Friday, March 2, 2018

Closer to Free

“Everybody wants respect just a little bit 
And everybody needs a chance once in a while 
Everybody wants to be closer to free”
         BoDeans, “Closer to Free”
 BoDeans

Tolan Shaw




The fabulous  BoDeans sold out Valparaiso’s Memorial Opera House Thursday and played many familiar songs, including a rousing version of “Closer to Free” as a final encore.  David and I had great seats, thanks to free tickets from a friend of Angie’s.  Beforehand, we had dinner across the street at Parea’s Greek Restaurant, Dave’s first time there.  Talented singer-guitarist Tolan Shaw opened and quickly won the crowd over with a number called “Change the World” and an upbeat finale, “Golden State of Mind.” Dave noticed BoDeans watching from the wings, a sign of respect.  In the lobby during intermission Shaw autographed CDs, which artists can now produce independently. Young people generally don’t buy CDs, but Shaw is well-represented on YouTube.

On to the main event. The stripped down foursome opened with an extended version of “Fadeaway,” showing off their instrumental talents.  The crowd often sang along and gave standing ovations. Especially moving was a tribute medley to Tom Petty, whose songs lead singer Kurt Neumann played when part of the original garage band in Waukesha, Wisconsin.   For several fast numbers, keyboardist Stefano Intelisano put on an accordion and boogied with Neumann and bass player Eric Holden.  When the BoDeans broke into “Still the Night” and “Good Things,” many dancers moved in front of the stage and stayed there for the encores.  I was out of my seat, swaying and pumping my fist.  The band obviously loved the crowd enthusiasm.  A roadie snapped pictures from the stage.   
Dave posted Facebook photos and got “wish I were there” replies from Marianne Brush and Robert Blaszkiewicz.  A quarter-century ago I attended a BoDeans concert at Valparaiso University.  Last fall they headlined Valpo’s Popcorn Fest.  All week, I’ve had “Best of the BoDeans” on heavy rotation, along with CDs by Steve Earle, War on Drugs, Supertramp, and Fountains of Wayne.
 Sarah Forbes and James Labulo Davies



The season two “Victoria” finale opened with British ship captain Frederick Forbes rescuing a West African Yoruba princess named Aina from slave trader King Ghezo of Dahomey and presenting her to the Queen as a present after his wife named her Sarah and taught her English.  Curious as to whether this was based on fact, I learned that, while Aina never lived at court, as portrayed in the PBS series, Queen Victoria became her godmother, paid for her education, and frequently invited her to Windsor Castle. As Sarah Forbes Bonetta (the name of the ship that brought Aina to England), she married a Yoruba businessman, James Labulo Davies, and produced three children, including a daughter Victoria, whom the Queen also embraced as godmother.  In chronic poor health, Sarah died at age 37 of tuberculosis on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Louis Harlan


At Ron Cohen’s house in Miller, Donning Company representative George Nikolavski outlined details regarding publishing a third edition of our Gary pictorial history.  He gave me “Maryland, Reflections on 150 Years,” a Donning pictorial history of the University of Maryland.  On the cover: the famous bronze statue of Testudo the diamondback terrapin, overlooking the quad from McKeldin library.  Mentioned in a section on distinguished faculty is Louis Harlan, author of “Booker T. Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee,” whom I played tennis against and worked under as a teaching assistant (TA).  Once, I told a group of historians in his presence that he was a mentor; he interjected that Sam Merrill had been my primary mentor.  So true and typical of the brilliant but self-effacing scholar, who at the time was simultaneously president of the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association – my profession’s trifecta!  Among the distinguished Maryland graduates listed in “Reflections” was 1976 History PhD Manning Marable (no doubt influenced by Harlan), Muppets puppeteer Jim Henson, news anchor Connie Chung, and comedian Larry David, co-creator of Seinfeld, who received a BA in History in 1970, the year I earned my PhD.  Perhaps I was his TA!  I’d love to know his impressions of graduation (if, indeed, he attended).  The campus was under martial law, and both Black Power and anti-war protestors turned out in full force, some tossing anti-diplomas into the audience.  Dr. Merrill, seated next to me, placed the doctoral hood over my head during the so-called hooding ceremony.  On my cap was a PEACE sign.
 Bob Gibson striking out 17 in in World Series game 1 win 


I’ve started Sridhar Pappu’s “The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age.”  In 1968, St. Louis ace Gibson was virtually unhittable, compiling a 22-9 record with an unbelievable 1.12 earned run average.  His father died before he was born in an Omaha, Nebraska, housing project; actually the Logan Fontenelle Homes marked an improvement over the family’s previous squalid abode.  One of Gibson’s biggest regrets was not knowing what the man looked like: the family was so poor, there were no photographs of him.  He applied for a basketball scholarship at IU, but Coach Branch McCracken told him they had already filled their quota for black players.  I saw Gibson pitch at Wrigley Field in 1975, at the tail end of his career.  A fierce competitor, he stormed off the mound when taken out for a relief pitcher.  Free-spirited Denny McLain won a modern day record 31 games for the Tigers in 1968 before fading from stardom within a season or two.  I was a Tiger fan back then who grew up admiring outfielder Al Kaline, then in his sixteenth year on the team.  The 1968 World Series went the full seven games and produced an unlikely hero, hurler Mickey Lolich.
 Alan Yngve giving lesson in Chesterton; photo by Hannah McCafferty



With IUN media production specialist Samantha Gauer’s assistance, I interviewed duplicate bridge player and director Alan Yngve, whose connection to Northwest Indiana began when his parents built a summer cottage in Dune Acres.  As a teenager, he enjoyed long walks along the Lake Michigan shoreline.  At the University of Chicago lab school he joined bridge and chess clubs and learned war board games.  At Indiana University his first love was Asian history and he spent a year in Japan; but, realizing that the academic market for historians had dried up, he pursued mathematics as more likely to lead to an employable career.  A management consultant, Yngve has worked at Northwestern and for the Illinois legislature.  He and wife Katherine lived several years in Lebanon, which he asserted was safer than the common perception and where he found competitive bridge games with many players using a French system initially unfamiliar to him.  He mentioned that one can compete on line alone or even with a partner against unseen opponents but  emphasized that there is no substitute for live competition.  An ideal bridge partner, he said, is one with whom you are comfortable communicating, both non-judgmentally after games and nonverbally across the table by adapting and developing systems. It’s best, he added, if both partners are not too passive or aggressive.  Since Yngve tends to be on the aggressive side, he prefers a partners who tends toward caution.

Dee Van Bebber and I finished second in duplicate at Chesterton YMCA.  I rued two miscommunications that resulted in low boards, one in bidding and the other by my not leading back the suit Dee bid (instead voiding myself in a side suit) .  In the former Dee preempted 3 Spades, and Kris Prohl doubled.  With 11 points, including 6 Hearts and a singleton Spade Ace, I bid 4 Hearts, intending to give Dee a choice of suits and cut off the opponents’ opportunity to find a fit.  Instead, Dee passed, I was faced with a 5-1 Heart split, and got set four for minus 200 points.  In retrospect, I should have passed; it was not even a good sacrifice.  Two vulnerable East-West couples ended up playing in Hearts and being set big time.  As Dee, who held seven Spades but just 7 points, explained afterwards, when she preempts, she doesn’t intend to bid again.
 West Calumet Housing Complex site; NWI Times photos by Jonathan Miano
Jalisa and Donmarvion Wash; Sherry Hunter on right


Kevin Start interviewed me for background information relating to the East Chicago pollution crisis.  According to Social Justice News Nexus, Stark “is an independent reporter who focuses on environment and climate change. He has written about rising seas, industrial pollution, global climate research, and urban and housing policy.”  Stark is developing a program about soil contamination at an East Chicago housing site for NPR affiliate WBEZ. During the 1960s, I told him, Mayor John Nicosia secured federal funds for urban renewal projects that offered opportunities for lucrative kickbacks involving the razing of existing sites to make way for the erection of low income housing units.  One of these was West Calumet Housing Complex, built in 1972 atop a former lead smelting and metal-processing plant site.  As early as 1985, federal inspectors had flagged the site as hazardous, and for two decades Congressman Pete Visclosky pushed for it to be cleaned up with Superfund money.  Finally, in 2009, it was added to the many sites earmarked for inclusion in the EPA’s woefully underfunded Superfund program.  After tests revealed alarming levels of lead and arsenic in the soil, the thousand residents, including 670 children, were forced to relocate.  Financial compensation was scant solace.  On April 6, 2017, as the deadline drew near, Lethette Howard told NWI Times reporter Lauren Cross that what once was a close-knit community has become a ghost town.
 Kevin Stark



Identifying myself as an oral historian, I talked about interviewing Local 1010 rank-and-file unionists concerned about environmental issues and Latinos  who grew up in Indiana Harbor and worked in Inland’s coke plant.  Afterwards, I introduced Kevin Stark to Calumet Regional Archives volunteer John Hmurovic, who has written about the 1955 Standard Oil refinery explosion in Whiting, not far from the West Calumet Housing Complex.   I got out Archibald McKinlay’s pictorial history “Twin City” and Andrew Hurley’s “Economic Inequalities: Class, Race, and Industrial Pollution in Gary, Indiana, 1945-1980,” based in large part on r Archives research.  Stark, who has a fellowship at Northwestern, plans to send grad students to the Archives to investigate materials relating to East Chicago.
 Stevie Kokos; photo by Jerry Davich

Jerry Davich interviewed IUN grad and onetime Performing Arts major Stevie Kokos, whose 32-year career backstage at the Star Plaza was coming to an end as the Region entertainment mecca was facing demolition.  After Kokos gave him a backstage tour, Davich wrote:
      "Oh, the stories I can tell you," Kokos, 60, told me. "It's been an amazing run. I was gifted by God to have this career here." The stage's ghost light, a single unadorned light bulb on a tall black stand, had previously been turned off only during live performances. Otherwise it remained on, as much for the sake of tradition and superstition as it was for safety and practicality on a dark stage.
      "When this ghost light goes out, my time here runs out," Kokos said, staring into it as if it was a crystal ball.
      The Gary native got his start at the venue in 1985 unloading performers' trucks. On one backstage wall, in white grease pencil, Kokos wrote, "8-24-85 Bob Fosse's Dancin." "That was my first day, and my first show," he recalled.
      Through the decades, the venue also has hosted every kind of event imaginable, including a gubernatorial debate, a wedding, and a funeral. Kokos has even performed on this stage, as Constable Locke, the town sheriff in "The Music Man."
Kokos and I were teammates on the Glen Park Eagles softball team, and he took my Sixties and Vietnam War classes.  I always looked for his smiling face when attending Star Plaza concerts.
 
Kokos and I were softball teammates on the Glen Park Eagles, and he took my Sixties and Vietnam War classes.  I always looked for his smiling face when attending Star Plaza concerts.

Three people I know are currently in Africa, nieces Lisa and Andrea in Zanzibar after a safari in Serengeti National Park and remarkable high school classmate Connie Heard Damon, working as a nurse in Kenyan Healing Hut.  Many patients are AIDS victims.

I wished Granddaughter Tori , who turned 18 (closer to free, with the right to vote but not to legally drink) a Happy Birthday.  Sisters Alissa and Miranda took her to Rumors Night Club, which advertises itself as the hottest gay bar and dance club in Grand Rapids, located at 69 Division Avenue.  Tori said that those between 18 and 21 pay a ten-dollar cover charge and get an “M” for minor stamped on their hand.  She said she danced a lot and had so much fun she went back the next night with a friend.  She thought the drag queens were cute.

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