Buzz

“A bee is never as busy as it seems, it’s just that it can’t buzz any slower.” Hoosier humorist Kin Hubbard

This morning I woke up hearing a loud buzz coming from the kitchen.  It turned out to be the stove, which Toni had used extensively the day before while preparing a surf and turf meal for us and Dave’s family.  I am useless in such situations, but Toni knew to turn off the circuit breaker until it stopped.

The word buzz has various meanings, in addition to the sound a buzzer makes. It can mean the sound a telephone makes or the phone call itself, as “Give me a buzz when you get home.” It can convey a sense of excitement or feeling od euphoria, just as getting a buzz from a hit from a joint. Buzzing or scurrying around - moving quickly is another usage, as is referring to the latest buzz, meaning gossip or scuttlebutt.  In the fifties kids often got a short haircut nicknamed a buzz cut or flat top.

James was able to leave VU for the weekend, and he, Dave, and I played Space Base.  I won thanks mainly to acquiring the Buzz Aldrin ship that got me 6 victory points each time I rolled a seven, which I did an inordinate amount of times.  Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin flew 66 combat missions in Korea and earned a doctorate at MIT before joining the space program.  Commander of the lunar module on the Apollo 11 mission, Buzz Aldrin was the second person to walk on the moon.  A devout Presbyterian, he secretly took communion ingredients with him and drank the first liquid, ate the first food, and was the first to urinate on the moon as well. After leaving NASA’s space program, Aldrin suffered through bouts of depression and alcoholism, which he documented in a memoir, “Magnificent Desolation” (2009).  He appeared as himself on numerous TV shows, including “30 Rock” and “The Big Bang Theory,” and in 2010 at age 80 competed in “Dancing with the Stars.”

Ever since Gaard Logan told me she was reading Isabel Wilkerson’s new book “Caste; The origin of Our Discontents,” I have seen her on TV and rad glowing reviews of what critics recalling an instant classic.  It has created quite a buzz.  On Gaard’s advice I decided to first read Wilkerson’s 2010 “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” the exodus between 1915 and 1970 of six million African Americans from the South to points north and west.  The title comes from this Richard Wright verse:

I was leaving the South

To fling myself into the unknown . . . .

I was taking a part of the South

To transplant in alien soil,

To see if I could grow differently,

If it could drink of new and cool rains, 

Bend in strange winds, 

Respond to the warmth of other suns

And, perhaps, to bloom.

The first thing I did upon receiving the book from Chesterton library was look up Gary, Indiana, in the index. One mention listed Gary as, according to the 1980 census, the sixth most segregated city in America, a kind of separation so total, wrote Wilkerson, “that blacks and whites rarely intersected outside of work.” The term sociologists used for this phenomenon was hypersegregation.  In the endnotes I found a citation for “African-American Mayors,” edited by David R. Colburn and Jeffrey S. Adler.  I wrote the first chapter on Gary mayor Richard Gordon Hatcher.

Joe and Katherine Jackson

Wilkerson pointed out that the parents of Michael Jackson, Gary’s most famous native son, had Southern roots, like most African Americans born in the Steel City.  Joe Jackson hailed from Fountain Hill, Arkansas, and came to Chicago when 18 prior to moving to Gary.  Katherine Scruse Jackson was born in Barbour County, Alabama, and moved with her parents to east Chicago when just four.

Beat

“You chose your words from mouths of babes got lost in the wood.
Cool junk booting madmen, street minded girls
in Harlem howling at night.
What a tear stained shock of the world,
you've gone away without saying goodbye.
         “Hey Jack Kerouac,” Ten Thousand Maniacs

1993 was an awesome year in music, with Flaming Lips, Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum, Cracker, Pearl Jam, Goo Goo Dolls, and many more reinvigorating Rock and Roll.  There were great albums by Gin Blossoms, Nirvana, and Ten Thousand Maniacs, groups that would soon lose their leader through suicide or in the case of the Maniacs, Natalie Merchant going solo, claiming she didn’t want to be part of decision-making by committee. “Hey Jack Kerouac” has references to Beat writers Allen Ginsberg (“Howl”), a former a member of NAMBLA (North American Boy/Man Love Association) and William S. Burroughs (“Naked Lunch”) as well as his common law wife Mary, whom he shot in the head playing William Tell:

Allen baby, why so jaded?

Have the boys all grown up and their beauty faded?

Billy, what a saint they’ve made you

Just like Mary down in Mexico All Souls’ Day

 Horace Mann German Club, 1970; Milan Andrejevich front right

One of Milan Andrejevich’s Ivy Tech students Googled his name and found my mention of his Seventies History parties. From my blog Milan read of my visiting Fred Chary in a nursing home recuperating from an operation and wanted an update.  According to Diana, Fred is coming along nicely since I last saw him and would welcome a visit by his old student Milan. The 1971 Horace Mann grad is considering donating declassified documents to the Archives from when he worked for Radio Free Europe.  In that case I’d interview him about growing up in Gary and attending and later teaching at IUN.

South Bend photographer Kay Westhues (above), whom I met in Finland at the IOHA conference, sent me one of her photo-zines entitled “Drop Coins Slowly.”  It features awesome shots of old postage stamp vending machines she discovered in neighborhood taprooms, including three in Lake Station, that have been converted for the purpose of dispensing pull-tabs similar to lottery tickets that can be redeemed at the bar.  Westhues explained:

Pull-tab sales were legalized in 2008, in a move to help small taverns stay afloat during the recession.  Licenses were purchased and stamp machines resurfaced from the backroom or basement. Many of them were manufactured a half-century ago and showed significant signs of wear.  Sometimes they jammed easily or only had one ticket slot working. Modern, electronic pull-tab machines are also available, but people seem to prefer to take a chance on the malfunctioning, timeworn stamp machines.

Westhues photos at He Ain't Here Lounge and Ruthie's ("Small cans decorated with red, white and blue flag fabric and trimmed with lace held the losing tickets")

Accompanying the images are brief notes about Kay’s experiences at the various establishments.  After talking to a patron about stamp machines and her interest in artesian wells, the guy with unintentional irony said, “You must live a boring life.” At He Ain’t Here Lounge on Decatur St. in Lake Station, Westhues recalled that the owner’s son “wanted to hold my reflector umbrella to help with the photo, but began dancing and twirling it and forgot he had a job to do. A customer intervened and returned it to me.  As I left the bar, the son told me to forget about photographing stamp machines; I should interview the interesting people in the bar.”

On Sunday, despite 90 degree heat, I attended the final Miller Farmers Market of the season, which featured Tantrum playing a mixture of funk and punk with an occasional surprise thrown in, such as the Forties Duke Ellington classic “Don’t get Around Much Anymore,” covered by scores of artists ranging from The Ink Spots and Patti Page to The Coasters and Paul McCartney. When I put money in their tip jar, they told me to take a button.  Gene and Judy Ayers brought up Gary’s emergency school manager selling off a bust of Superintendent William A. Wirt.  Then I ran into Jack Weinberg and Valerie Denney, who want to donate more “treasures” to the Calumet Regional Archives.

After celebrating Angie’s dad John Teague’s birthday (number 68, and he still works in the mill) with a ham dinner and chocolate cake, I caught the end of the Little League World Series championship. Kids from Honolulu triumphed over South Korea.  It’s been a miserable week on Hawaii’s “Big Island” due to torrential rain from tropical storm Lane (I’ve taken kidding over the name), which caused major flooding and mud slides.  The Cubs completed a four-game sweep of the Reds, as Jason Heyward went 4 for 4. Players wore uniforms with nicknames on the back.  Heyward’s was “J-Hey.”  They are 6-0 in games Cole Hamels has started, and 6-0 since acquiring Daniel Murphy (“Murph”) on waivers. Dead from brain cancer is Senator John McCain, who requested that George W. Bush and Barack Obama speak at his memorial service.  The President was not invited. IUN flags are at half-staff.

High school classmate Dave Semibold (above) and wife Nicki are in Tanzania having a ball camping in the Serengeti.  Usually his posts are the result of fishing trips.  One reason I suggested naming our second son Dave because Seibold was such a cool dude.

IU’s “200: The Bicentennial Magazine” featured articles about team mascots, including Steve McShane’s contribution tracing IUN’s mascots from the Chiefs and the Blast to the present Redhawks.  Bloomington’s Hoosier teams have no symbolic figures, but, according to archivist Dina Kellams, former mascots included a racoon, various dogs, a bison and a red-bearded man wearing a cowboy hat called “Mr. Hoosier Pride” dropped after a single season due to complaints that he was offensive and ridiculous.

 Jackson kids at RailCats game in 2015

A three-day Michael Jackson birthday celebration commenced at IUN with four hours of music videos followed by a two-hour symposium presented by The Committee to Honor the Jackson family.  Watching people in Bergland Auditorium audience dancing in their seats as Michael strutted his stuff to “Smooth Criminal,” one realized what a unique talent he was and how much he is missed.

The category for “Final Jeopardy” in the high school teachers tournament was U.S. Cities, and nobody knew which one was named for a nineteenth century businessman in transportation, even though the clue mentioned that it is also the name of an Oscar-winning film. Answer: Fargo, North Dakota, named for William G. Fargo, one of the founders of the western portion of the Pony Express and a Northern Pacific Railroad director.

 Katlyn and Tyler

In addition to juggling work and school, Katlyn O’Connor had to deal with getting wisdom teeth pulled and boyfriend issues. No wonder she was frequently beat, as her “Ides of March” 2017 journal revealed:

  January 10:I absolutely love my daycare job and the kids in pre-kindergarten but am only making a little over minimum wage and need to start applying for other jobs. I also have to figure out if I want to go skydiving with my friend for her birthday. I am scared out of my mind just thinking about jumping out of a plane. 

  January 12:I applied to a few nursing homes as a part-time CNA. I have my license in that field and the increased pay should help pay bills. Tyler, my boyfriend of almost five years, decided we need a date night. I am so excited.  I’ll pretend none of this stress exists - just me and him and a good steak.

  January 15:I asked my boss for a raise due to another job offer and threatened to put in my two-week notice. It worked. I got the raise I wanted so I can stay at the daycare. I was so scared I was going to have to leave and then be miserable at the new job. 

 January 18:Today is probably the worst day of my life.  After we got into an argument, Tyler decided we need to take a break because we are falling out of love. I want to talk things through rather than throw away a five-year relationship. We were talking about getting married. My best friend Megan is coming over to comfort me but I don’t think anything she says will help me feel better. 

 February 1:Today was my first day of field experience in an elementary school. I always thought I wanted to teach Kindergarten, but now that I have been in third grade, I actually love it. Tyler and I have been talking every day and concluded that we need to try to fall back in love because we have been in the same boring routine for years now. We’ll start by having a date night once a week. 

 Feb. 3:Megan and I went out for wine night. She had never drunk wine and let me drive her Jeep home so she could puke out of the window. I decided we should stop at another bar on the way home and we ended up staying out until four a.m. She had to work the next day and doubt  she’ll make it. 

 Feb. 14:My IUN teacher cancelled class so I got to hand out Valentines to kids at the daycare.  They ate so much candy, I feel bad for their parents because they are on a sugar high.  Tyler surprised me by taking us to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Even though we called ahead, there was an hour and a half wait. By agreeing to sit in the bar area, we did not wait very long. We bonded like we haven’t done in what seems like ages. 

  Feb. 24:Whirly ball is similar to bumper cars with lacrosse thrown in. I am going with Tyler and his family to celebrate his brother’s birthday. Ten people are on the court, five on each team. You have to drive your car across the court to shoot a wiffleball into the square net on the back board. Meanwhile, people are slamming into you and blocking you from shooting. After Whirly ball, we went to his aunt’s for pizza and left-over wings from Whirly ball. 

  March 1:I always come so close to getting straight A’s but fear I will not make it this semester. I am behind on a paper and have no earthly clue what is happening in my science book. I found out I have an extra set of wisdom teeth in my mouth that need to be removed. I scheduled the earliest appointment they had available, March 31. I hope this month goes by quickly because I am in so much pain. 

 March 7:After science class  Megan and I had margaritas at Chili’s plus chips and salsa. My strawberry margarita had a large amount of tequila in it.

 March 12:Tyler took me Olive Garden, my favorite, but we always get awful service there.

  March 14:I am planning on going to Las Vegas in two months with friends for my birthday for a full week. I am so excited. I want warm weather so bad.  Tyler and I are doing much better and I feel more in love with him than I ever have been. We have been spending more time together and enjoying each other’s company. Each week we go bowling at an alley in Griffith called Set Em Up.  It is really cheap because you keep your own scores. I am starting to catch on but Tyler still keeps track because we are very competitive. 

  March 15:Since the start of spring break, I have been working 11 hours a day.  We have been low on staff; they let too many people have days off so. My mom decided we need to start spending more time together and that I work too much. She didn’t go to college and does not understand how hard it is to manage 18 credit hours a semester. 

 March 16:Megan, Ariana, and I  went to our local bar to play pool and Friday night Bingo for free drinks. The night got cut short because my sister came to stay the night at my house with her six-year-old daughter. I did a lot of listening and wiping a lot of tears. She was with her boyfriend for ten years but he has been an alcoholic for the past four. 

  March 17:My sister and I took an early train to Chicago for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. There were police and ambulances everywhere; people were being put on stretchers and taken away because they got too drunk and fell over. There were beer bottles and trash everywhere in the beer garden;  this whole area was trashed. I had my sister by the arm and we started to walk through the crowd almost getting hit by bottles of vodka and Jameson every few steps. There was puke everywhere. A guy ran right into me slamming his bottle into my arm which hurt very bad and later bruised. He was too drunk to stand up straight. The parade was great but two hours long. 

  March 18:Tyler and I enjoyed a pajama day and watched TV.  I finally stopped feeling hungover and decided we should eat chicken and watch “Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice.” It was three hours long but a great story.

  March 19:A new girl at work got fired because she never submitted her background check and finger prints. It turned out she had a warrant out for her arrest in Lake county due to theft. As a result, I had to work in the toddler class, mainly one-year-olds. I do not like it and can’t wait for them to switch the schedule.

  March 23:For parent art night we planned to make bunnies and chicks for the upcoming holiday, but nobody signed up. Tonight is Tyler and my five-year anniversary, but he has to work late. I am super tired anyway and just want to sleep. 

  March 24:My Saturday ritual is go to Sophia’s house of pancakes in Highland and then to Target and leave with more items than I intended to purchase. 

  March 25:I have been driving a Chevy Cruze, which I love but it is not that great in the snow being very low to the ground. Both my parents owned trucks and Jeeps, and I am used to taller vehicles.  A car dealer offered me a great deal, so goodbye old car and hello 2018 black Jeep Wrangler. It had zero miles on it when I left the lot and I am so excited!

 March 28:I was in such a rush this morning I backed my Jeep into my mother’s car. As soon as I heard the crunch I freaked out . Her front end was scrunched in and I began crying. Last night, my mom and I got into a huge fight and I had planned on packing up my things and staying somewhere else for a while. I told her what had happened and she started screaming and told me to leave so I went to work. 

  March 29:Tyler and I should be closing on a house in about a month. I am so excited. It has five bedrooms and two bathrooms and a fenced in yard with a pool. I cannot wait to get everything closed and move in. It was his parents’ but they are moving to Indianapolis. 

  March 30:Surgery day on my wisdom teeth. I I was nervous about the iv because of problems my mom had, but it went in my arm right away.  The procedure was done before I knew it but I was very swollen and in a lot of pain. I am going to rest for the rest of the day. 

 March 31:Swelling has gone down, and I am starting to feel a little better. Tomorrow is Easter, but I can barely eat a slushy with a spoon and could not handle lemon soup, my favorite.  I feel like my jaw has been smashed. 

 April 1:I hid Easter eggs before my niece showed up. Since today is also April Fools’ Day, I hid the golden egg in my bedroom. She found all the others and started freaking out until I got the golden egg. She is still mad because she does not understand what April Fools’ Day is. I ate a little piece of ham and mashed potatoes. 

  April 2:Back at work today, it is not yet 9 a.m. and I am in excruciating pain. My boss promised to do her best to let me go home early. I had Jell-O cups against my cheeks until noon, when the boss let me go home. Nothing helped, not the medicine nor ice packs. I couldn’t sleep all night until I took Advil and conked out for an hour. 

 April 3:At the dentist’s I got hooked up to an iv. After 90 minutes the dentist could finally get my mouth to open wide enough to look inside. It was definitely infected. He prescribed an antibiotic and sent me home to rest. 

  April 4:The swelling has finally gone down and the medicine is helping relieve the pain.  I made it for my whole shift at work but skipped class. I emailed my teacher who was understanding. 

 April 9:I have started eating solid foods and can brush my teeth for the most part. It is April but snowing outside!  Tyler called asking if his keys were in my car. Of course, darn it, and I had to drive home to give him his keys. My boss was not pleased but got over it.  

 April 14:I have finished my big assignments for the semester and am starting to stress free. My mouth is now officially healed and the pain gone. We move into our house on May 2.  Life is looking up.

Union Station

“Railway termini are our gates to the glorious and the unknown.  Through them we pass out into adventure and sunshine, to them, alas! we return.” E.M. Forster

On a “Lost Gary” excursion Jerry Davich photographed Gary’s Union Station.  Facebook friend Candle Perry recalled: “We used to pick up my gramma at Union Station on Christmas morning.  She made the trip from Philly every year.  I loved the look of the building, the smooth wood benches that were almost like church pews, and the echoes in the big room.  What a treat for a kid.”

Gary's Union Station, then and now

Built in 1910 at 185 Broadway between the tracks of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway and the Baltimore and Ohio, just four years after the founding of Gary, Union Station is structurally sound despite having been closed for 60 years.  Designed in the neoclassical Beaux Arts style, with a skylight and uniquely shaped windows, the building was used in the making of the 1951 Alan Ladd film “Appointment with Danger.”  During the past decade there has been a movement to convert it to a steel museum, but without matching funds from the city or philanthropic support from U.S. Steel, the plans fell through.

On the other hand, Union Station in Indianapolis, the nation’s first, opening in 1853, was transformed into a festival marketplace and hotel during the 1980s.  While it failed to be an enduring commercial hub, the hotel remains and the rehabbed building now houses businesses, museums, and a charter school.  Chicago’s Union Station, which dates from 1925, is still is use, as is New York City’s Grand Central Station and Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station.  To get to Phillies games at the old Connie Mack Stadium, I’d get off one stop before 30th Street.  When I commuted to Philly for summer jobs as a law office mailroom “delivery boy” during the early 1960s, I’d end up at the Reading Terminal at Twelfth and Market. 

For years a former student has been taking Ron Cohen to the Chancellor’s Medallion banquet, which honors big donors to IUN scholarships.  This year he paid ($125) his own way and reported that several faculty were on hand, including Tanice Foltz, Chuck Gallmeier, Jean Poulard, and Alan Barr, as well as former administrators Barbara Cope and Linda Anderson.  The program was essentially a repeat of the scholarship event in Tamarack the week before.

Son Phil pulled a groin muscle playing soccer and whether he’d play Sunday was a game time decision.  Dave won a doubles tennis match to determine top seed in his league.  Down 5-6 in the third set, he helped his partner hold serve to force a tie-breaker and clinched match point on a difficult overhead smash.

Green Bay massacred the Eagles Sunday, eliciting this Jim Spicer reply to my limerick predicting a Philadelphia victory:

“A football prognostication by Lane

Turned out to be rather lame

His Eagles, in fact

Ran into the Pack

Let's hope we don't hear him complain.”

During the plentiful football commercials I read a few chapters of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” which portrays an idealized family, poor but loving, during the Civil War.  In contrast to the novel, where the benevolent patriarch is off fighting for his country, Louisa May’s father, Bronson Alcott, was, according to Jane Yolen, a tyrant who “as a husband was a poor provider, as a parent mentally abusive, [and] as a husband frequently absent.”  An abolitionist and transcendentalist who “was an indifferent father to his youngest three girls and positively nasty to Louisa,” he expected women to do the drudge work (and in Louisa’s case, be the family provider through her writing), while he “turned to bizarre new causes and cultish behavior without regard for his family.”

I’ve been eliminated from the Fantasy Football playoffs.  Four of my starters were on bye weeks, and – typical of how the season has gone – the two wide receivers I played, DeSean Jackson and T.Y. Hilton – garnered a total of five points, while the two I kept on the bench, A.J. Green and DeAndre Hopkins, wracked up 26.  LeSean McCoy was galloping full speed ten yards from the goal line with nobody in front of him when he tripped on the slippery turf.

At a condo board meeting to consider raising monthly dues in order to prepare for new roofs in a few years, President Ken Carlson said that he and wife Lorretta will be driving to Columbus, Ohio, to deliver clothes that their church raised for Kenyan refugees.  Good people, they have built Habitat for Humanity homes in Africa.

After China and Myanmar, President Obama’s final stop on an eight-day Asian tour was Brisbane, Australia, for the G20 Summit.  Twenty years ago at an oral history conference in Brisbane, I talked about steelworkers’ tales.  One feminist pronounced my talk too apolitical.  Most participants were women, and at one point when in the bathroom I heard my critic yell out, “We’re coming in.”  Evidently the women’s facilities were inadequate; I didn’t stick around to see if she used a urinal.  On the final day a guy invited me to a party to watch the Brisbane Bears play in the Australian football Grand Finals.

David Porter and Kenneth Scott

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has created a Wall of Faces online, part of a planned education center to complement the Memorial Wall. After a Times editorial mentioned that 15 photos were still needed of Region veterans, columnist Doug Ross obtained one from Karen Gribble of David R. Porter and another of Kenneth L. Scott from his brother Bernie, who told Ross that Kenneth was in Vietnam just nine days when killed by a sniper.  “The last time we saw each other,” Bernie told Ross, “we both knew we wouldn’t see each other again.”  He added: “It’s still rough, even after all these years.”

Vice Chancellor for Administration Joe Pellicciotti, retiring next May, has been with IUN since 1980 and headed SPEA for 13 years. Chancellor William Lowe wrote, “Joe was appointed vice chancellor one month before the severe flooding that covered the entire campus that year and resulted in the destruction and ultimate demolition of Tamarack Hall.  The 2008 flood opened a year of facilities-related challenges that Joe, rightly, remembers as ‘Biblical,’ in range and severity.”

The epic 2008 flood closed IUN for two weeks.  After several days I needed to get to my office in Tamarack to retrieve valuable photos for Ray and Trish Arredondo’s forthcoming “Maria’s Journey,” which I helped edit.  After leap-frogging through standing water, I persuaded a campus policeman to let me in the building.  “You’ve got ten minutes,” he warned.  To my relief the photos were safe.  In fact, the History offices never flooded, but by the time I was officially allowed to return, the smell of mold was overpowering.

In Nicole Anslover’s WW II class I learned about the Red Ball Express (two one-way highways for truck convoys to transport supplies from European ports to the front) and Operation Market Garden (the September 1944 Allied offensive designed to circumvent the Siegfried Line and seize bridges across the Meuse and Rhine).  I knew about both but not their code names.  “A Bridge Too Far” captures the tragic inability to relieve paratroopers airlifted into Arnhem. Nicole stressed that despite the success of the Normandy D-Day landing, the bloodiest fighting lay ahead and hopes that the war would be over by Christmas were wishful thinking.

Brian Barnes sent me a copy of a sermon he delivered five years ago to his Unitarian congregation in Hobart about Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.  He noted that Lincoln and Charles Darwin, two of the greatest change agents of the nineteenth century, were born on he same day, February 12, 1809.  Though “Origin of Species” was in the Illinois state library in 1860, here is no evidence that Lincoln read it.  Barnes concluded: “What is definitely known is that Abraham Lincoln was a lifelong fatalist finding comfort in Greek tragedies and Shakespeare’s plays. He seems to have had a hybrid faith with rationalist, Universalist, Unitarian, fatalist elements.”

On the phone with Gaard Murphy Logan, a former docent, we discussed Jeff Koons’ porcelain ceramic “Michael Jackson and Bubbles,” which sold for $5.6 million.  Jackson bought Bubbles when the chimp was six months old and traveled with him to Japan.  Bubbles slept in a crib in MJ’s Neverland bedroom, but eventually became too aggressive and got exiled to a Florida sanctuary.

Anne Balay is back from Puerto Rico and will join me for a couple hours Saturday at Gardner Center, where I will be selling “Gary’s First Hundred Years” at the annual Holiday Market.  I plan to give away my latest Shavings with her book on the cover to anyone who buys “Steel Closets” from her.