Requiem

“There comes that day [when] the fishing’s done at last, the final time you tie a hook, the final spinning cast.  But we hope a lake exists in heaven’s grand design where once again you’ll feel the thrill of tugging on your line.”  “Requiem for a Fisherman.” Author unknown 

I attended a “Service of Celebration” for successful entrepreneur and former IU trustee James W. Dye, whom I interviewed for the IU Bicentennial oral history project.  The 1953 IU grad served in Japan and Korea with the Army Corps of Engineers, was an active pilot for over 50 years, an avid angler who loved fishing for walleye in Canada, and loved golf, vacationing in Jamaica, watching auto racing and westerns, and “his beloved Indiana Hoosiers.”  He is survived by two sisters (one the widow of a man named James Buchanan) five children, 13 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.  Appropriately, the service took place at IUN’s new Theatre Northwest with several hundred people in attendance.  

Beforehand, I was delighted to run into former IUN Admissions director Bill Lee, a frequent golfing partner of Dye, who once offered to fly him to Canada for a fishing trip. Bill recalled being on the golf course during a lightning storm and Dye holding his putter high in the air as if to dare a bolt to strike him; otherwise, he intended to complete the round.  Bill asked about my former colleagues Ron Cohen, Fred Chary, and Paul Kern.  Many years ago, after a niece quit college over a housing issue, he enrolled her as a special student at IUN, enabling her to transfer to Bloomington the following semester.  Lee performed a similar service for one of Dye’s relatives, cementing their friendship.

 James Dye (right) and 2012 college scholarship winners

While people filed in, pianist Jack Kashak played a medley that included “As Time Goes By,” “Stormy Weather,” “Canadian Sunset,” and the IU Fight Song.  A Methodist minister who reminded me of an earnest Pee Wee Herman asked everyone to stand if able and sing the opening hymn “How Great Thou Art,” but virtually nobody followed the second command.  Granddaughters Andrea and Jaclyn read “Requiem for a Fisherman” and “The Flyer’s Poem.” Former IU vice-president Terry Clapacs reflected on his friend’s many contributions to Indiana University and his philanthropy (including hundreds of full college scholarships) in conjunction with late wife Betty, whom he met while camping in Canada.  Dye, a lifelong Republican, told Clapacs he’d be voting for Hillary Clinton after Trump won the 2016 GOP nomination.  Son Jim, who confessed that eulogizing his dad was the hardest thing he’d ever been called on to do, drew laughs repeating his father’s claim to have earned money cutting grass at age two.  After another unsung hymn, the pianist played the postlude, Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”  Exiting the theater, I told Chancellor Bill Lowe, “Now that’s a number we could have sung.”  

Sampling the refreshments, I managed to fit on a tiny plate a delicious beef sandwich, tomato and cucumber slices, salad dressing, hummus, and a bunch of grapes, then resisted an impulse to go through the line a second time, bringing to mind a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode with Larry David, back on Saturday Night Live again as Bernie Sanders in a skit about a Democratic Presidential debate crashed by new entrant Michael Bloomberg, played by former cast member Fred Armison. Colin Just portrayed Pete Buttigieg as a manchild uncomfortable about what do with his arms.  Congressman Pete (Visclosky) endorsed fellow Hoosier Mayor Pete, citing his pro-union record and praising him as a moderate.  Republican heavy hitters Tim Fesko and Cal Bellamy were in the room.  Governor Eric Holcomb recently appointed attorney Fesko Chair of the Gary Chicago Airport Authority; Bellamy founded the Shared Ethics Advisory Commission.

In the early hours of Saturday morning a gun battle raged in the parking lot outside Sunset Lounge in Portage.  Several Chicago TV stations covered the story.  According to The Times, a melee first erupted inside the crowded facility involving several dozen patrons; tables were overturned and furniture and bottles used as weapons.  As Portage police arrived, several cars sped off.  Order was restored, and some 30 bullet casings from handguns and a rifle were found scattered over the area.  Several vehicles and nearby businesses got hit with bullets.  Authorities blamed the disturbance on outsiders. Someone from Gary went to the hospital after getting hit on the head with a bar stool, while an East Chicagoan and a guy from Kentucky suffered gunshot wounds.  Dave’s band Voodoo Chili played several gigs at the Sunset.   Once I intervened when a stranger tried to dance intimately with Angie.  Another time a member of another band coldcocked Dave for doing an encore before relinquishing the stage. Two brothers connected with Voodoo Chili, Bob and Mike Heckler, later got even with the culprit.

Former Gary police officer Jesse Salomon provided stories about his years on the force for the Calumet Regional Archives.  Opting not to be interviewed due to hearing issues, on my suggestion he began writing down reminiscences.  Sworn in during the summer of 1975, he and five others spent 13 weeks at the Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. Salomon recalled:  

    On the first day I found out that the administrative and training staff did not care to much for Lake County and often made snide remarks. During the Law classes we were told constantly we could forget about this chapter because it was about Indiana Law, not Lake County.  Upon receiving our certificates, we returned to Gary and were placed in the patrol division, walking the beat in the downtown area for the Christmas holidays. 

    After the holidays, we were paired with a training officer. Every training officer was different - some good, some bad - but I learned something useful from each. The rookies always got the worst assignments.  Two of us were placed on a beat for eight hours from Fourth and Broadway to Ninth and Broadway; we also had to check the alleys.  One day Sergeant Cobie Howard approached me and asked why I was placed on that beat every day. He then told me to follow him to the station and informed Captain Joseph Novotny that I had been placed on the downtown beat every night rather than rotated to different areas.  Learning that I was from Glen Park, Sergeant Howard said, “Joe, I want this officer in Glen Park.” For the next 21 years Sergeant Howard watched over my police career and he never asked for anything from me.

Cobie Howard would eventually become Gary Police Chief.

 Frank Gucciardo, front row, second from left

Officers Romeo Rendina and Joseph Novotny stop motorists on Dunes Highway near Utah St., April 19, 1959

Salomon also mailed several Gary police photos dating from the 1950s.  In one was former neighbor Frank Gucciardo, bedridden and dying when Toni and I moved to Sand Creek Drive in 2010.  His widow Joan once showed me a tattoo on her arm identifying her blood type, part of a postwar Red Scare experiment affecting area school children.  In another photo are Solomon’s captain Joseph Novotny and Romeo Rendina, who recently passed away at age 89.  His obit read in part:

Romeo will be remembered as a hard worker, friendly and compassionate man who was known to enjoy wearing sharp clothes and loved family, friends, eating together and most of all his wife of 63 years Dorothy. From his teenage days as a Paperboy and a Golden Gloves boxer in Chicago to opening a gas station with his brother, 20 years of service on the Gary Police Department, 18 years as a Lake Co. Court Bailiff and nearly 60 years of owning and operating Rendina Funeral Home with his brothers, he was proud of his service to others and his country.

Salomon wrote about incidents that took place while he was assigned to District Nine north, between 80/94 and Ridge Road and between Broadway east to the city limit:

    A call was dispatched to District Ten in reference to a male black with a gun at 3658 Broadway at the Laundromat.  There no respond from the nearest two man-unit. After  calls, I advised radio that I was near the laundromat  and I would check it and advise radio of the situation.

    As I pulled up to the business, I notice a male standing in the doorway motioning me to come over to him; he identified himself as the owner of the building and that he lived over the business with his wife. He further informed me that a male black who worked for him had just threatened them and the man was in the rear of the laundromat .  As I proceeded to the rear of the business, the owner turned on the lights inside.  I told him to shut them off the lights because I did not want the subject to see me.

    As I reached the rear door, the subject fired three shots point blank at me, just missing the left side of my head. The owners’ wife was talking to police dispatch at the time and informed them that I had just been shot in the head. I advised radio I was not shot but  still need assistance. Officer Carl Johnson whom I knew since childhood was the first to come to my aid.  As we were looking for the subject, we noticed him hiding and he saw us.  He then tried to fire at us but did not have any more live rounds.  The subject then ran to the basement of the laundromat and was loading his gun as we approached him.  We took him into custody without further resistance. In regards to the District Ten officers they never arrived.  When I asked them why, they informed me that they didn't hear the call because they were playing cards!  

    I was contacted by the owners of the laundromat along with two of their attorneys, who wanted me to drop the charges against the subject, John Anderson.  At the court hearing I was asked what I would like done.  I stated to the judge, whatever was fair, then left the hearing.  A short time later I received a notice from the court stating John Anderson got probation, not 2-14 years. Later one of his attorneys  was sent to Federal prison and lost his law license.  

    A few years later while on patrol, I found John Anderson a man beating a female impersonator.  The victim did not want to file charges so I let them both go.  However, I asked Anderson if he remembered me.   He said,  “No I don't.”  I replied, “You tried to kill me, remember now?”  He fell to his knees and began to cry as I drove away.

 Noam Chomsky in 2010

Jack Palance in "Requiem for a Heavyweight"

Requiem originally referred to a Roman Catholic Mass for the souls of the dead or a musical composition performed at such a ceremony.  It has come to mean any act of remembrance for something or someone who has departed. The documentary Requiem for the American Dream, for example, is an extended interview with Noam Chomsky bemoaning the concentration of wealth and power that has made a mockery of the nation’s democratic pretensions as a land of opportunity. Requiem for a Heavyweight, directed by Rod Serling, was a live “Playhouse 90” 1956 TV production starring Jack Palance as a punch-drunk heavyweight and Keenan Wynn as an unscrupulous trainer,  Six years later, it was turned into a movie featured Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in the title roles.  Former heavyweight champ Max Baer appeared in the original and Jack Dempsey (as himself) in the film.