A Fair Chance

“Dreaming of Maria Callas

Whoever she is.”

  “E-Bow the Letter,” R.E.M.

WXRT focused Saturday on 1993, one of my favorite years musically.  In a single set I heard a live version of XTC’s “The Things We Used To Do on Grass,” “Low” by Cracker and “All Apologies” by Nirvana.  Later came “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows and “Because the Night” by 10,000 Maniacs.  Although R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People” came out late in 1992, the single “Everybody Hurts” was big in 1993.

Thanks to a heads up from Karren Lee, we attended “Opera Night at the Gardner Center” at the old Miller Drugs, now an art gallery.  Friends were on hand included Gene and Judy Ayers, Nancy and Ron Cohen, and Kate and Corey Hagelberg.   Larry Lapidus presented his documentary “La Divina: The Life and Career of Maria Callas.”  Not being an opera buff, I knew little about Callas other than she once was the mistress of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.  Born in New York City, reared in Greece, and trained in Italy, she revolutionized opera with her skill as an actress, breathing life into roles she played.  One critic referred to B.C. and A.C. – before and after Callas. Watching clips of her performances, what struck me was how little her hands moved (Ronald Reagan employed a similar technique in his public speaking).  Emotions came almost entirely from facial expressions; when she did make a motion with her fingers or arms, it was all the more dramatic.  Growing up, punk rocker Patti Smith, who sang back-up vocals on R.E.M.’s “E-Bow the Letter,” wanted to be an opera singer like her idol Maria Callas.

Phil’s family saw Lights in the Night in downtown Grand Rapids, which is part of the ArtPrize festivities.  Miranda took a cool photo that she put on Facebook. 

Sunday after gaming we attended “Shout: The Mod Musical” at Memorial Opera House in Valpo with Kate and Corey, whose parents were on a European cruise and had left us their tickets.  The play followed five British young women during the Sixties and employed such familiar songs as “To Sir with Love,” “Downtown,” “Son of a Preacher Man,” “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” and the Isley Brothers classic title song. The women write letters to “Shout” magazine’s prudish advice columnist, who dispenses such bromides as: get married, have kids, change your hairstyle, try a new nail polish color, don’t be a slut.  In the end she’s fired and replaced by one of the five. An elderly in front of me was singing and swaying so much I expected her to get up and twist to “Shout.”  Though the play touches on sexism and female stereotyping, the one was upbeat and celebratory of women enjoying more freedom to chose what lifestyle to pursue.

Caught the end of the Redskins’ exciting win over Tampa Bay and stayed up for the Eagles victory over the hated NY Giants.  Field goals, one made, one missed, decided both contests.  In between I listened to Band of Horses and Green Day.  Thanks to the Houston defense I remained undefeated in Lane Fantasy Football despite foolishly playing Houston’s ben Tate and Buffalo’s Steve Johnson.  Americans blew a big lead in failing to capture the Ryder Cup from the Europeans, not that I really cared.

The new issue of Indiana Magazine of History contains my review of “Thyra J. Edwards: Black Activist in the Global Freedom Struggle” by Gregg Andrews as well as two excellent articles about Gary and the Region.  “Concrete in the Steel City” by Christopher Baas, subtitled “Constructing Thomas Edison’s House for the Working Man,” discusses efforts to build fireproof affordable housing by utilizing a method patented by America’s most famous inventor of constructing a complete domicile with a single cement pour.  While the idea enthralled urban reformers, U.S, Steel’s motivation was simply profit-oriented.  By 1914 92 units were available, occupied by Tin Mill foremen, clerks, and skilled workers, most of whom came from plants in the East.  Located within the Northside First Subdivision rather than in the Southside immigrant wards, they served their purpose well, but no further construction of these models took place in the Steel City, concrete being more expensive than wood or brick.  Baas concludes, “That many of the century-old houses are still occupied is a testament to their design and quality of construction, and further evidence that costs were their downfall.”

I was an anonymous reviewer for Katherine Turk’s “‘A Fair Chance To Do My Part of Work’: Black Women, War Work, and Rights Claims at the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant.” For Gary women recruited to make ammunition at a plant located 40 miles away in rural LaPorte County, the work was dangerous but the wages worth it. Once positions were filled for the assembly lines designated for black women, Kingsbury officials ignored further applications from others. The President’s Committee on Fair Employment Practices (FEPC) received numerous complaints of discrimination in hiring practices and working conditions.  As Turk writes, “”African American and white women did not intermingle at leisure time.  On the job they ate lunch and took breaks in separate areas.  At white women’s insistence, separate bathrooms were designated for women of each race.  In the event of an air raid, workers knew to proceed to the bomb shelter specific to their race as well.”

On my advice Turk made use of Steel Shavings oral interviews with Mary Kay Maisal, Robert Gyurko, Joan Cobb, Wanda Jones, and Adrana Turner.  In a footnote making use of Sanita A. Turner’s “Working and Jitterbugging” Turk wrote: “The wartime economy created unprecedented new opportunities for Adrana Turner, who moved to northwest Indiana from Georgia in 1943 when she was eighteen.  She worked frying donuts until she finished high school, when she found assembly line jobs at General American and Pullman-Standard.  In 1945, she had saved enough money to but a house in cash.”

I congratulated Indiana Magazine of History editor Eric Sandweiss on the excellent IMH issue, and he wrote that the Ordnance article “benefitted a LOT” from my feedback and asked if I’d review another article about housing in East Chicago.   I agreed.  Coincidentally, I received word that I was selected to receive the Indiana Historical Society’s 2012 Dorothy Riker Hoosier Historian Award “as nominated by Eric Sandweiss.”  I mentioned it to Steve, and he said he wrote a letter on my behalf.  A winner last year was Donald E. Pitzer, author of “America’s Communal Utopias” and “New Harmony Then and Now.”  I’ll receive the award at a Founders Day Dinner in Indy in early December.

While cleaning my teeth Dr. John Sikora showed me a 1973 Post-Trib clipping of an article I wrote about Ruth Nelson, who was a distant relative of his wife.  They got a kick out of my wild hair in the accompanying photo.  I asked John if he wore his hair long back then, and he said, no because his dad was a barber.  Once when the old man visited him at IU, he gave him five bucks and told him to get it cut.  That was one of the only times someone other than his father cut his hair while he was alive.  I told him that my dad bought a kit and cut my hair a few times but that we’d always fight about the length until finally it became too much and he gave up.

Perhaps not realizing (or not caring) that the Bears were playing Dallas on Monday night football, Bernie Holicky moved up the condo board meeting from 7:30 Wednesday so it would not interfere with the Presidential debate.  Under pressure from the bank and realtor, we dropped our liens on a unit whose owner has been in bankruptcy so that a short sale could take place and we could start collecting the money from the new owner.  For most of the meeting we discussed landscape needs and finally wrapped things up around 9:20, just before Devin Hester scored a TD to help Chicago crush the Cowboys 34-17.