Ronan

“It’s about to be Halloween

You could be anything you wanted if you were still here.

I remember your bare feet down the hallway

I love you to the moon and back.”

  “Ronan,” Taylor Swift

                                                    Ronan Thompson

On the cover of Rolling Stone is long-legged Taylor Swift, who stands just an inch under six feet and is dating a Kennedy almost three years her junior.  At a Breast Cancer Awareness Month benefit Swift barely kept it together while singing “Ronan,” based on a true story about a four year-old’s death from neuroblastoma, then ran to a dressing room and wept.  Ronan’s mother Maya Thompson shares credit as co-writer of the song.  Ball players and referees have been wearing pink.  All kinds of paraphernalia are on sale, from caps to headbands, proceeds that will go to fight cancer.

On the way to Lake Street Gallery I stopped in to see Ron Cohen, who inscribed a copy of his Woody Guthrie book for Roy Dominguez.  He may come hear us again when we speak next Tuesday at Garrett Cope’s Glen Park Conversation.  Also on the program is former Gary city planner Ben Clement, a friend of his.  Gallery owner Joyce Davis liked Jennifer Greenburg’s “Rockabillies” book, agreed to display a half dozen framed photos during the December 8 Alumni Association book signing event, and noted that one guy reminded her of her greaser brother during the Fifties.

Traces page proofs arrived for my article on football great Alex Karras.  As always, it was virtually clean, skillfully laid out, and included fantastic photos, some provided by brother Ted Karras.  In the editor’s note, entitled “The Writer and the Mad Duck,” Ray Boomhower mentioned Karras’s close friendship with George Plimpton, author of “Paper Lion,” and his career as an actor in “Blazing Saddles” and “Webster.”  He noted that before Alex’s recent death, he suffered from dementia and had joined a lawsuit against the National Football League.

Saturday a Calumet Heritage Conference took place at Indiana Dunes Visitors Center near our condo.  Steve McShane was particularly interested in August Carlino’s remarks about the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area in Western Pennsylvania.  An afternoon tour started with a South Shore rail car ride to Millennium Park in Chicago and then a bus back to Dune Park via a route out of sight from the train.

Clark Metz invited me to a chili cook-off at Miller American Legion lodge and former union official Rolland Beckham’s seventieth birthday party at Beach Café.  Toni had a birthday dinner scheduled for daughter-in-law Angie, golumpki, rolls, potatoes and asparagus.  Beforehand five of us finished the Rock ‘n’ Roll thousand-piece puzzle.  Dave and I watched IU lose another close game (against Navy) in the final minute.

I finished John Grisham’s “The Partner,” about a Mississippi attorney who stole 90 million dollars from his corrupt law partners and then disappeared after faking his own death.  It had enough twists and turns to keep me interested but no dramatic court scenes or characters I really cared about.

George McGovern, liberal Democratic candidate for President in 1972, passed away at age 90.  I went door-to-door for him and Toni worked in his Gary headquarters.  I saw the Minnesota Senator speak at Gary West Side that year, and at George Roberts’s invitation spoke at IU Northwest years later.  The World War II pilot and history PhD opposed both Vietnam and the American invasion of Iraq.  Slaughtered by “Tricky Dick” after selecting a running mate, Tom Eagleton, who left the ticket after admitting he’d had electric shock treatments for depression, McGovern nonetheless transformed his party in ways that made possible the election of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

At a 2009 history conference McGovern talked about Abraham Lincoln.  In a tribute to McGovern Ray Smock wrote that when he went up to get his autograph on his book, he said “Senator McGovern, I was proud to vote for you in 1972 and have never regretted that vote.” Ray (with McGovern below) recalled that he laughed and said “You know, if everyone over the years who told me they voted for me actually did vote for me I would have won in a landslide rather than losing in a landslide.”  

Sunday we ate Chinese from Wing Wah and played bridge at Hagelbergs (Toni won; I was low man).  Beforehand we perused a scrapbook of photos from Dick and Cheryl’s Danube River cruise, which commenced in Prague, a city I’ve always wanted to visit, especially the Charles Bridge (below) that spans the Vltava River and dates back to the fourteenth century.

 

The Times carried Jane Ammeson’s article about Ron Cohen as well as photos of two of his folk music books, including “Work and Sing,” about labor union songs.  Jane quotes Ron as concluding that Woody was “a creative genius, an influence on everybody as an entertainer, songwriter, and political activist.  Woody is still with us in his songs and writings.”

Recently The Post-Trib’s Mike Hutton wrote a column entitled “More memories from Karras’ friends, family.”  It includes an anecdote from Gary city athletic director Earl Smith, his college teammate at Iowa.  During the 1950s they both had summer jobs working for the Gary street department.  One day Earl, Alex, and two white co-workers went to a Miller eatery for lunch, and the waitress refused to serve Earl.  When the food came, Alex dumped the dishes onto the floor, causing the owner to call the police.  Alex told Mayor Pete Mandich, a former football star at Tulane, what happened, and he was furious.  Earl Smith said of Karras: “He was crazy.  He was just unbelievably loyal to us.  You can just never lose that connection.  He never cared what color you were.”

Despite foolishly not playing Aaron Rogers or Owen Daniels, I edged son Dave, whose second-place Lane Fantasy team was decimated by players on bye week.  I remained undefeated thanks to a “pick six” by the Houston defense and a banner day for Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.  In the CBS pool I finished 10 points behind winner Ben Nicksic, who got every game correct while I had Buffalo beating Tennessee and the Redskins upsetting the Giants.

I ran into Bob Mucci at the Anthropology dollar book sale.  He wanted me to teach in the spring, but I told him I don’t do January and February but might be available next fall. 

Niece Andrea invited me to spend four days in January with her, Nick and Seattle Joe in Mexico.  I’ll probably beg off, though it is tempting.

On the strength of Rolling Stone’s three stars and being a huge Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken fan, I saw  “Seven Psychopaths” in Portage (I was the only one in theater 11). While much too bloody for my taste, the acting was super, even including cameos by Michael Pitt (Jimmy in “Broadway Empire”) and Harry Dean Stanton (the profane Bud in “Repo Man”). 

Obama was the aggressor in the final Presidential debate, while Romney adopted a “me, too” posture, reversing many of his previous positions.  When Romney claimed Obama had weakened American defenses, leaving the navy with fewer ships than were in use during World War I, the President replied, “We also have fewer horses and bayonets,” adding that fewer ships were needed in an era of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.  Ray Smock, who labeled Obama the “Alpha dog tonight,” wrote: “Romney comes across as a complete whore who, like an onion, has no core. He is layer after layer of poll driven opinions, and when you peel all the layers away there is no central core values left. No true character. No true leadership. He is about winning, not leading. Obama is about winning too, but he is also about leading. He has demonstrated leadership and character.”