Getting Into The Spirit

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Twelve lords leaping, Eleven ladies dancing

Ten pipers piping, Nine drummers drumming

Eight maids milking, Seven swans swimming
Six geese a laying, Five gold rings

Four colly birds, Three French hens

Two turtle doves and, A partridge in a pear tree.

Got a blast of lake effect snow, which would have depressed me had we still lived on the hill at Maple Place. We had no trouble driving to Dick and Cheryl’s for afternoon bridge. Dick has a new snow blower and had his driveway clear. We got two rounds in before going to Lake Street Gallery for Joyce’s annual Christmas sing-along. Joyce’s assistant Susan and husband George talked about being interviewed by the “Abandoned Planet” crew. They couldn’t get into the train station, so they were filmed at Memorial Auditorium – at least what’s left of it. Like I did, they told the director she needed to interview African Americans. A woman organist played Christmas songs. The highlight was “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” where were a dozen groups each sang their particular verse. Al Renslow and George McGuan really got into “Five golden rings.” Tanice Foltz and a friend twirled dramatically while singing “Eleven ladies dancing.” Joyce’s boyfriend conducted after a couple false starts with the turtle dove and partridge groups.

Jim Nowicki and the Miller Improvement Association are trying to renovate the old town hall plus get Lake Street designated a historic district. For some years he has been trying to retrieve paintings that once hung in various Gary schools. A valuable Frank Dudley landscape ended up in an Indianapolis museum. Nowicki learned about it when the museum loaned it to Valparaiso University gallery for a Dudley retrospective. He has also tracked down an even more valuable piece by Hudson River School artist Asher Durand. He estimates that literally hundreds of art pieces dating back to when William A. Wirt’s work study play system was in full flower mysteriously disappeared.

Jeff Manes wrote about steel union officer Rosa Maria Rodriguez in his Post-Trib SALT column. Molested as a kid and sent to reform school as a teenager after robbing a store, she started in the mill shortly after the 1974 Consent Decree and worked many dangerous jobs – once nearly falling to her death. One of her goals is to mentor girls in the correctional facility where she once was incarcerated. Jeff used this quote by United Farm Workers leader Delores Huerta: “Among poor people, there’s not any question about women being strong – even stronger than men – they work in the fields right along with the men. When your survival is at stake, you don’t have these questions about yourself like middle-class women do.”

Tom and Dave won two games each, but I prevailed in Stone Age, my current favorite, by using the starvation strategy (quickly acquiring men but not feeding them) and buying up many huts as well as two cards that multiplied their worth by a total factor of five. While Toni and Cheryl heard Dick sing with Rusty Pipes, I watched the Bears squeak out another nail-biter against the lowly Lions. Later Peyton Manning threw four interceptions in a Colts loss to the Cowboys.

I leafed through my “Ides of March 2003” issue and plan to send it to English Composition lecturers in hopes they will get their students to keep journals. In my rambling personal journal I talked a lot about music and used song lyrics by groups such as the Flaming Lips to introduce sections. Hank Ballard died on March 2, 2003, and I mentioned some of his ribald songs, including “Work with Me, Annie” and “Open Up the Back Door” (double entendre intended). Also discussed the crazy decision to invade Iraq (we were on a cruise at the time) and Gary’s 2003 mayor’s race won by Scott King. In the editor’s note I wrote: “Is Clio, the muse of history, truly served, one might legitimately ask, by diary notations of a 61 year-old’s favorite musical groups (Wilco and Sonic Youth)? Or by reprinting the profane chorus to 2003’s most provocative hit by 50 Cent (You can find me in the club, bottle full of bub . . . . so come give me a hug if you into getting rubbed)? Call me jaded, but from my perspective as a social historian who came of age intellectually during the Sixties I see merit in this.” I still do. Some memorable students contributed to volume 36, including basketball player Edwina “Eddie” Aponte, rock band drummer Joe Hengstler, union activist Pat Lane (no relation), former marine Charles Mubarak, and single moms Shirley Starkey and Shelley Weldon. On the cover are participants in an antiwar march down Broadway; my friend Mike Olszanski is carrying a sign reading “WAR IS TERRORISM.” Former student Sam Barnett was a participant and took colorful photos along the Glen Park route.

Looks like Obama will sigh a bill extending the Bush tax cuts to everyone, not just those making under $250,000 in exchange for extending unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, the findings of the nonpartisan commission to reduce the deficit seem dead in the water. So much for election year rhetoric.

At lunch Chuck was asking if anyone had an Advil because his knee was killing him. Hope he doesn’t need a replacement like was my fate six years ago. Anne expressed pleasure that both her teenage daughters were now dating females. I asked her if was a matter of trusting them more than boys. She replied that she was pleased they were being adventurous. It is nice when young people have the freedom to experiment without worrying about drastic consequences.

WBEZ’s Mike Puente interviewed me about Richard Hatcher in connection with a story for National Public Radio about daughter Ragen’s decision to run for mayor of Gary in 2011. On the phone he had said that most information he had gotten about Hatcher was negative. I tried to correct that misconception and lauded Hatcher as a visionary. In the past Puente has reported on filmmaking in Gary, on the Coast Guard patrolling Lake Michigan, on Michael Jackson Gary upbringing, and many more local stories. I gave him a copy of Gary’s First Hundred Years and showed him the chapter I wrote on Hatcher in the book African-American mayors. He wanted audio clips of Hatcher, so I found the Eyes on the Prize II episode dealing with the 1972 National Black Political Convention at West Side and a room for him to view the tape. He promised to let me know before the bit airs.

On LeeLee’s advice I amended my “Somewhat True” paragraph about Judy where I mentioned getting excited by the whites of her thighs. She wrote: “Do I sound like a prude? Honestly I am not. But I think my grand daughters might disagree. I stopped buying them clothes because what I bought wasn’t HIP enough. I am not into the naked belly look for school.” I replied: “You don’t sound like a prude. I often push the envelope in the journals I have published and your suggestion was appreciated, especially if the original would be embarrassing for Judy. I was trying to capture the Fifties tendency for sex to be repressed and unacknowledged but in the forefront of many people’s minds during those Teen years. When I started teaching in 1970 at IU Northwest, the no-bra look was the rage. More recently it has been low-cut blouses, Low riding jeans have supplemented the bare midriff look, often revealing tattoos right about the butt.”

Janet Bayer, living in Montauk, Vermont, wrote on Facebook: “Barn owl swoops onto the porch. I see his eyes looking at me. He crashes into the French doors. Dog comes running. I grab Watson away from the owl laying on his back, talons up. Owl flies away safe tonight from tooth and claw. OK kids, so the rural life is sometimes not so great.” And later: “I can hear the owl hooting now. Life is OK!”

I looked to be in big trouble in Fantasy football. To make the playoffs I needed to win my final regular season game and trailed Garrett by ten points going into Monday night. I had Patriots QB Tom Brady, but he had both Jets running backs. Brady three four TD passes and New England got so far ahead that the Jets runners hardly touched the ball. I squeaked out the win by six points.