Turning 76

“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been,” David Bowie

 Toni gets cookie at Ivy's Bohemia House from Amy Mackiewicz

Toni’s birthday falls on February 14, and we normally celebrate the day after so not to compete with the Valentine’s Day crowd.  Patrick O’Rourke treated me to lunch at Asparagus Restaurant, whose Vietnamese owners are friends of his, to talk about my next interview with him, so I took Toni an order of lobster and mango spring rolls.  We arrived home within minutes of one another, as Dave and Angie had taken her to lunch at Ivy’s Bohemia House.

Next day, granddaughters Alissa and Miranda arrived with Miranda’s boyfriend Will, whom we’d never met. He’s in Nursing administration and going for an MBA.  He’s been working with Spanish-speaking hospital out-patients in Grand Rapids on such matters as ensuring that they have a procedure in place for taking prescriptions at the proper dosages and times. At Toni’s request we dined at Craft House so that she could introduce our Michigan visitors to the beignet pastry fritters served with chocolate, strawberry, and caramel dipping sauces.  Beforehand, we shared an appetizer of Brussel sprout chips tossed with garlic parmesan butter and candied bacon; my entre, BBQ pork shanks, a haystack of onions, and Cole slaw, was delicious.Home in time for the conclusion of Maryland-Michigan State basketball.  Down by seven with minutes to go, the Terrapins scored the final 14 points, including 11 by Anthony Cowan (3 threes and 2 free throws), to beat the Spartans 67-60.

Sunday, I played board games with Dave and Tom Wade, including, at Dave’s request, Stockpile, which I’d only played a couple times but really enjoy, and Space Base, which I’d observed  at Halberstadt Game Weekend.  We said goodbye to our overnight house guests and prepared for a birthday party for Toni, which grew like Topsy, as the expression goes – originally referring to a slave girl in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1851) – to 20 people, including four of Becca’s Chesterton classmates.  Dave and Angie picked up Chinese food from Wing Wah and a chocolate cake from Jewel.

At bridge the previous Wednesday I partnered with Vickie Voller, whom I’ve known since she was an IUN student in the 1970s.  She’s an animal lover whose emails contain the quote, “Love is a four-legged word.” We finished above 50 percent.  She’ll be bringing her husband to my Art in Focus talk on Rock and Roll, 1960, and they plan to dance. I’ll start with “Hard-Headed Woman,” on the soundtrack of “King Creole” and Elvis Presley’s last recording before entering the army for two years in March of 1958 and subsequently reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

At Hobart Lanes 83-year-old Gene Clifford told me his bowling career was over, doctor’s orders, due to COPT.  In our final game against Fab Four, the Engineers finished with a 1053, 173 pins over our handicap.  Joe Piunti, carrying a 130 average, rolled a 223. I finished with a 160 and 472 series, 30 pins over my average.

Over the weekend the August Wilson play “Fences” (1985) attracted a large audience at IU Northwest.  Directed by IUN alumnus and visiting professor Mark Spencer, it deals with an embittered former Negro League baseball player (Troy Maxson) now working as a garbageman in Pittsburgh and starred Darryl Crockett and Rose Simmons.  James Earl Jones appeared in the original Broadway production and Denzel Washington in a 2010 revival, with Viola Davis as wife Rose Maxson. 

While most high schools were off for President’s Day, both IUN and Valparaiso University held classes, having honored Martin Luther King Day.  My interview with Chancellor Bill Lowe was delayed a few minutes because of a fire alarm in Hawthorn Hall (caused by a faulty toaster, it turned out) that kept Samantha Gauer from getting the videotape equipment.  She thoughtfully alerted the Chancellor and me from her cellphone.  Lowe grew up in Brooklyn; his father was a police officer.  He majored in History at Michigan State and was in Ireland doing research during a time of civil rights demonstrations that became known as the Troubles. His administrative career took him to the Rust Belt cities of Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, and ultimately, Gary.

 confiscating bootleggers equipment in Gary (1926)

Invited to speak in Nicole Anslover’s class about Prohibition in Gary, I described the city in 1920 as containing 50,000 residents, mostly steelworkers, many foreign-born and often single men laboring 12 hours a day, seven days a week.  The year began with Gary under martial law occupied by army troops ordered to crush a two-month-old strike and jail union leaders whom General Leonard Wood branded as Reds.  Prohibition was anathema to men for whom the saloon was the center of their limited social life, where they drink, ate, and, in may cases, procured establishments that refused to pay off corrupt police officials.  At the Gary Country Club, the watering hole of the affluent, liquor flowed freely with no interference from law enforcement.  Some years, due to its reputation as an “anything goes” city, Gary attracted more tourists than Indianapolis, disparaged as “Naptown” or “India-no-town.” By 1930 former mayor R.O. Johnson, convicted in 1923 of violating the Volstead Act and sent to Atlanta federal penitentiary, was back in City Hall as mayor.

 partying at Gary Country Club (1926); Allegra Nesbitt standing, 2nd from right

Students asked me about race-relations in Gary during the Twenties, a time when Mill officials aimed to keep the labor force divided, and whether U.S. Steel built housing for workers as in Pullman, Illinois.  While the corporation provided home ownership opportunities on the Northside for managerial personal and plant foremen, unskilled workers were left to fend for themselves. Many boarded in bunk houses, sharing a cot with someone working the alternate 12-hour shifts. Nicole invited me back anytime; I thinking of returning in two weeks when the class discusses the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial featuring Clarence Darrow for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution.

Bob Greene (above), author of “When We Get to Surf City,” emailed:

     What a nice letter, Jim-- thank you.

    I really liked the excerpts from the book that you chose to include in your blog-- I'm especially glad that you took note of my observations about Jerry Lee Lewis.  No one has ever specifically mentioned that part of the book to me, but it's one of my favorites, and I'm pleased that you saw in it what I did.

    Just sang again the other night in Florida with a band called California Surf Incorporated-- all former Beach Boys musicians.  Randell Kirsch, from Jan and Dean, was playing with them, and one of the guitarists wasn't feeling well and didn't want to do his vocals, so they invited me to fill in.  It never gets less fun.

    Thank you again for what you said, and especially for the way you said it.  It means a lot to me.

I wrote back:

    Thanks for the nice response.  I saw Jerry Lee Lewis live in Merrillville, IN in 1980 (what a showman!) and recall him appearing a few years ago on Letterman with Neil Young, the only time Neil agreed to be on the show.

    I’m glad you’re still jamming with old Beach Boys.  My son was in a band until a few years ago and would invite me on stage to sing the chorus of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.”

Having enjoyed the new Of Monsters and Men CD, I checked out their earlier album “beneath the Skin” (2015) and discovered “Slow Life,” which hardly describes the past hectic days.  One verse goes:

We're slowly sailing away
Behind closed eyes
Where not a single ray of light
Can puncture through the night

With my 60th high school reunion scheduled for October, I told planners Larry Bothe, John Jacobson, and Connie Heard that I’d work on classmates who don’t normally attend. Rehashing weekend highlights with Gaard Logan, a gourmet cook who claims she has no interest in the reunion but is always interested in hearing about Upper Dublin classmates, I described the beignet pastry fritters, Brussel sprout chips, and lobster and mango spring rolls.  Signing off, I called her sweetie, eliciting a chuckle and, “Take care , my friend.”

Decade's End

    “I expect the 2010s to be remembered as a political decade that spanned the gulf between President Barack “No Drama” Obama and President Donald “Mo’ Drama” Trump.” Clarence Page

Summing up the 2010s, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page acknowledged the enormous influence of the internet, joking that the “decade that began with the birth of Instagram and ended with me still trying to figure out what Instagram is good for. (“Twitter for illiterates” sounds about right to me, although it does do a good job of distributing your neighbors’ vacation photos in a format you can conveniently ignore.)”

In Gary the decade ended with the death of five-time mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher and a change in leadership as Jerome Prince succeeded Karen Freeman-Wilson as Mayor. The incoming Mayor thanked his immediate predecessor for giving the city her best effort.  Of America’s first black mayor, Prince said:

Mr. Hatcher was operating with self-confidence, if not divine providence. His victory galvanized Black political aspirations throughout the nation, sparking a revolution. I pledge that every day when I go to and leave City Hall, I will pass his statue, think about it, and reflect on the greatness of an individual on whose shoulders I stand.

I emerged the champion of Lane Fantasy Football, edging Phil in the finale, as his stellar running back Dalvan Cook was unable to suit up and his replacement got only one point.  Phil sent this season wrap-up:

It was a classic between myself and Jimbo (the top two teams from the regular season) both scoring well. I got huge games from Lamar Jackson and Saquon Barkley, but Jimbo had his power trio of McCaffrey, Kelce and Kenyan Drake (nice pick-up on Drake, Jimbo). It came down to Monday night where I had two players but Jimbo had a 16-point lead.  It turned out Jimbo had points to spare as my Viking players stunk it up on Monday Night Football (final score 138-129). Congratulations Jimbo on a great win and a great season. A well-deserved Championship!

It was my second title.  My previous one occurred during Payton Manning's heyday.

I attended a Celebration of Life service at New Hope Church of God in South Haven for Charlotte Smith, bowling buddy Terry Kegebein’s mate for over 20 years.  Terry’s nephew, pastor Jason Kegebein, conducted the service, which began with a country version of “Amazing Grace” over a top-notch sound system and concluded with “Hallelujah.”  The most moving testimonial came from a tenant named Tricia, the only black women in the audience, who talked about how warm and caring Charlotte was, how she treated her eight-year-old daughter like a princess, and always complimented her numerous wigs.  Afterwards, sitting next to pastor’s assistant Don Sickles, who graduated from Portage the same year as Dave, I was invited to next Sunday’s service.

Anthony's 22nd birthday; gaming with family and friends

Since we celebrate Christmas a day late, folks began arriving at the condo on the afternoon of December 25 for tree decoration and the annual “March of Presents.”  My loot included a flannel shirt, slippers, jelly, Tasty Kake krimpets, and CDs by Lush and Weezer.  Among the two dozen guests that evening were Charlie Halberstadt with Naomi Goodman and Robert Blaszkiewicz with son Max. Robert’s “Best of 2019” CD contained songs by The Head and the Heart, Wilco, Flaming Lips, Robyn Hitchcock, Lizzo (who appeared on SNL with host Eddie Murphy) and 15 others, including Karen O and Danger Mouse doing “Starry, Starry Night,” which reminded me of the opening lines of Don McLean’s “Vincent,” about artist Vincent Van Gogh.  Hitchcock opened for Wilco recently in Chicago and together they did the Beatles numbers “I Am a Walrus.” 

Because Becca’s Chesterton Sandpipers group, sang the National Anthem beforehand, I attended an exciting Valpo-Loyola basketball contest.  Overcoming a double-digit deficit, VU apparently tied the game in the final seconds only to have the referees rule that star freshman Donovan Clay’s foot was on the three-point line and the basket was only worth two points.  Clay, from Alton, Illinois, had moved into James’s dorm room for a couple weeks when not getting along with his roommate and by all accounts is a nice guy.

 Donovan Clay 

Playing Ticket to Ride: Poland by Charles Halberstadt

I spent New Year’s Eve afternoon at Halberstadt Game Weekend, which had been in progress for five days, and won my favorite Ticket to Ride version, the Pennsylvania edition, involving stock buying.  I was fortunate that my destinations were in the north part of the state, cities like Erie, Tawanda, and Scranton/Wilkes Barre, while the other three players were competing for east-west track  between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  Jef showed me a Polish version of Ticket to Ride that one of his sons found on the internet.  Brady Wade, who works for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, was about to travel with Tom and Darcey to Jacksonville, Florida, to root for IU in the Gator Bowl.  Supporters of Bernie Sanders have nicknamed the former South Bend mayor “Mayo Pete” to draw attention to his lack of support among African Americans.  Previously they went negative against Kamala Harris, and they’re starting to go after Elizabeth Warren.

Gaard Logan told me about former slave Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907), a seamstress who in 1860 was able to buy her freedom.  In Washington, DC, she set up a business that attracted influential clients, including the wives of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee.  She formed an intimate friendship with Mary Todd Lincoln, eventually moving into the White House as the First Lady’s official dressmaker.  In 1868 Keckley wrote “Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House.”

I rolled a 440 series, slightly above my average despite getting more splits than strikes.  The Electrical Engineers won two games and series despite Mike Vaught’s 259 in the rubber match.  Joe Piunti had a 497 series, over a hundred pins above his average. He credited eating a gummy bear with CBD oil prior to each game, which, he said, alleviated pain in his knees.

On TV over the holidays I watched an excellent Linda Ronstadt documentary and two excellent film, “Shadowlands” (1993) starring Anthony Hopkins as writer C.S. Lewis (I was about to recommend it to Toni, but then the strong woman character fell ill with cancer) and “I’m All Alone” (2013) in which Robert Redford struggles to survive after his sailboat is destroyed at sea. Reviewer Forrest Wickman analyzed its ambiguous ending:

 If you’re a pessimist, or perhaps just a realist, you might think that the main character’s final vision—of the flashlight shining down on him, and a hand reaching down into the water—is just a dying delusion, too good to be true. If you’re an optimist, you might take it all at face value: Redford’s character is literally saved. Or, if you’re religious, you might have a third interpretation: It’s not his dying delusion, but a true vision—he’s being pulled into the afterlife. In this reading, the unusual fade to white might represent something like an ascent to heaven.

Remarkable Hoosier

“I had the good fortune to be able to right an injustice that I thought was being heaped on young people by lowering the voting age, where you had young people that were old enough to die in Vietnam but not old enough to vote for their members of Congress that sent them there.” Birch Bayh

Former Senator Birch Bayh passed away at age 91. Moving to Indiana in 1970, I was proud that he was in Congress representing the Hoosier state.  During a remarkable 3-term career beginning in 1962 at age 34 with an upset win against Sen. Homer Capehart, he championed civil rights legislation, helped make the 25th and 26th amendments a reality regarding presidential succession and lowering the voting age to 18, and sponsored Title IX, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded educational and sports programs.  The father of 13 year-old Dianne Murphy (below) from Valparaiso, a national wrestling champion in a competition that included boys, credited Birch Bayh for making possible sports opportunities for females of all ages. 

   Sen. Bayh in 1968 on Coast Guard cutter investigating alewives infestation of Lake Michigan with mayors Frank Harongody (Whiting), John Nicosia (East Chicago), Richard Hatcher (Gary), and Joseph Klen (Hammond)

In 1964 Bayh was traveling with Senator Ted Kennedy in a small plane that crashed near Springfield, Massachusetts.  Kennedy suffered a broken back, and Bayh helped pull him out of danger. In 1972 Bayh called off plans to run for the Democratic Presidential nomination when his wife Marvella was diagnosed with cancer.  Bayh successfully led the opposition to  confirming Nixon’s racist Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell, paving the way for Justice Henry Blackmun’s elevation, and unsuccessfully supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and abolition of the electoral college.  

I first met Bayh in 1974 when he was in a tough re-election battle against Indianapolis mayor Dick Lugar.  In the morning he addressed the IU Northwest Young Democrats.  Shaking hands with him afterwards, I noticed Bayh’s intense blue eyes, how comfortable he was interacting with everyone in the room, and that he seemed to give each well-wisher his total attention.  From the Terre Haute area, he was down to earth without phony folksiness.  That evening at a house party in Miller, after campaigning all day in Gary, he still looked energetic and spoke passionately about the need for Congress to stand up against executive overreach.  When he shook my hand, Bayh said, “Hi, Jim, good to see you again.”  I was impressed. 

On Facebook Connie Mack-Ward wrote: “I campaigned for him when I was in college. It broke my heart when he was swept out during the horrible Reagan election. His fundamental decency as a human being was reflected in his political service. He was arguably the best federal elected official Indiana has ever had.”  Local Democrats Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, George Van Til, Charlie Brown, and Roy Dominguez effusively praised him, as did Republican Governor Eric Holcomb and Sen. Todd Young.  Congressman Pete Visclosky noted: “He lived a life dedicated to serving others.”Tennis great Billie Jean King called him “one of the most important Americans of the twentieth century.”

The Remarkable Book Store on Taft Street in Merrillville is closing on the fortieth anniversary of its birth.  Pretty much a one-man operation through the years, Ken VanderLugt started out in 1979 stocking both new and used books, but during the time I’ve known him, the concentration, with a few exceptions, has been on the latter.  He sold dozens of Ron and my “Gary: A Pictorial History,” however, and always was willing to take 5 or 10 copies of new Steel Shavingsissues.  When I’d stop in, I’d pick up science fiction novels for Toni and a history book or two for myself.  Lately VanderLugt  saw just a handful of customers a day, but after Jerry Davich wrote a laudatory column, old customers began returning, nostalgic and saddened by the looming closure of such a welcoming place.

“This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women” (2007), edited by NPR producers Jay Allison and Dan Gediman, contains contributions by both the famous (novelist John Updike, feminist Gloria Steinem) and relative unknowns– a part-time hospital clerk, for example, and a member of a state parole board.  In 1951 distinguished journalist Edward R. Murrow hosted a five-minute series by that name on CBS radio with appearances by such scholars as anthropologist Margaret Mead and scientist Charles Galton Darwin, grandson of the famous naturalist. Allison and Gediman revived “This I Believe” a half-century later.  These words of praise come from a Publisher’s Weeklyreview

  “Your personal credo”is what Allison calls it in the book’s introduction, noting that today’s program is distinguished from the 1950s version in soliciting submissions from ordinary Americans from all walks of life. These make up some of the book’s most powerful and memorable moments, from the surgeon whose illiterate mother changed his early life with faith and a library card to the English professor whose poetry helped him process a traumatic childhood event. And in one of the book’s most unusual essays, a Burmese immigrant confides that he believes in feeding monkeys on his birthday because a Buddhist monk once prophesied that if he followed this ritual, his family would prosper. This feast of ruminations is a treat for any reader.

High school teachers often assign some form of “This I Believe” essays, and questions in a similar vein often show up on college applications.

I’m not very adventuristic when it comes to taking care of my body or automobiles. In my 49 years living in Northwest Indiana, I have had just two head mechanics (Frank Renner and Tom Klaubo, head of Lake Shore Toyota service), two barbers, two regular doctors, and four dentists (including one who committed suicide and another who I nicknamed “the gouger”)  I’ve been a patient of dentist John Sikora’s for probably 30 years.  He grew up in Glen Park, is an IU grad and big Hoosier sports fan, loves the White Sox, and plays music to my liking when cleaning teeth and fixing cavities.  

While replacing a filling and waiting for the area to get numbed up, Dr. Sikora asked what I thought of the college admissions scandal that involved rich folks paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to get their kids into elite universities.  The scheme included bribing coaches and administrators and having  ringers take the applicants’ SAT or ACT exams.  I hope they throw the book at both the parents and the fixers behind the racket and told Dr. Sikora that under-achieving teens would be better off at institutions such as IUN.  Undergraduate diplomas at elite schools, in my opinion, are overrated compared to graduate degrees, especially if a student makes mediocre grades.

 Don Coffin

Over 50 people have been charged with federal crimes, and some ringleaders have pleaded guilty and are looking to plea bargain.  Coaches have been fired, and adversely affected students are bringing class-action suits. Former IUN professor of Economics Don Coffinoffered this perspective on what he termed “the bribing-your-kids-way-into-college thing”:

It all feels like morbid and unwelcome confirmation of my oft-repeated line that community colleges struggle because they’re trying to create a middle class for a country that no longer wants one.  The wildly wealthy live in their own world; what Christopher Lasch called “the secession of the successful”has so desiccated our sense of community that colleges for whom community is their middle name are left aside.

Electrical Engineers moved into first place by one point by taking two games and series from Just Do It Again while Duke Cominsky’s Pin Heads swept Pin Chasers to move within 6 points of us.  When I thanked Duke for helping the Engineers get into first, he said,” Not for long.”  I rolled a 440 series, just a point from my average, while Joe Piunti got hot and ended 90 pins over his.  After I picked up a 1-3-5-6 spare, opponent Wanda Fox commented, “Show off.” In the very next frame Wanda converted the exact same pins.  Of course, I said, “Show off”as she left the alley. Marge Yetsko, carrying a 137 average, threw a good ball but so slowly she rarely got a strike and more often a split. She picked up four straight 10-pins, a feat befuddling some 200 bowlers.  Husband George’s ball has good velocity but goes straight and inconsistent, befitting his 125 average.  Just Do It Again is one of the few teams the Engineers spot pins.

Jim Spicer’s weekly witticism:

  A teacher asked her 6th grade class: “Who can tell me, which human organ becomes 10 times bigger when it’s stimulated?”
  Maria stood up, bright red and angry, and said “How can you ask such a question? I’m telling my parents and they’re going to get you fired!”
  The teacher was shocked by the outburst, but decided to ignore it. She asked the class again, “Who can tell me, which human organ becomes 10 times bigger when it’s stimulated?”
  This time Thomas responded, “The answer is the iris in the human eye.”
  “Very good, Thomas. Thank you,”replied the teacher who then turned her gaze on Maria.
 “Maria, I need to tell you three things. First, you obviously have not done your homework. Second, you have a dirty mind. And third, I fear that one day you will be very, very disappointed.”

Chilling News: An Australian gunman mowed down 49 Muslims worshipping in two nearby mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, one of the most peaceful nations in the world.  Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern (above) vowed to change her country’s gun laws.  Were such progress possible in the U.S.?  The assassin, a Trump admirer, claimed he chose new Zealand to show that Muslims weren’t safe anywhere in the world.

Marianne Brush got me four tickets to see Dave Davies and his band on April 19 at the Art Theater in Hobart, of all places. Voted one of the hundred best guitarists of all time by Rolling Stone, Davies and brother Ray founded the Kinks, and Dave was responsible for the distorted power chord on the Kinks’ first hit, “You Really Got Me,” by slitting his speaker with a razor blade.  The two brothers had a stormy relationship. Toni, Phil, Dave, and I saw the Kinks at the Star Plaza 30 some years ago.  “Lola” (1970), about a young man and a transvestite, became a classic. When we saw them, they teased the audience by starting the first chord and then morphing into another song before finally performing it as an encore.

Barbara Walczak’s bridge Newslettercongratulated Barbara Larson and Carol Miller for their remarkable 76.39 % at a recent Dunelands Bridge Club event.  Barb stared the article by stating: “This is not a typographical error.”  Both are very friendly people.

I finished “Unexampled Courage,” about a recently discharged soldier beaten so badly by a South Carolina sheriff in 1946 that he was permanently blinded. Author Richard Gergel concluded: 

 In the midst of what seemed to be an unsolvable crisis in American government and character, courageous citizens, recognizing the demands of the times, stepped forward to challenge the racial status quo.  Most had little to gain and much to lose.  Although to the modern observer the collapse of the Jim Crow world may be viewed as the inevitable consequence of a growing and prosperous postwar nation, the truth is that in 1946 America’s racial future was uncertain.  This band of diverse, courageous citizens, some prominent, others from humble backgrounds, altered the course of American history, displaying what Judge J. Waties ascribed to the Briggs plaintiffs, “unexampled courage.”

Briggs v. Elliottbegan in 1947 as a challenge to the school segregation laws in South Carolina. It ultimately became combined with other cases as part of brown v. Board of Education.  Plaintiffs Harry and Eliza Briggs, a service station attendant and a maid, both lost their jobs and moved away from South Carolina.  Reverend James De Laine, who led the fight in Clarendon County, was fired from his teaching job, had is church burned to the ground, and survived an assassination attempt before leaving the Palmetto State.

The flags at IUN are at half-staff.  At first I thought it might be for the Muslims slain in new Zealand but then remembered that the Governor had ordered it in honor of Birch Bayh’s death.

Layers of Legend

“We’re just ordinary people

We don’t know which way to go.”
    “Ordinary People,” John Legend

Ohio native John Legend (John Roger Stephens), born in 1978, was a back-up singer and piano man before launching a successful solo career with hits such as “Ordinary People” and “(Give Me the) Green Light.”  Very active in philanthropic projects, he put on free concerts for Barack Obama in 2008 and appeared on the 2010 Hope for Haiti Now telethon.  My first exposure to legend was when in he sang on the 2007 series finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

 Planned Parenthood dinner, April 28, 1989; from left, Carol Martin, Donna Whitfield, Trish Arredondo, Sue Byers, Ellen McGuire

Trish and Ray Arredondo donated Planned Parenthood materials to the Calumet Regional Archives, including photos and newsletters from when Trish was executive director of its Northwest Indiana office in Merrillville.  Often she’d have to deal with so-called Pro-Life protestors.  She received death threats and an anthrax scare, and the FBI kept the facility under surveillance.  Ray is on the state Ports of Indiana Commission and at one time was District Director for Congressman Pete Visclosky.  During the 1970s when with the East Chicago police department, Ray secured government funds to establish the first domestic abuse shelter in the country. 

Ray (above) and Trish brought with them several copies of “Maria’s Journey,” which I helped edit, in hopes that I could attend book functions while they were in Florida.  Having done several such events, I’d be happy to comply.  I also want to nominate “Maria’s Journey” for next year’s “One Book . . . One Campus.”  Trish also encouraged archives volunteer Maurice Yancy to inform me of community events such as Gary authors days.

At Maxim’s in Merrillville for brunch Ray, aware that I lived in Chesterton, asked if I knew Joan Gucciardo, whose late husband Frank was a Gary detective and very helpful to him.  In fact, Joan lives in our condo courtyard.  They autographed a copy of “Maria’s Journey” for me to give her.  I wrote the Foreword and IU historian John Bodnar, author of the definitive immigration history, “The Transplanted,” the Introduction.  Bodnar concluded:

  “Maria’s Journey” is more than an immigrant tale; it is a woman’s story that peels back the layers of legend, revealing a life that was marked by a fervent desire to sustain her family in a world and a nation that was intent upon treating her callously. . . .  It is the mix of tragic and the heroic that makes her story so compelling.

Former Judge Lorenzo Arredondo, Ray’s younger brother, wrote a Post-Trib guest editorial for Hispanic heritage Month about the contributions of Mexican immigrants.  Referring to the “Star Spangled Banner,” he asserted that ours is the only country whose National Anthem ends with a question mark (i.e., “does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”).

“Love is an ocean

Swimming and try not to drown.”

    “Hold On Longer,” John Legend

Dave Serynek returned Harry Barnard’s Rutherford Hayes biography.  It ends with President-elect Grover Cleveland attending Ruddy’s funeral on January 17, 1893, signaling an end to Democrats making an issue of the corrupt election of 1876.  Serynek is halfway through a book on James Garfield.  I told him he’d probably have trouble finding a good biography of Garfield’s successor, Chester A. Arthur (although IUN’s library has one by Thomas C. Reeves entitled “Gentleman Boss”).  The former customs house collector for the Port of New York, I claimed, was an inconsequential grafter and accidental president.  Referring to the Garfield book, Dave joked, “Now you’ve spoiled the ending for me.”  When I told him he could peek into the bedroom to say hello to Toni, he pretended to stick only his head in the room. 

A self-described “Region Rat,” Serynek grew up in Glen Park, attended Franklin elementary, and played at Gleason Park (now the site of IUN).  He recalled diving into its shallow oval pool and a nearby hardball diamond.  He, his dad, and grandfather labored in steel mills a total of more than a hundred years.

Corey Hagelberg and Samual A. Love came to IUN for the preview and skype session for “My Name Is Gary.”  In my introduction, I noted that French filmmakers Frederic Cousseau and Blandine Huk arrived last September with an open mind and sought out countless residents, including members of Kinsey Report, former mayor Richard Hatcher, community activists, ordinary people, and several IUN folks, including Mary Lee and archives volunteer Maurice Yancy.  They attended church services and Gardiner Center cultural programs, visited union halls, mom-and-pop stores, bars, and barbershops, and filmed a rousing school parade and a block party on land that was once part of Stewart Settlement House.  Cousseau and Huk previously produced a documentary on Nowa Huta, a district in Krakow, Poland, site of that country’s largest steel mill, whose workers supported Solidarity against the communist regime.  I concluded:

         “Frederic and Blandine embraced our city and are proud to regard Gary as their second home – one reason, I think, that they titled their film “My Name Is Gary.”

“A little trouble in the city

Trouble in my home.”

    “Save the Night,” John Legend

The six-minute “My Name Is Gary” preview concentrated on footage of vacant buildings, the devastating effects of white and (more recently) black flight.  About half of those interviewed had positive things to say.  Mary Lee, for example, pointed out that Southern blacks, including her family, who settled in Gary when the mills were hiring have remained and planted roots.  A Mexican-American car repair entrepreneur said he feels no fear being in Gary.  A young white woman with two kids who recently moved to Gary spoke well of her black neighbors.   Upset nevertheless, Gary spokesperson Chelsea Whittingham thought the brief excerpt unbalanced since it left out references to IUN, the airport, and the lakefront.  She was especially incensed when a resident mentioned to the city’s previous designation as “America’s Murder Capital.” 

Having seen the entire film, I can attest that it accurately represents how residents from all walks of life perceive their city.  The skype interaction was not free flowing because Frederic and Blandine chose to work through a translator. While in Gary, their English had improved dramatically, but they must not have been comfortable directly answering questions.  Unfortunately, most speakers made long, rambling statements.  The sound was somewhat skewed as well, but it was great to see my Parisian friends, especially when they smiled.

The trailer for “My Name Is Gary” opens with a shot of a gray-haired gentleman sitting on an ice cooler in front of a store.  Spotting a camera trained on him, he stared and finally tipped his hat.  Like the city he calls home, the man looked weathered, tired, slightly suspicious of outsiders but proud and resilient with head unbowed.  He can thank Mayor Hatcher for that.

FOX commentators are chortling over a photo of Obama saluting with a Styrofoam cup in his hand.  Karl Rove branded it an insensitive “latte salute” while others labeled it shocking, disgusting, and degrading.  One observer stated: “Not worth getting too excited about unless one happens to be a resident of planet Wingnutia.”  The L.A. Times printed a photo of Bush saluting while holding his dog Barney.  

I bowled two good games after a poor start, but the Town Drunks beat up on us.  Only game one was close, but our anchor missed an easy 8-pin spare to hand them a four-pin victory.  Captain John Piunti (JP), who addresses me as professor, not the pejorative “prof,” sat out, but sons Joe, Jr., and Tony each had 250 games and kid brother Ray rolled way over average, which offset Chris Lugo’s poor night and Sam Grossman’s excessive ten-pins.  Afterwards, I took several photos, which they promised to email me.  I’m still waiting, but Heath Carter sent me one of Mayor Hatcher with some of his seminar students.

Miranda photographed two of her favorite entrees in the Grand Rapids ArtPrize Art Festival.  We’re hoping to catch the annual event.

Ron Cohen gave me a copy of his latest book, “Roots of the revival: American and British Folk Music in the 1950s,” co-authored by Rachel Clare Donaldson, which I helped proof read.  In a section entitled “The 1950s Counterculture” they quote from Hoosier Dan Wakefield’s “New York in the Fifties.”  Wakefield arrived in Greenwich Village in 1952 and discovered the White Horse Tavern:

           “There the talk continued over pints of ale or beer, or the favored arf ‘n’ arf, and soon everyone broke into songs of Irish rebellion, or love, or protest, folk songs joined and swelled by the Clancy Brothers or long-haired, blond Mary travers, who also hung out in the back room of the Horse.”

After three conservatives got elected to the Denver school board, they proposed a resolution to alter the history curriculum to promote patriotism and discourage civil disobedience, prompting teacher to organize a “sick out” that forced two schools to call off classes.  This past week high school students at six schools staged walk-outs to protest the proposal.