On the Radio

“Radio is the theater of the mind; television is the theater of the mindless,”  Steve Allen

In the mail from Amazon.com came the Mumford and Sons CD “Babel” (great from start to finish and even including a bonus cover of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer”), ordered December 30, by whom, there’s no hint.  Neither Angie and Dave nor Bob and Niki purchased it, so I am mystified as to the gift giver.  Otherwise the weekend consisted mainly of gaming at Dave’s ( Tom brought Agricola, which the three of us played for the first time together) and watching NFL playoff games (none went the way I wanted, with the Redskins defeat especially tough since they had a 14-point lead and probably would have prevailed had QB RG III been healthy).

Arriving at WVLP radio station in Valparaiso Monday for a guest appearance on Jerry Davich and Karen Walker’s “Out to Lunch” show, I said hello to friendly station manager Gregg Kovach.  He introduced me to Tony Rose, who was handling the dials and has his own country music show following “Out to Lunch.”  An IU Northwest grad, he worked with Tom Higgins and Ted Thorn on Gary’s WWCA starting in 1970, my first year in Indiana. Higgins and Thorn were local legends during the postwar years when a vast audience tuned in their station for news of local happenings as well as national and world events.

Jerry asked what brought me to the Region (a job) and why I stayed my entire teaching career (diverse student body, collegial faculty, research interests in Gary, steelworkers, Latinos, and the rich ethnic variety in Northwest Indiana).  Discussing big local news stories of 2012, I mentioned gun-related homicides, multi-million-dollar renovations at Marquette Park, and the proliferation of charter schools, [potentially crippling to public education.  Jerry mentioned dining in Cedar Lake and being ignorant of the town’s rich history. He had never heard of Midway Ballroom, where big bands performed in the Forties, Rock and Roll shows attracted thousands in the Fifties and Sixties, and country rock prevailed in the Seventies.  Davich recounted visiting the Calumet Regional Archives and being impressed that the holdings were not just musty old books.  I commented that while some think of history as long ago occurrences, as an oral history, I believed it important to examine contemporary events before people’s memories fade.

Davich brought along a book of pop culture trivia questions.  I knew Ricardo Montalbán was the Chrysler Cordoba spokesman who purred the words “soft Corinthian leather,” recognized that Angie Dickenson played Pepper Anderson on “Police Woman” (when the LAPD presented her with an honorary doctorate, she quipped, “Now you can call me Dr. Pepper”), but struck out on who sang “Pretty Little Filly” – it was Mr. Ed, the talking horse.  I told Jerry that in Trivial Pursuit, Baby Boomer edition, I was better at sports and history than arts and entertainment.  Davich also had a list of words most frequently Googled in 2012 to ascertain their meaning.  Socialism was at the top, no doubt due to troglodyte critics claiming Obama was of that persuasion.  Malarkey was in the top ten, due, I pointed out, to Joe Biden employing the Irish putdown in his vice-presidential debate with Paul Ryan.

After the radio show I saw “Parental Guidance,” at least the beginning. Despite mediocre reviews, I like Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, and Marisa Tomei as does Toni, and thought I could see if she might wish to see it.  It was so lame and contrived that I switched theaters to “This Is 40,” almost as enjoyable the second time around.  It was fun anticipating Melissa McCarthy’s rant about Paul Rudd touching her breast after he poked her on the shoulder (“I have high nipples,” she claims).

My old bowling buddy Bill Batalis is near death from the effects of a just discovered large brain tumor.  After Bill’s brother told me his room number, I visited him at St. Anthony Hospice in Crown Point, where he was in a coma.  I told how much I admired him and that I loved him.  A few years ago after he bowled a 165, 30 pins over his average, I called him “my idol.”  Even though the ravages of age had slowed his ball to a crawl, it almost always found its way to the pocket.  The 85 year-old bachelor seemed to respond slightly when I held his hand, and I took heart when a nurse said that hearing is one of the last senses to go. 

The nurse recognized me as her professor from 25 years ago.  Her maiden name was Pennie Bozetarnik, and she wrote an article for Steel Shavings that’s in volume 18, the Thirties issue.  She interviewed Anita Smith, whose family lived in Whiting and struggled to survive the Great Depression.  The Salvation Army provided them with food baskets and clothing, and diet staples included soup, beans, and day old bakery rolls.  Carless, the family took the trolley to window shop at Woolworth’s and Goldblatts in downtown Hammond.  Anita married Chuck Ballon at age 16.  He was a big Cubs fan and while working on an ore boat asked Anita to follow the team and update her on how the team did when he was gone

Hammond trolley from blog of Richard Barnes (hhs59.com)

The “Lives” essay in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine is by a woman whose husband died of cancer at age 36.  Four years later, without checking what was inside, she sold the contents of his storage locker for a hundred dollars to a stranger with M.O.B. tattooed on his hand.  It comes from a Tupac Shakur lyric and either means Member of Bloods, an L.A. gang, or, as 2Pac claimed, Money Over Bitches.  Either way, it’s something the guy was ashamed of. I felt sorry for the author, whose pain prevented her from treasuring a chance to go through her late husband’s possessions.

Over the weekend Ron Cohen met Katie Turk, the niece of Jim Jontz who won the award for best Indiana Magazine of History article of 2012.  Coincidentally, grad student Brandy Eddy just started an archives internship and will be processing the papers of former Congressman Jontz.  The lead article in the latest IMH is by IUN’s Eva Mendieta about an East Chicago mutual aid society started by Mexican Americans during the 1920s.  She did a great job and made use of information in several of my publications, including Forging a Community, Maria’s Journey, and Weasel, Louie Vasquez’s autobiography.

I bowled two practice games with teammate John Uylocki (a Hungarian name pronounced like "you lock key"), who gave me several excellent pointers, including keeping my elbow close to the body and bringing the ball further back to increase velocity. After I outscored him in the second game, his son Ray joked about the student beating the teacher.