Birthday Bash

Last evening Toni and I went to Lake County Roy Dominguez’s Birthday Bash at Avalon Manor in Merrillville. I’ve been working on a book project with the sheriff for nearly a year now, and it was fun to observe him greet the many guests and perform in front of the crowd. Earlier in the week he had brought to the Archives all sorts of photos, family Christmas cards, flyers, literature, and other campaign memorabilia, including decks of cards, buttons, writing pads, and even an umbrella. I had met his wife Betty before, but I got to meet his charming daughters Maria and Veronica for the first time, as well as his brother Jesse and his nephew Alex, who is a candidate for county judge in the May Democratic primary. The Fundraiser invite announced that hors d’oeuvres would be served, but there was a sumptuous buffet plus a dessert table. Roy’s mom, whom he describes as feisty, gave a brief but passionate speech. The guest speaker was USWA District 7 Director Jim Robinson, whose father-in-law Jim Balanoff was a crusading union leader a generation ago. He said it was unfair having to follow Roy’s mother. Roy himself was very dynamic and mentioned that in Kokomo someone on a newspaper editorial board mentioned that nobody from Lake County had ever been elected governor. He replied that nobody from Lake County had ever run for governor before but that was going to change. The crowd roared its approval. I enjoyed watching local politicians go from table to table, including Lake County Treasurer John Petalas, who was a student in my 1979 History of American Journalism class and editor of the student newspaper, the “Northwest Phoenix.” Several candidates to succeed Sheriff Dominguez were in attendance including onetime rival John Buncich.

Today I attended a Women’s Studies “Celebrating Our Students” conference. My buddy Anne Balay was one of the main organizers, and she mentioned that her youngest daughter designed the program, which featured Virginia Woolf on the cover. During the morning sessions eight IU Northwest students delivered papers. I especially enjoyed Nicole Yoder’s exploration of imagery in Wallace Stevens’ modernist poem “The Emperor of Ice cream.” It made no sense to me until Nicole explained that the “Emperor” stood for death. Also interesting was Catherine Brilmyer’s presentation on flooding in Ogden Dunes that occurred in the spring of 2009. Kathy Kwiatkowski discussed the silhouettes of black folks drawn by African American artist Kara Walker depicting antebellum days. Some critics have criticized her work as demeaning, but her message, I think, is that it was the institution of slavery that was demeaning, so she does not idealize her subjects, just the reverse. After lunch children’s book author Maiya Williams gave a fascinating talk and reading from her book “The Golden Hour.” She also wrote for various Hollywood shows including “Fresh Prince of Belair,” “Rugrats,”and “Mad TV.” Several people inquired about how ones goes about getting a book published ("get a good agent," was her advice) and about her writing habits. Maiya said she is a type A personality who can write for four hours or so while her kids are in school and then think about what she'll next put on paper the evening before so she's ready to go at 8 the next morning. I have gotten good at doing that, too.

On “Final Jeopardy” the category was animated movies, not a good one for me, but I thought I knew the answer – “Who Killed Roger Rabbit?” – only to find out that the proper title was “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Somebody on the show made the same mistake. Last week the question had to do with the 39th and 40th states to join the union on the same day during Benjamin Harrison’s presidency. I correctly guessed North and South Dakota, but thought it was a tough question until discovering that all three contestants got it correct.

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.