Udders Up

Chuck Walla sent along this inquiry: “I've been a follower of your work for quite a few years now. I've purchased all your books and have enjoyed them completely. I was born in 1948 and raised in Gary. But enough of that. With all your vast knowledge!!! Do you have any information about the South Gary Dairy Company??? It came up the other day on the Miller Beach FB page and I'd never heard of it and all the people I know that would have known have passed away.” After doing a little research, I replied: “I pulled out some Gary City Directories that we have in the Archives and found South Gary Dairy Company listed in several 1920s editions, but no listing after 1929. Its address was the corner of East 43rd and Georgia in Glen Park. Among the dozen listed in 1925-26 were two I’d heard of, Cloverleaf Dairy and Tolleston Dairy. The first mention of Dixie Dairy, whose unofficial motto was “Udders Up,” was a year or so later. I’m glad you like my books. I also have a blog. The best way to access it is to Google Steel Shavings (my magazine) and then click on James B. Lane blog midway down the left column.”

Dear friend Suzanna is heading to Houston, Texas, to be with a new granddaughter. A great-uncle, Edward Martin, was a governor and senator from Pennsylvania. I had never heard of him even though I was a high school senior living in the Keystone State the year he left office. I replied: “Congrats on the grandkid. Shyanne sounds a little like a Texas name. The only time I was in Houston was in 1985 to catch an Aramco oil company charter plane that took me to Amsterdam and then Saudi Arabia, where I taught for three weeks as part of an Indiana University program. I had just thrown out my back compulsively trying to complete all the spring yard work that I wouldn’t be home to do, so it wasn’t a pleasant experience. I never left the airport hotel. I did on to Saudi Arabia, however, and eventually it loosened up, but the first several days it was murder getting out of bed in the morning. The class (on Intellectual History in Early America) was great fun and very stimulating. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of Senator Edward Martin. The Eisenhower years were truly a nonpolitical siesta time compared to the 1960s. His successor Hugh Scott was the last Republican I ever voted for. He posed as a moderate but in 1972 called George McGovern, a truly honorable man, the ‘Triple A’ candidate for abortion, acid, and amnesty.”

Udders Up for Toni, who set up our stereo in such a way as to make it easy to play old albums, most of which I hadn’t touched in over 20 years. “Duke” by Genesis had been a favorite, but I never got around to finding the CD, so hearing it again was a treat. Ditto an old EP .45 by the Shoes containing a live version of my favorite “Hate To Run.” I don’t recall buying a Psychedelic Furs 1988 album “India” and its lyrics were beyond me. Lines in the song “Fall” went: “see the wall/ the wall is black/ we will have a heart attack/ we will be along and we’ll fall.” In the condo basement we recently hung a crazy quilt over the fuse box circuit breaker that once belonged to stepfather Howard and dated from the 1880s. One patch promoted GOP candidate Benjamin Harrison for President. The Hoosier attorney and grandson of “Old Tippecanoe” was a pawn of Senator James B. Blaine, the so-called “Plumed Knight” and like Henry Clay the canniest politician of his time (the Gilded Age). While Secretary of State Blaine launched America on an imperialist course.

Tom Wade purchased Stone Age after enjoying it during Game Weekend. We played a learning game Saturday and introduced it to our rotation Sunday. By dumb luck I won, mainly by emulating what Tom and David were doing. It has potential even though it takes a little longer than most games we play. That may change though after we get used to it.

White Sox have won 25 of their last 30 games (I’ve shifted loyalties from the lowly Cubs, but I once was a Pale Hose fan when Dick Allen had his MVP year in 1972 with them). Phillies swept a four-game series from Central Division leader Cincinnati. In one contest they trailed 7-1 in the ninth. Two others ended 1-0; in one the Reds pitcher had a perfect game going into the ninth. Reds manager Dusty Baker looked stunned in a postgame interview. The World Cup was a mild disappointment with Spain winning 1-0 on the strength of a goal with less than four minutes to go. I’m glad, however, that it didn’t end in a shoot-out. Elsewhere in the news: the U.S. and the Russians traded spies, BP is still trying to stop the oil leak, and it’s been six months since the devastating Haitian earthquake.

Aaron Pigors and I met with Vice Chancellor David Malik to show him the French Lick interview DVDs, including an imaginative intro. Malik was impressed and had a few productive suggestions. We intend to put together short clips based on the theme of IU’s seven campuses being dedicated to teaching excellence. I picked up grandson James from his Kids College class, took him to my office (cage), and he accessed some of his favorite sites on my computer. I went to check my emails and clicked on the icon next to Entourage by mistake. It was Photo Booth. Suddenly an image of the top of my head appeared and of James laughing behind me. All the way home I said, “Photo Booth? Photo Booth/” like actor Paul Stooler says, “Refund? Refund?” in the movie “Breaking Away.” In reply James would mimic me with a couple “Photo Booths” of his own. The name must come from those old booths like you’d come across at the shore or in the mall where you’d get three small snapshot photos for a quarter or half dollar.

Colleague Chris Young asked me to critique an article on a Chicagoan, Barnet Hode, who went on a mission to honor an “almost forgotten Jewish Patriot of the American Revolution” Haym Solomon. Told him I’d be glad to. During the late 1930s there was a debate among American Jews whether a statue commemorating Solomon was a good idea. Some believed there was not enough evidence that he was deserving of being on a monument with George Washington and Robert Morris and that it would somehow lead to an anti-Semitic backlash. Leaving the library, I spotted a man whom I suspected was IU Northwest’s new chancellor, William Lowe, whose academic field was Irish history. I introduced myself and we chatted briefly. I sent him “Education the Region,” Paul Kern and my social history of the campus where we labored during our entire academic lives. In a cover letter to Lowe I said he might enjoy in particular the section about the History department during the Seventies.

I attended the Merrillville History Book Club program at the Patio. The book discussed was Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” who died of cancer and whose cells were harvested by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital without her permission and have made billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry while Henrietta’s family received virtually nothing and went years without even health insurance. Fascinating and scandalous. I had a Beck’s and the beef tips dinner for $18.45 plus tax. The bill, including tip, came to $24.00.

Vietnam vet John Zehner, whom I met at Brendan and Becky’s, sent me a thank you note for “Brothers in Arms” and ordered my Portage Shavings. I threw in my Eighties issue for free.