21st Century Blues

“Here I am in the 21^st century, have to say it ain’t as cool as I hoped I’d be,” Steve Earle

In song eleven on his “Low Road” CD, Steve Earle laments, “It’s hard times in the new millennium, getting’ by on just the bare minimum.”  Bemoaning that it isn’t the Age of Aquarius” JFK and the Maharishi promised us, Earle claims that instead “there’s no love in a time of hysteria.”

First the Boston bombings, next a man arrested for sending letters laced with ricin to President Obama, and now a fertilizer factory near Waco, Texas, where ammonia nitrate was produced explodes killing or injuring scores.  Timothy McVeigh used that chemical in the bomb that destroyed a federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.  He claimed to be revenging the government’s action against a Branch Davidian compound in Waco.  Hopefully this is all a coincidence.  Jerry Davich wrote about theories relating to the Boston culprit and quoted me as saying, “Speculation is stupid.”  Jerry and Karen Walker wore racing shirts from the 2012 Turkey Trot in honor of the Boston Marathon casualties.

The Senate failed to pass a very mild gun control bill that would have closed most of the registration loopholes despite efforts by families of Newtown victims to lobby for the bill.  Obama called the inaction shameful.  I agree.

I mailed the new Shavings to Robert Blaszkiewicz at The NWI Times.  He is look forward to receiving it and added: “By the way, I saw your reference to WXRT 1984 flashbacks in your blog – my favorite year in music.”  He was 16 years old then – same as son Phil.  While I was digging Phil Collins, The Romantics, and Van Halen, Robert was into REM, XTC, and The Replacements.

Wednesday’s bowling banquet featured the normal fare – salad, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn is what I focused on- but the Polish sausage was especially good.  John Bulot joined our table, still recovering from a heart attack that almost left him dead.  We raised our glasses to longtime captain Bill Batalis, who passed away four months ago.  I thanked Duke and John for joining the team; otherwise we’d have been woefully shorthanded.  Bobby McCann’s wife gave each of us hugs.  During the season she passed out sheets containing standings, schedule, and averages.  Chris Lugo’s granddaughter Angel is going to Ball State in the fall.  Her mother brought her to Cressmoor Lanes when she was a pre-schooler and her dad on a team.

I was back in Chesterton in time for a condo board meeting at President Bernie Holicky’s place.  We unanimously approved a landscaping plan that includes a Rose of Sharon bush in front of our unit near where we lost an ash tree last year.  Bernie worked really hard to bring about a consensus among owners in time for the first phases of the plan to go into operation at the optimum time in April.   One owner said her unit shook when trains went by; others said they sometimes have the same sensation.  I’m glad we’re further away from the tracks and don’t have to deal with that.

It rained hard as I drove home and continued all night, causing flooding, especially across the Illinois state line, reminiscent of five years ago only this time, as of yet, IUN is not under water.  Notre Dame Grad student Felicia Moralez cancelled her Archives appointment, but the Office of Student Activities still held its annual Dating Show in Moraine.  I asked Kristin at the Rainbow Connections table if one would be same-sex.  We’re working on it, she confided.

DeeDee Ige thanked me for my comments praising the event she hosted featuring Todd Deloney and Alex Semchuck’s film and echoing my sentiment that sometimes change comes at a cost but that time often proves it was worth it.  Alex is fortunate that DeeDee is there to mentor him as he embarks on a teaching career at IUN.  Education professor Vernon Smith said this about DeeDee in an interview I conducted for “Education the Calumet Region”: “I was floundering until Dr. Dorothy Ige took a proactive role in helping me get articles published.  She was interested in maintaining minorities on campus, and one day said, ‘Forgive me if I’m out of line, but how are you coming along toward tenure?’  I had a flowery writing style and had only published a single article.  She told me about journals I might look into and advised me to emulate the style of articles already in print.  She critiqued my work and collaborated with me on a paper.  Her help really made a difference.”

Years ago, it was common for senior professors such as Mary Russell and Mark Reshkin to mentor untenured faculty.  When a woman in the History department was judged to be deficient in teaching, for example, Rhiman Rotz and Pam Sandoval worked with her diligently and exposed her to different methods that, thanks to her hard work, enabled her to improve dramatically and ultimately gain tenure.  Last week, at the same time Anne Balay was denied tenure, two other women suffered the same fate and a fourth in the English department did not even bother to put together her file.  Where were helpful hands, I wonder, when they needed guidance? 

Steve McShane attended a Midwest Archives Conference, so I was alone Thursday when a woman inquired about obtaining a photo of the Dorie Miller Homes on East Twenty-First in Gary that opened in 1952.  A reunion is being planned, and the planning committee wants an image to put on t-shirts.  A Gary Housing Authority scrapbook had Post-Trib clippings from September 20, 1952, that showed the apartments as they were being completed, but I doubt that is what the woman was looking for.  Dorie Miller was an African-American cook on board the battleship West Virginia during the Pearl Harbor attack.  For his brave actions the Texan was awarded the Navy Cross, and his image was used on recruiting posters.  Admiral Chester Nimitz personally presented Miller with the award, which cited his bravery in moving wounded sailors to safety and manning and operating a machine gun without regard to his personal safety.  He died two years later during the Battle of Tarawa aboard the escort carrier Liscombe Bay, which was sunk by a torpedo.

Waiting in the Archives for Jeff Manes, who was coming to campus to interview CFO Marianne Milich and to whom I wanted to give the new Shavings (he’s in it ten times), I came across a “Biographical History of Porter County.”  Attracting my attention was an account of the Crisman Family.  Farmer Benjamin Crisman arrived in Portage Township in 1850 with a wife and eight children (two more would follow).  Three sons fought in the Civil War; all survived.  Isaac became the first postmaster for the community (located in present-day Portage) named Crisman in honor of his father.   Forty years later son Milton was killed when a train hit his wagon at Bender’s Spur on Swanson Road.  His son Ray, who wrote the family history, said he bought tractors during the 1930sbut had a team of horses until 1950.  He wrote: “Farm life was our life, and I started my sons as I started, milking the cows from age 5 onward. Everyone had their share of duties.  I drove a car until I was 90, and as I look back, I hope everyone else in Porter County had as good a life as our family.”

I drove to Miller and delivered Shavings copies to Joyce at Lake Street Gallery, Karren at Lee Construction, and Gene at Ayers Reality, telling each that they could find their names in the Index.  Along Lake Street a man wanted money, supposedly for a cheeseburger.  Perhaps heartlessly, I turned him down and arrived home for ribs, rice, and corn on the cob.  Miraculously, the Cubs game wasn’t cancelled, and they won, 6-2.  Finally watched the latest “Mad Men,” which has references to “Hair,” the Pueblo Incident, and the Tet Offensive, but Don Draper appears pretty oblivious to these events that would come to disrupt America.  Instead he and Pete Campbell are finding that their adulterous behavior comes with complications.  Entertainment Weekly writer Keith Staskiewicz found this John Updike quote from Couples appropriate: “The first breadth of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.”