Froebel School

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the expression of what is in the child’s soul,” Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)

Gary School Superintendent  William A. Wirt had the city’s kindergarten through 12^thgrade “unit” schools named for admirable educators, beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson and continuing with Friedrich Froebel and Horace Mann.  Once known as the immigrant school, Froebel attracted visitors from all over the world intrigued by Wirt’s progressive educational “work-study-play” philosophy.  During the 1960s its graduates included future educator and State Representative Vernon Smith, responsible for a historical marker at the site where the historic school was demolished, and jazz pianist Billy Foster, who will appear on the cover of Steel Shavings,volume 48.  In its editor’s note I wrote:

  On March 19, 1965, Billy Foster (playing sax) and his Royal Imperials won a citywide talent show at Gary’s Memorial Auditorium representing Froebel High School. Famous as the home town of Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five, Gary has a long, proud musical tradition even though the Gary Conservatory “Music Man” professor Harold Hill claimed to have graduated from in never existed.  From its earliest years, music was an integral part of Superintendent William A. Wirt’s work-study-play curriculum.  Gary’s many ethnic groups produced a rich variety of musical strains, from Mexican mariachi bands to Serbian choral and tamburitza groups.  Metropolitan Opera tenor James McCracken, a Gary native, sang in a church choir as did the Spaniels and other doo wop groups recorded on Vivian Carter’s Vee-Jay label that originated in Gary.  The city’s rich jazz tradition dates to dance halls and nightclubs that sprang up during the “Roaring Twenties” and flowered during the 1940s.  At a young age jazz pianist Foster became familiar with local bandleader Tom Crump and horn player Art Hoyle.  In addition to teaching at Gary schools (primarily Charles R. Drew Elementary) for over 30 years as well as Valparaiso University, Foster performed with his own group, the Billy Foster Trio, as well as with such distinguished luminaries as Art Farmer, Slide Hampton, Tommy Harrell, Clark Terry, Bobby Watson, and many others. At present Foster hosts the WGVE radio show “Billy Foster Jazz Zone” and teaches a Senior College course at IU Northwest, whose Calumet Regional Archives recently started a collection in his name.

Froebel School gained notoriety in 1945 when many white students went out on strike just a month after World War II ended, protesting the policy of sending African Americans to their institution while most other Gary schools remained segregated.  In an effort to reduce tensions a liberal organization, Anselm Forum, invited singer Frank Sinatra and heavyweight champion Joe Louis to participate in a Tolerance program.  Sinatra’s appearance made national news, but Louis was unable to come due to other commitments.  I mention the incident in a forthcoming Traces article titled “Joe Louis and Gary.”  In “Gary’s First Hundred Years” I wrote that football coach Johnny Kyle became interim principal while Richard Nuzum was temporarily forced to step aside in the face of student pressure and school board cowardice.  Future IUN Performing Arts chair Garrett Cope was a student at Froebel at the time and could perform in musical programs but not in theater productions.

Twenty years ago I published a Steel Shavings issue (volume 27) titled “Froebel Daughters of Penelope,” about five Greek-Americans who attended Froebel during the 1940s, in some cases starting in elementary school, including Constance Girasin.  She recalled:

  At Froebel we were exposed not only to the three r’s but to sewing, cooking, orchestra, band, swimming, foreign language classes, wood shop, machine shop, a college-bound curriculum, and a whole line of business classes  such as shorthand, bookkeeping, and typing. The “Work” part of “Work, Study, Play” consisted of getting students ready for “life.”  Shops on the far west part of our building were for boys only, and girls didn’t so much as enter the.  However, we would pass them on our way to the band room.

  Twice Mrs. Jones was our history teacher, once in eighth grade and again in eleventh.  She was very soft-spoken and did 98 percent of her teaching sitting behind a desk.  She was a little too nice for us adolescents.  We were forever asking to be excused for band practice.  One day she came up with an expression I’ll never forget: “Constance, you are not going to earn your living baton-twirling.”  That’s true, but at the time I thought baton twirling was very important.  In my senior yearbook Jim Taneff jokingly wrote, “Constance, you are not going to earn your living by baton-twirling.”  

Randy Roberts’ “Joe Louis: Hard Times Man” (2010) begins with this quote from “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” by novelist Ernest J. Gaines: “When times get really hard, really tough, He always sends you somebody.  In the Depression it was tough on everybody, but twice as hard on the colored, and He sent us Joe.  Joe Louis was to lift the colored people’s heart.”  Roberts described the jubilation in 1938 among black people in all walks of life, from Harlem intellectuals to Gary steelworkers, listening on the radio and rejoicing when Louis defeated German Max Schmeling by knockout in the first round.  In Plains, Georgia, several dozen cotton and peanut field hands gathered on the front lawn of their boss Earl Carter, who had positioned his radio near an open window for their benefit.  Roberts wrote:

  Young Jimmy Carter remembered that they had listened to the fight without a word spoken or a cheer uttered, then filed away quietly, crossing a dirt road and a railroad track and entering a house out in a filed.  “At  that point pandemonium broke loose inside the house, as our black neighbors shouted and yelled in celebration of Louis’ victory.  But all the curious, accepted proprieties of a racially-segregated society had been carefully observed.”  Mister Earl’s “boys” knew “their place,”but in some way and for some period of time, Joe Louis had liberated them.  He had taken then to another place.

Roberts pointed out that in 1941 the three sports that mattered were horse racing (with Seabiscuit and Triple Crown winner Whirlaway, baseball (with Joe DiMaggio hitting in 56 straight games and Ted Williams batting .406), and boxing (with Gary’s “man of Steel” Tony Zale middleweight champ and Louis heavyweight champ).

Sports Illustrated columnist Steve Rushin eulogized Bob Einstein, who played Funkhouser on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and, years before, “Super Dave” Osborne, “the master of not landing on his feet.”  I laughed out loud reading about bits I’d seen on Letterman.  With a deadpan delivery and mock seriousness, Einstein’s character became a parody of contemporary stuntman Evel Knieval whose feats always ended in failure, with Super Dave crushed, squashed or flattened like a pancake.  Rushin wrote:

  Osborne didn’t suffer the foolish questions of sports journalists.  When he fell off Toronto’s CN Tower, then the tallest man-made structure in the world, and landed face-down in a parking lot, sportscaster Mike Walden asked him how he felt. “Why are you talking to me?”Super replied.  “I’ve got a minute to live. I need an ambulance.  Help me, putz.”  An ambulance arrived, only to run Osborne over.

 Super Dave Osborne shortly before shot three times in 1980 bit

Portage English teacher Mr. Downes loved James’ paper on “Babbitt,” assigning it a grade of 98%.  His only criticism concerned verb tenses when quoting from the novel, something that I know from experience can be tricky.  At present the class, reading several chapters a day, is critiquing “Great Expectations” (1860) by Charles Dickens from Marxist and feminist perspectives.  Sounds like a great class.

A 16-letter crossword puzzle clue asked who was the lone American to win Pulitzers for both fiction and poetry. Toni had the first name, Robert, which enabled me to get Robert Penn Warren, author of two volumes of prize-winning poetry, “Promises” and “Now and Then,” and “All the King’s Men,” based on the career of Louisiana demagogue Huey Long and one of my favorites.

As I entered Jewel’s parking lot, Chesterton police were questioning a woman who evidently had broken into one of the cars in the lot.  Either someone spotted her in the act or she was caught on the store’s surveillance cameras.  Maybe an alarm went off.  Inside the employees were all abuzz.  As I left, the woman was being taken away in a fire department  vehicle.

Jeffery in middle

The Eagles jumped out to a 14-0 lead against favored New Orleans but got blanked the rest of the way.  With two minutes to go and down 20-14, Philadelphia was 30 yards away from pulling off an upset when a pass went through the hands of former Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery, enabling the Saints to run out the clock.  No miracle this time from QB “St. Nick” Foles, last year’s Superbowl MVP. There’s a statue of him (below) outside the stadium.  The Eagles bowed out like champions, barely losing  to hall of famer Drew Brees.

fast food for Clemson Tigers

As the government shutdown enters its fourth week with no end in sight, Trump served fast food to the NCAA champion Clemson Tigers during their trip to the White House. Also in the news: 13 year-old Jayme Closs escaped an abductor who killed her parents and held her capture for three months.  A 21 year-old in now in custody.  Locally, the trial of Portage mayor James Snyder commenced; he allegedly accepted $12,000 in return for awarding a contract to a towing company.

Somewhat True Story

“You can tell my feet to hit the floor

Or you can tell my lips to tell my fingertips

They won't be reaching out for you no more


But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart.”
Billy Ray Cyrus

Toni and I took grandkids James and Rebecca out to dinner up the street at the Sunrise Restaurant (the fried clams were delicious) and then to Valparaiso High School for a performance of “The Somewhat True Story of Robin Hood.” The tagline: what would happen if Monty Python and Mel Brooks collaborated to tell the story of the hero of Sherwood Forest? The director knew Rebecca, having played Miss Flanagan in “Annie.” The kids had seen the play the night before, so they were prepped to laugh at all the funny lines. At their insistence we sat in the front row. A high school girl next to me did not seem self-conscious at being near an old geezer. I was impressed with the young people both in the audience and on the stage. I especially liked the actor who played evil Prince John, a tall, thin olive-skinned guy in a wig who resembled a young Ozzie Osborne. There were frequent modern references, including a Dungeon of Demise scene where Robin is tortured by being forced to listen to Miley Cyrus songs all night. There’s even a reference to her old man’s syrupy hit “Achy Breaky Heart.” James loves Miley’s Hannah Montana TV show and enjoyed the music, seemingly unaware or unconcerned that the references were a put-down. A couple years ago, “Vanity Fair” published controversial photos by Annie Leibowitz of Miley, including one of her with bare midriff lying on daddy’s stomach. Since then the 18 year-old (as of tomorrow, the thirty-seventh anniversary of JFK’s death) has been in a coming-of-age movie, “The Last Song,” and scored a hit with “Party in the U.S.A.” whose lyrics include, “Noddin’ my head like yeah/ Moving my hips like yeah.”

With Dave free Friday evening, we got two gaming sessions in over the weekend. I won a single game, a come-from-behind victory in Acquire thanks to securing (in a brilliant maneuver when Tom was talking concession to Dave) the most shares of Continental, the largest company. Tom Wade introduced a dice game called Roll Through the Ages that involves acquiring cities and monuments and avoiding disasters. It plays in about a half hour and will threaten to replace Stone Age (which Dave is tiring of) in our heavy rotation.

I got Toni to watch the “Car Pool Lane” episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where Larry picks up a hooker in order to make a Dodgers game. He tries to sit next to Marty Funkhouser, played by Bob Einstein, who years ago as Super Dave Osborne frequently appeared on David Letterman. Supposedly a stuntman on the order of Evel Knievel, the stunts would inevitably misfire, leaving him grievously injured but still with a lightly pained but deadpan expression (still a trademark of his as Funkhouser). Earlier, Larry purchased marijuana for his father who has glaucoma from Jorge Garcia, the overweight survivor on “Lost.” When Marty’s car won’t start after the game, Larry gives him a ride to the airport and asks him to hold his jacket (containing the reefer) while he goes to the bathroom. He comes out to discover Marty being busted.

Janet Edwards talked to the Ogden Dunes Historical Society about Alice Mabel Gray, dubbed Diana of the Dunes by the press. Earlier in the week Edwards, who lives in St. Louis, addressed the Duneland Historical Society in Chesterton. In July Chesterton hosted a Diana of the Dunes Festival. A recluse from Chicago, Alice lived in a shack near Lake Michigan and myths grew up about a beautiful young maiden skinny-dipping at dusk on summer evenings. I wrote about her in my Gary book, and for my Tales of Lake Michigan issue artist Dale Fleming did a sketch to go along with a story about sightings of a ghostly woman running along the beach naked before disappearing into the lake. Well-educated, Alice quit her job in Chicago with the Astro-Physical Journal because she was frustrated at the lack of opportunities for advancement by educated women. Her favorite saying was Lord George Gordon Byron’s “In solitude we are least alone.”

Tina Horn needed help for a paper on women in World War II. I suggested she focus on “Region Rosies” and gave her “Gary’s First Hundred Years” and lent her my World War II Shavings issue (volume 21), officially out of print. Tina’s Purdue North Central instructor, Alex Kendall, was a visiting professor at IUN a few years ago and evidently spoke highly of me. Coincidentally a former student of mine in Steve McShane’s History of Indiana class is doing a paper on Willa Brown, a trained pilot from Chicago who recruited Gary residents to become Tuskegee Airmen during WW II. A statue honoring those pilots at the Marquette Park Aquatorium is next to one of Octave Chanute, whose glider experiments nearby paved the way for the Wright brothers’ flights.

LeeLee sent a newsy email about old classmates. Dave Seibold wrote her frequently while at Bordentown Military Academy (mainly lamenting the lack of contact with females), and she gave the letters to him at the reunion. Nancy “Sissy” Schade loved seeing old flame Jay Bumm. LeeLee concluded: “Thinking what might have been so many years ago, I doubt she was the only one reliving those carefree days.” LeeLee suggested that I send the tiara mystery to several other classmates, but I want to go slow to make sure Wendy doesn’t think we are mocking her, which we certainly are not. Here’s my latest paragraph: “Captain Cardinal could think of several possible scenarios to explain the missing tiara, all of which seemed highly unlikely. First, in her excitement at mingling with old classmates, Wendy might have misplaced it. Second, a stranger stole it, thinking it was valuable. Third, a classmate might have pilfered it, but in that event, who? There had been no African Americans on the Homecoming Court, which had caused disgruntlement at the time. Might Mary or Myrna have succumbed to an old wound stemming from that slight? Many Italian-Americans had thought Judy G. deserved the crown. Judy did not attend the reunion, but two of her best friends, Marianne and Betty, did. So did the younger sister of Molly, beautiful, immensely popular, and 50 years ago the odds on favorite, who had passed away six years ago. Might Sissy have acted on an uncontrollable impulse? Suzi, the only other finalist at the reunion, did not attend the morning breakfast and in any event seemed not the envious type. Male suspects? Jimmy and Ray had been best friends with Vince, whom Wendy dated in high school. Did either have some old bone to pick, perhaps feeling that she had come between Vince and them? Buck and Pat had been outrageous practical jokers in high school. Could they have pulled one final prank for old times sake? Might John J., the last person in the vicinity of Wendy before she left the Hilton Gardens, have harbored a grudge over the fact that nobody from his Fort Washington neighborhood had been nominated for Homecoming Queen? The Captain made a mental note to bring up these names at his upcoming meeting with Wendy and see if she had any other leads. Maybe her husband had taken it from her bag, intending to add precious gems and surprise her with it at a later time. No, he would have fessed up to that by now. One thing bothered him: why Wendy was going through the time, trouble, and money (he did not come free) to solve this mystery.”

Traded emails with Paul Kern due to the death of Bill Neil, who hired both of us. He recently read Bill’s memoir about his WWII service and exchanged letters with him about it. Paul bragged about recently making a hole in one during a golf tournament. I replied: “I recall how excited my dad was when he got one. A few years ago my brother discovered the scorecard in a desk of my father’s that he inherited.”

Bob and Karen Reller sent a newsletter about their eight-week “pilgrimage” to Israel along with a Thanksgiving card that wished their friends not only a happy Thanksgiving but also a “joyous holiday season” (a neat idea that gets rid of the need for Christmas cards). On the cover are photos of their grandchildren, Quinn (a girl) and brew (a boy). They arranged their Mideast trip so they would be in the Holy Land during the seven-day feast of Sukkot, during which time people take their meals in structures covered with tree branches in commemoration of the 40 years Israelites wandered in the dessert after their exodus from Egypt. They spent two weeks in Jerusalem with friends and another two at Beth El kibbutz, founded almost a half-century ago by German and Canadian Christians, as part of a “Hands to the Land” leadership program. I called them up and filled Rel in on reunion highlights.