All That Jazz

“Don’t you tell me I’m not the one
Don’t you tell me I ain’t no fun.”
“We Belong Together,” Randy Newman

Rather than attend the Indiana Association of Historians conference in Indy, I saw Becca in “Annie” again and went to a fourth birthday party at Riverside Park Clubhouse in Lake Station hosted by the family that cleans our condo. The Mexican food was delicious and augmented by barbeque chicken legs prepared by an African American named Willie who lives not far from our old house but on the Miller side of County Line Road. Except for a young deejay playing music at a level that made conversation difficult and occasionally putting on rap songs that weren’t age appropriate, we had a good time.

Tom Wade went to Madison, Wisconsin, to be part of Saturday’s huge demonstration at the state capitol, joining fellow gamer John Hendricks. He found the solidarity among unions, young people and other supporters inspiring. It reminded him of Sixties rallies, with music, fiery speeches, and a feeling of optimism despite Governor Scott Walker’s attempts to screw public employees. A pizza parlor was handing out free food nonstop as fast as they could make it thanks to donations that came from all over the world, including Egypt. Stopped to see ailing Ken Applehans, and we agreed that the capitalist bastards are their own worst enemies.

Sunday after gaming I went to a program at the Marquette Park Aquatorium having to do with the history of Gary. Greg Reising wrote a script simulating a WWCA radio show circa 1958 with various Millerites playing the roles of Mayor George Chacharis (George Rogge with fake nose and eyebrows), feminist Simone de Beauvoir (Karren Lee), radio host Vivian Carter, and others. It was pretty funny. Gene Ayers played himself at age nine reading a commercial for Ayers Realty. The highlight was Mike Carson of Emerson School as cool deejay Jesse Coopwood and mentioning various Black groups playing at jazz and blues clubs and the Miramar Ballroom. Then he, Garrett Cope, Jr., and Kevin Gatlin played a jazz number, followed by the entire cast singing “Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana.” Gary had some great venues a half-century ago, featuring legendary performers like Jimmy Reed, Jerry Butler, Lionel Hampton and the Staple Singers.

There weren’t any big surprises on Oscar night, and I agreed with the choices for the big awards, especially Christian Bale. The song category didn’t much interest me, but it was fun seeing Randy Newman accept the award for his work on “Toy Story 3.” And I was happy Trent Reznor won for the score of “The Social Network.”

Monday Sheriff Roy Dominguez made final changes in his autobiography “Valor: An American Odyssey from Texas to Gary, Indiana.” I emailed the chapters to IU Press and after Steve burned CDs of the manuscript and the photos, sent them off to assistant editor Nancy Lightfoot. What a great feeling.

The Post-Trib’s Jerry Davich recently asked for ideas for columns, and a racist suggested one on how an influx of blacks threatens to wreck the city of Portage. Coincidentally, we started subscribing to the Chesterton Tribune, a community newspaper that nevertheless carries more world and national news than the Post-Trib and has more of a liberal slant.
The Canright family has owned and operated the paper for more than 80 years. The first issue we received had an excellent article about the protests in Wisconsin. In contrast, an editorial in The Times criticized Hoosier Democratic legislators for fleeing the state to prevent a right-to-work bill becoming law.

Heard from cousin Tommi Adelizzi about news of the Lane side of the family. She’s upset over how unfairly great, great, great uncle James Buchanan is treated. Historians generally rank his Presidency as a failure – down there with Grant, Harding, Nixon, and W. I replied: “Philip Klein’s “James Buchanan: A Biography” is generally fair to “Uncle Jimmy.” Also John Updike wrote a long, fascinating essay about him as the preface to his published play “Buchanan Dying.” Since most historians believe the Civil War inevitable and even necessary to eradicate slavery, it seems inconsistent to then blame Buchanan for not preventing it. Even Lincoln wisely waited until Southern troops fired the first shot at Fort Sumter.”