In the City

I was born here in the city
With my back against the wall
Nothing grows, and life ain't very pretty
No one's there to catch you when you fall

“In the City,” Eagles

Canned Heat at Woodstock; below, Hanif Abdurraqib

When the Eagles formed in 1971 in Los Angeles, the counter-culture back-to-the-land fantasy of independent rural communes still was potent. At Woodstock two years before Canned Heat performed their iconic “Going Up the County,” which contains these lines:

I'm gonna leave this city, got to get away
All this fussin' and fightin' man, you know I sure can't stay
So baby pack your leavin' trunk
You know we've got to leave today
Just exactly where we're goin' I cannot say
But we might even leave the U.S.A.

“In the City” by the Eagles follows in a long antiurban American tradition, glorifying rural life and, more recently, what historian Kenneth T. Jackson called the “Crabgrass Frontier” of suburbia, whose allure was the promise of home ownership with garage and ample yards in a safe community with good schools.  Ibn “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us” Black essayist Hanif Abdurraqib captured the misleading image as seen by a teenage interloper:

  The sidewalks were more even underneath our bike tires, and the silence was a gift to a group of reckless and noisy boys, spilling in from a place where everything rattled with the bass kicking out of some car’s trunk.  We would ride our bikes with our dirty and torn jeans and look at the manicured lawns and grand entrances and the playgrounds with no broken glass stretched across the landscape. . . . It allowed me to fantasize, imagine a world where everyone was happy and no one ever hurt.

Thomas Hart Benton, "America Today" city and steelmaking panels

Anti-urbanism, in part was a reaction to rapid industrialization and the subsequent influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants to our shores, demonized cities as centers of sin and crime, corruption and radicalism, poverty and wage slavery.  Thomas Hart Benton’s century-old 10-panel mural “America Today,” for example, depicts burlesque dancers, subway muggers, and bloodthirsty fans at a prizefight as well as muscular, overworked steelworkers tending ladles of molten steel and guiding red hot ingots along an assembly line.   

Allison Schuette wrote this poem based on 1907 stereographs depicting the construction of Gary Works and found in “Gary: A Pictorial History”:

    The scale of the enterprise is immense. 

I fear it cannot be communicated; it must be experienced. 

The historians’ illustrated history introduces the scope: 

the ragged landscape of dunes and the marshy swamps not yet dredged;

the size of the labor force, the conditions under which they labored 

(snakes, yellow jackets, hornets and dune fleas); 

the clearing of the land, grading of the land, 

digging of the land, constructing upon the land; 

the relocation of the Grand Calumet River 1000 miles south of its original bed; 

the immensity of the machines and the scaffolding, 

dwarfing the size of any labor force, exposing us for the ants we are. 

But scope is to scale as smell is to taste, 

a whiff of what is to come if you are allowed to eat at the table. 

Which makes the stereographs all the more tantalizing. 

Printed on the historians’ page, they tease but refuse to do their job. 

The unified, three-dimensional world split, duplicated, flattened. 

Not one set of foundations for the traveling cranes, but two. 

Not one array of the great blast furnaces, but two.

Not one crew of workers unloading the long steel beams for the open hearth mill, but two. 

Not one length of the machine shop interior under construction, but two. 

Duplication draws the mind to the surface, to comparison and contrast, right and left. 

The stereographs confirm the eagerness of the industrial age, 

the enthusiastic ego, multiplying the moment to drive the point home. 

Look, look. Look at what we’ve done. But all I can do is look.

I cannot see, as Oliver Wendell Holmes did, the “scraggy branches of a tree”

running out at me “as if they would scratch our eyes out.”

The present refuses me complete access to the past. 

When I ask, it says, the stereoscope has been packed away

     and no one remembers where to find it. 

Nobel laureate in literature Toni Morrison died at age 88.  She once said, “If there is a book that you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.”  She was born in the steel town of Lorain, Ohio. At the age of two she was inside a house that the landlord set on fire because her family could not afford to pay the rent.  Her parents laughed at the fool and moved on. Thus, Morrison learned early that, in her words, “You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”  Morrison was a 2016 recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her novel “Jazz” (1992), set in Harlem during the 1920s, deals with a married salesman, Joe Trace, murdering Dorcas, his young lover whose corpse Joe’s wife Violet (“Violent”) assaults with a knife at the funeral. Danger and excitement stimulation all the senses: that was Harlem during its Renaissance.

The topic in Steve McShane’s Senior College class on the history of the Calumet Region was “Steelmakers and Steeltowns.” It covered the founding and industrial growth of Gary and East Chicago with emphasis on the steel mills that dominated almost every aspect of life.  I distributedSteel Shavings, volume 46, with Vivian Carter on the cover and promised to be back in 10 days to talk about her launching Vee-Jay Records and to play doo wop and rock and roll hits produced and released by the record label.  In class was Beatrice Petties, whom Liz Wuerffel and Allison Schuette interviewed for the VU Flight Paths project. Here are some of Beatrice’s recollections about her Gary work experiences:  

   My mother said, “Always leave a job to where maybe you could go back to it.”And that was how I tried to leave. Any job I left I tried to leave that way. Gave them notice and let them know I was leaving. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to do that.

   I went to the Gary National Bank, worked in there for about five years.  Mr. Horn, my supervisor, promised that once I learned the job they would promote me.  I went through the training and did the job for a year but never got the promotion. So I walked in the office and I said, “Mr. Horn, it’s been a year since I finished my training. When am I going to get a promotion?”He said, “Let me get back to you.”I said, okay. About a week later, I stood there in the door and said, “Mr. Horn, what did you promise me?”He said, “Well, we can’t do this right now.” I said, “Why?”And he gave me some long reason. I said, “Okay.”I never argue with anybody about a job. I went around the corner, and put in an application for Gary Housing Authority. About a month later, I went in and I told Mr. Horn, “Mr. Horn, I’m handing in my resignation.”And he said, “Don’t do that. Wait I’ll get back to you.” I said, “Okay.”He came back the next day, and said, “We’re going to promote you.”I said, “No, thank you, Mr. Horn. I’m taking the job, and I can leave today if you would like.”He did not like it at all. They were paying me almost $1,500 more than what I was getting at the bank, so I naturally was not going to turn that job down.

   I worked in the purchasing department at Gary Housing Authority, and the lady that was over the purchasing department left. When they put the job up on the board, I asked for it, but because I hadn’t been there very long, they put someone else in the position. Mr. Bosak, he said the wrong thing to me. He said, “Will you show her how to do the job?” And I said, “Okay. Fine.” I did not make it any better or any worse. I went and applied at Methodist Hospital. And I left not just because he didn’t give me that promotion, I left because there was some political shenanigans going on. They had a fund going, “Flower Fund,” for people who worked there, but I found out through talking to some other people that it was really a political fund for whomever was in office at the time. I said, “Don’t take any money out of my salary for that.” That’s when I said, “Thank you,” left, and  got to Methodist Hospital. I worked in the engineering department for almost 18 years. I was the only lady in the department, and the guys were great. I had a good time. We even see each other and talk to each other now. But that was a good time. A very good time.

Miller mainstay and retired Purdue Calumet professor of Electrical Engineering Rich Gonzales passed away.  I’d see him at Joe Petras’s annual Marquette Park playground fundraiser and other local functions, such as Ed Asner’s one-man show as FDR.  We both were guests at a dinner party Tom Eaton threw and a house party for Indiana gubernatorial candidate John Gregg. Rich was a good guy.

Commission for Higher Education member Jon Costas

The Commission for Higher Education met at IUN, first time in eight years.  Since its creation in 1971, the state-mandated policy-making group, much ridiculed by a long line of administrators, has issued welcome, albeit sometimes ignored, mission statements stressing the need for Regional campuses to serve its local constituencies in terms of research, community service, and teaching goals and practices. When I arrived at the Arts and Sciences Building, the adjacent parking lots were blocked off for use by the university’s guests.  Inside I spotted a bunch of white men in suits (actually, I discovered later, 3 of the 14 members are women and one African American).  The only person I knew was Valparaiso mayor Jon Costas, who grew up in Gary’s Horace Mann district during the 1960s.  I told Chancellor Lowe’s administrative assistant Kathy Malone that I was under-dressed, then thought better of it since I was wearing an IU polo shirt.  One is never under-dressed wearing IU apparel.

The Chesterton Tribune often has more (and better) news coverage than the two major Region papers.  For instance, a recent issue contained a lengthy analysis of Trump freezing all Venezuelan assets, which the Russians (correctly in my opinion) labeled economically motivated “international banditry.” The Tribuneis owned and edited by David Canright, who graduated from IU and was active in anti-Vietnam War protests and the antinuke Bailly Alliance.  The daily has a long tradition of support for the working man and ecology.  In fact, it was founded in 1882 as a Greenback Party weekly.  During the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan was a force to be feared in Indiana small towns, the Tribune refused to print any articles about Klan activities.  It remains a vital source of community doings. 

 Kevin Nevers and Jeff Trout

I’ve long admired the work of Tribunereporter Kevin Nevers, who with Betty Canright also puts together “Echoes of the Past,” scouring files from 10, 15, 25, 50, and 75 years ago.  In August of 1944, for example, “two rattlesnakes were killed in Henry Grieger’s garden at Furnessville (an unincorporated community in Porter County along Route 20 near Beverly Shores).  One had four rattles and the other five and a half.” For the first time civilians were permitted to tour a few areas of the the Kingsbury Ordinance Plant. Also the Chesterton Merchants Association promised to build a band shell in the town park because passing New York Central trains made so much noise during concerts.  Presented with the Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award, Nevers credited David Canright with emphasizing that the Tribunewas a “newspaper of record.”  He said: “My editor doesn’t ask me what my lead is, he asks me how many stories I have and how much space I need. He winds me up and points me in the right direction."

On this date in 1974 Nixon resigned and in 1988 the Chicago Cubs turned on recently installed lights for the first ever Wrigley Field night game.  Exactly four year later, Metallica band member James Hetfield was badly burned due to a pyrotechnics explosion on stage at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.  In 1995 Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead breathed his last.

At Banta Center my bridge partner was feisty Dottie Hart.  Ten years my senior, she is moving in with her daughter, who joked that Dottie could have men over so long as they were gone when she got home for work. I quipped, “What time does she get home for work?”  Among the treats: Don Giedemann’s delicious cherry cobbler, resembling what once was my Thanksgiving specialty.  Norm and Mary Ann Filipiak offered blue bearded iris bulbs to any takers. I took several that Toni appreciated in view of the fact that I never followed through on promises to dig up iris bulbs from our Maple Place residence when our National Lakeshore leaseback expired.  Pam Missman, whose husband was playing ping pong nearby, has an endearing smile that reminds me of seventh grade girlfriend Pam Tucker, a great kisser who, years later, told me that when my family moved to Michigan, it nearly broke her heart.  Sigh! Puppy love.

Regal Beloit workers in Valpo 130 strong are in the sixth week of their strike.  I pass the pickets to and from bridge.  Journeyman carpenter Ryan Higgins toldTimescorrespondent Joseph Pete that medical insurance eats up a huge chunk of workers’ salaries and asserted:

  My dad has worked here for 42 years. Raised my sister and I on fair wages and benefits. I remember when I was a kid and McGills (the original owner) would have company picnics and would personally man the grill and drink beer with his employees! Those days are long gone! My dad makes less than he did 25 years ago. How is that fair? Stand up for what is right people!

Ryan Higgins

photo by Liz Wuerffel

Bathroom Battles

“Gender identity is our internal response to a social construction that attempts to make a connection between a person’s biological makeup and their eventual role in society.”  Sam Killermann, “The Social Justice Advocate’s Handbook: A Guide to Gender

At one time a bathroom battle likely involved whether to leave a toilet seat up or down.  The latest red herring used by religious nuts to oppose ordinances offering equal rights based on gender identity is to conjure up the specter of m to f transgenders with penises showering with impressionable girls. Ten Republican governors, including Hoosier blockhead Mike Pence, want to take the federal government to court for releasing guidelines protecting the rights of transgender students.  In California and elsewhere gender-neutral bathrooms have been functioning smoothly for years. The last thing most transgenders want is to be the center of attention.  In Osaka, Japan, men’s bathrooms have no urinals and walls that separate the toilet stalls from floor to ceiling.  The first time I used one, a woman was inside, assisting an elderly man.

 Heath Carter with mic, Post-Trib photo by Kyle Telechan; below, Tom Cotton, NWI Times photo by Rob Earnshaw 

Valparaiso City Council voted 5-2 to approve a civil rights ordinance that includes gender identity.  Two Republican opponents sought an exemption for businesses with fewer than ten employees.  Supporting the proposal was Councilman Robert Cotton, 11 years old in 1969 when his family became the first African Americans to reside in Valpo.  Cotton has visited the Archives to research the liberal group that facilitated the family’s relocation from a Chicago housing project.  History professor Heath Carter, who chaired the Advisory Human Relations Council, said: “I am extremely proud of our city.  It has been remarkable throughout this process to see neighbors of many different persuasions treat one another with such respect and care.”  Echoing those sentiments, Mayor Jon Costas, a Gary native, stated: “Members of the LGBT community are our neighbors, our co-workers, our family members and family citizens and why would we want to deny them basic civil protections?”

 Transgender flag designed by Monica Helms

Twitter response to a Time multi-colored toilet paper cover was all over the map, from “this is a gay pride flag, not a trans pride flag” to “who the fuck thought it was a good idea to imply we should wipe our ass on a pride flag?”  Mirah Image pointed out that the toilet paper is hanging the wrong way.  And those were just from LGBT supporters.  Showing more perspective, Chokladboll noted: “No one is dying from this cover.”

Chesterton library is giving away Indy 500-related items.  I spun a wheel and won a red “Big Finger” inscribed “Go Graham.”  Son of 19876 Indy winner Bobby Rahal, Graham races for David Letterman’s team.  My favorite late night host, letterman now sports a Santa Claus beard.   The only years I’ve taken more than a passing interest in “The Race” was when Danica Patrick was at the wheel.  Bowling teammate Melvin Nelson has attended the spectacle for the past 30 years.  Kirsten Bayer-Petras and friends go every year; three days ago Kirsten even took her mom and kids to time trials.

The first line in John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” (1976) goes: “Garp’s mother, Jenny Fields, was arrested in Boston in 1942 for wounding a man in a movie theater.”   A soldier’s kept sitting next to her despite her changing seats four times.  In other words, he deserved what he got.  On the twentieth anniversary of “Garp’s” publication Irving wrote: “The principal point about Garp’s mother is stated in the first chapter: ‘Jenny Fields discovered that you got more respect from shocking other people than you got from trying to live your own life with a little privacy.’”

A New York Times crossword puzzle clue asked which longtime Indiana Senator was defeated in 2012.  Answer: Richard Lugar in the Republican primary by a Tea Party jerk who claimed nonconsensual rape victims couldn’t get pregnant.  After a talk with Robert Blaszkiewicz, I crossed over and voted for Lugar, who worked for many years on nuclear disarmament.

In Arusha, Tanzania came photos and this post from granddaughter Alissa: “Scored a lefty goal on the Tanzanian team.”  Earlier, she reported from the Serengeti that nine year-old bushman kids in sandals had slaughtered her group. Meanwhile, back in Gary, Indiana, Samuel Love explored the Calumet Lagoon near Gary Works.

The Weekend

“I’ve got some problems I know

Driving too fast but just moving too slow.”

“Dark Times,” The Weekend

A “Flight Paths” workshop at IUN attracted three-dozen attendees who gobbled up free copies of Steel Shavings, volume 44, “My Name Is Gary.”   After welcoming remarks by CURE (Center for Urban and Regional Excellence) director Ellen Szarleta and Chancellor Bill Lowe, co-directors Allison Schuette and Liz Wuerffel described how the Welcome Project has expanded in scope from exploring the relationship between Valparaiso University students and the community to looking into the relationship of Valpo residents, many with Gary roots, to Northwest Indiana cities.  After showing  excerpts of interviews with Gary mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and Valpo’s Jon Costas, recent VU grad Christina Crowley led a discussion on points they made, such as the importance of neighborhood role models and reasons for white and green flight.  Even though Freeman-Wilson’s parents were not college grads, on her block were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, women professionals, storeowners, and steelworkers.  Costas called events of 1967, when his parents decided to flee Gary, racially a “perfect storm.”

On the program was VU History professor Heath Carter, whom I congratulated on the excellent reviews for “Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago.”  I told him that my book “Jacob A. Riis and the American City,” discussed Social Christianity efforts in New York City.  When Carter noted he’ll be teaching a class on Hip Hop America, I asked whether he’d seen the latest Rolling Stone with The Weekend, AKA Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, on the cover.

The Weekend, whose hip hop style includes ingredients of R and B soul, indie, and punk, recently performed his two consecutive number 1 hits “Can’t Feel my Face” and (with Nicki Minaj) “The Hills” on Saturday Night Live.  Born in Ethiopia and reared by a stong-willed mother in Toronto, Canada’s working-class Scarborough neighborhood, he shot to fame in 2011 after releasing three nine-track mix tapes, including “House of Balloons.”  Tesfaye explained that at parties he and his friends often inflated balloons to add atmosphere.  There was a house of balloons in the 2009 Pixar flick “Up.”  The Weekend’s lyrics are often profane and larded with drug references.  The title of “Rolling Stone,” refers not to a vagabond like in Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” but to smoking weed while rolling on ecstasy.

 Michael Jackson in 1984

Tesfaye’s childhood hero, Michael Jackson, co-wrote (with Lionel Richie) “We Are the World” (1985) to raise money for famine relief in African countries such as Ethiopia.   The Weekend employs a tremulous falsetto evocative of “The King of Pop.”  Hearing Tesfaye’s stage name, I thought of “Jersey Shore” TV reality personality Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, who has fallen on hard times.  In the chorus to “The Fall” The Weekend declares: “I ain’t scared of the fall, I’ve felt the ground before.”  Brave words indeed, but it isn’t easy being poor, especially after savoring the spoils of fame and fortune.

The workshop theme was “Identifying and Addressing Fault Lines in Our Communities,” and the final topic involved a Saturday evening confrontation in Valpo’s Hilltop district between a Burns Harbor police officer and a 21 year-old African-American student, Darryl Jackson, who double –parked for a few minutes while picking up a friend.  Jackson never left his jeep and was pulled over after he had resumed driving.  A Porter County gang task force “Saturation Patrol” was in progress, using officers from a half-dozen local forces.  The arresting officer later claimed he suspected a drug deal was going down, but a search for weapons or drugs came up empty.  When Jackson complained about being forced to exit his jeep and refused to take his hands out of his pockets, he was handcuffed, taken to jail, and charged with resisting arrest.  Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel refused to pursue charges, and Valparaiso mayor Jon Costas charged that the officer’s conduct “fell short of the level of professionalism our citizens expect and deserve.”  Costas added: “Valparaiso is a vibrant and welcoming city that celebrates its diverse and talented citizenry.”  Two FOP lodges subsequently questioned the mayor’s “level of professionalism.”

Workshop participants viewed video excerpts of the confrontation, the police report, a NWI Times news article, and a statement by victim Darryl Jackson, who claimed to have a tremendous respect for officers of the law and even knew some Valparaiso officers personally. Jackson said:

  Last summer I worked with potential first-generation college students in Trio Upward Bound, and I told the kids. “You don’t have a safety net.  You do something wrong, you’re going to jail.”  And these kids only know what they see.  Sometimes they aren’t given good models.  I wanted to give them a different choice.  But these kids can watch me on YouTube right now, seeing me go to jail.  And they’re going to say, “If he’s going to jail, there’s no reason to stay in school.  What’s doing the right thing going to do for me, if the program is to put me in jail anyway.”

If he was slow to react to the officer’s unexpected demands, Jackson stated, it was because he was confused, disoriented, and fearful, given recent incidents in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere, rather than intentionally disrespectful of authority.  Jackson expressed gratitude for the subsequent outpouring of support.  His statement concluded: “If I can hope for anything, it is that I can use my experience to help show people that it is on all of us to stop the cycle of disrespect.  And I humbly accept that as my responsibility.”

Much to my chagrin, sweeps similar to the Hilltop “Saturation Patrol” have taken place near IU Northwest.  In that case, prior to the dragnet operation, cops were told to be aggressively on the alert for trouble. Valparaiso police undergo sensitivity training, but that evidently is not the case with Burns Harbor officers.  Chancellor Lowe, who comes from a family of NYPD officers and stayed throughout the program, wondered if something other than racial bias may have been at work.  Perhaps a degree of resentment existed against privileged VU students whom police perceived as arrogant.  At Bucknell a half-century ago such a gulf between “town and gown” existed, as is the case presently in Bloomington, where busting underage drinkers helps finance police operations. 

Saturday I took Welcome Project co-directors Allison Schuette and Liz Wuerffel on a tour of Miller neighborhoods, including where we rented a Hoosier Home for four years starting in 1972 on Jay Street two blocks east of Grand Boulevard between Third and Fourth.  The houses seemed in good shape and the neighborhood more stable than 40 years ago when a rapid turnover took place due to white flight.  Allison and Liz wanted to see Anne Balay’s old place since they know her and she will be speaking at VU in February.  At Flamingo’s for lunch they told me about having interviewed homeless people in collaboration with several agencies and shelters, including Gabriel’s Horn and Dayspring Women’s Center.   On the VU campus vandals defaced sculptor Timothy P. Schmalz’s “Homeless Jesus” installation depicting a figure sleeping on a bench.  In the afternoon Allison and Liz got a tour of Aetna from two former residents who now live in Valpo.

Checking out the Welcome Center’s Invisible Project, one interview titled “Don’t Know How I Survived” is by a homeless woman who suffered from beatings and sexual abuse.  She came from a broken family and ran away quite a bit.  The person interviewed concluded: “The most difficult thing about homelessness as a female is maintaining your level of dignity.”  For a time she was on drugs, living in a car about to be repossessed.  As she put it, “I was dealt a shitty hand, but my actions only made it worse.”  Once she got off drugs, she was able to see her grandchildren and realize that just because she was homeless didn’t mean she was worthless.

above, Becca and James; below, Tamiya

Inclement weather cut down on trick-or-treaters, but James and Becca got into the spirit of the holiday and made jack-o-lanterns with houseguest Tamiya Towns, who on Sunday took off for army basic training in Oklahoma.  In my basement “man cave” Toni installed a wall hanging of two birds perched precariously on a tree branch that my cousin Dick Hopkins brought back from Vietnam for Midge a half-century ago.  When we’d visit Aunt Aurie and Uncle Johnny in McKeesport, PA, Dick, though several years older, would take me to the community swimming pool, included me in social activities, and showed me how to fire a rifle.  I wish I’d known him better.

 “Final Jeopardy” being about Colleges and Universities, the clue was “Founded in 1873 with an endowment from America’s wealthiest man.”  The answer was Vanderbilt.  Like me, all the contestants guessed Carnegie. I should have realized that the steel magnate made his fortune a couple decades later.

According to Jay Winik’s “1944,” many medical researchers now believe that Franklin Roosevelt’s paralytic illness was not poliobut Guillain-Barre syndrome, something former Lake County sheriff Roy Dominguez overcame with massive dosages of powerful drugs not available in 1921.  Winik implies that if FDR had not been so ill and indisposed during the final year of World War II he might have turned more attention to rescuing Jews from Nazi Death camps.  Winik quotes Barack Obama’s great-uncle Charles Payne who participated in the liberation of Ohrdruf, a satellite camp of Buchenwald.  During the liberation of Bergen-Belsen Winik revealed:

  American GIs trying to be helpful, handed out chocolate bars to the emaciated survivors, but the chocolate was too rich for their systems, and many died as a result.  The soldiers also gave away cigarettes.  He inmates ate them rather than smoked them.

A Bloomington radio station will broadcast Hoosier basketball games in Mandarin, as approximately 3,000 Chinese students attend Indiana University.  Attracting foreign students is a real moneymaker for state universities.  Mayor Costas encourages Chinese students to attend school in Valpo.

Steve McShane gave Vice Chancellor Mark McPhail a tour of the Archives that ended at my “cage.”  I told McPhail that my wide-screen computer was compensation for having interviewed FACET members for his predecessor, and he told me about oral histories he had done with veterans of Freedom Summer.  McPhail expressed interest in meeting Richard Hatcher after I told him that the former Gary mayor had gone South in the summer of 1965 to photograph Jim Crow signs at facilities such as bathrooms and water fountains even though the 1965 Civil Rights Act had outlawed segregation in public places.

Coincidentally I received a letter from McPhail noting than in a recent Academic Affairs survey three students identified me as a faculty member who had a positive impact on their academic development – pretty good for someone who has been retired for eight years.

Nicole Anslover invited me to her class on the 1970s, my favorite decade, which often gets short shift from historians compared to the 1960s   Nicole had students analyze Richard M. Nixon’s “Silent Majorit California appellate judge Mildred Lillie y” speech of November 1969 where he announced his Vietnamization policy and got into Watergate, something I found difficult to teach as time passed and students were unfamiliar with the personalities involved.  Nicole showed part of an HBO documentary on the White House tapes where Nixon in 1971 discusses the possible political advantages of floating the name of California appellate judge Mildred Lillie as a possible replacement for retiring Supreme Court justices Hugo Black or John Marshall Harlan.  Nixon privately told aide H.R. Haldeman, “I’m not for women in any job.  I don’t want any of them around.  Thank god we don’t have any in the cabinet.”  He told Attorney General John Mitchell that women were too erratic and emotional.  Thus, Nixon never intended to select Lillie and included her as a finalist for the sole purpose of currying favor with women voters.  Nixon ultimately nominated the able Lewis Powell and young reactionary William Rehnquist.

 Judge Mildred Lillie

Chuck Logan wondered if I’d rooted against the Mets in the World Series (yes).  Chuck’s dad took him to a pre-season exhibition game at Ebbets Field in the Fifties between the Dodgers and the Yankees.  Laughing stocks when first formed in 1962, the 1969 “Miracle Mets” had a pitching staff that included Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, and ug McGraw.  They last won a World Series when Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner let a ground ball go through his legs.  Ironically, the turning point that allowed Kansas City to prevail was when the same fate befell NLCS hero Daniel Murphy.

 Anthony Lane

In a battle for second place in fantasy Football I squared off against grandson Anthony.  QB Drew Brees got me 46 points after tossing 7 TDs.  Anthony had Eli Manning, who had 6 TDs of his own, on his squad but played Andrew Luck instead.  In the Monday night game against Carolina the Colts kept settling for field goals, so Luck only got 17 points while kicker Adam Vinatieri, who had done much for me all year, got me the exact same total.  Final score: Jammers 101, The Powerhouse 86.