Weezer

“On an island in the sun

We’ll be playin’ and havin’ fun

And it makes me feel so fine

I can’t control my brain”

         “Island in the Sun,” Weezer

 Tori, Alissa, Josh, and Jimbo at Weezer concert

A few days ago, son Phil called from Grand Rapids.  Through his PBS station he had obtained free tickets to a concert featuring Weezer and the Pixies.  He couldn’t go, but I was all in, along with Alissa, Josh, and Tori. I arrived at a Days Inn the afternoon of the show, and Alissa picked me up from her job at Grand Valley State.  At their place Josh played some Weezer to get us in the mood, and we ordered pizza slices around the corner from Van Andel Arena.  We arrived in time to catch a few songs by British rock band Basement, finishing up a 30-minute set.  Next came the Pixies, who blasted through a rousing set virtually non-stop. I’m more familiar with lead singer Frank Black’s subsequent solo work but recognized such Pixies late-Eighties classics as “Here Comes My Man,” “Debaser,” and “Monkey Goes to Heaven.” I was disappointed the two big screens were off.  I would have enjoyed close-ups of the individual members, especially Black (called Black Francis while with the band).  Did the band request no screens, I wonder, or was it out of deference to Weezer, the headliners?

 Black Francis (Frank Black) in Grand Rapids with Pixies

Weezer concert at Van Andel Arena

Weezer won over the audience right away.  After “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets came over the loud speakers, someone announced, “And from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Weezer.” Actually the band started in L.A. some 27 years ago.  Out came Brian Bell, Scott Shriner, Patrick Wilson, and Rivers Cuomo dressed like a barbershop quartet and sang several numbers a Capello and duo wop style. Mounting the stage, they rocked out on many numbers but not to such a degree as to drown out crowd favorites such as “Buddy Holly,” “Pork and Beans,” “Hash Pipe,” and “Island in the Sun.” The latter produced hundreds of lighters and cell phones from the near sell-out crowd. About halfway through the set Rivers Cuomo got aboard a boat carried up one aisle and down another by burly roadies and, stopping directly below us, sang the Turtles’ “Happy Together” while playing acoustic guitar.  Back on stage he brought the house down with the 1982 Toto favorite “Africa” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”  The band’s first encore was my absolute Eighties favorite by A-ha, “Take On Me,” followed by “Say It Ain’t So.”   Totally awesome. 

 1187 Battle of Hattin

Knights Templars burned at stake

Back at Days Inn, before meeting Phil, Delia, and Miranda for lunch I watched a documentary on the History channel about the Knights Templars, whom I had learned about in David Parnell’s Crusades class.  Catholic warrior monks formed supposedly to protect pilgrims visiting the Holy Land, after a disastrous military defeat at Hattin in 1187 at the hands of Saladin and the subsequent loss of Jerusalem, the secret Order morphed into powerful European land owners and money lenders until French King Philip the Fair, in debt to the Templars, persecuted its leaders on charges of heresy. The episode featured four seemingly knowledgeable historians.  Normally I can’t stand History channel fare, with all its commercials and emphasis on warfare, conspiracy theories, and disasters. This contained elements of all three but captured my interest.

I had intended to stay at the downtown Holiday Inn, but no rooms were available. Days Inn “near downtown” (as advertised) was less than half the cost, including free breakfast, but had lackadaisical check-in staff, more interested in chatting with staff or friends than being helpful.  A door to my room had to be forced open and shut, and my phone did not stop blinking (the front desk was no help), a noisy fan kept going off and on.  Pillows were comfortable and there was no sign of bedbugs nor ants, so I was satisfied.  As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. When I first arrived at the address, a sign said Baymont Inn but nothing about Days Inn. I drove around a bit before venturing inside and discovering both were part of the Wyndham hotel chain. It reminded me of Avis and Budget at the same airport car rental booth.

 Miranda, Delia, Jimbo, Phil

At a Mexican restaurant in Phil and Delia’s neighborhood Miranda mentioned that a stranger recognized her from her Instagram account, which evidently has hundreds, if not thousands, of followers.   Someone recognized Delia from Miranda’s Instagram photos.  Miranda has applied to the Peace Corps and hopes, if accepted, to be assigned to the island nation of Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon).  When I told her I might attend a conference in Singapore in 2020, she invited me to come visit her. I brought up that Weezer was introduced as being from Kenosha, reminding me of the scene in “About Schmidt” (2002) where Jack Nicholson is in a trailer campground when a couple from Kenosha invites him for dinner.  He brings a six-pack and while hubby goes out for more beer makes a clumsy pass at the wife, who makes it clear he should leave.  Phil recalled how sad it was when Schmidt retired from his job as an actuary and Kathy Bates jumping nude into a hot tub with him.  We were both surprised Delia, a movie buff, had never seen it.

Over 30 Facebook friends registered likes to my account of the Weezer concert, and I received a half dozen comments.  Allison Schuette wrote: “Liz [Wuerffel] wondered if you could still hear afterwards.”  Tom Wade said he treadmills to Weezer’s rendition of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” Nephew Bob wrote: “Party on Lanes!”

left, Terrapin Bruno Fernando; below, Wildcat Jermaine Samuels

March Madness has begun.  Since I won David’s pool twice in the past three years picking Villanova, I went with the Wildcats once again, even though they are just a sixth seed.  Maryland, the only team I really care about, is also a sixth seed, so I picked them and two other six seeds, Buffalo and Iowa State, to reach the Final Four.  In the unlikely event any go all the way, I should be the only one to have selected them. Home in time to cheer on Maryland, surviving a scare to dispatch Belmont 79-77.  In the evening Villanova topped St. Mary’s 61-57.  So far, so good.

Chancellor Bill Lowe hosted a faculty reception in the new Arts and Sciences Building, featuring piano stylings by Billy Foster and plentiful food and drink. Wife Pamela was demonstrating a long bent nail that she had run over, resulting in a flat tire. Zoran Kilibarda commented on my shirt, which celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of IUN’s Black Studies program.  Diversity director James Wallace confirmed that F.C. Richardson, adviser to the Black Student Union in 1969, will be a guest of honor at next week’s IU Bicentennial banquet.   Spencer Cortwright, excited over Momma Mia!coming to the Memorial Opera House.  I congratulated David Parnell on his nomination for a Founders Day teaching award.  Jonathan Briggs, a Weezer fan, said he’d almost driven to Grand Rapids for the convert. Parnell commented that Weezer’s rendition of “Africa” isn’t as campy as the original by Toto but pretty good.

When I speak to VU professor Mary Kate Blake’s class about the 1980s, they’ll have read Lance Trusty’s “End of an Era: The 1980s in the Calumet,” so I’ll read them the final paragraph from Trusty’s “Centennial Portrait of Hammond” published in 1984.  Trusty wrote:

 Hammond was a chastened city as it celebrated its centennial in 1984.  The 1980 census revealed that the population had declined rapidly to 93,714 citizens.  The few large industries that had survived the dismal Seventies and the Calumet region’s steel mills and oil refineries continued to reduce their work forces. Times weren’t desperate for most, but near-term optimism was hard to find.

 The Hammond of 1984 had many hidden strengths.  It was still part of the enormously resilient Chicago metropolitan area and shared in its markets and transportation web.  The Hammond of 1984 was a residential city of skilled workers, enjoying the often overlooked benefits of a sound Catholic liberal arts college and a fast-growing university.  An era was ending in 1984, as the tough industrial city sought a new economic base in a fluid, unpredictable economy.

In 1992 Trusty was less sanguine: “In ten years Hammond, seemingly the least changed city in the Calumet, lost a tenth of its population, its downtown, and most of its industrial base."

Since Andrew Laurinec’s article in the Eighties Shavings is not part of the VU class’s assignment, I’ll read this paragraph: 

 My family lived in the Robertsdale neighborhood of north Hammond, nestled between a popcorn factory, lever Brothers, and the Amoco refinery.  Depending on the wind direction, you’d either smell popcorn, soap or whatever kind of noxious gas the oil plant was burning off at the time.  Sometimes at night Lever Brothers would release a cloud of soap and God knows what else into the sir.  It was not unusual to see people washing their cars the next morning.  After all, there already was soap on their car.

In 1980 there were 1,600 Lever brother employees at that plant.  In 2015 the number was down to 350.

Outstanding Young Men

“I didn’t start out angry.  I started out a young man wanting adventure,” Andrew Vachss, novelist, attorney, and child protection advocate

 above, Tangelo Rayner; below Trey Sebben winning 110 hurdles

Grandson James, one of 16 Portage seniors competing in the high school’s OYM (Outstanding Young Man) program, was judged on such aspects as academics, physical ability, school activities, judges’ interview, and stage presentation. The candidates included standouts in football (Teangelo Rayner), soccer (Jovan Simakoski), and track (Trey Sebben), as well as members of choral groups and, in James’ case, Thespian Club.  James carries a 4.5 GPA and his forte is acting.  In an ungraded musical performance he brought down the house performing “The Troll Song,” consisting of nonsense syllables.  Dressed in a tuxedo, he strutted across the stage and nailed several amazingly high notes.  I also enjoyed Sayer Norlington playing the Foo Fighters number “Everlong” on guitar and a comedy skit by Trey Sebben (whose dad was a classmate of Dave’s) that included one-handed clapping.    

 James singing "Troll Song" and with Sayer Norrington; photos by Angela Lane

Mr. Downes

Asked on stage who his favorite teacher was, James replied that there were several he deeply appreciated but the most influential was English teacher Mr. (James) Downes, who taught him about satire, to think critically, and not to take life so seriously.  Each person revealed plans to go to college, in James’ case either University of Indianapolis or Valparaiso U.  Sayer Norlington mentioned IU Northwest or IUPUI.  James won the Joe Stevens Award, named for a longtime theater director whom Dave really admired while at Portage.  Kevin Giese took over for Stevens, established the OYM award in his honor, and was in charge of the scholarship program until unceremoniously replaced without cause last year.  There is also a DYW (Distinguished Young Woman) competition. 

A year ago, being a big Philadelphia fan, I was a nervous wreck as the Super Bowl approached featuring the underdog Eagles against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. This year’s match-up, Patriots versus Rams, held much less interest, and the game was nowhere near as exciting. The 13-3 Patriots victory was the lowest scoring contest since the Super Bowl began 53 years ago.  During pre-game I watched a segment on Atlanta’s history of race-relations, featuring interviews with Congressman John Lewis and former mayor Andrew Young.  The existence of prestigious black colleges such as Morehouse and Spellman provided the intellectual underpinning and foot soldiers in civil rights demonstrations that took place in what boosters now call “The city too busy to hate.”   I paid little attention to the much ballyhooed commercials, except for one with a medieval setting touting both Bud Light and the final season of Game of Thrones; but I enjoyed the halftime show featuring Adam Levine and Maroon 5. Before Maroon 5 got the gig, several bands allegedly declined the honor, causing one late night host to list them as Maroon 1, Maroon 2, Maroon 3, and Maroon 4.

 Maroon 5 at Super Bowl; below, Unisphere at 1964 World's Fair

Rereading Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” for the first time since the 1960s, I found it filled with sardonic humor despite dealing with the Allied firebombing of the German city of Dresden at a time when the author was a prisoner of war there. As many as 125,000 people perished in the inferno.  In the introductory chapter Vonnegut tells of taking his daughters to the 1964 New York World’s Fair: “We saw what the past had been like according to the Ford Motor Car Company and Walt Disney, saw what the future would be like, according to General Motors.”

Numerous libraries banned Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” because it contained “dirty words.”  The only evidence of that in the first 50 pages is a scene where Billy Pilgrim froze while under fire, prompting Roland Weary to yell, “Get out of the road, you dumb motherfucker.”  Then Vonnegut wrote: “The last word was still a novelty in the speech of white people in 1944. It was fresh and astonishing to Billy, who had never fucked anybody – and it did its job.  It woke him up and got him off the road.”

On Saturday Night Live(a rerun) actor Robert De Niro appeared as boogeyman Robert Mueller in Erik Trump’s closet. Upon learning that Mumford and Sons were musical guests, I watched the entire show. The week before, Steve Martin played indicted Trump fixer Roger Stone.  Rapper Meek Mill was the musical guest. I couldn’t understand the lyrics, probably for the best.

Bill Pelke and Paula Cooper

At my suggestion former Bethlehem Steel crane operator Bill Pelke will be a speaker during IUN’s Public Affairs Month, SPEA director Karl Besel informed me.  The co-founder of Journey of Hope . . . From Violence to Healing has been on a crusade to abolish the death penalty ever since he made peace with the murder of his grandmother Ruth Pelke in Glen Park at the hands of young teenagers, including 15-year-old Paula Cooper, who initially was scheduled to be executed. I arranged for Pelke to speak on campus about 15 years ago, and he was incredibly moving.  Paula Cooper became a model prisoner, was released a few years ago and was doing good work when she suddenly took her own life.  I wept upon hearing the news, as I’m certain Bill did.  He had forgiven and befriended her, but perhaps she was unable to forgive herself.

Allison Schuette and Liz Wuerffel have submitted our 2019 OHA conference proposal “Do You Hear Race? The Ethics of Interweaving Black and White Oral Histories in Audio Documentary.”  For the 2020 international conference in Singapore I may propose a paper titled “The Professor Wore a Cowboy Hat and Nothing Else: Dealing with Queer Issues in Writing University Histories: IU Northwest as a Case Study.”  Two decades ago a similarly titled paper on “Matters of Sex” I delivered in Rome drew a packed audience.  On the eve of my 77^thbirthday, I believe there’s a couple more Steel Shavingsissues left in me, which would make 50 in my half-century of service to IUN and Clio, the muse of history. 

I may do a special Shavingson the writings of Lance Trusty titled “The Calumet, from the 1930s through the 1980s.”  I’d start with the 30-page Afterword Lance produced for Powell A. Moore’s “The Calumet Region: Indiana’s Last Frontier” and conclude with an essay he wrote for my 1980s Steel Shavings.  In between would be excerpts from his books on Hammond and Munster, plus I’d interview family members and Purdue Cal colleagues and former students for information about his life and influence as a teacher. Lance’s droll humor comes through in all his writings.  Discussing business recovery during the New Deal, for instance, he wrote that by 1937, over 9,000 men were employed in the Whiting-East Chicago refinery complex, “as America’s determination to go to the poorhouse in automobiles kept Whiting and East Chicago out of it.” In 1992 Trusty concluded:

  An era ended in the Calumet in the 1980s.  The age of labor-intensive industries, which had given birth to the ever-smoky Region at the turn of the century, died in a wave of automation and consolidation, leaving behind a variety of huge plants but few jobs.  Relatively low prices and taxes and good schools attracted a steady flow of Chicagoans and South Cook Countians to Munster, Highland, and Schererville.  Like good suburbanites, they lived here and worked there. According to the Indiana Board of Health, the nineties will bring to the Calumet Region an aging population, a younger and poorer urban black and Hispanic population with a high birth rate, and a steady inflow of new residents.  But these factors will be counterbalanced by a steady, four to five thousand person per year out-migration.  Bottom line: few grounds for optimism.

A big, handsome, formidable scholar and charismatic guy eight years my senior, Lance attempted to create a repository at Purdue Cal similar to IUN’s Calumet Regional Archives but viewed his efforts and ours as complimentary, not as competitors.  After Trusty passed away, former colleague Saul Lerner wrote these remarks:

Norman Lance Trusty received his baccalaureate degree from William and Mary College in 1956, his Master of Arts Degree from Boston College in 1957, and his doctorate in history in 1964.  Professor Trusty came to Purdue Calumet in 1964, was promoted to Professor in 1971, and with his retirement in 2003 became Professor Emeritus.  Undertaking graduate study in pre-Civil War American history, on sectionalism, and slavery, Professor Trusty was originally hired to offer courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, Revolutionary history, various classes on early American history, Professor Trusty developed very popular classes on the history of the Calumet Region, contributed significantly to the Purdue University Calumet graduate and undergraduate programs.  A very creative colleague, Professor Trusty developed relationships with colleagues at Indiana University Northwest who were also working on regional history and produced a pictorial volume on the bi-centennial of Hammond, Indiana, a history of Munster, Indiana, presented articles on regional history, including an article on the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, and wrote a history of Purdue University Calumet.

IUN Diversity director James Wallace launched Black History Month with an impressive program in Bergland Auditorium honoring Dr. F.C. Richardson and others responsible for helping create the university’s Black Studies program 50 years ago, one of the first in the country. The first director, Henry Simmons, trained as a historian, directed students to take my urbanization class, and I reciprocated.  In “Educating the Region,” a history of IU Northwest, Paul Kern and I wrote that on March 27, 1969,students belonging to the recently formed Black Caucus sent a statement to Dean John Buhner setting forth six demands, including increased minority enrollment and financial aid and the creation of a Black Studies program. The declaration concluded: 

  It is high time that students, faculty, and administrators translate talk, and even more talk, into action.  Do  not for one moment regard our language as a threat of destruction or an indication of arrogance.  We are now a dignified group, and our language must reflect our new feelings of pride, self-assertion, and dignity.

Shortly thereafter the Faculty Organization took up the matter.  Black Caucus students gathered in the hall outside to await the results.  A total of 32 faculty voted to establish a Black Studies program.  Nobody voted no, and seven abstained. Sympathetic to the proposal, Buhner, who chaired the meeting, later said: “Many faculty saw us as custodians of IU’s tradition of academic excellence and viewed this as catering to momentary pressures in a way that would lower academic standards.  Others believed we needed to loosen up and enrich our curriculum and that Black Studies was a valid discipline.”

Also honored by IUN’s Black Student Union (BSU) on the program at Berland Auditorium: Todd Deloney, a founding BSU member of the who in 1990 conducted a one-man vigil, walking at the edge of campus with a sandwich board sign calling for the university to honor Martin Luther King Day.  It was a cold and rainy day, and Chancellor Peggy Elliott invited Deloney to her office and promised that she would make his proposal a reality.  Chancellor Elliott recalled: 

  The federal legislation that created Martin Luther King day had originated in Gary (and was sponsored by Rep. Katie Hall), and the day was filled with important events, which all of us wanted to attend. It was not a holiday for the IU system, and President Tom Ehrlich was very reluctant to allow us to have a holiday that no other campus had.  I lobbied hard because it seemed to me to almost be arrogant for us to be the only entity in the city that was not participating in the day.  Finally, Ehrlich’s deep personal commitment to civil rights overcame his concern about a backlash from other campuses, and he allowed the day.

A good crowd turned out for the impressive program, including Chancellor Bill Lowe. I sat with community activists Carolyn McCrady and Jacqueline Gipson, a former student, Valpo Law School graduate, and close friend. After welcomes from Minority Studies professor Earl Jones and Black Student Union chair Toni Dickerson, effervescent professor Patricia Hicks introduced Maxine Simpson’s Jazzy Ladies and Gents Line Dancing Group, seniors who performed a number and then invited audience members to join them for the finale, including Mary Lee, Robert Buggs, and a Hobart H.S, junior.  

 Post-Tribune photo by John Smierciak, Maxine Simpson on left

Keynote speaker Abdul Alkalimat, author on many books, including one of the first Afro-American textbooks, spoke on the topic “50 years and Continuing in an Era of Change.” Dr. Alkalimat’s his great-great grandfather Frank McWorter was a former slave who settled in new Philadelphia, Illinois, in 1830 and ultimately purchased the freedom of his wife and a dozen other family members in Kentucky.  New Philadelphia was a station along the Underground Railroad. Asserting that African Americans, other minorities, and poor whites have common concerns in combating oppression. The 76-year-old urged students to take control of their own education by forming study groups, organizing public forums, and being involved with community groups fighting for black liberation.

NWI Times photo by Steve Euvino.

All attendees received free t-shirts celebrating the establishment of IUN’s Black Studies program 50 years ago.  On the back were the names of the students whose demands led it becoming a reality, including Eddie Buggs, the brother of Robert Buggs, seated near us.  On the front was a clenched fist similar to what black students wore on their caps at my 1970 University of Maryland graduation at a time when the campus was under martial law due to antiwar protests (I wore a peace sign). With an over-abundance of t-shirts, I have a policy of getting rid of an old one every time I get a new one.  I’m parting with one purchased at an International Oral History Association conference in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa inscribed University of Natal. The name is barely readable, and the institution is now KwaZulu-Natal.  Still it has sentimental value, so I’m wearing it one final time.  At the end of the conference I searched in vain for a shirt to purchase; finally an organizer located it, causing many others to want one, too. I often wore it to bowling; nobody ever inquired about it, in contrast to my reaction to interesting apparel.  This fall Bears jerseys were more plentiful than NASCAR shirts, with several featuring Khalil Mack’s name and number.

Different Moments

“When other nights and other days
May find us gone our separate ways
We will have these moments to remember”

         The Four Lads

below, Joe David and Jimbo in Helsinki

I’ve been enjoying “Different Moments,” a CD featuring Joe Davidow’s compositions and piano and keyboard stylings accompanying saxophonist Seppo “Paroni” Paakkunainen.  Numbers reflecting aspects of Joe’s background and personality include “Bronx Nights,” “Morning Coffee,” “Days of Spring,” “ Hurry Up – The Fight,” and “Crazy Horse on a Calm Sea.”  Like Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, Joe is very creative and a fierce advocate for truth and justice.  In “Young Man in the Evening” Davidow wrote:

Growing up in the Bronx, I kind of grew up listening to Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall when others were listening to the Beatles.  All my working life I’ve been moving between composing for instrumental improvisation and contemporary electro music worlds.  Music for theatre, dance, ballet, film scores – of which most were scores for my own films.  On this CD I have put together the works I most like in the category we could call creative improvisational jazz. All of this music has been done in my European home country, Finland.

Lance Trusty

Jan Trusty invited me to an open house celebrating the life of husband Lance, my forerunner in documenting the modern history of Northwest Indiana’s Calumet Region and mentor in terms of speaking in a lively urbane manner to community groups.  He wrote the update to Powell A. Moore’s definitive “The Calumet Region: Indiana’s last Frontier,” entitled “Workshop of the World. ”  I included his writings in a half-dozen Steel Shavingsissues, including an excerpt from his history of Munster, “Town on the Ridge,” that describes that community’s transition from a Dutch farming hamlet to a bedroom suburb.  Trusty titled an essay written especially for my Eighties Shavings“End of an Era: The 1980s in the Calumet.” Along with Steve McShane and George Roberts, we participated in a memorable Indiana Association of Historians conference session in Terre Haute.  We kicked ass.  An obit in the NWI Times,published on July 4, revealed that Trusty was born in Panama in 1933, reared in Hampton, Virginia, and graduated from William and Mary College and Boston University.  It contained this paragraph:

Lance was far from a typical academic. During his spare time, he rebuilt boats, restored old cars, fixed and rode motorcycles, made his own home improvements and repairs, and passed his "handy-man" skills and knowledge on to his children. He was a talented photographer, loved classical music, and was unbeatable at the game Trivial Pursuit. For many summers he traveled the country with his family and their camper, visiting historic sites by day and teaching graduating high school students "How to Study in College" at local YMCAs in the evenings. He enjoyed debating the merits of a Humanities Education versus Engineering Training and was known to tip a bourbon or two to enhance the discussion. He will be remembered as much for his good humor and kindness as his academic prowess.

Muslim students praying near my Archives office have been kneeling on old New York Review ofBooks issues Ron Cohen gave me after he was done with them. They appear to be open to articles I recently read, such as “Crooked Trump” and “The Loved One.”  The latter is about the homoerotic ambiguities in Herman Melville’s novella “Billy Budd,” published posthumously, and contains a sexy 1962 picture of Terence Stamp, who played Billy Budd in a peter Ustinov adaptation.

Alissa stayed overnight and Angie brought makings for spring rolls, intended to be Dave’s welcome-back-from-Finland dinner if he hadn’t been so tired after being up 32 hours straight.  At a family birthday party for James and Rebecca were close friends Tom and Darcy Wade, Kevin, Tina, and Kaiden Horn, and Robert and Max Blaszkiewicz.  At the Archives, Steve Spicer, learning I’d just returned from Finland, noted that he and Cara stayed in a small Finnish village for a month and that son Sam studied in Helsinki.

 Wirt 1960 grads Judy Arlheit and Bob and Barbara Null; Post-Trib photo by Carole Carlson

former coach Don Rogers; NWI Times photo by Joe Nieto

Wirt alumni took a farewell tour of the 79-year-old school, closed by order of a parsimonious state-appointed emergency manager. Longtime football and wrestling coach and 1963 graduate Don Rogers was joined by most of his former assistants. Let’s hope the historic building can be transformed into a community center of some sort. Republican legislators did a number on public education in general and distressed cities such as Gary in particular. In World Cup action, Brazil knocked off Mexico, many of whose fans were on our flight to Helsinki two weeks ago.  Belgium, down 2-0, defeated Japan, 3-2, with a goal in the final seconds.  

 with Cate Pattison at IOHA reception; on lake cruise with Rommel Curaming

IOHA conference participant Cate Pattison thanked me for the photo I sent her with Dave and me and wrote: “It was great to meet the men from Gary Indiana.  I loved Finland, far more exotic for me than Singapore will be [in 2020], being four hours from Perth.  I’d better start working on something else so I’ve got something else to present then!”  From Brunei Dr. Rommel Curaming emailed a photo of us together and wrote: “It was really nice chatting with you on the river cruise/dinner. I immensely enjoyed the IOHA conference and the socials they arranged for us. I remember the one in Barcelona was nowhere near as enjoyable and profitable. I look forward to meeting you again perhaps in Singapore two years from now.”

According to her bridge Newsletter, Barb Walczak was the top area scorer over the past two weeks, accumulating 10.97 master points.  She paid a rare visit with partner Trudy McKamey to Duneland Bridge Club in Chesterton for the monthly championship and finished first, earning 2.16 points.  In July’s Bridge Bulletin Susan Weiss wrote of teaching bridge in a Jericho, New York, when the library lost power:

  We play in a community room, which is downstairs and has no windows. That room went totally dark.  I went upstairs and was told we needed to evacuate the building.

  When I told my class the news, my students were using their cell phones for light, and they were still playing the hand I had prepared.  When I told them we had to leave, they all asked if they could stay just long enough for me to explain how to bid the hand.

  Do we love the game?  Yes!

  

It was fun playing bridge after three weeks, but I was a little rusty.  In one hand I wish I could replay, I bid a spade over Alan Yngve’s Diamond when I should have doubled because I had 13 high card points, costing us a shot at game. Terry Bauer asked about the Finland trip and said a pickpocket had stolen his wallet five years ago when he visited Talinn, Estonia, a trip we skipped since there was so much to do in Helsinki.  After Dottie Hart bid Diamonds on three straight hands, I said, “You like Diamonds.” Without missing a beat, she displayed her hands that were bereft of diamond sand replied, “No, I don’t.”

  Jimbo in Jyvaskyla

Dave posted more than a hundred photos of the Finland trip on Facebook, producing a multitude of likes and comments, especially from Janet Bayer, who visited many of the sites with Mike a few years ago. They reached half-dozen of my high school classmates, including Susan Schuyler, whom I haven’t heard from in nearly 60 years, LeeLee Minehart, who shares my lefty political leanings and love of travel, Barbara Bitting, still married to high school sweetheart Joe Ricketts, Phil Arnold, whom my oldest son is named after, Bettie Erhardt, who is still “hot to trot,” as I like to tell her, and Judy Jenkins, who wrote: “You are both so fortunate to have this special times together.”  Agreed. 

Age of Anxiety

“We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.”

         W.H. Auden, “The Age of Anxiety”

English-born W.H. Auden (1907-1973) completed “The Age of Anxiety” in 1946, the year he became a U.S. citizen and seven years after emigrating to America.  Set in a New York City bar, “The Age of Anxiety” deals with cultural and psychological themes, as four characters discuss issues of personal identity in a rapidly changing industrial world.

Historian Lance Trusty passed away, Naomi Goodman informed me.  John Trafny, one of Lance’s grad students, confirmed the sad news.  He was a popular speaker to area organizations, witty and urbane.  Impressed, I tried to emulate him when I talked to local groups about regional history.  Trusty wrote an afterword to Powell A. Moore’s “The Calumet Region: Indiana’s Last Frontier,” which summarized events between 1933 and 1977, and in 1984 published “Hammond: A Centennial Portrait.”  His writings appear in several Steel Shavings, including this excerpt from “Town on the Ridge: A History of Munster, Indiana” (1982), reprinted in “Age of Anxiety,” covering the postwar years between 1945 and 1953:

The imminent possibility of annexation by Hammond clouded every town issue between 1945 and 1950.  A Times editorial claimed Hammond was “as necessary to Munster as a mother cat to a nursing kitten.”  Why should that city continue to build water mains, provide high school seats, and other services “to accommodate another community?” asked the editor, who observed: “Hammond has lost many of its leaders in business, the professions, and in labor to Munster.  We feel the loss of their counsel.”

          Amalgamation was supported by Mayor Vernon Anderson, who was certain it was the only logical means for Hammond’s development.  But a 1948 town referendum indicated widespread opposition, and a bill was introduced into the General Assembly prohibiting the annexation of either ridge town, Munster or Highland.  The debate ended inconclusively.  Hammond’s failure to gobble up its neighbors was probably due more to inertia than to the loud noises emanating from the suspicious ridge towns.

  . . .

          The late forties marked the end of the peaceful farmer’s town on the ridge.  The needs and expectations of the new suburbanites and, above all, their sheer numbers, fundamentally changed Munster.  Newcomers expected new schools, more police cars, more municipal garbage trucks, more sewers, smooth roads, and a thousand and one other civic improvements that collectively made life comfortable but expensive.  The old Dutchmen could only shake their heads as they partitioned their farms into blocks of homes and retreated to the rural splendors of DeMotte and beyond.

My Eighties Steel Shavings, titled “The Uncertainty of Everyday Life,” contained an article by Trusty entitled “End of an Era: The 1980s in the Calumet” that summarized contemporary economic developments::

  The age of labor-intensive industries, which had given birth to the ever-Smoky region at the turn of the century, died in a wave of automation and consolidation, leaving behind a variety of huge plants but few jobs.  The forces that had created the Region’s cities were depleted.  Moreover, the search for alternatives, usually envisioned as clean, high-tech, industries, met little success in the 1980s.  Everyone wanted that sort of business, and invariably the grimy Calumet became the also-ran in the “find a new plant” contest.  A steady growth of low-paying jobs in the service industry was only a minor palliative.

The phrases “Age of Anxiety” and “Uncertainty of Everyday Life” cpertain to all recent decades, as the pace of change accelerates, affecting the nature of work and job security, even in stodgy academia, where stimulating live lectures, like those in which Lance trusty excelled, are becoming obsolete. the Trump presidency or the current flu epidemic, there is presently much cause for unease among those prone to nervousness.

 photo by Robert Blaszkiewicz ("running out of places to put the snow")

The phrases “Age of Anxiety” and “Uncertainty of Everyday Life” cpertain to all recent decades, as the pace of change accelerates, affecting the nature of work and job security, even in stodgy academia, where stimulating live lectures, like those in which Lance trusty excelled, are becoming obsolete. the Trump presidency or the current flu epidemic, there is presently much cause for unease among those prone to nervousness.

 "Reejin Rat" at Hammond Ciciv Center, 2017; Times photo by Tony V. Martin

Bob Kasarda has a Times column where he answers inquiries about the Region, including the derivation of that term.  After speaking to me on the phone, he wrote: “James Lane, a history professor at Indiana University Northwest, said the simplest part of the answer is that the name is a derivative of the Calumet Region.  The Calumet Region is defined by the areas surrounding the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet rivers, he said, which are connected to Calumet River just over the border in Illinois.”  Kasarda went on to quote Ken Schoon about the various theories on what “Calumet” meant, ranging from “little reed” and “pipe of peace” to “a deep, still water” or “a ship that draws a lot of water.”

Indoors most of the weekend except for taking James to bowling and Culver’s, I re-watched a couple favorite movies: “Fargo” (I’d forgotten about the Paul Bunyon statue in Brainerd resembling an ax murderer) and “Nobody’s Fool” (I didn’t recall the strip poker game with Sully’s attorney’s artificial leg in the pot). In “One True Thing” (1998), based on a novel by Anna Quindlen and starring Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep.  William Hurt plays a pompous, self-absorbed English professor (the usual professorial stereotype in films, unfortunately).  I caught up on “Divorce” episodes (both parties are immature but ingratiating) and learned a new nickname for dolt – cement-head.  After reading a New York Times magazine cover story about Ru Paul, I checked out a “Drag Race” episode, but – nothing against it -  it just wasn’t my cup of tea.   While I didn’t tune in to the winter Olympics, I enjoyed news reports of the unified Korean women’s hockey team being cheered on by North Korean cheerleaders singing and swaying in syncopated unison as grumpy Vice President Mike Pence groused over their warm reception.

Jackie Roberts wrote about duplicate bridge player Terry Bauer for her Indiana History assignment.

        September 13: I called Terry and asked him about his family.  He and his wife Stephanie have six children, 2 boys and 4 girls, as well as 13 grandchildren.  He grew up in South Bend, the oldest of eight children.  His mom taught him to play bridge when he was about 10. He told me that he had just recently gotten back into playing bridge.  One thing he likes about it is meeting new people.  He moved had just recently gotten back into playing to Michigan City 20 years ago for a job as a school psychologist.  I asked his likes and dislikes of the region.  The former included proximity to Lake Michigan, being near family, and proximity to Chicago.  His dislikes were the harsh winters, air quality, and stagnant economic region. 

October 4: Terry and I met at the Portage Library.  I asked him about growing up in South Bend, and he replied: “There were eight of us children in a three-bedroom house. I played sports, and was always outside.  It was back in the day when kids were outside all day, instead of inside on technology.  I grew up in a white, middle-class, predominantly Catholic neighborhood.  In school, I was interested in Math.” Asked if his wife played bridge, he said, “No.  She doesn’t have a competitive bone in her body.”  Regarding bridge players, he said that some are in the 80s and 90s; and although their memories might be fading in other areas, they remember everything about playing bridge, and are good at it.  Terry told me he met his wife at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, adding: “She was in the Army, and I was in the Air Force.  I checked her in.  It took me 2 weeks to ask her out.  Two weeks later I proposed, and two weeks after that we were married in Monterey.  She was released from the service when she became pregnant.”  About his playing bridge, he said: “My mother used to host Bridge Tournaments at the house, and I would fill in when they needed another player.  I played some in High School and while I was in the service.  I didn’t have the time when I was working, but since I’ve retired I’ve started to pick it back up again.”

        October 24: I saw Terry play at the Duneland YMCA in Chesterton and  met Terry’s partner Dottie Hart, who was entertaining throughout.  She was feisty and kept everyone laughing.  I could definitely see why Terry liked her as a partner.  I also met other people, as during the game they were constantly switching tables.  It was a pleasant experience, and I enjoyed myself immensely.  The people were very welcoming, and I could see the attraction with the experience.

        November 7: Terry answered my email, writing: “Hi, I am doing well and continue to play as much bridge as I can.  Dottie and I were able to score some points in a STAC game, not sure what that stands for, but it allows for extra silver points if you score well.  With those few extra silver points I was able to move up to the next level in bridge standings.  Also last week I continued playing with my regular partner, Bill Birk, from Illinois who has tutored me in several bridge conventions (ways of bidding in very competitive games and tournaments).  I was also happy to play again with another partner, Dee Marshall, who I played with regularly until she had some medical issues with her heart and had to take off six months.  I am attaching a picture that I took this week with my mother, daughter, granddaughter, and great grandson- a five generation picture!  Good luck on your project.  Terry”

 Terry Bauer and Dottie Hart; below, playing against Jim and Marcia Carson

Terry Bauer’s bridge partner Bill Birk (above) wrote this after a recent regional tournament in Indianapolis:

  Terry took first out of 38 pairs in the Saturday Gold Rush overalls, scooping 6.66 gold.  He followed that effort by earning a first-place tie in the 17-team Sunday Gold Rush Swiss, teaming with Mary Kocevar, Carolyn Potasnik, and Bill Birk.  In only his third regional competition Terry earned 11.33 gold during the two days.

  I really enjoy playing with Terry.  He is a fierce competitor who never appears to lose his composure.  Terry is a quick learner, as he seems to never make the same mistake twice.  He is always pleasant and considerate, even of his opponents.  We played together in his first regional when we drove to Champaign last May for the day. I still smile as I recall Terry telling me that he did not realize getting gold was that difficult.  Later that year we had a successful Kalamazoo Regional, gathering over 9 master points – with 6.80 being gold.  To date Terry has had 7 days of regional play and has a haul of 19.74 gold – and I thought he said it was hard to get gold.

Here’s how Greg Bishop and Ben Baskin of Sports Illustrated described the Superbowl victory celebrants that night in downtown Philadelphia:

            Around midnight, two students at the Merriam Theater of the Arts leaned out of a fifth-story window, trombones in hand, and led the thousands assembled below on Broad Street in a deafening rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.”  The Crisco that state police had lathered onto street poles two weeks earlier had been replaced by hydraulic fluid – so fans simply uprooted the poles from the ground and carried them down the streets on their shoulders.  Others climbed atop traffic lights and surveyed the unprecedented scene unfolding beneath them.

            Some 2,000 college students marched from Walnut to 30^th Street and, en masse, chanted “Fuck Tom Brady” and “Big Dick Nick.”  Other revelers stood atop cars and threw dollar bills into the air.  One man dressed as Santa – a costume that evokes the most ignominious moment in franchise history – crowd-surfed down the road, not too far from where a Christmas tree was set afire. 

            Others, certainly, took it too far.  At the Ritz-Carlton hotel, one fan after another cascaded down the awning until eventually it collapsed.  Cars were flipped, drones were flown; fireworks and smoke bombs were set off, bottles thrown.  The fence at City Hall was mounted and climbed, as were garbage trucks and fire trucks and tractor trailers and the Rocky statue, upon which a number 86 Ertz jersey had been placed.  A police horse was stolen and trotted through the city.