Champagne Cellars of Mareuil

“Caught beneath a landslide
In a champagne supernova.”
Oasis

Jean Poulard gave me a copy of his book “The Champagne Cellars of Mareuil: The Story of a Family and a Village.” Jean was born in 1939, and the Nazis took over his French village soon afterwards. The Germans occupied the village after the French leader Marshal Petain signed a humiliating treaty in June of 1940. They forced several dozen young men to go to forced labor camps in Germany. I prrofread the manuscript for him and his inscription reads: “To Jim Lane to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for the unfailing collegiality he has always demonstrated to me. Thanks for helping with this endeavor.” I emailed him: “Thank you so much for the awesome book and the thoughtful inscription. It is so great that “Mareuil” was published in English as well as French. You have done a masterful job in keeping alive memories of a family and a village.”

In the prologue Poulard mentions that the village of Mareuil-Sur-Aÿ, located on the right bank of the Marne River, was bombed and had its bridges destroyed and that in July of 1944 he witnessed human corpses being dragged onto its banks. During Allied bombings the wine cellars became a refuge for villagers. Poulard wrote about the Americans liberating Mareuil shortly after the German retreated. Villagers brought them sweets and bottles of champagne and wine and that they were more interested in fresh tomatoes. Two young women who had consorted with German soldiers suffered the humiliation of having their heads shaved. Jean was just five years old at that time. As life returned to normal he recalled following his father on a bike to the family vegetable garden and going for Sunday walks on the bank of the canal observing the fishermen and their catch. He wrote: “There were many pike in the canal. These fish were prized; I loved to eat one when it was well fried.” Poulard’s family moved away from Mareuil in 1949 and after his father died in 1957, Jean came to America with a sister and her American husband. A year later, at age 18, he enlisted in the American army and then pursued a college education at Otterbein College in Ohio before earning advance degrees at the U. of Chicago.

In response to my query Anastasia Churkina, who filmed Steve and me for a short documentary about the decline of Gary, sent a link to the four-minute piece. Steve, who showed her around downtown and got them into the ruins of City Methodist Church, is in it quite a bit while I appear for about five seconds. My only line: Gary’s two growth industries are strip clubs and truck stops.” I’m gone in the blink of an eye.

I’ve been reading “Maggie’s American Dream: The Life and Times of a Black Family by James Comer and plan to have a chapter about Maggie and husband in my “On Their Shoulders” book.

Fred McColly stopped in to see me after planting some winter wheat in his Native American garden. It evidently put good chemicals in the ground and will come up in the early spring.

Returning the Clarence Darrow biography to the Chesterton library I came across Richard M. Lytle’s “The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1918: Tragedy Along the Indiana Lakeshore.” The author is a Hammond library and appears to have done an excellent job. Some 86 people died when an engineer fell asleep and his train plowed into an idle Hagenback-Wallace Circus Train. Steve is going to order it for the Archives.

Good eating this week. Tuesday David bought Chinese food for Angie’s 41st birthday. Wednesday I packed a ham and cheese sandwich and just had yogurt, chips, and cookies for supper since I had a condo association board meeting. Thursday was free Latin food at lunch (yummy and perfectly spiced) and then Toni’s stuffed peppers for dinner, and Friday I bogarded a sandwich and some cookies left over after a Faculty Org meeting that I didn’t attend followed by Toni’s flounder and fried green tomatoes (provided by bowling teammate Frank) for dinner. Saturday was Carpatho-Rusyn food for lunch and chili at Hagelbergs. Sunday Toni made stuffed peppers as the Dick Halelberg came over for the Bears game in London and Cheryl went shopping with Toni.

My talk at the Carpatho-Rusyn anniversary banquet went well. I talked about what Gary was like a hundred years ago. Here’s my opening paragraph: “The first decade of the twentieth century was a period of rapid industrialization in the Midwest and also a time when record numbers of newcomers, almost 9 million of them, emigrated to America. Most were from Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe, including many Eastern Rite Catholics from villages located near the Carpathian Mountains. The first destination for some of these newcomers were coalfield areas in Pennsylvania and Illinois. Before they arrived in Gary to work in the recently completed integrated Steel mills of the United States Steel Corporation, Carpatho-Rusyns pursued opportunities in nearby Indiana Harbor and Whiting, as well as the Windy City of Chicago. This mass migration that furnished Gary with so many hard workers was a result of what historians have labeled push factors and pull factors. In eastern Slovokia, for instance, rural poverty and rapid population growth prodded many adventurous young men to embark on the trans-Atlantic journey. Oppression by Hungarian authorities also contributed to the exodus. Pull factors included the lure of a decent paying job and the affordability of steamship fares. Most of the newcomers to America initially hoped to earn enough money to return home and become landowners. Sometimes there was a chain migration effect. In a letter home one former villager might brag about how well he was doing and convince family and friends to follow in his footsteps.”

My hostess, Charlotte Conjelko, was married to an Eastern Rite priest and knew several former IUN faculty, including Ruth Needleman and Lou Ciminillo. Tim Cuprisin, who originally invited me after coming across my blog, followed me with a brief history of the three churches that were founded in Gary in 1911. Fred Chary, who was at the IUN lunch table, knew Charlotte and Father John from various liberal causes. I mentioned that I was reviewing a book about radical journalist Thyra Edwards and the subject of the Scottsboro trials came up. Michelle Stokely was surprised that I had not heard about the successful Broadway musical called “The Scottsboro Boys.”

The Occupy Wall Street movement has come to Gary. People gathered near City Hall Saturday from one to three. The organizers advised participants to “make your protest peaceful but determined” and suggested singing rather than shouting and not to let provocateurs or the police rattle you. Generally, the Gary police have been friendly and cooperative during past antiwar marches. I know many of the organizers, including Julie Chary and Ed Johnston.