Ronan

“It’s about to be Halloween

You could be anything you wanted if you were still here.

I remember your bare feet down the hallway

I love you to the moon and back.”

  “Ronan,” Taylor Swift

                                                    Ronan Thompson

On the cover of Rolling Stone is long-legged Taylor Swift, who stands just an inch under six feet and is dating a Kennedy almost three years her junior.  At a Breast Cancer Awareness Month benefit Swift barely kept it together while singing “Ronan,” based on a true story about a four year-old’s death from neuroblastoma, then ran to a dressing room and wept.  Ronan’s mother Maya Thompson shares credit as co-writer of the song.  Ball players and referees have been wearing pink.  All kinds of paraphernalia are on sale, from caps to headbands, proceeds that will go to fight cancer.

On the way to Lake Street Gallery I stopped in to see Ron Cohen, who inscribed a copy of his Woody Guthrie book for Roy Dominguez.  He may come hear us again when we speak next Tuesday at Garrett Cope’s Glen Park Conversation.  Also on the program is former Gary city planner Ben Clement, a friend of his.  Gallery owner Joyce Davis liked Jennifer Greenburg’s “Rockabillies” book, agreed to display a half dozen framed photos during the December 8 Alumni Association book signing event, and noted that one guy reminded her of her greaser brother during the Fifties.

Traces page proofs arrived for my article on football great Alex Karras.  As always, it was virtually clean, skillfully laid out, and included fantastic photos, some provided by brother Ted Karras.  In the editor’s note, entitled “The Writer and the Mad Duck,” Ray Boomhower mentioned Karras’s close friendship with George Plimpton, author of “Paper Lion,” and his career as an actor in “Blazing Saddles” and “Webster.”  He noted that before Alex’s recent death, he suffered from dementia and had joined a lawsuit against the National Football League.

Saturday a Calumet Heritage Conference took place at Indiana Dunes Visitors Center near our condo.  Steve McShane was particularly interested in August Carlino’s remarks about the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area in Western Pennsylvania.  An afternoon tour started with a South Shore rail car ride to Millennium Park in Chicago and then a bus back to Dune Park via a route out of sight from the train.

Clark Metz invited me to a chili cook-off at Miller American Legion lodge and former union official Rolland Beckham’s seventieth birthday party at Beach Café.  Toni had a birthday dinner scheduled for daughter-in-law Angie, golumpki, rolls, potatoes and asparagus.  Beforehand five of us finished the Rock ‘n’ Roll thousand-piece puzzle.  Dave and I watched IU lose another close game (against Navy) in the final minute.

I finished John Grisham’s “The Partner,” about a Mississippi attorney who stole 90 million dollars from his corrupt law partners and then disappeared after faking his own death.  It had enough twists and turns to keep me interested but no dramatic court scenes or characters I really cared about.

George McGovern, liberal Democratic candidate for President in 1972, passed away at age 90.  I went door-to-door for him and Toni worked in his Gary headquarters.  I saw the Minnesota Senator speak at Gary West Side that year, and at George Roberts’s invitation spoke at IU Northwest years later.  The World War II pilot and history PhD opposed both Vietnam and the American invasion of Iraq.  Slaughtered by “Tricky Dick” after selecting a running mate, Tom Eagleton, who left the ticket after admitting he’d had electric shock treatments for depression, McGovern nonetheless transformed his party in ways that made possible the election of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

At a 2009 history conference McGovern talked about Abraham Lincoln.  In a tribute to McGovern Ray Smock wrote that when he went up to get his autograph on his book, he said “Senator McGovern, I was proud to vote for you in 1972 and have never regretted that vote.” Ray (with McGovern below) recalled that he laughed and said “You know, if everyone over the years who told me they voted for me actually did vote for me I would have won in a landslide rather than losing in a landslide.”  

Sunday we ate Chinese from Wing Wah and played bridge at Hagelbergs (Toni won; I was low man).  Beforehand we perused a scrapbook of photos from Dick and Cheryl’s Danube River cruise, which commenced in Prague, a city I’ve always wanted to visit, especially the Charles Bridge (below) that spans the Vltava River and dates back to the fourteenth century.

 

The Times carried Jane Ammeson’s article about Ron Cohen as well as photos of two of his folk music books, including “Work and Sing,” about labor union songs.  Jane quotes Ron as concluding that Woody was “a creative genius, an influence on everybody as an entertainer, songwriter, and political activist.  Woody is still with us in his songs and writings.”

Recently The Post-Trib’s Mike Hutton wrote a column entitled “More memories from Karras’ friends, family.”  It includes an anecdote from Gary city athletic director Earl Smith, his college teammate at Iowa.  During the 1950s they both had summer jobs working for the Gary street department.  One day Earl, Alex, and two white co-workers went to a Miller eatery for lunch, and the waitress refused to serve Earl.  When the food came, Alex dumped the dishes onto the floor, causing the owner to call the police.  Alex told Mayor Pete Mandich, a former football star at Tulane, what happened, and he was furious.  Earl Smith said of Karras: “He was crazy.  He was just unbelievably loyal to us.  You can just never lose that connection.  He never cared what color you were.”

Despite foolishly not playing Aaron Rogers or Owen Daniels, I edged son Dave, whose second-place Lane Fantasy team was decimated by players on bye week.  I remained undefeated thanks to a “pick six” by the Houston defense and a banner day for Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.  In the CBS pool I finished 10 points behind winner Ben Nicksic, who got every game correct while I had Buffalo beating Tennessee and the Redskins upsetting the Giants.

I ran into Bob Mucci at the Anthropology dollar book sale.  He wanted me to teach in the spring, but I told him I don’t do January and February but might be available next fall. 

Niece Andrea invited me to spend four days in January with her, Nick and Seattle Joe in Mexico.  I’ll probably beg off, though it is tempting.

On the strength of Rolling Stone’s three stars and being a huge Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken fan, I saw  “Seven Psychopaths” in Portage (I was the only one in theater 11). While much too bloody for my taste, the acting was super, even including cameos by Michael Pitt (Jimmy in “Broadway Empire”) and Harry Dean Stanton (the profane Bud in “Repo Man”). 

Obama was the aggressor in the final Presidential debate, while Romney adopted a “me, too” posture, reversing many of his previous positions.  When Romney claimed Obama had weakened American defenses, leaving the navy with fewer ships than were in use during World War I, the President replied, “We also have fewer horses and bayonets,” adding that fewer ships were needed in an era of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.  Ray Smock, who labeled Obama the “Alpha dog tonight,” wrote: “Romney comes across as a complete whore who, like an onion, has no core. He is layer after layer of poll driven opinions, and when you peel all the layers away there is no central core values left. No true character. No true leadership. He is about winning, not leading. Obama is about winning too, but he is also about leading. He has demonstrated leadership and character.”

How to Live - Forgive

“What a great big world

I better find some way to explain it

Guess what, you’re getting old

You still gotta grow up.”

    “How To Live,” Band of Horses”

At Jordan's wedding Charles Halberstadt asked what I’ve been listening to lately.  Band of Horses, I told him, as well as Green Day.  “How to Live” sounds a lot like the Jayhawks.  What a show that would be if those great bands toured together.

At lunch at the Redhawk Café, Anne was worried about her tenure case.  How anyone could have it in for her is beyond me.  She’s the best thing to happen for IU Northwest since Jerry Pierce.  Some colleagues attended a free lunch in Morraine to discuss ideas for the green area where Tamarack once stood.  One person afterwards compared it to a time-shares meal where you were expected to put in your time for your burger, chips, and drink, only it was for a good cause.

Katie Turk emailed  great photos of the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant during World War II that she used in her Indiana Magazine of History article.  

I thanked her and told her I’d forward them to CRA archivist Steve McShane.  They originally appeared in William P. Vogel’s “Kingsbury: A Venture in Teamwork” (1946).  The subtitle is misleading since the black women were forced to endure racist conditions that were quite humiliating.

For my California trip I’m packing a World Almanac Phil gave me covering 50 years of American sports even though for 1980 there was no mention of the Phillies winning the World Series.  The big story was the U.S. men’s hockey “Miracle on Ice,” but the Ray Leonard – Roberto Duran “No Mas” fight got coverage as well as Wayne Gretzky’s rookie MVP year and Gordie Howe’s 800th goal.  The only mention of baseball was George Brett batting .390 after being over .400 most of the season.

In the latest “Boardwalk Empire” episode Al Capone beats a rival to a pulp and then goes home and sings a sweet lullaby to Al, Junior, known as Sonny, his mostly deaf kid, while playing the mandolin.  In real life Sonny was born with congenital syphilis that “Scarface Al” had caught years before and became partially deaf at age seven after a brain operation.

I met Bill Pelke at Country Lounge.  With him was Cathy Johnson, an old friend of his who took a class with me a few years ago.   Bill is going to donate his papers to the archives, which includes materials about organizations he’s belonged to that are advocating abolition of the death penalty, including Journey of Hope . . .From Violence to Healing.  Afterwards I gave him a tour of the archives, and when Steve McShane asked him what he wanted to name the collection, he got choked up answering Ruth E. Pelke, his grandmother who was murdered three decades ago.  In talking to him I could tell that he genuinely forgave the teenage girls who stabbed her to death. Bill lives near Anchorage and showed me photos of moose in his backyard.

Frank Shufran asked me to bowl in his place because his sister-in-law passed away.  I agreed even though I need to get up at 4:45 to catch the airport bus to O’Hare for my trip to Palm Springs.

Former football great and “Webster” star Alex Karras passed away.  Al Hamnik’s Times column today mentioned that his vital functions were failing, and I actually learned about it from Roy Boomhower, who emailed that he included a brief mention of his death at the end of my Traces article about him due out next month.  The Emerson grad was sui generis and friendly to me when I phoned him last year even though he admitted he wouldn’t be much help to me since he had Alzheimer’s like so many veterans of his sport.

Whitney

“If I should stay,
I would only be in your way.
So I’ll go, but I know
I’ll think of you every step of the way.”
“Whitney Houston, “I Will Always Love You”

Whitney Houston’s face is on the cover of virtually all the supermarket magazines and tabloids, flattering shots for “People” and “Us,” disheveled images for the scandal rags like “Globe” and “Enquirer.” She made the Dolly Parton song “I Will Always Love You” her own, and hearing it over and over in the days after she died in a hotel bathtub made one think of how unique was her talent (as Clive Davis said, a voice like that comes along once a generation). How corrosive must have been her insecurities and need for drugs that in the end killed her. New Jersey governor Chris Christie ordered flags on state buildings at half staff. The funeral at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark had moments of grandeur (Stevie Wonder singing with the choir) and farce (ex-hubby Bobby brown storming out because of the seating arrangements). Whitney and Madonna were the female stars of MTV during the 1980s, and in those videos she was impossibly beautiful and talented. So sad she couldn’t age with grace like her mentor Aretha Franklin.

I had to limit my “Choice” review about the Kennedy administration forcing the Washington Redskins to desegregate to 190 words, so there was scant opportunity to go into detail about the disparate lives of racist owner George P. Marshall, idealistic Interior Secretary Stuart Udall, or Hall of Fame running back/wide receiver Bobby Mitchell. The Skins started out in Boston and suffered a humiliating loss to the Chicago Bears 73-0 in the 1940 championship game. Years later Washington QB Sammy Baugh suggested that his teammates didn’t play hard as a rebuke to their obnoxious owner.

Jonathyne Briggs is on a Chicago bar trivia team. My reaction time for coming up with Jeopardy answers has fallen off. Brian, Jonathyne, and Anne debated the merits of “Mockingjay,” the third book in the Suzanne Collins sci-fi trilogy aimed at young adults. A film version of volume one, “The Hunger Games,” the first book in the series, is due out soon. Chesterton’s library is all out of their four copies. I’m on the reservation list.

A “Vanity Fair” article claims “Diner” is the most influential movie of the last half-century. The 1982 comedy about high school friends reuniting at their old Baltimore hangout for a wedding inspired scores of coming-of-age movies and sitcoms like “Seinfeld” and “The Office.”

Radio host Tavis Buchan of Merrillville’s Lakeshore Station 89.1 FM discovered my blog and wants me as a guest. The NWI Times is also considering linking the blog to their website. It might be a good way to publicize Steel Shavings issues still in print.

On February 17, 1842, William H. Prescott, biographer of Ferdinand and Isabella and author of histories about the Spanish conquests of Peru and Mexico, noted: “I consume too much time on notes and on pettinesses every day. Think more of general effect and impression. Don’t quiddle nor twaddle.” Great words, quiddle (meaning to dawdle) and twaddle (idle talk or chatter). I’ve played a card game called Quiddler where you make words with letters or letter combinations (TH, CL, IN, ER, QU) in your hand.

“The Artist” was at the AMC in Michigan City, the only area theater other than Schererville where it is playing. It was basically a black-and-white silent movie set in 1927 and about an actor whose career is threatened by the advent of “talkies”. I can see why it got so many Oscar nominations, including Jean Dujardon for best actor and Berenice Bejo for supporting actress. Berenice could have qualified for best actress, but now won’t have to compete against Meryl Streep (“The Iron lady”), Viola Davis (“The Help”), and Michelle Williams (“My Week with Marilyn”).

I had almost decided not to use Jon Resh’s “Amped” in my Fall course when I came across how influenced Resh was by William O. Douglas’s “Points of Rebellion” (1969) in particular this quote by the liberal Supreme Court justice: “The dissent we witness is a protest against the belittling of man, against his debasement, against a society that makes ‘lawful’ the exploitation of humans.”

Resh introduces a chapter called “Pastacore” (an amalgam of pasta and hardcore that was the band Spoke’s rallying cry) with this Voltaire quote: “Everything must end. Meanwhile we mist amuse ourselves.” Concluding that “simply, pastacore is life lived maximally, every moment savored,” one example Resh cites is “lying on your driveway at midnight listening to Hank William, Sr., on a Walkman and watching the stars, wondering what music the aliens are listening to as they watch Earth.” Another is playing at full volume the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (a recent “NY Times” crossword puzzle answer for the soundtrack of “A Clockwork Orange”).

The Westchester Township History Museum located in the Brown Mansion is a 16-room brick structure built 125 years ago in the Queen Anne architectural style and located near downtown Chesterton. I had hoped to use the Prairie Club archives and peruse their 1920s bulletins, but a reception was in progress so I set up an appointment to return in five days. I browsed through some of their holdings, including notebooks of Alice Gray (Diana of the Dunes) and artist-author Earl H. Reed. On the way home I bought a Subway Philly cheese steak from Brady Wade, who started working there earlier in the week. “Welcome to Subway,” he said as I entered.

Assholes angered over the decision by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to allow people to buy a license whose proceeds go to a pro-gay organization. Folks can pay an extra 40 dollars for a plate showing six different colored hands rising up from a ring with $25 going to the Indiana Youth group. Never mind that an anti-abortion group and 65 other groups have specialty plates, even the national Wild Turkey Federation.

The Post-Trib’s Mike Hutton wrote a column praising Andrean coach Carson Cunningham’s hilarious, poignant new book “Underbelly Hoops: Adventures in the CBA” the author’s last, quixotic attempt to get picked up by an NBA team. One paragraph quoted from Carson’s book describes the funeral of former Purdue teammate Gary McQuay, who died of leukemia: “We mourned that day, and yet we also celebrated Gary’s life. When the pastor spoke, he started passing a basketball around, asking people to keep it moving, just like Gary would want us to do. And the ball flowed through the pews. This is the type of thing that can happen at funerals in Indiana.”

While not as spectacular as the Jeremy Lin story, the Bulls hit the jackpot signing 36 year-old Mike James to a ten-day contract. He has a championship ring from playing with Detroit but after receiving no offers from NBA teams chose to play in the D (Developmental) League. “I went from Ritz Carltons to Howard Johnsons,” he quipped. Now he’s back at high-priced hotels, at least for the time being.

Sunday’s SALT column was on Nick Mantis, who is working on a documentary about Jean Shepherd. I suggested the idea to Jeff Manes after meeting Mantis at the Archives. Nick told Jeff: “My mother and father met at a bus stop in East Chicago. My father is from Greece and my mother is from Mexico. My father looks like Anthony Quinn, who was born in Mexico. My mother is very fair complected for a Mexican lady. When they saw each other, me dad thought, ‘Hey, here’s this good-lookin’ Greek chick.’ My mother was thinking, ‘Here’s this good-lookin’ Mexican guy.’” Only in the Region.

Delores Crawford sent out a “media report” listing all the local newspaper articles for January mentioning IUN. One was the SALT column on Dick Hagelberg, where it mentioned me as his friend. We played bridge with the Hagelbergs Sunday and visited the house son Corey and Kate bought high atop a sand dune near Lake Street in miller.

I called Alex Karras at his home in California and, lo and behold, he picked up. He credits his mother Emmiline, an outdoors person and good ice skater, for being mainly responsible for the athletic prowess that ran in the family. He confirmed what brother Ted told me about their father teaching them to swim at the Gary YMCA and how they frequented the neighborhood doughnut shop. All in all, he was very affable. Good friend and former student David Malham, whose older brother Nick was a friend of Alex Karras, told me about the time he saw the two boxing for “fun” on his front porch. After Alex had a split lip and Kick a bloody nose, Mrs. Malham finally broke up the fight.

I got the following anecdote from Dave Malham’s brother Nick: On August 11, 1950, after starring at Purdue, brother Lou played in the College All-Star Football Classic at Soldier Field in Chicago, in which his team upset the Philadelphia Eagles 20-17. The next morning Nick Malham found Alex sitting on his front porch proudly wearing Lou’s helmet and jersey. A year or so later, while Lou was playing for the Washington Redskins, Alex told Malham, “I’m going to play professional football and then I’m going to become a Hollywood actor.”

Fellow U. of Maryland grad student Don Ritchie informed me that our old adviser Sam Merrill’s widow Marion passed away at age 97 and is finally going back to her hometown of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, to where she always claimed she wanted to return. I replied: “Thanks for letting me know. I had been thinking about seeing her in April when I came east for Ray Smock’s Alumni lecture. I wish Marion had agreed to the living eulogy program Richard wanted to have for her. Terry Jenkins, my best friend from high school had a surprise party all planned for his parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. A week before the event, his mother said, “Please don’t plan anything” so he called everyone and said it was off. Numerous people had to cancel airplane reservations. On the day of the anniversary his mom said, “It’s a shame we didn’t plan something involving old friends.” He would have liked to have strangled her.” It was Don who suggested the title “The Professor Wore a Cowboy Hat (And Nothing Else)” for an oral history paper I delivered on “Ethical Issues in Handling Matters of Sex in Institutional Oral Histories: Indiana University Northwest as a Case Study.”

Ray Smock has decided to title his speech “I Did It My Way, By Accident: Lessons from an Unconventional Career.” He also was the first to wish me an upcoming “biblical three score and ten,” adding: “How did we get this old? Many more to you dear friend.”

IUN was open despite it being Presidents' Day (an amalgamation of what once were days celebrating the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, two of America's best three leaders, FDR being the third). At lunch George Bodmer noticed my black sweater with the SI logo and asked if Sports Illustrated gave it to me. I told him I selected it from among several choices offered to subscribers. He quipped that at first he thought it stood for Supplemental Instruction, an IUN tutoring program. Friday I wore a bluish-white turtleneck under my crimson IUN t-shirt and looked pretty, pretty, pretty good if I do say so myself.

Former Indiana Congresswoman Katie Hall died at age 73. An ally of Mayor Richard Hatcher, she sponsored the bill that made the birthday of Martin Luther King a national holiday. After Pete Visclosky defeated her in 1984, she was elected Gary city clerk. An A.P. reporter asked me to assess her career. I indicated that the Post-Tribune had it in for her as a Hatcher ally and led the charge for her to be indicted for forcing members of her staff to sell candy (kadydids) during a time when virtually all political appointees were expected to do similar things, such as buy tickets to fundraisers. Small potatoes compared to how Dick Cheney and others of his ilk have become multi-millionaires thanks to their connections.