Cinco de Mayo

The Phoenix Suns have decided to wear “Los Suns” on their jerseys tonight for their NBA game against San Antonio as a way of honoring Latinos on Cinco de Mayo and as a protest against a recent Arizona law that seemed aimed against Hispanics. Owner Robert Sarver came up with the idea and got approval from all the players. Cinco de Mayo celebrates a victory by Mexican forces over French troops in the 1862 Battle of Puebla.

I tried to read Gore Vidal’s novel “Duluth” but found it too convoluted. The author puts the Minnesota city next to the border with Mexico, and when characters die, they come back to life either as characters in books or on TV shows. The book is meant as a satire, but his stereotypes of Mexicans and African Americans are demeaning and not funny.

I voted in the Democratic primary yesterday in Porter County. Most Democrats, including Judge Julia Jent, were running unopposed. The races I really cared about were for Lake County sheriff and judge. My guys, Ligon and Dominguez, lost but both did much better than most people expected.

My talk to the Hobart Kiwanis went well. About 40 people were in attendance, including the woman from whom Toni and I bought our house. At the end I got six people to read paragraphs of Ryan Maicki’s “Bad Seed,” including Judge James Moody, former mayor Linda Buzenic, and former students Jeff Renn and Fred McColly. Fred looked great and said he’d lost 30 pounds by changing his eating habits. Mayor Brian Snedecor said he hoped I’d follow up on doing a Shavings issue on the social history of Hobart and offered his help if I did so. After I mentioned Hobart Jaycee Fest, someone mentioned that he had met his wife there. Afterwards, Jeff emailed me: “You did an awesome job and I know already that everyone really liked you. If you ever want to come back and just come to a meeting or join the club, let me know. They would love to have you. Once again thank you so much for your time and for everything else over the course of the past 5 years (teaching me).” I got laughs when I said that Ryan would have been here to read it himself but he was teaching school. I amended my remarks several times and in the end didn’t use notes because I virtually had everything memorized. Here is the final version:

I want to tell you about a magazine I edit dealing with the social history of the Calumet Region. Steel Shavings started out in connection with having students do family oral history projects and then publishing the best of them. Such an assignment can also help students learn about local and national events. Most articles focused on the immigrant experience since few Region residents have been here more than three generations. One early issue focused on Latinos. Others centered on themes within specific time periods, such as Depression experiences, WW II Homefront activities, the Postwar Age of Anxiety, Relationships between the Sexes during the Teen Years of the 1950s, and Racial Tensions during the 1960s. I have edited special issues on Portage, Cedar Lake, and Gary, with the dominant emphasis being family life and social change over time. I’m seriously thinking of doing one on Hobart.

I consider myself first and foremost a Social historian and am interested in such things as sports, work experiences, school experiences, popular culture, fads and fashions, and leisure activities of young and old. One of my favorite articles, in fact, was about a Hobart student’s grandparents who were really into square dancing.

Starting about ten years ago, I gave students the option to write about themselves, looking back on memorable moments as well as keeping journals highlighting day-to-day activities (everything from working out to making out, from body piercings to line dancing). Many had to balance school, work, and family obligations. The journals provided insights into what I call the contemporary history of adolescence although, I hasten to add, at IUN there also were many nontraditional students writing about the perils of married life, encounters with death and illness, and other life-altering events. One article, entitled “Emptying Nest,” dealt with taking one’s youngest child off to college.

During the 1990s Dorothy Ballantyne and Elin Christianson of the Hobart Historical Society edited two delightful volumes about growing up in Hobart. David Dunning recalled skinny dipping during the 20s in Duck Creek and Lake George. Ada Easton remembered wearing a long Indian dress at Campfire Girl outings. William Fowble watched silent cartoons at the Strand Theater listening to Ted Coons play the pipe organ. Dorothy Ballantyne heard the blind and deaf Helen Keller speak at a school auditorium. She got to school in a horse-drawn bus and was one of 27 high school students in the class of 1927. While most of these reminiscences are about the so-called “old days,” it is just as legitimate to record for posterity recent history.

If I were putting together a Shavings issue devoted to social life in Hobart, one subject could be how Lake George has changed over time (some residents refer to B.S. and A.S. – before silt and after silt). Another might explore the evolution of bowling alleys. At Cressmoor Lanes, where my team is in the Gary Sheet and Tin league, teams once tipped pinsetters by putting a dollar bill in one of the bowling ball holes at the end of the night and keep score themselves without the aid of a computer. Other Hobart institutions deserving of coverage include the YMCA (my son Phil met his future wife there), July Fourth parades and fireworks displays (I’ve attended many), the unique Art Theater, whose longtime owner was quite a character, and Hobart’s bar and restaurant scene (Rosie O’Grady’s, that grand old dive, is now Cagney’s). I’d love to see a history of the Hobart Jaycee Fest where in the Strack and Van Til parking lot I have seen Blue Oyster Cult, Cracker, the Smithereens, and Joan Jett perform, as well as my son’s band Voodoo Chili. Just last week I passed Hillman Field, where I played many a softball game, on my way to a tennis match at the new high school, whose athletic facilities are awesome.

Stories about Hobart’s social scene have appeared in most Steel Shavings issues. In the Nineties volume, entitled “Shards and Midden Heaps” (a phrase borrowed from my favorite Region author Jean Shepherd) eight pages alone are devoted to Brickie Pride, the football program under Coach Don Howell and three humorous remembrances of high school days. I’d like to conclude with excerpts from one of them, Ryan Maicki’s “Bad Seeds.”