Southern Dave

“These days I've been lookin' in the mirror and wondering if that's me lookin' back or not.” Steve Earle, “The Other Kind”

 Steve Earle

I few years ago, I met a kindred spirit whom I nicknamed “Southern Dave.”  Our 70-year-old neighbor’s husband died after an extended illness, and not long afterwards she invited a Facebook friend to visit and then move in with her.  Sue’s one caveat: that her soul-mate (as she called him) give up smoking.  Because of the age difference, many folks thought the native Virginian must be her son.  Bearded and fond of going shirtless in warm weather, Dave Elliot turned doubters into believers and ingratiated himself to everyone in our condo court who got to know him, from preschooler Josh Travis (whom Dave called “Cool Dude”) to octogenarian Jane Gucciardi.  We often listened to music together; he turned me on to J.J. Cale, David Bromberg, and other country rockers.  He burned a dozen CDs for me, including Steve Earle rarities and favorites such as “The Other Kind,” which contains the great line - “before you could say Jack Kerouac you'd turn your back and I'd be gone” – and this chorus:

I'm back out on that road again 
Turn this beast into the wind 
There are those that break and bend 
I'm the other kind, I'm the other kind

After Sue died, Dave resumed smoking and a month later, after considering Joan’s offer to move in with her, returned to family in Virginia. I’m reminded of him as Steve Earle is on heavy rotation with Bon Iver, Foo Fighters, Fountains of Wayne and the Donnas.

David Goldfield 

Grad school buddy David Goldfield, nicknamed “Golden Dave” at Maryland when he played second base for the Wobblies softball team, became “Southern Dave” after getting a job in Virginia and then University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he currently is Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History and editor of the Journal of Urban History.  I wrote the entries for Richard Gordon Hatcher and Jacob A. Riis that appears in his two-volume Encyclopedia of American Urban History.  Author of 16 books, including America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation (2011), he co-edited a 1973 anthology with me entitled The Enduring Ghetto: Sources and Readings.  It includes a selection by Piri Thomas, author of Down These Mean Streets, entitled “From Arson to a Thousand Candles: A Review of Budd Schulberg’s From the Ashes: Voices of Watts.” The following paragraph is indicative of Thomas’ warm heart:

The poem that brought tears to my eyes, and I mean real tears, was by Birdell Chew, a woman over 50 years old, born in Texas and one of the earliest members of the Watts Writers’ Workshop.  The poem, “A Black Mother’s Plea,” closes with these poignant words: “Please do not give my son a reason to hate, so he will destroy himself while he is still a boy.  Allow him a chance to fill his heart with love for all mankind, for he was conceived by woman from man, same as the whites.”

 Piri Thomas greets students

This email arrived from Jake Baumgartner: “I am a student at a community college and I was doing some research on Down These Mean Streets and saw you have written an article in JSTOR (a digitized library containing back issues of academic journals) titled ‘The Barrio.’ I am interested in this article and would be pleased to find out a little more information about yourself. Any information would be great. Thanks in advance.  The article he was referring to, “Beating the Barrio: Piri Thomas and Down These Mean Streets,” appeared in the September 1972 issue of English Journal.  I wrote back:

I wrote “Beating the Barrio” so many years ago that the one thing I recall is that English Journal wouldn’t spell out a word they considered dirty.  When David Goldfield and I co-edited “The Enduring Ghetto” (1973) we used a short review Thomas wrote and I talked to Piri on the phone about it.  He was effusive and ended the conversation saying something similar to the last line in his piece, that is to keep swinging, keep wailing, we’re going to reach the mountaintop yet.

 Sally and Rich Will

Featured in Barb Walczak’s Newsletter were Sally and Rich Will, who scored 72.92% at Chesterton’s Duneland Bridge Club game.  They made a pact, they told Walczak, not to argue and just play for fun. Director Alan Yngve gave this assessment of their accomplishment: “They were the only pair to bid 6 Clubs on a hand where everyone made 6, made some conservative bids when game was not making, and on a few hands they were the only pair with a plus in their direction!”  This week, although we didn’t do that well otherwise, Dee Van Bebber and I had two of our best hands against the Wills. In one of them I went down 3 in 5 Hearts for a minus 150, but it was a good defensive bid because three other East-West pairs made 4-Spade contracts for scores of 420 or more.  In the other, we set a 2-Spade contract down 2, while other East-West teams must have gotten a favorable opening lead and made the bid.

I often call son Dave Dee, not sure why.  One of my high school friends, Dave Seibold, went by “Lefty Dave” when he was first baseman on my Babe Ruth team.  My favorite late-night host, David Letterman, is proud to be known as “Hoosier Dave.” The alter ego of Bob Einstein, Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm, was “Super Dave” Osborne when he used to attempt crazy stunts. Dave Melvin, who always greets senior league bowlers with a smile, deserves the nickname “Friendly Dave.” We’re Here took all three games from the Engineers despite Frank Shufran’s 235 in game 3 and my 170. Henrietta Irwin had a 590 series and Steve Huffman a 655, way above their averages.  I signed up to bring deli pickles to next week’s Holiday banquet.

 "Super Dave" Osborne

Lady Redhawks star Jayne Roach

Lady Redhawk coach Ryan Shelton fixed a computer problem and mentioned that his star player, Jayne Roach, suffered a season-ending injury. Sheldon told a reporter, “Obviously, you can't prepare for a loss to a player that means as much to us as Grayce does, nor can you replace what she means to us both on the court and off with her talent and leadership. We're glad to know that she will be able to return next season to complete her outstanding career while continuing her education.”

 Camilo Vergara photo of mural by unknown artist

To accompany an article by Michael Kazin about John F. Kennedy at 100 entitled “An Idol and Once a President,” the December 2017 issue of Journal of American History used a photo that Camilo Vergara took of a mural displayed at Abundant Life Ministries Church in Oakland, California.  It shows Kennedy grouped with Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, and Jesus. This is how Kazin deals with the subject of, in his words, “the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women he took to bed from his teenage year to days before his fateful trip to Dallas”:

  None of his many bed partners as rued the time she spent with him, at least not for publication.  The actress Angie Dickinson joked that having sex with Kennedy was “the most memorable 15 seconds of my life.”  In her 2012 memoir, Mimi Alford also eschews resentment toward the president, who aggressively took her virginity when she was a White House intern of just 19.  Kennedy did not pause to obtain her consent – “short of screaming, I doubt if I could have done anything to thwart his intentions."  Months later, he insisted that Alford fellate one of his closest aides in the White House swimming pool while the president watched.  Still, Alford did have an extended affair with JFK, and her tone in the memoir is suffused with wonder and affection rather than anger.

statue of JFK and John Jr. in Rapid City, S.D.