Vanishing Community

Shortly after I arrived at IUN’s library the fire alarm went off at an earsplitting level. Steve McShane had warned me that it would happen, but it still nearly caused me to jump out of my chair. About 40 of us gathered outside while Environmental Health and Safety director Kathy Manteuffel gave us instructions using a bullhorn. The temperature reached 70 degrees, so many folks were without coats. Some students were even in shorts and bare midriff outfits. We had numerous visitors to the Archives, including three people interested in Gary's sports history.

John Laue, who is writing a book on the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, interviewed me about living in the vanishing community of Edgewater. When Toni and I moved there in 1977, already about half the homes were in the process of being torn down. So we never had the experience of living in a vibrant community like John did growing up. Now there are only a handful of homes left that will have to be evacuated by the end of the year unless the government does a total about-face. John asked me what I’ll miss the most and I mentioned foraging in the woods for firewood. The sassafras trees in particular were great because they were a perfect size for cutting up into logs and as they burned they made a cool sizzling sound and smelled great. I mentioned the home invasion that took place ten years ago in the cabin where David and Angie lived and coming upon a dead body a few months later a block down from us. Even so, hardly anyone ventures up our hill from the apartments on the other side of County Line Road and we have never felt unsafe.

I traded Facebook messages with Pat Zollo, who once was class rebel and apparently has aged gracefully. At Upper Dublin High School students weren’t supposed to leave at lunchtime, but Pat would often go out for Italian zeps (hoagies) and smuggle them in the side door by the wood shop. They smelled so good and the aroma was so strong that everyone in the area was jealous.

Cafeteria lunch companion Ray Fontaine is retiring soon and talks as though he can’t wait and won’t look back. I wonder if he won’t miss the university. My situation, coming to school nearly every day, is pretty unique. Where once people looked at me as if to say “What are you doing here” (some people actually said just that), people now seem to take my presence on campus for granted.

I bowled my average (480 series), and the Electrical Engineers won five out of seven points against a very good team. Frank rolled a 623 and Robbie had games of 240 and 192 after starting with a 117. We won game one by four pins and series by under 20. I didn’t have many strikes but only one split. Just one more week to go. John Gilbert bowled a 700 series for the opposition. Last time I talked to him he told me about his former girlfriend’s father dying. He had been real close to Jamie’s parents. He couldn’t bring himself to attend the funeral service but visited the mom the next day and he said she gave him a huge hug.

Toni got back photos of Alissa’s show “Strange Roads” as well as photos of me with Sheriff Roy Dominguez at his Birthday Bash. There’s also a nice one of me with Oscar Sanchez. In the background is a sign reading “Keep Indiana Blue in 2010, 2011, and 2012.” Yesterday Toni viewed the photos on her digital camera at the pharmacy and the ones she ordered were ready within 24 hours. She probably could have gotten them within an hour had she needed to.