Philadelphia Freedom

“I used to be a rolling stone

You know if the cause was right

I’d leave to find the answer on the road.”

    “Philadelphia Freedom,” Elton John

                                   Donn Gobbie (Post-Tribune photo by Andy Lavalley)

At the Valpo University tennis courts I ran into Don Gobbie, who reported that Billie Jean King was reading his manuscript on the women’s professional tennis circuit that got launched during the 1970s.  It’s been 39 years since Billie Jean won the “Battle of the Sexes” against self-styled chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs in the Houston Astrodome.  The following year she was part owner and starred for the Philadelphia Freedom of World Team Tennis.

Dave and his partner Mike were runner-ups in the Post-Trib over-35 doubles competition.  Facing the Mario brothers Saturday, they lost the first set 6-3, won the second set in a tie breaker and then prevailed in another tie breaker to win the match.  Three generations of Marios were on hand, and it was fun to see John and Mark, who got to the finals in men’s singles.  In the  finals a bad call prevented Dave and Mike from going up 3-2 in the first set, but their opponents earned their 6-2, 6-2 victory.

My mother finished reading the erotic novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James, which was the book club selection at her assisted living place.  She told me that she didn’t mind some sex in books but that this author went overboard.  What she didn’t mention is that the book deals with BDSM (bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism).  I can just imagine the nonagenarians tut-tutting over the steamy scenes.  I’d like to meet who recommended the novel.

In the news: Hammond legislator Linda Lawson replaced Pat Bauer as minority leader in the Indiana House of Representatives.  She told a Times reporter that at first she was terrified and sick to her stomach but then “the nervous feelings turned into excitement.”  Since the Republicans were in control of redistricting as a result of gains made in 2010, it will be an uphill fight for Democrats to gain ground, but their candidates for governor and senator are superior to the crazies heading the GOP ticket.

At the Ross Summer Music Theater in Merrillville Becca appeared in “The Music Man” as Amaryllis and sang a duet with the leading lady Marian Paroo.  Star Plaza CEO Charlie Blum was magnificent as Professor Harold Hill, who had specifically requested that Becca try out for the part.  Last year he had cast her in “Annie.”  We sat in the front row near a friend of Charlie’s who had traveled from New York to see him perform and who gave out a yell each time the audience applauded.  At the end the cast received a rousing standing ovation.

I knew that I’d be hearing “76 Trombones” and “Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana” (which always leaves me slightly teary-eyed) but was surprised that “Till There Was You” was part of Meredith Wilson’s score.  It’s the only Broadway tune the Beatles ever recorded and appeared on “Meet the Beatles” along with ten Paul McCartney and John Lennon songs and one by George Harrison.

After “The Music Man” we went directly to Highland to see James in “The Bard in the Park,” which featured scenes from “Hamlet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and other Shakespeare classics.  James belted out his lines like a trooper.  Dave handled the sound system and will be performing Thursday in a production called “A Century of Music.”

It’s hard to escape coverage of the London Olympics.  It’s on all of the NBC networks, and a women’s water polo between China and Spain preempted Chuck Todd’s show on MSNBC.  What’s this world coming to?  Even “Good Morning America” on ABC led with ten minutes of Olympics results.

Steve McShane and I spent an hour with Carol Griskavich, a scholar from Michigan Tech in the Upper Peninsula majoring in industrial archeology.  She’s looking into research possibilities having to do with housing for steelworkers and was particularly interested in the historic Marktown neighborhood in East Chicago.  She claimed to have run up a hefty library fine on “City of the Century,” so I gave her “Gary’s First Hundred Years.”

On the way to Country Lounge for lunch with Anne Balay I heard a catchy New Wave ditty called “Hey St. Peter” by Flash ‘n’ the Pan.  I cannot recall ever hearing it before (at first I thought they were singing, “Hey Nikita”), but it appeared on the Australian band’s 1980 “Lights in the Night” album.  Must tell Seattle Joe about it.  Anne wants to see “Valor” and thinks Roy Dominguez and I should schedule a book-signing event in Miller.  Out jogging with her dog this morning, she encountered two foxes.  I ordered the house salad with chicken, passing up the “Hunky Hollow” salad named for the place’s former nickname when it was a watering hole for white ethnic politicians.  Anne is still learning how to get around in Northwest Indiana and wanted to know a north-south road besides U.S. 65 that would get her back to Route 20.  I suggested Route 51 (Ripley).

The five CDs I have on heavy rotation are by Owl City, Sara MacLaughlan, Accept, Fountains of Wayne, and Robert Blaszkiewicz’s favorite songs of 2012.  On the spindle is “Duke” by Genesis.  In “Wild Child: Girlhoods of the Counterculture” Chelsea Cain wrote about attending a July Fourth Rainbow Gathering during the 1990s and feeling a disconnect despite her hippie upbringing.  What struck her most was that women were still doing most of the cooking and childrearing chores.

  The Post-Trib’s Jerry Davich posted this comment on Facebook: “Anyone interested in a free copy of the new book, "Valor: The American Odyssey of Roy Dominguez," the former Lake County Sheriff, as told to this region's historian extraordinaire James B. Lane? 
I received it in the mail and it can be yours for the low price of, well, nothing.”  No indication that he will mention it in his column, and several people responded with snide comments although the book was quickly gobbled up.  With Rich James gone, Davich is virtually the only reporter left on the once proud daily.  He does want me to be on his radio show, however.

On this date in 1710 Virginia planter William Byrd wrote in his diary: “In the afternoon my wife and I had a little quarrel which I reconciled with a flourish.  It is to be observed that the flourish was performed on the billiard table.”

  Nick Perko passed along the information that history book club member Bob Selund passed away.  Years ago he was in our bridge group, and he always greeted me with a booming voice.  Bob could be counted on to actually read the books discussed at the meetings.  I was looking forward to seeing him at the September meeting when Sheriff Dominguez and I will talk abnout “Valor.”