Chesterton

“We’re half way there
Livin’ on a prayer”
Bon Jovi

There’s a wedding reception scene in Richard Russo’s “That Old Cape Magic” where the guests are dancing to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” and belting out the chorus. The song is about an out-of-work laborer and waitress girlfriend who supports him. One line goes, “You live for the fight when it’s all that you’ve got.” Like Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty,” “Livin’ on a Prayer” captures the fragility of life during an age of stagnation. It was St. Therese of Lisieux who said, “More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones.” Bon Jovi was huge in Turkey when I was there ten years ago. Griffin, the main character in Russo’s novel, is a teacher/screenwriter in his fifties whose marriage is unraveling. On the dance floor he realizes he is getting old and wishes he were only half way there. He says “I’ve been hurtin’” instead of ibuprofen” and meets an old lady whose salty vocabulary includes “rat bastard” and “fart hammer.” Russo invents great minor characters including a fun-loving English lesbian couple and moronic twin brothers-in-law Jason and Jared (all the siblings' names begin with “J,” causing Griffin to nickname father-in-law Harve, who called his wife Jilly-Billy, “Jarve”).

We are gradually getting to know Chesterton, similar to easing into Portage after we moved to Maple Place. The old downtown has a certain charm. It started to develop after the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad came through the area in the 1850s. First called Coffee Creek and then Calumet, the name was changed after the Civil War to avoid confusion with Calumet, Illinois. There’s a Peggy Sue’s diner and an old-fashioned drive-in restaurant called The Port. We skipped the Oz Fest festival last weekend but plan to subscribe to the Chesterton Tribune, which has been in existence since 1884, comes out five days a week, and whose editor David Canright was active in the Bailly Alliance and is a kindred spirit politically. The intersection of 49 and Indian Boundary is much easier to get through than it first appeared, and we’ve run into people we know at the Sunrise restaurant up the street, such as Richard Whitman, who taught at IU Northwest and dated a good friend of ours back in the Seventies before taking a job with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temperature had dropped 30 degrees from the day before, and it felt like autumn. Toni and I shopped at Chesterton’s European market, where we have gone for bread several times in the past but not this year despite being so much closer to it (we’ve been so busy). Our friend Mario and his family had a booth, and we purchased four huge burritos to serve when the Hagelbergs came over for bridge for just $22. We split one for lunch, and it was delicious. Our neighbor Tom recommended some pastries, and we bought four for dessert. I was the big winner at cards for the second time in a row.

A shot of lovable lefthanded slugger Jim Thome graces Sports Illustrated similar to the initial 1954 cover of Eddie Mathews. Thome broke in with Cleveland and played for the Phillies and White Sox before Minnesota gobbled him up for next to nothing at the beginning of the season after Chicago to their folly was uninterested in re-signing him. He has hit 589 career homeruns, including 25 this year, and his slugging percentage is among the best in the American League.

Jeff Manes’s Sunday column was about Archives volunteer Maurice Yancy, a 71 year-old bachelor and according to the headline the headline a “world traveler [who] feels at home in NWI.” The ninth of ten children, Maurice put together a family genealogical booklet and often provides useful information to scholars researching Gary. Legendary teacher Frankie McCullough helped him overcome his stuttering condition, telling the 11 year-old that the problem was not that he was stupid but that his brain was working faster than his lips. Within a year he had stopped stuttering. Manes used this quote by former Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall: “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.” Maurice claims he is not bitter about the past but gets frustrated when young blacks complain that the white man is keeping them down. He told Jeff, “That’s part of losing the battle. If you believe it’s like that, it’s like that. I’ve never believed that it’s like that.” Maurice should be happy with the article and handsome photo of him.

Went zero for four in gaming, edged out in Amun Re and St. Pete by a single point, but won my Fantasy match against previously undefeated grandson Anthony despite having the second lowest score among the eight teams. Thank heaven for Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, primary target for surprise sensation Michael Vick. My running backs and other wide receiver (Marques Colston) sucked and tight end Visanthe Shiancoe got injured in the first half. Unfortunately for Anthony, Steven Jackson left the game in the second quarter and Shonn Greene of the Jets only rushed for 36 yards. The Jets defense, normally the best around, only got him six points. Alone in first place at 3-0 is Pittsburgh Dave’s girlfriend Kira Shifflett; the rest of us wonder how much she depends on David in her decision-making. NBC’s evening game was in Miami, and Marc Anthony and Fergie sang the national Anthem.

In the news: with search warrants in hand an FBI SWAT team raided antiwar groups in Chicago and Minneapolis claiming to be looking for evidence linking them to terrorist activity. Sounds like a flimsy story to me, a way of harassing those opposed to the Afghanistan fiasco. Bob Woodward new book "Obama’s Wars" clearly shows that the President chose to compromise with his generals by insisting on an exit strategy rather than break with them. Shades of JFK and LBJ in Vietnam. Arab American Action Network attorney Jim Fennerty told reporters, “The government is trying to quiet activists. This case is really scary.” Members of The Committee Against Political Repression are protesting in front of the FBI’s Chicago headquarters.

A crew from HORSES landscapers put in a window well plus some dirt and grass seed in back of the condo. Darcy Wade called with an offer to give us some of her famous potato salad, leftovers from a neighborhood party. We picked it up on the way to ACE Hardware for dirt and a shovel in which to transplant hostas. The guy who waited on me asked if I would be watching the big game that night. “Yes, go Bears,” I replied. They beat the Packers to remain only one of three unbeaten NFL teams. The others, equally surprising, are Kansas City and Pittsburgh (without QB Ben Roethlisberger, suspended for violating the league’s personal conduct policy after allegedly accosting a 20 year-old coed in a Georgia bar).