“Never
in all my world travels, have I found a more perfect spot, not a more tantalizing
river.” Lew Wallace.
sketch of Baum's Bridge, circa 1870; Sarah Miller (left) in 1930 on Lew Wallace's former houseboat
"river rats' Jim Sweeney andJeff Manes at Aukiki River Festival
Jeff Manes began a SALT column about 89 year-old Sarah
Miller with the above quote from Civil War general Lew Wallace, who, according
to local lore, wrote parts of the novel “Ben Hur” while on a houseboat on the
Kankakee River near Baum’s Bridge, named for Enos Baum, who in 1863 built a
wooden walkway across the river. Sarah Miller,
who worked this past weekend at the children’s craft station of the Aukiki
River Festival on Baum Bridge Road, is not nostalgic for the days prior to the
draining of the Kankakee Marsh and dredging of the river. She told Manes:
I'm glad it's
farmland. I tell people a generation younger than I am: "You did not live here
when there was no running water and electricity. You did not live here when the
river would come up and leave the rotting, stinking swampland in its wake and
the mosquitoes would carry you away."
George Wilcox, second from right
Manes employed these excerpts from the
century-old diary of George Wilcox:
May 13, 1916: Cut up a hog and put it in the ice box. Made Kate some
flower boxes. Dr. Noland came and borrowed three hundred dollars for three
years. Going to buy him a Maxwell auto.
July 30, 1916: Made ice cream. Took Annie home. Mercury 108.
Sept. 23, 1916: Jerked some corn. Went out and saw the dredge leave
here. Gary folks was here fishing and hunting.
Feb. 28, 1917: We got two big loads of hay from the marsh about 3
tons. John Noodhouse came at noon with the furs to be divided. 138 [musk]rats.
March 24, 1917: I heard Griff Marcy was arrested for selling game
fish. We grubbed some of the peach trees.
March 26, 1917: Griff Marcy got fined for selling game fish. Glad
he did.
May 26, 1917: Sowed my clover. We had a cyclone. Done us no
particular damage. Tore Hebron, Kouts and surrounding country all to pieces.
Killed several.
June 17, 1917: Dr. Noland paid us his interest $17.25.
The May 26 “cyclone” that George Wilcox referred to
was one of several tornados that caused damage in Missouri and Illinois, as well
as northwest Indiana in an area six miles south of Crown Point. Moving east around 5:40 p.m., it caused the
destruction of a dozen farms near Route 8, resulting in three deaths, and
damaged 30 others. A railroad worked
died while in a boxcar and two dozen others sustained injuries.
Prior to bridge at Hagelbergs eight of us dined at
Miller Bakery Café. A celebration was in
progress of Maureen Farag’s retirement and being cancer-free. I said hi to brothers Henry, Omar, and Bobby
Farag as well as Henry’s son Andy, whom I had collaborated with while
converting “The Signal” to a Kindle book. My only bridge highlight was making a
2-Club bid despite having only two trump (the Ace-King) in my hand. I bid a short club, and Dick raised to two
clubs with four little ones. Fortunately, I got a 4-3 trump split. I would have bid 2 No-Trump but feared Dick
would go on to game.
Toni served delicious country fried steak Sunday with
all the trimmings to Dave’s family and one of his former students. Beforehand, I watched “Straight OUTTA
Compton,” which was quite gripping and kept my interest even though I’m not into
gangsta rap. I especially liked Paul
Giamatti’s nuanced portrayal of N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller, who was crucial to
N.W.A.’s success and was as ethical as one can be in a dog-eat-dog profession. Jason Mitchell was convincing as N.W.A. member
Eric “Eazy-E” Wright and R. Marcos Taylor properly menacing as Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight. Several party scenes featuring topless
groupies provoked criticism, as did the film's soft-pedaling of Dr.
Dre’s mistreatment of girlfriends. For
comic relief I watched the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode “The N Word,” where
African Americans keep thinking Larry is using that racial epithet when he was just repeating something he’d overheard.
Edward Jewell and USNS Comfort
I was disappointed to find almost no mention of sexual
activity in “Operation Homecoming,” either in Iraq or upon returning home. One
exception was in 48 year-old Commander Edward W. Jewell’s 2003 journal, written
while aboard the hospital navy ship USNS
Comfort operating in the Persian Gulf. Jewell wrote:
April 12; It
had to happen. Boys and girls
together. Sex. People are having sex on board, and rumor has
it that finally somebody(s) got caught.
A ménage à trois had been the subject of rumors for some time and they
were finally caught in flagrante. They were sent to captain’s mast, a form of
internal Navy investigation and trial.
Whatever punishment was assigned here is unknown to the crew. Most of the men just want to know who the
girl (s?) were.
This excerpt of Jewell’s journal was absent from “Operation
Homecoming”:
Rumor has it
(there's always a rumor) the command will start a special night patrol looking
for people having sex. How will the patrol function? Will they use night vision
goggles? Will they take photos for documentation? What will the arresting agent
say on discovering a violation: “Put the
weapon down and come out with your hands up?” According to sea stories, sex
on board became a major disciplinary problem on the hospital ships during
Desert Storm. The Comfort was known as the “Love
Boat” by the rest of the fleet.
A definitive study of sexual assaults in combat zones
is still waiting to be written, although sexual
harassment was not uncommon and contributed to post-traumatic stress
disorder.
Samuel A. Love posted a photo of Great Marsh Trail, located near Beverly Shores within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Wife Brenda posted: “Today's round of ‘Guess how many cars are at the porn
store!!’ was won by yours truly with a guess of 8. Sam posited there would be
six. The actual magic number was 11.” Going
to work, I used to pass the same place on Route 20 and marvel at the number of
cars there at 8 a.m.
At Valparaiso University to hear Pat Bankston speak
about “Innovations in Medical Education at IU School of Medicine, NW” as part
of a Continuing Education lecture series that I will be taking part in, I ran
into Budd Ballou, who recently donated to the Archives his book on elementary
schools in the Lowell, Cedar Lake, Shelby, and Schneider areas. Ballou, a
former Lowell H.S. football star and wrestling coach, knows many people interviewed
in my Cedar Lake history, including Bob Carnahan and Bob Petyko, whose son was
an excellent wrestler, he noted. When I
mentioned Bea Horner, he noted that her Cedar Lake writings were a valuable
resource for his book. Aware that I’d be
talking about Vivian Carter in November, Ballou said he listened to “Livin’
with Vivian” on WWCA when in high school during the 1950s.
Bankston (right) at 2015 donor remembrance service with Rev. James Wetzstein & Ernest Talarico; photo by Dominick Lopez
Bankston was quite impressive discussing how medical
school students learn in a group setting with professors as advisers. He showed a New Yorker cartoon of an owner telling his cat, “Don’t think outside the [litter] box.” He made passing reference to the med school
Quonset huts quarters for over a quarter-century. He stressed how important people skills and
making eye contact are to being a good doctor.
He drew laughs admitting that his urologist, a former student, once
broke down after flunking a test and now tells his staff, “Dr. Bankston once made my cry, and now it’s my turn to get even.” Asked about physicians’ poor handwriting, Bankston
replied that computers are making the issue moot. When someone complained that her doctor looks
at his computer rather than her, Bankston said that he expected examination
rooms to be designed so doctors can do both.
Answering a query abut late-stage care, Bankston mentioned that patients
no longer are kept in the dark about their affliction nor are doctors reluctant
to recommend addictive drugs such as morphine to terminal patients.
Gene Wilder with Gilda Radnor
In honor of Gene Wilder’s death at age 83 radio
stations are playing famous movie lines, such as these from “Young
Frankenstein”: “It’s pronounced ‘Fronkensteen’,”
“Didn’t you used to have that [hump] on the other side?” and, referring to the
door, “What knockers!” – eliciting from
Inga, “Oh, thank you, doctor.”
