Old Days

Drive-in movies, comic books and blue jeans
Howdy Doody, baseball cards and birthdays

Take me back to the world gone away
Memories seem like yesterday

         “Old Days,” Chicago

WXRT’s Saturday morning focus was on the year 1975, and in the car I heard “Old Days” by Chicago, “Philadelphia Freedom” by Elton John, “Lady” by Styx, and “Stand By Me” by John Lennon, which appeared on the “Rock ‘n’ Roll” album featuring such Fifties hits as “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Bony Moronie.”  Two of my 1975 favorites are “Fame” by David Bowie and “Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin.

 Lanes and Horns at El Capitan, Oct. 2018; Kaiden on right with parents

Kay English

At Inman’s James’s teammate Kaiden Horn bowled a 259, his best ever.  After a strike and spare, he rolled seven strikes in a row before leaving a ten-pin in the final frame, converting it and ending with a strike.  Andrew English’s grandmother Kay was visiting from downstate, and I recalled that 30 years ago IUN student Annette Mendosa interviewed her about being a Girl Scout troop leader for nine years. She started as a volunteer, then was a den mother in Brownies for her daughter Janet’s age group.  Son John, a classmate of Phil’s, would help out with newspaper drives so he got to on a trip with them to Frankenmuth, Michigan.  He was the only boy.  One time Kay took the Girl Scouts to Florida.  She told Annette Mendosa: 

 One year we camped all the way around Lake Michigan.  We had two rental vans with all our stuff on the top.  We spent a day on Mackinac Island and rode bicycles for two around the island.  In 1979 our group recycled enough newspapers and had enough fundraisers that we were able to spend a week on a Dude Ranch south of Denver.  Over half the girls had never been on an airplane.  Only two or three had ever been in Colorado.  None had been white water rafting.  We were eight in a raft with an oarsman.  I’ve seen some of these kids become doctors and nurses, teachers and therapists.  Some have gotten in trouble; but you’re not raising them, you’re only working with them in Girl Scouting.

I spent much of the weekend reading Kate Morton’s former number 1 bestseller  “The Secret Keeper” (2012).  Much of it takes place in London during World War II.  It kept my interest for many hours of binge reading.  I should have anticipated the surprise ending from various clues along the way.  Once I realized Vivien wasn’t just a tangential character, I reread the beginning of Part Three, which described her childhood in Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, Australia, where the author grew up and attended a small country school.  In the novel Vivien is made to stay home as punishment for fighting a bully while her family attended the annual Cedar Getters’ picnic in Southport.  On the way home her parents and siblings perished when their car went over a cliff in the fog.  Vivien later heard her Aunt Ada (whose voice “shrilled like a fiddle string wound too tight”) irrationally blame her for the accident before shipping her off to an uncle, a headmaster in Oxford, rather than keep her. Vivien carried that guilt with her, which helps explains her later acceptance of ill-treatment from an abusive husband.

Ray Smock’s new book, “American Demagogue: Critical Essays on the Trump Presidency,” arrived in the mail.  Dedicated to public servants in the military and federal government  for “maintaining and defending this great republic,” my old friend from U. of Maryland days opens with this quote by Dionysius of Halicarnassus from 20 BC found in the sixth volume of “Antiquities of Rome”: “The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.” In the acknowledgments Smock thanked a dozen of us for our encouragement and critiques, most of all wife Phyllis, “who has supported my writing and research for almost 60 years.  I am a lucky guy.”  Leafing through the chapter titles, some recognizable from Facebook posts, I turned to one called “My Friend, George Will.”  A conservative columnist who formally left the Republican Party in the summer of 2016 after candidate Trump made disparaging comments about a judge of Mexican ancestry reared in East Chicago, Indiana, Will considers the President’s views a perversion of traditional principles.  In March of 2018 after Trump appointed warhawk John Bolton to replace H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser, Will claimed he would soon be “the second most dangerous man in America.” Smock wrote:

 Will sees the latest shake-up in the White House staff as marking the end of a delusion that many of us have had about the Trump administration, that if we just got some sensible adults to surround our childish president, he could be “cocooned with layers of adult supervision.”  The bubble has burst.  The president now has an all-Fox News team surrounding him on TV and in the White House.

 One single question in Will’s column particularly grabbed my attention.  The question, and his answer to it, is a brilliant insight, perfectly stated: “How can the president square his convictions with Bolton’s?  Let’s say this one more time: Trump has. No convictions.”

Arriving at Nicole Anslover’s class just as Biology professor Spencer Cortwright was leaving, he quipped, who are you, Benjamin Button, morphing back to student days?  He was referring to a character played by Brad Pitt who ages in reverse.  I told him I always learned something new in Nicole’s class, and she told him I was a valuable contributor.  Students talked about World War II movies they’d viewed such as “Saving Private Ryan,” “Dunkirk,” and “Valkyrie” (2008), with Tom Cruise as German officer Claus von Stauffenberg, who plotted to assassinate Hitler in 1944.  Someone had seen “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), which dramatized problems soldiers had readjusting to civilian life.  I mentioned “A League of Their Own” (1992), about a women’s baseball league formed when war threatened to dry up many minor leagues by a candy magnate modeled after Cubs owner P.K. Wrigley.  During the war chewing gum magnate Wrigley provided packs of Spearmint, Double mint, and Juicy Fruit to G.I.s and marketed his product as relieving thirst in foxholes.

When Nicole spoke about women wartime workers, not only in heavy industry but for other areas where there was a shortage, I brought up the double-edged meaning of the slogan “For the Duration,” both a pledge hoisted on women that they’d keep working until the war was won and an assurance to men that they’d get their old jobs back afterwards.  

Speaking about contributions by the WACs, WAVEs and SPARs, Nicole used the phrase “the tooth and the tail”referring to the distinction between front line troops and those in a supply role, which often far outnumber the former. After class I told Nicole about Lillian Federman’s assertion in her history of lesbian life in the twentieth century, “Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers” (1991), that a women’s corps was an ideal option and breeding ground for lesbians – although, in my opinion, the term bisexual might have been more appropriate, since probably a majority later returned to civilian life and got married.  Federman quoted WAC Sergeant Johnnie Phelps responding to a request by General Dwight Eisenhower that she ferret out lesbians in her battalion:

 Yessir, if the general pleases, I will be happy to do this investigation.  But sir, it would be unfair of me not to tell you, my name in going to head the list.  You should be aware that you’re going to have to replace All the file clerks, the section heads, most of the commanders, and the motor pool.  I think you should also take into consideration that there have been no illegal pregnancies, no cases of venereal disease, and the general himself has been the one to award good conduct commendations and service commendations to these members of the WAC detachment.

Ike replied: Forget the order.  Phelps, who had joined the WACs to escape an unhappy marriage, went on to become active in the National Organization of Women and California Lesbian Task Force.

 Johnnie Phelps

I told Nicole about an article in Harper’sdiscussing Norman Rockwell’s illustrations, now part of a traveling exhibit, inspired by FDR’s Four Freedoms speech of January 6, 1941.   According toSmithsonianmagazine’s Abigail Tucker, the speech initially fell flat: “Congress barely applauded.  The next day most newspapers did not even mention the Four Freedoms.”  When Rockwell first pitched using the illustrations in war bond drives, the Office of War Information (OWI) rejected it until overruled by the President and new appointees to the OWI, setting off a near revolt among the staff.  Tremendously popular with the general public, the four representations of freedom of speech and religion and from want and fear of aggression appeared on 4 million sets of posters and ultimately their own postage stamps.   Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech poster, first appearing as a 1943 Saturday Evening Post cover, greets visitors to  Portage Public Library.

I told Minority Studies chair Earl Jones that Chancellor Lowe had written about the origins of IUN’s Black Studies program in a Post-Tribunecolumn and included Black Caucus leader Gerry Samuels by name.  Here is part of the article, titled “Striving for educational excellence and equity”:  

  Dr. Martin Luther King’s vision of working to achieve civic harmony and educational equity lives on both throughout our region and certainly on the Indiana University Northwest campus, where we are proud to be Indiana University’s most diverse campus.  Our commitment to diversity and inclusion took shape early, when, in 1969, the IU Northwest Black Caucus was formed, led by student Gerry Samuel and faculty advisor Dr. F C Richardson. Through the student group’s bold and formative actions, they urged the campus to engage with and reflect on Dr. King’s words, “to think critically”and inclusively by establishing a Black Studies program.

  This year, IU Northwest proudly celebrates the 50th anniversary of the African American and African Diaspora program, one of the first programs of its kind established in the United States.  Over the years, the trailblazing IU Northwest program has evolved, continuing to engage the history of African Americans and Africans, while challenging prevailing paradigms affecting race and inclusion.

M.G.M.T.

I called granddaughter Victoria, attending Grand Valley State, to wish her a happy birthday, telling her she was the most mature 19 year-old I knew.  She had recently replied to something I put on Facebook about my musical tastes by writing,“Why is my grandpa so cool?”  Nice. We talked about concerts we’d attended together in Grand Rapids by Cracker and the Head and the Heart.  I told her I’d check on upcoming shows at 20 Monroe.  One that looks promising is indie rock band M.G.M.T. in mid-May.  The group's most successful CD, which I own, was “Oracular Spectacular” (2007), which contains the hits “Electric Feel” and “Kids.”

Dean Bottorff found a photo from my China trip some 25 years ago when I was staying with them in Hong Kong.  We had visited Macau, then a Portuguese colony, and crossed into a village where I took photos with Red Army teens and friendly women who may have been sex workers. I teased Dean about how he’d warned me not to give money to kids begging and then he did so himself, resulting in them following us around hoping for more. Our former Maple Place neighbors, they were great hosts prior to my lecturing for several weeks at Chinese University.  They taught me how to navigate Hon Kong’s always crowded min-busses by slowly making your way toward the rear exit.

Fat Tuesday is Paczki Day in the Region, and stores have been well-stocked with doughnuts filled with various jams and topped with powdered sugar, icing or glaze. Back when Vickie Milenkovski was secretary of History and Philosophy, adjunct Ed Kenar would bring in a box of Paczkis every year from a bakery in Hammond.  They were huge but delicious and must have contained close to a thousand calories.

 above, Judy Tarpo; below, Terry Bauer, Mary Kocevar, Carol Miller, Chuck Tomes

Barbara Walczak’s first March Newsletter contained a great shot of four bridge friends who ranked in Unit 154’s top 100, plus a “Welcome” shout-out to new player Judy Tarpo, a retired microbiologist at St. Mary Medical Center.  For 27 years she has been in the Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus, so Dick Hagelberg probably knows her.

Signs of Life

“Travel and a change of place impart a new vigor to the mind,” Seneca

Our table at San Chez, two views

Toni and I enjoyed a Michigan adventure in Grand Rapids, celebrating our birthdays with Phil’s family.  We stayed at the downtown Holiday Inn, located across Pearl Street from the Gerald R. Ford Museum.  Alissa had made an afternoon reservation for ten at a nearby tapas bistro, San Chez.  In addition to Phil and Delia, Alissa and Josh, and Miranda and Sean, Anthony came despite an intramural soccer match that evening and Tori in spite of suffering in the aftermath of her four wisdom teeth having been extracted.  We ordered paella for the table and a couple of pitchers each of sangria and beer, then picked out many entries from the tapa menu, which Alissa wrote down on the butcher paper that doubled as a table cloth.  My choices included Bistec con Pimiento (peppered steak, tortellini, and Manchego mustard cream sauce) and Seta Rellena (crimini mushrooms stuffed with spinach, roasted red peppers, garlic, Manchebo cheese, and tomato vinaigrette).  We feasted for hours and then picked out more items from the dessert menu. Finally, out came two with candles for Toni and me, and Miranda took several group selfies. 

Back at the Holiday Inn, I made use of the pool and hot tub and found a John Jakes novel, The Rebels, on shelves that served as a repository for books left behind by guests.  Billed as part of a Bicentennial series known as the “Kent Family Chronicles,” it opened with Continental soldiers facing British “Redcoats” on Breed’s Hill and described the death of famed Patriot agitator James Warren. Then the locale shifted to tidewater Virginia and scenes of a rake seducing a neighbor’s wife and berating an overseer for whipping a female slave who had given birth to twins just three days previously. I was content not finish it.

Toni and Miranda; below, Well Design Studio conference room

On Monday Alissa joined us for breakfast.  She and her dad had taken the day off, so we picked Phil up and visited Miranda at her workplace before visiting Josh at his office downtown. He is a partner at Well Design Studio, which on Linkedin is described aa "a community-minded design and communications agency that partners with non-profits and businesses to conceive and implement branding and communications solutions that speak to their constituents and customers.”  The impressive studio, once a hotel suite, is located in one of the oldest buildings in Grand Rapids.  We met Josh’s four associates and then had lunch (sans drinks) at Bull’s Head Tavern, where the house specialty is a burger made of buffalo meat.  I’d planned to save half my BLT for later, but it was so good I ate the entire thing, along with homemade chips and a pickle.

Toni spent the afternoon at Alissa’s, who served lasagna and salad for dinner, while I rested up for The Head and the Heart concert at 20 Monroe Live, a brand-new, 2,500-capacity venue.  Its debut week last month featured appearances by Trombone Shorty, Umphrey’s McGee, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.  We thought Whitney, opening for The Head and the Heart, would come on at 7 until Josh found out that the doors opened then and Whitney would take the stage at 8.  On the way to pick me up, Phil saw people lined up all around the block.  We had premium reserve seats, so waited till about 7:15 and went right up to the Will Call window and got inside within minutes.  On the walls were posters for such impressive upcoming attractions as Peter Frampton, Lil Wayne, Korn, and Jimmy Eat World.  Our seats in the mezzanine gave us a perfect view of the stage.  I wore my Seattle shirt (where the band originated), a present from daughter-in-law Beth Satkoski, who had given me The Head and the Heart’s “Signs of Life” CD this past Christmas.

Chicago band Whitney featured former Smith Western members Julien Ehrlich (on drums and vocals) and guitarist Max Kakacek. Robert Blaszkiewicz included their song “Golden Days” on his “Best of 2016” CD.  Describing Whitney’s blend of indie rock and psychedelic pop, critic Paul Lester wrote: “Think Bon Iver, with elements of folk and country, only given a Chicago makeover.” Familiar with Grand Rapids, Ehrlich mentioned performing at the Pyramid Scheme and claimed he’d be at the Tin Car bar after the show.  The crowd especially liked Will Miller’s trumpet solos.  Ehrlich gave guitar player Josiah Marshall a long kiss, then introduced him as his cousin. The last number, “No Woman,” contained these lines:

I've been sleeping alone
I've been going through a change
I might never be sure
I'm just walking in a haze
I'm not ready to turn

After intermission, The Head and the Heart opened with a magnificent version of their smash hit “All We Ever Knew.”  I knew virtually all the songs in the 90-minute set since Jimmy Satkoski had burned me four CDs of previous concerts, including an appearance on “Austin City Limits.”  While one critic summarized their style as “Avett Brothers meets Fleet Foxes,” the band rocked out more often than not.  Since I love fiddle player Charity Rose Thielen’s voice, I appreciated the quieter songs. At one point a backup singer shouted out, “Hello, Ann Arbor” (their next destination) before Charity corrected him, adding that he lives in a clam shell.  The crowd forgave him, but it was fortunate, I told Alissa, that they weren’t in East Lansing playing for a Michigan State crowd.  Hearing me softly singing the chorus to “Library Magic,” Alissa squeezed my hand.  The words go:

I can see the sunshine’s ray gleaming through the clear waters

Telling me you gotta bop in for this chapter’ ride

There will always be better days

There will always be better days

Nobody in our entourage had been to 20 Monroe Live, and all were impressed.  The Head and the Heart did four encores, ending with “Lost in My Mind,” Sean’s favorite Head and the Heart song.  I suggested we return in April for Flaming Lips or in May for Jimmy Eat World.  We all agreed that would be cool.  My favorite Jimmy Eat World hit, “The Middle (of the ride),” came out in 2001, when Sean was in elementary school. Miranda had planned on taking a group selfie below the marquee, but, instead of The Head and the Heart, it was already advertising next day’s appearance by Steve Hackett, formerly with Genesis.

after the show

Phil joined us for breakfast before we headed home.  I had planned to get on Route 131 North near the hotel, but Phil said I’d have to cross 5 lanes in less than a quarter-mile and guided me to a better ramp entrance.  Home two hours later, we learned that Becca won an award performing with Chesterton’s Drifters and that James got the part of Uncle Fester in a Portage production of “The Addams Family” (the director wants him to shave his head).  On the 4 o’clock news came dire warnings of tornadoes and hail the size of ping pong balls; all we got in Chesterton was lightning and a heavy but brief downpour.  Rather than watch IU get beat by Purdue or Trump addressing Congress, I listened to CDs Josh and Alissa gave me, “Separation Sunday” by Hold Steady (I’m a big fan) and “Reunion Tour” by The Weakerthans, a Canadian band I’d never heard of but whose “Civil Twilight” (2007) I recognized.  It’s about a bus driver ruminating about an old acquaintance:

My chance to say something seemed so brief, but it wasn't.
Now I know I had plenty of time
Between the sunset and certified darkness
Dusk comes on and I follow the exhaust from memory up to the end
The civil twilight

Here’s Ray Smock’s assessment of Trump addressing Congress:

      Our president has been unpredictable in so many of his appearances, but tonight in his first address before Congress, he followed the format, the cadence, and the style of this formal event quite well. He was not overly bellicose. He was not disrespectful of Congress. He read from the Teleprompter better than I have seen him do it in past performances. He seemed comfortable in the role. He did no damage to his image; in fact, he enhanced it with his overall performance for which I give him excellent style points. 

      Substance was another matter. He called on Democrats to work with him to unite the country. This was a good message. But style can only take this speech so far; it is much stronger when backed up with an equally important vision of how to obtain it and how to pay for it without bankrupting the nation. He called for a trillion-dollar infrastructure program to rebuild our roads, tunnels, and bridges. We need such a program, but to get it requires a budget and a way to pay for it. The devil is always in the details of the annual budget of the United States.

      Trump’s speech writers chose to stick with broad generalities. He offered no specific details of his budget with its drastic proposals for military increases while slashing all other programs. He talked of building his Wall but did not say who would pay for it. He called for repeal and replacement of the Affordable Healthcare Act, which everyone continues to call Obamacare, and said the new plan would be better but offered no timetable and no clear vision of how it would be different or better. 

      This was a speech that met the requirement of demonstrating that President Trump could come before Congress and not make a fool of himself. A lot of people, including me, thought he would blow it. But he didn’t.

With the bar set so low, I’m not surprised that fair-minded critics gave him passing style points.  An entertainer like Ronald Reagan, he is an effective communicator.

Jesse Gomez (right) in 1987

Jeff Manes wrote about Jesse Gomez, 60, an East Chicago school board member and former Inland Steel comrade.  Gomez told Jeff:

  For the majority of my childhood, I grew up at the corner of Fir and Broadway in the Harbor (neighborhood of East Chicago).   I manually set pins at Leo Peter's bowling alley on Broadway. I also was a paperboy for Harbor News Agency, owned by Chili Moss. Chili sold newspapers, comic books and candy. I also delivered The Latin Times on Fridays. They went for a nickel a copy.

I helped Toni with the answer to a crossword clue about an NFL coach with four Superbowl rings.  Answer: Chuck Noll, whose Pittsburgh Steelers were champions in 1975, 1976, 1979, and 1980.  Only Bill Belichick of the Patriots has more than Noll.

At IUN after 5 days I erased 552 junk emails and found a few important ones, including an interview request from producer Aja Harris.  She works for Mic, a company that, according to its website, “helps our generation understand what’s happening in the world, why it matters, and how it impacts them.”  It will take place Friday at the Archives.  I told her not to concentrate too much on the “Gary Ruins” theme and suggested she check out Blandine Huk and Frederic Cousseau’s brilliant and balanced film “My Name Is Gary.” As they discovered, with all its problems, Gary is a character-building environment.

Hollis Donald dropped off a eulogy to Librarian Tim Sutherland who retired the day before.  Donald called him a humble man who nonetheless is unwavering in doing the right thing and “depends on a quiet strength to keep his integrity intact.”  Steve McShane will take over for Sutherland until a replacement is hired.  

Steve McShane; photo by Samuel A. Love

Ed Kenar left me a note saying he’d left Paczkis in the adjunct office, as is his custom on Fat Tuesday, but they’d all been gobbled up by the time I arrived.  Passing David Parnell’s office, I told him that I enjoyed the first two chapters of “Justinian’s Men: Careers and Relationships of Byzantine Army Officers” and was pleased to discover that, like me, he is values social history, as well as institutional history.  He wrote: “The study of social networks, or the relationship between individuals, is still relatively new in the field of Late Antique studies.”