The Gift

“Life does not consist only of what you have. The bigger part of life is what you can give.” Hollis Donald, “In the Presence of a Gift”

IUN poet laureate Hollis Donald’s forte is inspirational messages indicating that life is precious, often written on the occasion of somebody he admires retiring – or dying, often too young. “In the Presence of a Gift” begins:

On your left and on your right is mercy and compassion,

Straight ahead is a door, depending on your desire, you can open it.

See through the eyes of a child;

Get out of the wilderness and wear your best smile.

All around you is daylight and sunshine

Reach out and take your share

You are standing in the presence of a gift.

Barbara Walczak’s Newsletter mentioned our upcoming IUN oral history project involving bridge players, to wit:

The papers will become a part of the IU Northwest Calumet Regional Archives highlighting bridge in the Calumet Region.  Students will be encouraged to come to their subject’s games and get a better sense of the game of bridge.  What a wonderful opportunity to share our joy of the game!  Thanks to Dr. James Lane for spearheading this unique plan to involve university students in bridge.

 Billy Foster

Visiting the Calumet Regional Archives (CRA) was jazz pianist Billy Foster, a local legend who taught for many years in the Gary schools as well as Valparaiso University and IUN.  He hosts a local radio program and performs with the Billy Foster Trio and with wife Renee Miles-Foster.  He recently donated materials that will comprise CRA 482, the Billy Foster Collection.  He is a kidney cancer survivor, and the University of Chicago Medical Center featured him in a TV commercial entitled, “Metastatic kidney cancer trial keeps jazz pianist playing on.”

A Munster Center for the Visual and Performing Arts brochure listed the Art in Focus 2017-2018 season of lectures and films.  They include “Duneland Dynamics” by Ken Schoon and Maestro Kirk Muspratt on “The Mikado.”  Here’s how Director of Education Jillian Van Volkenburgh summarized my appearance on October 23:

Join James Lane, Emeritus Professor of History at Indiana University Northwest, co-director of the Calumet Regional Archives and editor of Steel Shavings magazine for a lecture on the sights and sounds of late 50s pop culture. He will also be spinning hits by Elvis, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Special guests TBA.

Regarding my special guests, I’m hoping son Dave and Henry Farag’s group Stormy Weather will each do a song or two. Dave already knows Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” and “Wake Up, Little Susie” by the Everly Brothers.

 scene from Dunkirk

I saw Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk on IMAX after Rolling Stone called it the movie of the year.  I’m glad I did – it’s a spellbinding and realistic dramatization of survival set in 1940, as British troops desperately try to survive Nazi air attacks during one of the largest evacuations in history. More than 300,000 servicemen were rescued over a nine-day period, mainly by a flotilla of 700 civilian boats thrown into service because of the difficulty in larger ships reaching the beaches.   The movie concludes with a survivor reading an account of Winston Churchill’s June 4 speech in Parliament:

  [We] shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

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Reviewer Christopher Orr wrote in “The Atlantic”:

  Nolan’s three stories take place on land, on sea, and in the air, and although they are intercut with surgical precision, they take place over three separate but overlapping spans of time. Over the course of a week, a young British soldier (Fionn Whitehead) makes his way to the beach at Dunkirk, there to wait with the masses of his fellows for a rescue that may or may not arrive. Over the course of a day, a British civilian (Mark Rylance) and two teenagers pilot his small wooden yacht across the Channel to save whomever they can. And over the course of an hour, an RAF Spitfire pilot (Tom Hardy) tussles with the Luftwaffe in the skies, trying to protect the men below. Occasionally these narratives intersect, but more often they merely offer alternative vantages, a Rashomon in which the separate tales are intended to enrich rather than confound one another.

 Phil Chase (left) and Seyfrieds

At Edmonds and Evans Funeral Home in Chesterton the body of Phil Chase lay in an open casket, looking so realistic as to almost be eerie.  Present were condo neighbors Janice Custer and Ken and Loretta Carlson.  In addition to photos and floral displays, I noticed a Cubs jersey with the number 50 on the back.  I couldn’t recall any Cub players who wore that number, but Dave came up with Les Lancaster, who won 34 games for the Cubbies during a five-year stint beginning in 1987.  It’s possible someone gave it to Phil on his fiftieth birthday seven years ago or that Phil once played on a softball team with that nickname.  On the Edmonds and Evans Tribute Wall website, Nancy Seyfried posted a photo and these words: “I will miss your smiling face and enthusiasm you shared about your life.  A truly beautiful man both inside and out.  RIP Phil.”

I stopped by Hunter’s Brewery hoping to buy a six-pack of pale ale, but the only available carry-outs were 32-ounce or 64-ounce growlers, with the containers themselves costing six bucks.  Thus, a 64-ounce growler, including tax, was nearly $25.  I settled for a 16-ounce draft of Meridian IPA (Meridian is the name of a street nearby), which I drank at the bar.  Hunter’s produces a farmhouse ale called Steel Town Girl.  John English told me that the owner started making beer as a hobby and still works at the mill to keep his benefits.  As I was leaving a guitar player named Rufus was setting up to perform and displaying record albums – actual LPs.  Wish I could remember his first name or had time to hear him perform. 

 Miranda (right) selfie with Kathy, Sean, and Jimbo

An hour later Toni arrived home with Joy Wok carry-out accompanied by Miranda, Jean, and their friend Kathy, en route next day to Lollapalooza, featuring The Head and the Heart, the XX, Alt-J, Chance the Rapper, and others.  It was good to have Toni home after seven days, during which time she helped Alissa and Josh move.  We called Dave to wish him a Happy Birthday number 48.

Dave with James and Becca (photo by Angela Lane)

At the Community Bridge Club game Saturday, I met Martha Harris, who worked with Ruth Taylor in IUN’s Education Division 40 years ago and for Charlotte Reed in IUN’s Urban Teacher program during the 1990s when Dave was in that program.  She also knew Dave because of work she did with the East Chicago school system.  She agreed to be a volunteer in the IUN bridge oral history project, as did director Alan Yngve with this caveat:

I need you to hook me up with students with special interests.  A student interested in business or entrepreneurial topics would be good.  Also, I have played bridge in many countries in the world, including three years in the tense middle east during the Arab spring, perhaps of interest to a student of political science, government, international relations, or intercultural topics?

Can do.

I donated a dozen Steel Shavings magazines for “A Celebration of Gary’s History: Its People, Organizations, and Churches,” to distribute at a Gary Historical and Cultural Society event at the Gary Land Company building.  Organized by Naomi Millender and held on a day when a Gary Walking Tour was taking place, it featured a traditional dress fashion show and entertainment.  At an IU Northwest table was James Wallace, Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs. When I arrived, a woman on stage was teaching several the wobble dance to IUN’s Patricia Hicks, Gary Council member Rebecca Wyatt, and others.  Sitting at the IUN booth eating a burrito, I followed along with hand motions.  Samuel A. Love and Raymar Brunson were photographing the event.

photos by Raymar Brunson; below, Jimbo, Fred Hiller, Samuel A. Love

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Fred Hiller, excited to receive a copy of Steel Shavings, showed me had a 1928 Post-Tribune clipping about an uncle whose stab wound had been treated at St. Antonio’s Hospital.  He couldn’t find any information about St. Antonio’s and asked if I had ever heard of it. Voila!  I told him it was founded by Italian-born Antonio Giorgi at a time when African American patients were barred from Gary’s two main hospitals, Mercy and Methodist.  People of all races were welcome at St. Antonio’s.  In “Gary’s First Hundred Years,” in a section called “Poor People’s Physician,” I wrote:

  In 1915 Dr. Giorgi built a three-story brick clinic in the 1800 block of Jefferson christened St. Antonio’s after his patron saint.  From the outside, it resembled a boardinghouse with bright potted plants along the front railing.  On a screen porch, convalescents lounged, gossiped, played cards or read.  Inside, multicolored curtains were used as partitions, and ethnic dishes were served to those patients whose constitutions would permit such a diet.

  A resident later described Dr. Giorgi as a serious, dedicated man who never undertook an operation he could not handle. He was especially adept at appendectomies, Caesarian deliveries, and stitching up victims of barroom brawls and industrial accidents who arrived at the makeshift emergency room at all hours of the day and night.

  Once a 325-pound saloonkeeper known for his sadistic ways checked into St. Antonio’s with knife wounds.  Somebody murdered him during the night.  Dr. Giorgi’s attorney recalled that the horrified doctor feared he’d be held responsible, but the police told him: “Somebody should have killed the s.o.b. a long time ago.” There was no investigation.

Blues Project members

Vintage Postcard

At a “Rock the House” block party near Memorial Opera House in Valparaiso, Franklin Middle School kids in Blues Project were performing.  Eleven years ago, U.S. history teacher Scott Cvelbar made the Mississippi Delta blues a component of his course and started teaching students to play Blues classics.  The kids really got into it, reminding me of when I saw House of Rock students from San Jose, California, performed a set of Cracker songs at Pappy and Harriet’s during Cracker Campout. 

Next up at “Rock the House”: a cool group called Vintage Postcard that played popular songs in a jazzy style.  I was sitting by the curb when a couple invited me to use an empty chair next to them.  They were the parents of the lead singer.  After Vintage Postcard did an upbeat version of “Stacy’s Mom,” I mentioned the risqué Fountains of Wayne YouTube video.  When the mother said she’d get her granddaughter to access it, I warned that it might be a bad idea.  I had hoped to see Liz Wuerffel’s Pop-Up Art Exhibit on display at the Porter County Museum next door to Memorial Opera House, but high winds had blown it down the night before.

POCO Pop-Up Art Exhibit; photo byAllison Schuette