Blizzard

“Pay no min to what they say
It doesn’t matter anyway
Our lips are sealed.”
The Go-Go’s

The day after Toni left for Michigan to be with Alissa a blizzard hit that dropped 20 inches of snow on the area and left the area virtually paralyzed for three days. Newscasters made numerous references to the Blizzard of 1967, which caught the Region by surprise whereas meteorologists had this one tracked down to the hour it would hit various parts of Chicagoland. Some newscasters were treating the snowfall like a contest and hoping we’d set a record. With winds over 50 miles an hour and thunder and lightning threatening power sources, I was glad to be in the condo with electricity rather than back on Maple Place. IUN closed early on Tuesday and didn’t reopen until Friday. Dave’s school and many others were still closed on Friday. We did manage to do some gaming Thursday, however, even playing Inca Gold with Rebecca. Someone Dave works with was stuck on Lake Shore Drive for 12 hours after an accident involving a bus snarled traffic.

Home alone, I read Richard Russo’s “Empire Falls” (for the second time), played lots of music loud (including guilty pleasure Hillary Duff – I love her version of the Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed”), watched ice hockey on TV, kept up with the demonstrations in Egypt, and placed calls to old friends as well as to ascertain how Alissa was doing. She had a successful operation Thursday to remove bone chips in her leg and said she was feeling no pain. In fact, the leg was so numb the day after she couldn’t feel anything at all. Learning on Facebook that Ray Smock’s seventieth birthday was coming up, I chatted with him about how he was dealing with that milestone. Terry Jenkins barely made it home to New Hope from New York City and then was without power for 13 hours. I told Seattle Joe Robinson he should try to find Alda Reserve’s “Overnight Jets.” Any time one is feeling blue it’s only an overnight jet to take you to some exotic place. One line sung over and over is “Land on the dunes,” a reminder of where we were living during the blizzard of 1979. Sire Records, founded by Seymour Stein, put out the album “Love Goes On” as well as other releases by New York punk groups such as the Ramones. One hostile critic called Alda Reserve the poor man’s Doors (similar to Southside Johnny being a poor man’s Bruce Springsteen), but Alda rocks more than the Doors ever did.

Finally got to catch up on arrangements for next Thursday’s talk by Carson Cunningham. Ryan Shelton put together a nifty flyer that History Club members are going to start distributing on Tuesday as a Taste of Soul event. Ay the Archives Ron Cohen filled me in on Trivia Night at the temple last Saturday. Ruth Needleman put together a team and when they lost complained that there weren’t enough labor history questions. Steve McShane and Mark Hoyert both live in Valpo and complained about all the shoveling they had to do.

Nancy Schrope Bunch sent classmates a CD compilation of photos from the reunion. Her note said: “Jim Lane made a blog of his experiences at the Reunion. It is really funny and worth reading.” Nancy went on to mention how to access it. Phil Arnold liked it enough to put an excerpt on his web site. People look old with the exception of old girlfriend Mary Delp Harwood.

The university was giving out free sandwiches that had been bought for high school visitors only the aftermath of the blizzard cancelled the event. Many area schools, including East Chicago Central, still haven’t re-opened. I grabbed a ham and cheese, intending to have it for dinner, but I got a call that Toni had arrived home and so had spaghetti instead, first warm dinner in five days.