Strange Days Indeed

“Nobody Told Me
There’d Be Days like These
Strange Days, Indeed.”
John Lennon

On what would have been John Lennon’s seventieth birthday Toni and I went to County Line Apple Orchard (along with half the people in Lake County, it seemed) to hear the Crawpuppies play Beatles songs on a warm, beautiful autumn afternoon. Crawpuppies frontman Chad Clifford was a student of mine in the Eighties and at that time wrote about his band Digital Hair, which once opened at Valparaiso University for the Romantics (I was there and published his article in Steel Shavings). I have seen the Crawpuppies several times in recent years at such places as IU Northwest, Marquette Park bathhouse, Mark-O’s, and elsewhere. His wife had a class with me a few years ago. The band learned a couple new John Lennon songs for the occasion. Chad’s pre-school age son joined him on stage to join in on “Hey Jude.” One old geezer about my age wore a Lennon t-shirt that said “Evolution.” His woman companion’s t-shirt had Lennon’s image and “Working Class Hero,” incidentally my favorite Lennon song. Crawpuppies drummer Mike Curtis and bass player Chris Karp are part of Drena’s house band. Dave has played with them and respects them highly as musicians. We had to park in a far-away annex lot, and seven tractor-pulled wagons took people to the orchards, corn maze, and various parking areas. Thousands of fans gathered at Strawberry Fields in NYC’s Central Park to remember him and sing songs such as “Imagine” and “Mind Games.”

Magill’s asked me to review S. C. Gwynne’s “Empire of the Summer Moon: Quannah Parker and the Rise and fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History.” Chief Quannah’s mother Cynthia Ann (White Squaw) was kidnapped at age nine in a raid against the Parker compound, built dangerously close to hostile territory in west Texas. The attack left many family members dead. It took place on May 19, 1836, less than a month after the Battle of San Jacinto drove Santa Anna’s Mexican forces and left the territory bereft of protection. Assimilated into a tribal band, Cynthia married Comanche leader Peta Nocona and gave birth to three children. When she was “rescued” during the 1860 Battle of Pease River 24 years later, she was disconsolate over the butchery Texas Rangers inflicted on loved ones, refused to speak English, and tried repeatedly to escape her captors. As Gwynne makes clear, both sides committed atrocities during a 30-year war whose length far out-stretches the wars with the Cheyenne and Lakota tribes. It may have lasted even longer had contagious diseases such as cholera not ravaged many Comanche tribes.

Won St Petersburg, and Dave prevailed in the three others, upsetting Ton in Stone Age by a single point. Amun Re ended in a three-way dead heat, with Dave having an extra slice of a pyramid for the tie-breaker. On the way home T. Wade stopped at J and J Pizza in Portage for chicken wings for Darcy. Although Tom called ahead, the wait lasted 15 minutes. No biggie though. It was a glorious day, and I stretched my legs.

Bears, Redskins and Eagles all won, as did my Fantasy team (Jimbo Jammers) against Phil on the strength of a huge day for Baltimore’s Ray Rice. Phillies closed out the Reds thanks to a complete game shutout by 2008 World Series MVP Cole Hamels. Philadelphia players wore number 36 on their uniform sleeves to honor Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, who died in May. He was my favorite Philly growing up, a true competitor who got clutch hits and even stole bases if that’s what it took to win. In 1950 he started three of the Whiz Kids’ last five games, including a final day ten-inning, 4-1 win against the Dodgers against Don Newcombe (thanks to a three-run Dick Sisler HR) to get his team into the World Series for the first time in 35 years. The Yankees, alas, swept them. In game two Roberts and New York’s Allie Reynolds were locked in a 1-1 duel until Joe Dimaggio went yard against the Phillies’ ace. This year Jamie Moyer surpassed his record of most home runs yoielded.

Watched two outrageous episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” from season five. In one Larry invites a registered sex offender who recently moved into his neighborhood to a family seder. In the other Richard Lewis’ nurse steal a cell phone and a baseball autographed by Mickey Mantle in her huge vagina.

Victoria Woefle, an old friend of colleague Rhiman Rotz, asked for information about his death, wondering if he were a victim of 9/11. Actually he died of cancer on September 23, 2001. An adviser to a campus Muslim student group, he told friends shortly before he died of his fear that the students might suffer in the aftermath of the tragedy. I emailed Victoria that we miss Rhiman greatly and that there is a pine tree on campus in his honor. For a couple years we put Christmas ornaments on it in December, and I played some of his favorite doo wop songs. A Day of the Dead display in the lobby features photographs of Rhiman, Larry Kaufman, Terry Lukas, Robin Hass Birky, Martin Becerra, Gary Martin, Bill May, and others.

Ron Cohen told me about a positive review in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of American History (JAH) of Carson Cunningham’s new book “American Hoops: U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball from Berlin to Beijing.” At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, infamous for Adolf Hitler’s alleged snub of Jesse Owens, the final game was played outdoors in the mud, with the Americans defeating a Canadian team 19 to 8. Thirty-six years later the U.S. lost its first Olympic game ever in that same city just days after eleven Israelis were murdered by Arab terrorists. The Americans were playing without star Bill Walton, who had bad knees and refused to try out. Coach Hank Iba stubbornly insisted that if he wanted to play, he’d have to “go through the process like everybody else.” The Russians led the entire game until Doug Collins sank two free throws with seconds left (either one or three, depending on when the Russians called time out). On their second chance to in-bound the ball Aleksandr Belov made a miracle shot. Believing erroneously that they were cheated, the Americans refused their silver medals. They felt they had let the country down and rationalized that they had been Cold War victims. Losing again in 1988 led to NBA players forming the Dream Team that triumphed in Barcelona; similarly losing in Athens in 2004 led to the Redeem Team coached by Mike Krzyzewski attracting such stars as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwayne Wade.

Former Purdue star Carson Cunningham taught a couple summers for us. Ron suggested we bring him to campus to talk about the book. He is a lecturer at DePaul and also coaches the Andrean High School basketball team. He grew up in Ogden Dunes and often joined pickup games against much older kids, including son Dave, who came to admire his grit and talent.

Also reviewed in the September 2010 issue of the JAH is William O’Neill popular history of the 1990s called “A Bubble in Time: America during the Interwar Years, 1989-2001.” O’Neill rails against what he calls “Tabloid Nation” for creating “media firestorms” that focused on celebrities rather than issues and that sensationalized events such as the O.J. Simpson trial and the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Lamenting a “decade of lost chances,” he blames both Republicans and Democrats for their inability to work together to reform health care or overhaul the military. Reviewer Gil troy found the book disappointing in its shallowness and sloppiness with facts. He also takes O’Neill to task for saying that in 1991 during the first Gulf War Dick Cheney “had not yet lost his mind” – a cheap shot maybe but valid nonetheless.

I was the only one attending the Portage 16 matinee showing of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” featuring Zach Galifianakis (so funny in “The Hangover”) as psych ward patient Bobby who takes Craig, a 16 year-old depressed kid under his wing. Based on a novel by Ned Vizzini, I found the flick very touching. A teen love story develops, but we don’t learn much about Noelle in terms of why she has cut marks on her face and wrists (in the novel it is revealed that she was a victim of sexual abuse). Her musical tastes were similar to mine: Radiohead, Pixies, Vampire Weekend. The troubled characters in the ward, including Egyptian roommate Muqtada, are believable and reminiscent of the supporting cast in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Viola Davis, nominated for an Oscar for her role as a pragmatic mother in “Doubt”), is splendid as Craig’s psychiatrist. Craig’s father put pressure on him to do well academically, but in the end he decides to transfer to an art school.

Waiting for Monday night football to start (there was a delay caused by lightning), I talked with brother-in-law Sonny, who was visiting son Joe’s family in Jersey, about the Phils and Eagles. Tina and Jackie were watching “Dancing with the Stars,” but I got Jackie to come to the phone during a commercial. She is rooting for Audrina Partridge, who was in the MTV Reality shoe “The Hills” but also likes The Situation. Quarterback Kurt Warner may be in trouble, and Bristol Palin ‘s routines get more R rated each week.

I prepared something short to say at my fiftieth reunion about what happened in the world during our senior year between September 1959 and June of 1960. The main events are John F. Kennedy winning Democratic primaries in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and West Virginia to launch his presidential candidacy, the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-in becoming the opening salvo in the Sixties Civil Rights movement, and Fidel Castro’s coming to power and the U-2 Incident heightening Cold War tensions. “Ben-Hur” with Charlton Heston was the big movie hit of the year, and in pop music news Elvis returned from his army stint in Germany and ruled the charts for a month in the spring with “Stuck On You.” Earlier Bobby Darin hit number one as well with “Mack the Knife,” a song about a murderer (despite its upbeat tempo) written in 1929 for the German play “The Threepenny Opera” and recorded in the mid-Fifties by Louis Armstrong. The Phillies lost 90 games in 1959 and over the winter traded centerfielder Richie Ashburn to the Chicago Cubs.