Wabash Blues

“Candle light that gleams

Taunts me in my dreams

I’ll pack my walking shoes

To lose those Wabash Blues.”

I spent considerable time preparing my talk to Steve’s Indiana history class about the Calumet Region during the Roaring Twenties.  In addition to covering Gary and having the students read excerpts from my Portage Shavings, as I’ve done in the past, I added material on Hobart and Cedar Lake, including Beatrice Horner’s description of musician Paul Ash serenading night owls by playing “Wabash Blues” on the roof of the Sans Sauci Hotel at five o’clock in the morning (more recently Hank Snow and Johnny Cash covered “Wabash Blues”).  In highlighting an industrial city, rural area, small town and summer resort, I tried to demonstrate how diverse Northwest Indiana was.  After mentioning how Thyra Edwards and her sister Thelma, came to Gary from Houston to work at an all-black school, a man asked me whether Thelma was William Marshall’s mother.  When I mentioned other famous people from Gary, including Avery Brooks, the guy said Brooks was a friend of his.

The university held a reception honoring those who recently retired, including Don Coffman, one of those faculty members I wish I knew better.  His field was economic history, and he invited me to his fiftieth birthday party 15 years ago.  Bill Reilly, his predecessor in Business and one of the few professors to throw inter-departmental parties, would have liked him.  Don frequently sends copies of Chronicle of Higher Education articles to faculty he thinks might enjoy them.  He told me he has four blogs, including one on baseball (he’s a Dodger fan).   I arrived late (I enjoyed saying I just came from the classroom) but fortunately the food hadn’t been put away yet.

Garrett Cope’s Glen Park Conversation was packed.  Featured speaker was Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, who discussed dealing with the city’s myriad problems with revenue less than half what it was in 2002.  She mentioned that vandals recently set fire to playground equipment and stole bricks from a war memorial at Buffington Park, which Roosevelt students had worked so hard to restore during the past year.  Unbelievable!  

                                               Post-Tribune photos by Stephanie Dowell

 Despite the adversity, Mayor Freeman-Wilson was optimistic about the future, discussed plans for the area adjacent to the university, and very patient with a woman who lived near IUN on a street with many abandoned houses.  The woman subsequently won one of the raffle items, a hanging plant in a basket.  The program ended with a rousing spiritual from the “Voices of Love” choir, one of whose members was the chancellor’s administrative assistant Kathy Malone.  Chancellor Lowe, Vice Chancellor Malik, and Dean Bankston were in the audience.  I sat next to Chuck Gallmeier and gave a wave to Barbara Cope.  The program took place in a second floor “Commemorative Study Area” of the library dedicated to the late Reverend Robert Lowery, whose church, St. Timothy, is where the “Voices of Love” choir got its start.

Tom Wade, Dave and I got in five board games (I won Amun Re and Small World) before I arrived home and watched the final six minutes of the Heat-Thunder game.  LeBron James cramped up but Dwayne Wade carried Miami to victory (darn!).