Staying Alive

“Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin’ nowhere, somebody help me
Somebody help me, yeah, stayin’ alive.”
Bee Gees

Ron Cohen gave a copy of “The Nation” that features an article entitled “That Seventies Show” by Rick Perlstein, the author of “Nixonland.” The title is from the popular sitcom that debuted in 1998 and ran for eight years, launching Ashton Kutcher’s career (he played a dingbat). In his upcoming book Perlstein plans to call 1973 the Year Without Christmas Lights because the energy crisis prompted many communities to forego their holiday decorations. Perlstein praises Jefferson Cowie’s “Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and The Last Days of the Working Class.” It was an Age of Compression, a Decade of Limits, Judith Stein concluded in “Pivotal Decade,” when capitalists eschewed productive investment in favor of financial speculation with common people the losers. Meanwhile, many Democrats de-emphasized economic liberalism in favor of social issues and identity politics. In the wake of Watergate few pundits at the time predicted America’s shift to the right within a scant six years. As Perlstein notes, in 1980 “blue-collar workers didn’t vote themselves a raise; they voted themselves Ronald Wilson Reagan.” In the Nation’s Letters sections readers took offense that Howard Zinn, Noan Chomsky, Dorothy Day, and Fanny Lou Hamer were left off the list of 50 most influential progressives of the twentieth century.

A big “Saturday Night Fever” fan, I was happy to see John Travolta and Tony on the Nation cover along with Gloria Steinem, Archie Bunker and various political figures. The movie soundtrack made disco mainstream, and “Stayin’ Alive” is upbeat despite some of its lyrics. As the Bee Gees sing in their trademark falsetto, “I get low and I get high, and if I can’t get either, I really try. Got the wings of heaven on my shoes, I’m a dancin’ man and I just can’t lose.” Merle Haggard’s mournful dirge “If We Make It Through December” captured the sense of things falling apart and became the unlikeliest hit with lines like, “Got laid off down at the factory, and their timing’s not the greatest in the world, and my little girl don’t understand why daddy can’t afford no Christmas here.”

The Post-Trib Quickly column contained several criticisms of Rich James Thanksgiving column where he lists among his reasons to be thankful that he didn’t grow up to be a Republican and that Sarah Palin is throwing the GOP into a free-fall. On the lighter side he was thankful for red meat and gin and tonic, dill pickles and radishes, crickets and fireflies. One killjoy chastised him for not thanking the troops overseas protecting his freedoms.

Toni and I drove to Kmart in separate cars and brought home four dining room chairs that were on sale. They only had the floor models left, so we took them. I gassed up Toni’s Camry on the short ride home. She helped me order Rolling Stone (RS) subscriptions for Joe in Seattle and Bob in San Diego. Toni spent the rest of the morning removing dog hair from the rug, couch, etc. At lunch looked over a Time retrospective issue entitled “What Really Happened, 2000-2010.” It mentioned the Y2K scare on the eve of the new millennium and criticized the Supreme Court’s partisan, nonsensical 5-4 decision giving the 2000 election to Bush. A section entitled “Instant Icons” featured Elian Gonzalez (now 16 and living in Cuba), Paul Bremer (Bush’s clueless czar in Iraq), Jessica Lynch (wounded in Iraq whom the army tried to portray as heroic), antiwar demonstrator Cindy Sheehan, and Katrina scapegoat Michael Brown (“Brownie’s doin’ a heckuva job,” Bush claimed, all evidence to the contrary). In a column entitled “A Careless man” Joe Klein had reviewed Bush’s memoirs, concluding that “We struggled to recover from the thoughtless carnage of his tenure.” One letter to the editor thought it unfair that an accompanying photo showed Bush with a book in front of him upside down.

Diana Chen Lin gave me an inscribed copy of her book on Peking University that I’ll pass on to Jeff Hagelberg and his friend Mei Mei. In return I plan to give her “Maria’s Journey” and inscribe it, “To my good friend, whose journey was as remarkable as Maria’s.” She came from Beijing to study at the University of Chicago around the time of the 1989 Tianamin Square protests.

At lunch talked about baseball free agents with Alan Lindmark. He thinks Derek Jeter’s long Yankee career is at an end because he wants much more than the $45-million over three years that New York id offering. I mentioned that the Phillies were experienced similar problems with their star rightfielder whose name eluded me. I half-hour later I emailed him that I was talking about Jayson Werth. His response: “Do you remember or cheat and look it up.” “Cheated,” I admitted.

IUN’s Diversity Planning unit brought Dyer resident and Holocaust survivor Miriam Webster to campus. Born in Poland, she lived with her family in the Warsaw ghetto in a single room. Her parents gave $5,000 to a Christian family to take Webster, and they eventually died at the Treblinka Nazi prison camp. Holocaust survivors are a dying breed. A couple years ago, son Phil went with two survivors to Nazi death camps in Poland and Lithuania and won EMMYs for documentaries he made about their return to the horrific scene of their childhood. In one “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode Larry’s rabbi asks if he can bring a survivor to a dinner celebrating Larry and Cheryl’s tenth anniversary. Larry’s dad, played by the great Shelly Berman, brings his friend Solly, a Holocaust survivor, only the rabbi’s friend was a young guy who had been part of the cast of the reality show “Survivor.” The two get in a big argument over whose ordeal was worse.

Emailed Sand Creek Court One condo residents that Tom Coulter is taking over as court director since I have become board secretary and that a container of salt for our court is next to his garage door and adjacent to mine.

LeeLee sent along two paragraphs to add to the saga of the missing tiara. I told her good job and added that the project is growing like Topsy, an expression I picked up from Cedar Lake historian Beatrice Horner that comes from the Harriet Beecher Stowe character in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” I added a couple paragraphs of my own, inserting LeeLee and I both into the story: “In high school LeeLee was popular with all factions. She had a full laugh that was contagious and was known for asking teachers questions when she didn’t understand something, a frequent occurrence in science classes. Her dad was the treasurer for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and she liked to say that there were only two other Democrats in the entire town. Her senior year when sit-ins were taking place in Greensboro, North Carolina, she told the Captain that she sympathized with the black students being arrested for sitting at the department store lunch counter attempting to order a cup of coffee, as was their constitutional right. Because of her, the Captain began paying close attention to news reports about Civil Rights protests. In the spring when John F. Kennedy began campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President, she proudly wore a JFK button and talked the Captain into doing the same.

“LeeLee picked up the Captain in North Hills, and off they went, finding plenty to talk about, both current events and stories about the “old days.” They drove through New York without incident, but after they crossed into Vermont the weather changed drastically. Snow began falling, the roads became slippery, and deer seemed to dart out from the woods at every turn. Finally they reached Sissy’s place. A sign at the driveway entrance said “Awaken Cottage,” reminiscent of the “Schady Acres” sign at her childhood estate. This little home was not as grand, but a beautiful yellow cottage sat on acres of snow-covered land. The scene reminded LeeLee of Santa’s North Pole home with smoke billowing from the chimney and red berry holly bushes lining the entrance. Lights were on inside, and the Captain had a warm feeling of anticipation as he rang the bell.

“Sissy was prepared for their arrival. The fireplace was glowing and warming the room nicely; the coffee table was filled with spicy cookies, cheese and crackers and hot mulled cider filled their mugs. There was the aroma of turkey soup cooking in the kitchen. The three of them sat in front of the fire and talked about the old times and their pleasure at re-meeting so many good friends at the 50th reunion party. Sissy was so touched by so many people sharing their stories about Molly that there was a sense that she was among them, drinking her usual Sprite. Sissy went on to say she had no idea who or why someone would send her the tiara. With that the Captain started to get down to business. He tried taking fingerprints of the package and letter, but it seemed everything had been wiped clean. He examined the note, trying to figure out whose writing it might be. The letters were slanted to the left, leading him to conclude that it had to be written by a lefty.

Jimmy was only person LeeLee knew for sure was lefthanded. He was fond of telling how when he was three years old, his right arm had gotten caught in an electric clothes wringer, forcing him at that formidable age to eat and draw with his left hand, a habit that stayed with him when he started writing. Jimmy had sent LeeLee a long account of reunion weekend that she pulled up on her computer for the others to read. It was very complimentary toward Molly, mentioned Wendy in a positive light, and contained no hints of resentment toward her. The Captain then took a good look at the tiara. Lo and behold, it looked different from the one in the yearbook that Wendy wore at her coronation. Perhaps someone went out, prompted by the sight of Wendy’s tiara, and bought it after meeting Sissy at the reunion. Crowns are easy enough to find at Party Supply stores. If so, in that case they’d be no closer to finding the missing tiara.

“Sissy had a theory that the box came from Louise. At the reunion dinner Louise had told Sissy how nice she and Molly had been when other kids teased her on the playground of Fort Washington School. They’d pretend to flee when she’d come near them. One day, finding her alone and in tears, Sissy and Molly told her not to let the bullying get to her. At age 68 Louise walked with a cane and had debated whether or not to attend the reunion after learning that her two closest friends, Kathy and Lynn, couldn’t make it. She told Sissy,” Seeing you again, I’m glad I came.” Sissy told LeeLee and the Captain, “Louise was too sweet a person to steal anything, but maybe she bought this other tiara. I did say something to her about a shrine for Molly.”