Portage Historical Society

I spoke to about 25-30 members of the Portage Historical Society last evening. First I told them about how Steel Shavings magazine got started (to publish family histories written by IUN students and record other aspects of social life in the Calumet Region). Then I mentioned what went into the Portage issue (volume 20) that came out in 1991, including articles and interviews some of my seminar students did as well as interviews I conducted with politicians Cortie Wilson and William Westergren. I recruited 18 Historical Society members to read quotes from old-timers who had been interviewed by Portage High School students in 1981 about life during World War I and the 1920s. Passing out magazines with the various people’s lines marked with red ink, I told the volunteers they could keep the magazine when we were done, an incentive that apparently worked.

Before the group performance, former student and friend Bruce Sawochka read an excerpt from his article “Portage in Three Stages of Its Growth.” In between the “Pioneer Era” and the “Big Bang Period” starting in the 1950s were the quiet years of farms, villages such as Crisman, McCool and Garyton, and one-room schoolhouses. I got chuckles mentioning that one teacher was also a preacher and closed school on funeral days but then made students make the day up on Saturday. The reading experiment went very well with people almost always talking loud enough and picking up on their cues (I was well organized, having employed this method of shared participation in talks about the city of Gary). When I had run out of male volunteers, Lois Mollick offered to assume the role of Marvin Guernsey and drew laughs when she read his lines with a deep voice. One woman turned out to be the granddaughter of one of the Anderson brothers, Elmer and Walter. Elmer recalled: “I got a job working in the mill before we had the eight-hour day. I worked in the mill nights, and then in the daytime I worked on the farm.”

During the question period I mentioned that I lived in Portage but that my neighborhood, Edgewater, was disappearing because it was within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. When someone asked about the big slide in Ogden Dunes during the Twenties, I replied that one could read about it in my “Tales of Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunelands” issue (volume 28). I also got in a plug for Ron Cohen and Steve McShane’s book on South Shore posters, “Moonlight in Duneland: The Illustrated History of the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad” One man said he was thinking about writing a book about stories from his years working at U.S. Steel, and I encouraged him and told him about Richard Dorson’s book “Land of the Millrats” and my Shavings volume (no. 19) on “Steelworkers Tales.”

I had spoken to the group in 2006 when my “Centennial History of Gary” came out. Lois Mollick remembered me and told the group that she had been interviewed by two of my students (excerpts appeared in my Postwar issue “Age of Anxiety” (volume 34). Turns out she and a friend skipped school to see Frank Sinatra sing at a Tolerance concert held at Gary’s Memorial Auditorium during the 1945 Froebel School Strike. Someone else reported seeing Nat King Cole perform with his trio at Memorial Auditorium. I took that opportunity to mention that African-American celebrities often went to Midtown for ribs at Mae’s Louisiana Kitchen but that Roosevelt principal Theo Tatum thought the place to be disreputable and prohibited his teachers from frequenting Mae’s because he thought it would reflect badly on the school’s image.

Afterwards helped myself to some of the many cookies on hand and chatted with Barb Borg-Jenkins, the South Haven librarian who had originally invited me to talk. She had read about Ronald Osgood’s “My Vietnam Your Iraq” documentary on my blog and hopes to purchase a copy after it is completed. Another Historical Society officer told me that her sister had done an article for my “Brothers in Arms” issue. Turned out she was referring to Sherril Tokarski, one of my all-time favorite students, who also wrote about a family grocery store in Glen Park for my 1980s issue (volume 38), “The Uncertainty of Everyday Life.” (the title was fitting, as the store was robbed several times during the decade) As I was leaving, Barb Borg-Jenkins said, “Come back any time.” I was flattered and pleased with how everything went. I think at least two folks are planning a visit to the Archives.

My first Shavings issue was just 40 pages long while volume 40 is more than seven times as thick at 304 pages. The Portage issue, 96 pages, was the first to have a spine (not until volume 23 was there writing on the spine, however) and one of the last pre-computer issues that had to be retyped and therefore re-proofread by the printer. As Bruce Sawochka was finishing the reading the paragraph I had assigned him, he said at loud, “This is quite good.” That was also my feeling when going through the entire magazine. There are articles covering work experiences, school activities, church functions, July Fourth celebrations, Little League, Girl Scouts, trailer court life, the Bonner Center for senior citizens, and much more. In my “Editor’s Personal Note” I mentioned playing softball for Porter Acres at Woodland Park (its clubhouse was the site of the History Society meeting), taking my mother-in-law Blanche to play bingo in a church basement, and watching my granddaughter Alissa do puzzles at the public library.

Back home, I opened “Brothers in Arms” to Sherril Tokarski’s article, which dealt with her brother-in-law Charles Hubert Stanley being in a three-day battle in Vietnam during the Tet offensive. The sister I met seemed too young to have been married in 1967, but who knows? In his last letter to his wife Linda the young first lieutenant said he looked forward to seeing her soon on R and R in Hawaii. Then Sherril writes: “March 1968 – a green car arrives at our home. The soldiers inform my sister that her husband was killed. A defective grenade in his ammo pouch exploded while he was waiting for a chopper to airlift him out of the field at Binh Long province.” Sherril adds: “A young man died far from home for a lie delivered to all Americans by those we trusted. He never got a chance to buy his first home, hold his first child, have the great pride in his children, hold his grandchildren, and grow old or even middle aged. It has been 40 years since he died in that far away place, but he has not been forgotten. We are proud of you and will always love you.”

David Malham sent me two emails, a link to an Esquire article about film critic Roger Ebert called “The Essential Man” and a plea to sign a petition protesting the History Channel’s plans to show a scabrous biopic of John F. Kennedy next year on the fiftieth anniversary of his election as President. Got a call from Post-Tribune reporter Andy Grimm soliciting my reaction to the Gary Library Board changing the name of the Ora Wildermuth Miller branch to Carter Woodson, thereby honoring “the father of Negro History.” A couple years ago a historiancame across and published racist letters Wildermuth, Gary’s first librarian, wrote to IU President Herman Wells while he was on IU’s Board of Trustees opposing integration of dorms. Wildermuth argued that it would lead to intermarriage and that would be horrible. While Grimm mentioned that Wildermuth’s views were no different than most whites of his time, I told him I agreed with the Board’s decision.

Labor Day Weekend

Friday I examined the final page proofs of “Steel Shavings,” volume 40, which in essence is my Retirement Journal, called “Out to Pasture but Siill Kickin.’” It looked great except the photo for the front cover was cropped in a way that left out two important people, so they will adjust it and FAX me the change. In Anne Tyler’s 2006 novel “Digging to America” a character retiring from teaching compares the final days to “walking down a red carpet and then turning to find the attendants rolling it up behind you.” I used to hate people seeing me on campus and saying, “What are you doing here?” like I was an interloper. Now since I’m at IU Northwest regularly, that only occasionally happens, to which I reply, “I wasn’t ready to retire.” Recently I've been on an Anne Tyler reading binge, starting with "Breathing Lessons" and "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant."

Saturday I interviewed Sheriff Roy Dominguez at school and listened to a telephone message informing me that due to a health setback Marion Merrill’s “Living Eulogy” has been postponed. There go the plans for our road trip east. In the afternoon I attended former colleague Fred Chary’s seventieth birthday party. Since we are both Philadelphia sports fans, I wore a Phillies t-shirt. He had on an Eagles jersey with (Donovan) McNabb and the number 5 on the back. I gave him a CD featuring a 35-minute excerpt of the “Joe Niagara Show,” circa 1957 (when Fred was a h.s. senior). I was a tenth grader then listening to the Coasters ("Searchin'), Fats Domino ("Blueberry Hill" and "Blue Monday"), and the Everly Brothers ("Bye, Bye Love" and "Wake Up, Little Susie"). Known as “The Rockin’ Bird,” Niagara was the evening mainstay on radio station WIBG until victimized by the so-called payola scandal. Someone gave Fred a DVD of the Eagles ten greatest games, and he had me watch the end of the 1978 “Miracle in the Meadowlands.” The NY Giants had the ball with a minute to go and could have run out the clock with their quarterback taking a knee, but he inexplicably attempted a handoff, fumbled, and the Eagles’ Herman Edwards picked the ball up in stride on a bounce and scored the winning TD. It cost the Jets coach his job. Two of the guests were faculty members still teaching who are older than I - Alan Barr and Jean Poullard. Poullard offered a toast to the year 1939, when both he and Fred were born. Alan, 71, suggested 1938 was a better choice given WW II breaking out in '39. Poullard actually grew up in occupied France and is married to a Berliner. I went from Fred’s to an "end of the summer" jam hosted by Marianne Brush, whose late husband Tim (“Big Voodoo Daddy”) was the lead guitar player in my son’s band Voodoo Chili. Dave jammed for about five hours with various musicians. I went up to a mike to sing the chorus to "867-5309" and "Surrender." It was Marianne's daughter Missy's eighteenth birthday, and Dave got her to sing three songs after singing the Cracker "birthday" song, only substituting "Missy" for "You" in the lines "Happy, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you and to me."

The Sunday Post-Trib had a huge article on the 1919 Steel Strike using photos obtained from Steve McShane at the Calumet Regional Archives. Writer Andy Grimm used quotes from former student David Janott’s Steel Shavings article, including this conclusion: “Blacks in Gary, regardless of their connection, if any, to the strike, were regarded as company scabs. They were made the scapegoat for the failure of the strike.” Steve emailed Janott’s article to Grimm as well as a memoir by Paul Dremeley that includes this quote concerning the gulf between immigrant workers and their native born bosses: “Italiano push wheel barrow/ Americano smoke seegaro.” Recently Ray Fontaine loaned me an excellent book on the year 1919 that had a photo of a person identified as Judge Elbert H. Gary. It looked nothing like the U.S. Steel head honcho and turned out to be of a labor leader. Jeff Manes’ “SALT” column also had a Labor Day theme, befitting the area’s rich industrial heritage. He interviewed United Steelworkers District Director Jim Robinson, who discussed the importance of labor solidarity with union members in Mexico. I interviewed Robinson, whose father-in-law was the labor militant Jim Balanoff, for a Steel Shavings issue co-edited with Mike Olszanski entitled “Steelworkers Fight Back.” The Wades had a cookout Sunday featuring crocket, ping pong, and the game “Wits and Wagers,” which I won mainly by knowing the approximate year Ernest Hemingway won a Pulitzer. One question asked what year the Panama Canal opened. I guessed 1914 but it was 1913, which Darcy Wade guessed on the nose.

Monday : The suburban community of Lowell had a Labor day parade, a tradition dating back 90 years. Good for them. Some “Tea Party” protestors showed up to heckle Congressman Pete Visclosky for his support of Obama and health care. The rightwing is determined to derail anything the President tries to do, even pressuring schools not to carry his message to children to work hard and stay in school (a tradition started by Ronald Reagan). We had a cookout and played bridge with the Hagelbergs to end the long weekend.