Smithereens

“I’ll see everything through

I’ll do anything I have to do.”

    “A Girl Like You,” Smithereens

Bill Pelke thanked me for my blog comments about the Paula Cooper story and her maturation in prison following conviction for the murder of Bill’s grandmother Ruth.  Pelke is president of “Journey of Hope . . . from Violence to Healing” (also the title of his book) and ended his correspondence with this message: “The answer is love and compassion for all of humanity.”  I told him his work is very inspiring and suggested he deposit his personal papers, including letters to and from Paula, in the Calumet Regional Archives.  A retired steelworker, Bill lives in Alaska but comes back to the Region periodically to see family members.  He likes my Archives idea and is sending me a copy of “Journey of Hope.”

I dropped off a copy of “Valor” with Communication department secretary Dorothy Mokry to pass on to Raoul Contreras, faculty adviser to ALMA, the Latino student group. ALMA will co-sponsor Roy Dominguez’s appearance at September’s “Soup and Substance” event at IUN’s Savannah Gallery.  Coincidentally 40 years ago the Dominguez family moved into a house in Glen Park where Dorothy grew up. 

“Valor” website guru Manuel Corazzari passed along a draft of a poster advertising the book.  Looking up Corazzari’s name on Facebook, I came across a YouTube clip of him proposing to girlfriend Lori at the Fort Lauderdale Airport baggage claim area.  He even had a mariachi band on hand, and Southwest Airlines employees passed out champagne after Lori said yes.

I purchased four tickets to a September Smithereens concert at Valpo’s Memorial Opera House. I couldn’t find any Smithereens CDs at Best Buy but purchased a Soul Asylum’s greatest hits CD for $6.99 that includes “Black Gold” and “Stand Up and Be Strong.”  The Smithereens, who rocked out at a Hobart Jaycees fest, are a New Jersey power pop band that’s been around since around 1980 and got their name from the Yosemite Sam line, “Varmint, I’m a-gonna blow you to smithereens.” The grouchy, hot-tempered Looney Tunes character bore a resemblance to Hoosier Red Skelton’s character Sheriff Deadeye.

 

The most recent Connections: The Hoosier Genealogist, an Indiana Historical Society publication, contains an article by Jeannie Regan-Dinius entitled “Escaping Slavery: Indiana’s Underground Railroad Connections.”  It includes a list of 31 historical markers noting abolitionist activity, including one in Lake County, the “First Physician Marker” in Merrillville. I passed the magazine on to Chris Young, whose students are researching historical markers.

ABC evening news led with the sentencing of the schizoid who shot Gabby Giffords and killed six others.  He got life imprisonment as a result of a plea bargain.  A headline in the background read “Judgement Day,” with the word judgment misspelled, perhaps purposely, perhaps not. There is worldwide outrage over three Russian feminist punk band members – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria Alekhina -  receiving three-year sentences for “hooliganism” after they took over the pulpit in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute and performed a song and dance poking fun at Vladimir Putin.  They’ve been incarcerated since February and, according to the prosecutor, got off easy because they had no previous record and two are young mothers.  For shame!

I’ve been working on the syllabus for my fall history course on diaries, journals, and memoirs.  The biggest question is whether to have the class read the six books one at a time or several simultaneously.  I’m leaning toward the latter.  So far just two students have registered.  I need at least 15 to prevent the class from being cancelled.

After Brady Wade mentioned that 93 year-old Pete Seeger appeared on last Friday’s Colbert show, I checked it out on the Comedy Central website.  Pete talked about his great-grandfather having been an abolitionist, his father a socialist, and his having once belonged to the Communist Party.  Then he sang “Quite Early Morning” whose lyrics included the hopeful prediction that it is darkest before the dawn and the exhortation to “make those freedom bells keep ringing.”  What a beautiful man.

Jerry Davich confirmed that I’ll be on his noontime radio show Monday to discuss, hopefully, the history of Latinos in Northwest Indiana and “Valor.”  It remains to be seen how many other guests I’ll share time with, but I’m looking forward to it.  Jerry wrote, “My co-host, Karen Walker LOVES NWI history.”

 South Bend photographer Jon Gilchrist was in the Archives researching City Methodist Church, which he has used as the backdrop for some unusual compositions.  He ran across a former custodian with interesting stories to tell and is considering a documentary on the once-proud building.

I ran into neighbors Dave Elliott and Sue Harrison picking up the mail and told them I was planning to pop a beer and listen to the J.J. Cale CD Dave burned for me.  Born in 1938, Oklahoman Cale pioneered what became known as the Tulsa Sound, a fusion of blues, country, jazz, and rockabilly. He wrote several songs that others have turned into hits, including “After Midnight” and “Cocaine” that Eric Clapton covered.  After a spaghetti dinner enhanced by neighbor Gina’s home-grown tomatoes, Dave, Tom, and I gamed till near midnight.