My Back Pages

“Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now”

“My Back Pages,” Bob Dylan (1964)

On YouTube I found a 1994 “30^th Anniversary Concert” performance of the Bob Dylan classic “My Back Pages,” which was a 1967 hit for Roger McGuinn and the Byrds.  On stage and each singing a verse were Dylan, McGuinn, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Tom Petty, and Neil Young.  When Dylan first recorded “My Back Pages,” it horrified the folk music establishment because the lyrics seemed to recant his previous commitment to “finger-pointing” protest songs.  Looking back, I view it as an admission that the world was more complex and solutions less obvious than once believed and that Dylan, hailed as the voice of a new generation, was uncomfortable in that role. I saw Dylan perform at the Holiday Star in Merrillville in the 1990s with a group of Saturday Night Live regulars led by bandleader G.E. Smith, responsible for putting together the 30^th Anniversary Concert.

Dunes artist and former Edgewater neighbor Dale Fleming, 81, passed away, his cousin Jill informed me, after a fall from which he evidently never recovered. His sister Phyllis recalled that from a young age he loved to draw and in 1955 fell in love with the Northwest Indiana dunes when an art teacher took the class to Marquette Park in Gary’s Miller Beach neighborhood. After graduating from the American Academy of Arts in Chicago, he briefly worked for an advertising agency but hated the “9 to 5” routine and opted to become a freelance artist.  He lived simply a few blocks from Lake Michigan, his only luxury being a passion of model trains.  Sister Phyllis wrote:

    Friends and family found that if you sat still too long in his house, he would sketch you for free because he had a generous heart and used his art to express his love. His pride and joy was son Carl, as were his grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.  He tells in “Steel Shavings: Tales of Lake Michigan and the Northwest Indiana Dunelands,” edited by James B. Lane, that he enjoyed being with Carl at the dunes, “whether it was flying kites, skipping stones across the water, or sliding down a dune on a piece of cardboard.”  He was a very kind, gentle soul, a friend to all with a great sense of humor.

Dale's house; Dale and Carl

Diana of the Dunes by Dale Fleming

When John Laue and I approached Dale to sketch drawings for an oral history of Portage’s Edgewater neighborhood, he readily agreed and would accept only a few hundred dollars. He’d study a building or outdoor scene for a few minutes and then draw at a frenzied rate. With a keen eye and talent for detail he preserved images of a dying community, since all properties were eventually razed to make way for the what is now the Indiana Dunes National Park. After the magazine was published, many admirers attended an opening at Lake Street Gallery to greet what was for him a rare public appearance. Sister Phyllis summed up his character perfectly; he was a kind, gentle soul content to live a simple life.

Dale’s cousin Jill, a former school library media specialist, wrote:

    I was searching online for pictures of Dale’s artwork, to show my kids, and came across your blog, where he was featured.  I grew up in Gary and Merrillville and find your blog fascinating! Also, I realized you once interviewed my aunt, Dr. Marie Edwards! My Dad was her brother. I’ve been sorting through pictures and family history and just found your article on her. I cherish this information! I adored my Aunt Marie and often wish I had talked to her more about her life in the Navy and early teaching years. I was a history major at Ball State (class of 1978), partly because of her influence! 

 

I interviewed Lew Wallace teacher Marie Edwards when researching my history of Gary, “City of the Century,” and published excerpts in Steel Shavings, volume 34 (2003), titled “Age of Anxiety: Daily Life in the Calumet Region during the Postwar Years, 1945-1953.”  Edwards recalled:

    We came out of the most devastating war in our history stronger economically, socially, and politically. In Gary the mills had been at top capacity.  Our high school senior boys had been encouraged to work 4-to-12 shifts.  One huge boy was always going to sleep in my class. I had the office call his mother.  The next day she called and said, “When he got home, I got out the whip.” And then she told me the boy was working the 4-to-12 shift.  It kind of broke my heart.

   The Navy set up a 14-month program to teach Japanese. At the end of 1942 they issued the invitation to a hundred women.  I couldn’t resist.  Some of my students had been killed.  We waged the war in Washington. I came back to Wallace in September of 1946. Some veterans returned and got their high school diplomas, including a former student.

   I got my first car in April 1947.  Previously I had taken the streetcar and then the bus.  Coming out of the Navy, I went up and down Fifth Avenue and Washington Street just begging someone to take an order for a car.  Nash was the only one that took my order.  It was the best car I ever had. I was living with my parents and would pick up other teachers.  It was a nice fellowship group.  Many teachers lived at the Hotel Gary, and another teacher would pick them up.  I was perfectly happy living at home.  I had the best of all possible worlds.  I came home, and dinner was ready.

On March 3, 1949, 45-year-old Lew Wallace language teacher Mary Cheever was murdered as she was walking to her Eighth Avenue apartment following a PTA meeting.  Marie Edwards recalled her shock at her friend’s death:

    I hadn’t felt that it was an unsafe neighborhood, but when I came home, I’d honk the horn and my father would be in the garage with the lights on and the door open.  In the morning he’d go out with me and open the door.  Whenever I took anyone home at night, I always waited until they were in the house. My Y-Teen group was still coming downtown by bus to the Y once a week. Nobody ever thought of it being dangerous. I often walked to the Y at night and then home without any fear.

     Mary Cheever’s death was a catalyst.  It marshalled a whole movement, the WCC (Women’s Citizens Committee). We started going to city council meetings.  One time we walked from City Methodist Church and filled the City Hall stairway all the way from the council chambers to the street. I went on Operation Shoe Leather in front of a gambling joint. I remember the photographers arriving and our being determined.  Some ridiculed us, but we got a lot of attention.  Ultimately, the publicity became nationwide.

Marie Edwards in 1991

  In 1949 I selected a masters thesis topic on the developing labor movement in Japan.  My committee at Northwestern recommended me for doctoral work.  On the G.I. Bill I kept going summers, and by 1952 I was in Japan doing research.  I had my doctorate by 1956. I tied my graduate work in the teaching of political science and economics. I never wanted to do anything but teach.  This was a time when women weren’t going too far. One assistant superintendent said, “Why don’t you become an elementary school principal?  We’ll give you a job there.”  I said, “No, if I want anything, I want your job.”

Marie Edwards eventually did become director of social studies for the entire Gary school system.

GARY LAKEFRONT TODAY by Elaine Spicer and Omar Farag

Great Balls of Fire

“I chew my nails and I twiddle my thumbs
I'm real nervous, but it sure is fun
C´mon baby, you're drivin' me crazy
Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!!”
Jerry Lee Lewis

At age 74 Jerry Lee Lewis has a new album out called “Mean Old Man” that features an all-star cast including Mick, Keith, and Ron of the Rolling Stones plus John Fogarty and Slash helping with “Rockin’ My Life Away” and Ringo and John Mayer joining in on “Roll Over Beethoven. The two best moments, however, are Jerry’s piano solo in “Miss the Mississippi and You” and Solomon Burke singing on the “Railroad to Heaven” number.

I decided to concentrate really hard when several “Jeopardy” categories were right up my alley. I nailed the “Cleveland” questions about Standard Oil (Rockefeller’s company) and James Garfield (assassinated President buried there). The “Quotations” answers John Brown and Zachery Taylor were easy for me. In “Sports” I recognized Celtic Bob Cousy and baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth. In “The Eyes Have It” I knew crime boss Meyer Lansky and eyesore. Champ Roger Craig, who has won almost $200,000, including a record $77,000 on a single show, didn’t have to bet on the final question, he was so far ahead. The category was “Rivers” and everyone, including me, knew the answer: Tigris and Euphrates.

At Chicago’s Apollo Theater four of us saw “Million Dollar Quartet,” about the night in 1956 when Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis jammed at Sam Phillips’s Sun Records studio in Memphis. The show opened with the entire musical cast performing a rockin’ “Blue Suede Shoes.” Lance Lipinsky, the actor who played Jerry Lee, played a wild piano on “Great Balls of Fire” and captured the flair and passion of the young “killer,” who jeopardized his career by marrying a 13 year-old cousin. Perkins, portrayed as resentful of Elvis, was scheduled to do “Blue Suede Shoes” on “The Perry Como Show” but got injured in a car accident on the way to New York City. Elvis subsequently recorded the song, which many people erroneously thought was the original. It was common then for several people to cover the same song, and versions by white performers usually outsold rhythm and blues originals. Elvis’s early hits “That’s All Right, Mama” and “Hound Dog” were first recorded by black artists Arthur Crudup and Bib Mama Thornton. Sam Phillips discovered in Elvis a white performer who admired black music and, in his words, just “goosed it up.” In the play he contemplates an offer to follow Elvis to RCA Victor but in the end fears it would destroy his creative freedom. Too bad for Elvis because he never matched the passion of those first Sun recordings.

After the play Dick Hagelberg drove us to a fancy fondue place. Our waiter, a Second City intern, hopes to break in as a comedy writer. Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry David’s agent on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” got his start there, as did many “Saturday Night Live” regulars. Yoni and I went there in the Seventies and recently enjoyed one of their touring troupes on a Mediterranean cruise. Ivan Jasper opened a fondue restaurant in the Bahamas after he and Tom Orr sold Another Roadside Attraction (now an Argentinean steak house), but it was a block or two off the beaten track and didn’t make it. Before he left the area, Ivan gave me some of his albums, including one by the Shoes in pristine condition. He’d heard mine while stoned and then hardly ever played his own.

Got in four games with Dave and Tom (winning St. Petersburg after obtaining an early Mistress) before the condo association picnic. Mary and Craig Henderson had positioned tables and chairs near or in their open garage in case it rained. Toni’s macaroni salad received praise, and I enjoyed our neighbor Tom’s potato salad with a Sloppy Joe. About 20 people attended, mainly those active on the board. Bernie Holicky, formerly the librarian at Purdue Cal, has been to the Archives because of his interest in trains. I had to leave early for my talk to the Ogden Dunes Historical Society but while changing caught the end of the Bears game, an upset 27-20 over Dallas. After a Cowboys field goal, a desperation on sides kick failed. Led by Michael Vick, the Eagles also won – barely – by three points over Detroit.

About three-dozen people greeted me at the Ogden Dunes Community Church. A Post-Tribune notice claimed I’d talk about Gary during the 1940s and 1950s, so I began my “Age of Anxiety” talk by mentioning that historians generally divide those 20 years into three periods, World War II, the Postwar, and the Eisenhower Fifties. While the years between 1945 and 19523 are often treated as a mere transition period, events unfolded that had a profound impact on American society. I had 18 people read excerpts from volume 34 that often drew nods of recognition. What got the biggest laugh was Rose Frisk’s account of visiting a Calumet City strip joint. A woman recalled having Marie Edwards as a teacher at Lew Wallace and being yelled at by principal Verna Hoke. A William Wirt High School grad recalled people throwing things at civil rights activists when they tried to desegregate Marquette Park in 1949. Sports historian and Andrean H.S. basketball coach Carson Cunningham read quotes from Hampton Hinton how 15 year-old bride Tip made him soup: “It was a pot of water with about three beans and a handful of rice in there. When it started boiling, you could see nothing but the water. Every now and then a bean floated to the top. She wasn’t but 15, and her mother had done all of the cooking.”

Retired attorney Clyde Compton saw Art Daronatsy’s photo in the magazine, and we talked about his passion for social justice. Art accompanied Richard Hatcher South during Freedom Summer 1965, and they photographed Jim Crow signs in courthouses and restaurants. The 1964 Civil Rights Act had supposedly made segregation in public places illegal, and gathering evidence of noncompliance put their lives in jeopardy. I sold all six copies “Gary’s First Hundred Years” and took orders for several more. Next month’s speaker wrote a book about Alice Mabel Grey a.k.a. Diana of the Dunes. One woman in attendance has an article in TRACES about Dale (Dalia) Messick, who created the comic strip about glamorous, adventurous reporter Brenda Starr. I mentioned that I’ll have an article on VeeJay Record Company founder Vivian Carter in a forthcoming issue.

“Dancing with the Stars” commenced with Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol performing Randy Newman’s “Mama Told me Not To Come.” In an office suit similar to what her mother wears she stripped it off to reveal a skimpy red dress that did little to flatter her big legs. Even though she was mediocre at best, she’ll probably last fairly long. First to go will likely be Michael Bolton or David Hasselhoff. The favorite is “Dirty Dancing” star Jennifer Grey, who waltzed to an Otis Redding song from the 1987 movie that reminded everyone of when she danced with Patrick Swayze, who died one year ago.