“You’ve got the right to wages and holidays and proper clothes; you don’t have to do everything you’re told.” Hermione Granger in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
Hermione and Emma Watson in Vanity Fair
While I’ve not read the Harry Potter books, just heard parts of tapes in the car, I saw most of the films and admired the character of Hermione Granger, played by Emma Watson, who in addition to modeling and movie careers has been a United Nations goodwill ambassador and outspoken feminist active in the fight against sexual harassment. In 2017 she took much heat – unfairly, in my opinion - for posing topless in Vanity Fair. Famous actors sharing her last name include English matinee idols of years past Farley and Stewart Granger. The word originally meant one who worked in a granary. The Granger movement of the late nineteenth century was a farmer protest against being ripped off by bankers, railway corporations, and grain elevator operators and ignored by elected officials. Goals included government regulation and democratizing the political process
funny family photo; 3 graduates
Hosted by Lisa and Fritz Teuschler, the family gathering included a dozen Lanes and even more of Toni’s sister MaryAnn’s kids and grandkids. Toni brought a huge pot of galumpkis plus rye bread, and Fritz cooked burgers, hot dogs, and corn of the cob on the grill. I spent the night at nearby Hampton Inn rather than opt for a couch. Though I see Nicholas (from near Indy) and Grace at least once a year, still it was startling to observe how much they’d matured. In the 8 months since he and Dave jammed on guitars at our condo over the Christmas holidays, Nicholas has become an accomplished player; he and Dave kept the group entertained with many of us joining in on the chorus of songs we knew.
late-night storytelling; golfers Phil, Connor, Fritz, Tom, Nicholas, Nick, Sean, Jim
Charlene and Jim Quinn, who live in Punta Gorda, came with sons Sean and Connor. When Toni and I made annual trips to Florida while Midge and stepfather Howard lived in Bradenton, I’d look forward to being with them. Teenagers then (like me, Sean was a Jimmy Eat World fan), now they’re in their mid to late 20s. Connor is extremely competitive (he won the late-night Texas Hold ‘em tournament) and as a 13-year-old insisted on playing as many games of ping pong as it took to beat me. Sean, a brilliant intellect and well-read with an irreverent sense of humor, is about to earn a master’s degree from San Diego State. His thesis is on Russia under Vladimir Putin, whom, he said, is a serious student of American history and admires strong chief executives Lincoln, TR, and FDR. While his heavy-handed domestic policies are unpopular, Putin is admired for making Russia again a superpower after the humiliating days under Boris Yeltsin. According to one story, American authorities once discovered Yeltsin on a street near the Russian embassy in Washington drunk, in his underwear, and in search of pizza. The Robber Barons who seized control of the Soviet Union’s state-run industries after the fall of communism thought Putin would be a puppet, but before long he turned on those who would not cut him in on the spoils.
cornhole champs Dave (ponytail) and Anthony (hands on hips)
homeless newsboys
Our final day, outside on a beautiful afternoon, I played a little corn hole (Dave and Anthony were the champs) but, unlike Toni, stayed away from badminton. Sean recalled reading grandfather Sonny’s New York Post as a kid and finding its sarcastic headlines, sensationalistic stories, and eye-catching cartoons and suggestive illustrations hilarious. I noted that the tabloids invented mean nicknames for celebrities, such as “Jacko” for Gary’s Michael Jackson. A big fan of podcasts, Sean liked one (The Bowery Boys, I think) that covered the 1899 New York City newsboys strike against Joseph Pulitzer’s New York Worldand William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal. We got to talking about comedians, and Jackie Okomski’s boyfriend Matt mentioned Rodney Dangerfield. I brought up the Catskills borscht circuit where Jewish stand-up comics honed material at summer resorts. He was unfamiliar with the term, so I explained that borscht was soup favored by Jewish patrons. Joe Robinson, in from Seattle, clarified that it was Russian soup, which a former neighbor often made and was delicious. Many Russian Jews settled in New York City and, if successful, vacationed at Catskill resorts where Jews were welcome. Before leaving, Sean gave me his email address, and we promised to keep in touch.
Allison Schuette
first school in Gary
Ron Cohen will talk to Steve McShane’s Senior College students about the Gary schools first Superintendent William A. Wirt, whose work-study-play system became world famous. VU professor Allison Schuette composed the following poem after observing a photo in Ron and my Gary pictorial history of students and teacher Ora Wildermuth at Gary’s first school:
A one room, one-story frame building with a gable roof,
unfinished on the first day of school.
Mr. Ora L. Wildermuth rose to the occasion,
taking a stand on the stump in front of the schoolhouse,
ringing the children to school with a bell supplied by the board.
A box of tablets of writing paper awaited them,
but no seats, no benches. The doors and windows went in that day.
Who is the bully and who the mean girl? Who the teacher’s pet?
Who is hungry and who has been well fed?
Who will fall prey to lice and not give a damn?
Who will fall prey to lice and burn with shame?
Who will pay attention and fall in love with reading?
Who will stare out of windows and dream of running?
Who suffers abuse at the hands of a mother or father?
Who knows genuine love? Who will grow up to be an addict?
Who will call a union strike? Who will give birth to a civil rights leader?
Who will lead from behind? Who will escape the Midwestern work ethic?
Who will reject family norms and love whom they will love?
Who will remember the day this photo was taken
and resent the morning of when
his mother forced him into his Sunday clothes and pressed his sister’s hair
and reminded him that he was setting an example
and more was expected of him?
Who will cross his arms over his chest, tuck his chin
in an effort to fold himself up like a letter into an envelope
that could arrive anywhere else but here, and pout?
abandoned Lew Wallace H.S.
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