Winter, Winter

“The season rubs me wrong
The summer swells anon.”
“Down By the Water,” Decembrists

More snow on the way threatens to put the kibosh on plans to attend the Indiana Association of Historians conference at the Indiana History Center. Theirs is plenty going on locally, however, including “Annie” co-starring Becca and a program at the Miller Beach Aquatorium. Even a couple inches will set a local record for snow in February.

The Decembrists finally have a number one album, “The King Is Dead.” “Down By the Water” has an REM feel, and a song I heard on the way to work, “Why We Fight” seems especially relevant in these days of unrest in the Midwest and Mideast. Now the Indiana Democratic legislators have left the state to prevent passage of right-to-work legislation. The ride to IUN seemed never to end. First traffic came to a halt on 80/94 near Ripley due to construction. I managed to get off and take Route 20 to U.S. 65 but found the ramp to 80/94 west closed. Circling back to Fifteenth Avenue, I drove to Twenty-First and then Georgia, past Four Brothers Grocery, which was advertising “Buy phone minutes.” Up the street was a market advertising “Free Phone.” On the next block was a Baptist Church with depictions of Black angels on the windows. The potholes were unbelievable – poor Gary, so broke and saddled with an uncaring governor who won’t even authorize funds to fix main arteries such as Martin Luther King Drive and the Cline Avenue Bridge.

Bowled two wretched games and then finished with 208 (converting a 5-7 split and a tough spare in the tenth), helping the Engineers win two games and series by a meager 6 points. While things were going south, I thought of one friend with lung cancer, another the victim of a frivolous lawsuit, and a third being screwed at work and realized my struggles weren’t that important. Called Bill Batalis with the good news and listened to WXRT while watching Lettermen with the sound off. His and Paul Schaffer’s gestures are funnier than what they actually say. Dave kept mimicking someone smoking a joint. He kept making fun of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has unleashed a bloodbath in an effort to remain in power. The Top Ten list were ways to mispronounce his name and included Qudaffy Duck, Mouthful of Taffy, Mallonar Cookie, and Milli Vanilli. When musical guests Mountain Goats performed, I turned the sound up.

A reporter called the Archives wanting information about the 1969 Firefighters strike in Gary. Donor Milan Opacich was a firefighter then and we have clippings about the strike in the Post-Tribune collection. A woman called wanting the name of a restaurant located near Fifth and Broadway in downtown Gary in 1965. Someone who badly needs an operation is trying to find her father whose name she never knew. The guy evidently met her mother there. With the use of a City Directory I located an L and N Restaurant. Because the unknown father supposedly was prominent, I mentioned that many successful attorneys, doctors and businessmen had offices in the Gary National Bank Building on that corner. The woman admitted that her search was analogous to finding a needle in a haystack, but she thanked me profusely. Perhaps she should interest Post-Trib columnist Jerry Davich in writing a column about her search.

Got several dozen Facebook birthday greetings. Good old number 69; one more year and I’ll be a septuagenarian.

Nicole Anslover and Chris Young invited me to their team-taught course on the American Presidency. The topic was civil rights during the administration of Dwight Eisenhower, and I was impressed on how seamlessly Nicole handled the interaction from students (Chris leads discussion on Tuesdays when they discuss the early Presidents). Almost everyone participated, including four African-American guys who seemed very knowledgeable about Black history. Eisenhower was unsympathetic toward integration of the races but reluctantly did his duty to uphold the law when Arkansas governor Orval Faubus defied the Supreme Court by preventing black students from attending Central High School. The 75 minutes went by fast, and I even offered some analysis a couple times. History Club president Heather Hollister said, “Hi Jimbo.” Loved it.

Meg Renslow DeMakas donated some interesting materials to the Archives. When she was teaching fourth grade in South Haven, she had students put together booklets containing Region folklore similar to the Foxfire project where students documented Appalachian culture. In fact, Meg had Foxfire founder Eliot Wiggington speak at her school. Meg has started a Family Folklore Foundation and also gave the Archives several children’s books that she’s written that include references to Northwest Indiana.

Director of External Relations Tim Weidmann invited me to Country Lounge to talk about former Economics professor Leslie Singer, whose daughter wants to start an endowment in her father’s name. Leslie started teaching when the campus was located downtown and didn’t retire until he was in his mid-seventies. What a memorable character. He had a great art collection, and his wife was herself an artist. The daughter fondly recalls coming to campus when she was a kid and watching her dad lecture as if he were on stage. In fact, Leslie wrote, directed, and acted in avant garde theatrical productions. One time during rehearsal he fell into the orchestra pit and broke his pelvis. One of his plays was very existentialist. Several scenes took place in a bathroom. Behind doors the audience would see bare legs and hear sounds of flushing.

Attended a condo board meeting to plot strategy regarding a unit whose owner defaulted on her mortgage and declared bankruptcy. The place has been vacant for some time and in foreclosure, and the association theoretically is owed about $3,000 in back payments. An attorney was pessimistic about the chances of recouping that money, but if the bank holding the mortgage purchases the condo at an upcoming sheriff’s sale, at that point we should be able to start collecting the $175 monthly assessment. Host Bernie Holicky had a couple Harriet Rex Smith paintings in the living room. She did many duneland watercolor landscapes before moving to Oregon. Neighbor Tom Coulter and I went together, and he expressed interest in purchasing the foreclosed condo as an investment. I got home to watch the end of the Bulls’ exciting win over the hated Miami Heat. New Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel was at courtside. Back home got serenaded over the phone by the Michiganders, then got a call from JR that her house caught fire in the kitchen and that she and Floyd are at a motel. The insurance company has been great, she said, but it will probably be three months before they are back in the house.