Bound for Glory

This train is bound for glory

Don’t carry nothing but the righteous and the holy

This train is bound for glory, this train.”

    Woody Guthrie

Ron Cohen’s Woody Guthrie book is out, subtitled “Writing America’s Songs.”  Good timing since the “Bound for Glory” troubadour was born exactly one hundred years ago.  During his visit to the Archives I gave Ron a copy of “Valor” that the Sheriff and I both signed.  On the back cover is Ron’s endorsement of “a rags-to-riches story of a Mexican-American who overcame many hardships to become sheriff of Lake County, after a stellar career as a state trooper, attorney, and local political figure.”

Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love” was mildly amusing, but Penelope Cruz as a wise-cracking prostitute was alone worth the price of admission.  Plus it’s always fun watching Alec Baldwin squeeze the most out of a role.  Woody, as usual, played a neurotic caricature of himself.  I may have been the youngest person in the audience.

In a play in Grand Rapids Tori shined, but I couldn’t hear most of the dialogue.  The musical numbers were good though.  We spent the night at Alissa and Josh’s apartment after a pizza meal at Phil and Delia’s.  Josh was reading Nelson Algren’s “Never Come Morning,” so I perused the first few chapters.  Set in a Chicago Polish neighborhood circa 1940, it makes references to a Region amusement park and Gary middleweight champ Tony Zale.  After forcing himself on his girlfriend, Casey rationalizes it by saying to himself, “I guess I’ll take her to Riverview.”  A washed up fighter recalls his moment of glory when in Gary he threw a punch that stunned a future champ.

Saturday was Miranda’s high school graduation party.  While some of her friends were in-crowd types, others looked like good old down-to-earth hippies.  One guy had hair dyed a half-dozen different colors; another wore a t-shirt proclaiming, “My Mother Loves Me.”  Beth (Alissa’s mom) drove in from Washington, DC, and Delia’s mother brought rice and other Puerto Rican specialties.  Dave and I prevailed in two of three of beanbag toss contests against Phil and Miranda’s boyfriend Derrick, who were somewhat distracted by being targets of water balloons. I enjoyed Miranda’s friend Ashley Grzeszak, who will attend Michigan State in the fall.   Miranda is going to Grand Valley State, where Alissa recently got offered a full-time job (hooray, hooray!!!), beating out 122 other candidates.

above, Jimbo with Toni, Becca, Miranda, and Ashley; below, Paula Cooper, Times photo by Sarah Tompkins

Sunday we took the Hagelbergs to Sage for dinner and then played bridge at the condo.  I showed them “Valor” and the excellent Times front page story entitled “Paula Cooper: A Second Chance.” In 1985 15 year-old Paula and three other girls stabbed 78 year-old Glen Park Bible teacher Ruth Pelke to death.  Paula was initially sentenced to death, but after worldwide protest and Pelke’s own grandson taking up her cause, it was reduced to sixty years.  With time off for good behavior, she will be released a year from now.  In prison, Paula earned a GED, a bachelor’s degree and various culinary certificates.  Contrite about her crime, she credits God and Bill Pelke, who writes her weekly and has visited her frequently, for having faith in her. Pelke has said, “Paula has changed.  She’s not the same person that committed that terrible crime.”

Of the dozens of on-line respondents to the Paula Cooper story, opinion was divided on her going free.  Hopefully the belief of Bill Pelke, that “we are supposed to hate the sin but love the sinner,” will carry the day and a future employer will give Paula a job.  She told Times reporter Sarah Tompkins, “I don’t care if I have to sweep floors, wash dishes or flip hamburgers, I’m going to take what I can get, you know, just to get on my feet and show people that I deserve a chance.”

Anne Balay and I were going to get together to discuss the final chapter of her book on GLBT steelworkers, but instead we did it by phone.  I recommend that she interview USWA district director Jim Robinson and perhaps start chapters with quotes from some of the 40 interviewees.  I recently learned that some people use the initials GLBTIQ for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, intersex and questioning.

Karen DePirro’s work was on display at IUN’s Savannah Center Gallery.  Ann Fritz put out a nice spread, as always.  The pieces in the show, entitled “Alternate Reality,” combined realistic landscape or water background scenes with surrealistic still life figures in the foreground.  A former teacher from St. John, IN, she was friendly and I really enjoyed viewing her work.

Karren Lee sent me the 12-minute documentary Marty Bohn made of the June Pop Up Art event.  In it I discuss Dale Fleming’s artwork for several minutes, including many illustrations that appeared in my “Lake Michigan Tales” issue.  Marty’s audio wasn’t working earlier in the evening, so she made due as best she could with background music.