunately caught two mistakes, a date (1856, not 1956) and a place (Nashville, not Memphis). Here's the review (corrected version) itself:
In order to protect his profitable Nicaraguan steamship line, Accessory Transit Company, which took passengers to and from California through Central America, as well as to exact revenge on one who double-crossed him, America’s most powerful businessman successfully plotted to thwart the grandiose plans of infamous filibuster William Walker.
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Self-made magnate Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt had borrowed money from his mother at age 16 for a boat to ferry people and freight between Manhattan and Staten Island. His future adversary, a University of Nashville grad at age 14, worked as a doctor, lawyer, and newspaperman before seeking glory as an empire builder. Failing to conquer Baja California, Walker set his sights on Nicaragua. After an implausible series of political maneuvers and battlefield victories, despite his forces seeming to be hopelessly outnumbered, he became President in 1856 and foolishly allied himself with Vanderbilt rivals Charles Morgan and Cornelius Garrison.
The pro-Southern Franklin Pierce administration established diplomatic relations with Walker’s regime, and pro-slavery expansionists supported his quixotic ambitions with money and mercenaries. The “grey-eyed man of destiny,” motivated by a desire to emulate his heroes Julius Caesar and Sam Houston, kindled anti-American sentiments among Central American nationalists. In spite of his considerable leadership abilities, Walker’s efforts were doomed (one chapter, appropriately, is titled “Battles on all Fronts”). Arrayed against this “Yankee Imperialist,” in addition to the Commodore, were Great Britain, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and most Nicaraguans. A comeback attempt ended in 1860 with Walker executed by a Honduran firing squad. Penny-pinching Vanderbilt bankrolled a fledgling college in Nashville on condition that it bear his name. The donation proved the death-knell for Walker’s alma mater. Fitting revenge. As the transportation mogul once said, “What do I care about law? Ain’t I got the power?” Highly recommended.
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