Welcome Initiatives

“Time to get up

Time to go to class

Time to tell bigots who bother me

To kiss my ass.”

         “Time,” Morning Bishop (1979)

Morning Aarona Bishop moved to Gary in 1967 and after raising more than a half-dozen kids graduated from IU Northwest in 1980 at age 38.  A few years later, she founded a children’s theater troupe at the YMCA, which became the Morning Bishop Theatre Playhouse.  Bishop also directed productions with adults at a variety of Gary locations.  Thanks to numerous grants, she was able to find a permanent home on Lake Street in Miller beginning in 2004.  Morning Bishop Dilworth passed away in 2015, and as her obituary stated, “she was a wife, mother, advocate, and complete community force.”

The NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) awarded Liz Wuerffel and Allison Schuette (above) a hundred-thousand dollar grant for their Welcome Project initiative, “Flight Paths: Mapping Our Changing Neighborhoods.”  They are partnering with nine area organizations, including IUN’s Calumet Regional Archives.  The project, in their words, will feature “a multi-media initiative  to help users engage and analyze factors contributing to de-industrialization and the fracturing of neighborhoods, communities, and regions in post-industrial America.”  They conclude: “Flight Paths will prove an invaluable source to anyone who wants to understand why – fully 50 years after the height of the modern Civil Rights movement – the extent of both racial segregation and racial inequality in the United States remains as jaw-dropping as ever.”

Jimbo and Ron at Lake St. Gallery book signing; on left is Ken Schoon

Ron Cohen arranged for VU History professor Heath Carter and I to have lunch with him in Miller, and we ended up at Bakery Café after finding Captain’s House closed.  We talked about ways area History departments have periodically cooperated in the past (unfortunately, not much) and future possibilities. I have spoken in Heath Carter’s class on the Civil Rights movement in Northwest Indiana and offered to talk about Jacob A. Riis in an upcoming one covering settlement houses during the Progressive Era.  In the Spring Carter also has a seminar on Trump’s America, which will trace past Evangelical and populist movements and compare the present administration with previous presidents.  With Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirerbuddy David Pecker plea bargaining with regard to paying hush money to  porn star Stormy Daniels and a Playboyplaymate Karen McDougal, it would be ironic if the House of Representatives brought impeachment charges against him on matters of sex, as Republicans did with Clinton.  I hope lawmakers concentrate on more important matters (actual “high crimes”) in regard to Russian interference in the 2016 election.

 Karen McDougal

At Chesterton Y I partnered in bridge with octogenarian Dee Browne for the first time, and we did well despite being unfamiliar with each other’s tendencies. There were five and a half tables.  After having very few biddable hands, the round we sat out we’d have had a grand slam.  Several top area players competed, including life master Trudi McKamey and Dave Bigler, who thanked me for the DVD copy of our interview and is making one for his grandson.   My best hand was when I doubled a 4-Heart bid (I held five Hearts including the Ace King as Dee was void in them), which went down four, earning us 800 points for high board.  Barbara Mort, learning that Toni plays but doesn’t like duplicate, invited us to her place on a Monday evening when she and Kris Prohl deal out practice hands. Toni promised to consider it after the holidays.

above, Billy Foster; below, Tanice Foltz and Bonnie Neff

I was disappointed that jazz pianist Billy Foster did not play at IUN’s Holiday party, but at least the choir re-assembled for a fifth year under Kathy Malone’s direction.  With Rick Hug indisposed, its lone male member was retired Education professor Ken Schoon.  Once again, the highlight was audience participation for “12 Days of Christmas.” On the seats were slips of paper instructing what you’d represent; mine read“2 Turtle Doves,”meaning that on 11 occasions, I was to stand and sing that line. Old pro David Parnell coached me on how to bob my head in a pecking motion.  Near us Sociologists Chuck Gallmeier and Kevin McElmurry twirled as they belted out “A partridge in a pear tree”a dozen different times.  Will Radell was leading a group of swans a swimming, while choir members were acting out all the verses, Tanice Foltz most expressively. Afterwards I chatted with historians Jonathyne Briggs and Diana Chen-Lin; both have daughters in college that I first met as young kids.  Chancellor Bill Lowe noted, “I see that you’re wearing a tie,”and I replied, “Yes, it matches my sneakers.”  It’s part of our yearly routine since at a previous Holiday celebration he quipped that my tie went with my sneakers. When Garrett Cope was in charge of arrangements, the event was held in the Savannah gym and featured entertainment by Gary high school choral groups. Now downsized, it takes place in the conference center, and few faculty attend.  The food was plentiful, and I took two beef sandwiches and two brownies home for Toni’s dinner.

 scene in "Blue Velvet"

Neither Alan Barr nor George Bodmer attended despite the former having retired this semester, which just ended, at age 79 and the latter scheduled to depart in the spring.  Doug Swartz quipped that he’ll soon be the old man in the English department.  Each previous spring, Barr has taught a film class. A couple years ago, I audited one on erotic movies and saw such notable classics as “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” (1989) and “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1960).  I recall Alan telling the students that most worthwhile films are made outside the United States.  A critique was due each week, and Alan wanted them succinct, thematic, and original rather than a lengthy summary of what happened or what other reviewers thought. Barr liked my essay about a scene in David Lynch’s nightmarish “Blue Velvet” (1986) where drug dealer Dean Stockwell is lip-synching to Roy Orbison’s sorrowful lament “In Dreams” (about a lover existing only in one’s sleep) while crazy Dennis Hopper mouths the words nearby and a man dances with a snake.

 Barr (white shirt) retirement; to his right, Bodmer, Mary Russell, Doug Swartz

Both Barr and Bodmer have been forces to be reckoned with regarding faculty governance and staunch believers in the primacy of research in tenure and promotion decisions, although not, unfortunately, in Anne Balay’s case.  For years, until they began shunning me over that matter, they were fond lunch companions. Some years ago, Bodmer was seriously injured when struck by a car as he was jaywalking across Broadway.  While he was recuperating, I sent him an Anne Tyler novel.  He later told me that his wife enjoyed it.  Since then, he’s frequently predicted he’d be remembered as the person responsible for getting traffic lights installed near the spot of his accident.  In addition to his scholarly output in children’s literature, Bodmer does minimalist etchings (he’d often send me home with samplings to elicit Toni’s opinion). Unless I’m mistaken, he taught a class to homeless Chicagoans.  While his sardonic classroom persona and biting criticism of mediocre work (criticisms leveled at Balay) turned off some students, others, including son Dave, poet Sarah McColly, bowling buddy George Villareal, and steelworker Dave Serynek, found his classes stimulating.  Serynek told me that he ended his academic career with a bang, reading Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita” in Bodmer's class.  George used to wear a Chairman Mao cap, once changed a flat tire for me, and has a cool wife. 

 Bodmer etchings

Doris Guth at Mel Guth's funeral service (2016)

At Hobert Lanes the Electrical Engineers took 5 of 7 points from Better Without Phil (the name of a former teammate who left to form his own team), which spotted us 99 pins a game.  Five frames into the match, we had squandered the 99-pin lead and trailed by 60 pins.. from then on we pretty much bowled them even. Both Terry Kegebein and I finished the series more than 50 pins over our average; I rolled games of 165, 146, and 158 with only a handful of strikes but just one split.  Opponent Larry Ramirez has a mean lefty hook.  Twice he threw gutter balls followed by several strikes in a row.  “I got mad,”he said both times.  Our Mel Guth Seniors league selected Doris Guth as our sportswoman of the year.  A few years ago, the Engineers won two games from her team, Best Friends, and when she began the third game with two strikes, Dick Maloney said,“Take it easy on us.”  Doris replied with an expletive.  Last week my 765 handicap series was second highest to Jaime Delgado’s 772. Next week is the Holiday banquet, and opponent Phil Magdiak promised to bring fresh smoked Polish sausage from Misch brothers grocery in Calumet City. I’ll bring my usual, deli pickles.

ABC nightly news ran a feature on Genevieve Purinton, the 88-year-old originally from LaPorte reunited with her daughter Connie thanks to DNA findings.  Christina Caron, the New York Timesinvestigative reporter who broke the story, emailed me that Genevieve had moved in with her sister before giving birth at age 19 at Gary’s Mercy Hospital because her mother had warned her that her father would “kill” her if he learned about the pregnancy.

Valued Archives volunteer Maurice Yancy gave me a hand-made Happy Holiday card with this composition:

  Back in the day I thought I was

All that . . . an a bag of chips, 

Today I’m an old guy with memories

Flapping lips!!!!!

I met Allison Schuette and Liz Wuerffel at Hunter’s Brewery in Chesterton.  We celebrated the NEH grant coming through, and I suggested they get in touch with Kenny Kincaid at Purdue Northwest so they could expand their “Flight Paths” to include Latinos from the Indiana Harbor district of East Chicago.  Latinos comprise approximately 7 percent of Valparaiso’s population, they told me. Many, I’m sure, trace their family history to either Gary or East Chicago.  One of their interns interviewed her father, Steve Walsh (below), formerly a Post-Tribune investigative reporter and now affiliated with a San Diego PBS station.  Walsh once covered the statehouse in Indianapolis during legislative sessions with regard to matters affecting Northwest Indiana.

Lake Michigan Sunset

“Power politician leaning to the right

Baby’s got a trust fund

That she’ll want to go off like that.”

    Rogue Wave, “Lake Michigan”

Anne Balay posted a photo of a Lake Michigan sunset with Chicago’s Loop in the background.  Out of view are steel mills whose fumes add to the orange glow.  Hope to be on Miller Beach Saturday to celebrate Emma (the painter) Balay’s graduation from college.  Microsoft used Rogue Wave’s song in an ad for its MP3 player Zune, and Rob Kardashian waltzed to “Lake Michigan” on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Steve Pickert posted nine remarks that NBC Olympic commentators would like to take back.  My favorite is the anal retentive dressage analyst who noted, “This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.”  At the rowing medal ceremony an announcer’s Freudian slip went, “Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.”

Ron Cohen got me invited to a “meet and greet” event In Miller featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg.  Hosts Michael and Susan Greenwald’s house had a great view of the lake.  Hosting a bridal shower for her daughter, Nancy kicked Ron out of the house so he came from the latest “Bourne” movie.

In a TV ad Gregg introduced himself as a folksy guy with two first names from the small town of Sandborn.  Stating that most political ads are silly, he showed three old friends, Frank, Jerry, and Hobo, who used to “loaf around” at Sandborn’s Blue Jay Restaurant until Hobo got cancer, so now they loaf around at Hobo’s house.  Gregg’s final words: “It might seem like a small thing, but I want to keep Indiana a place where people look out for each other.” An aide gave me a “Gregg for Governor” bumper sticker featuring a big blue mustache and a brochure entitled “I’m John Gregg” that stated, “Some people think that I should shave my mustache, but I’m not going to change who I am to run for Governor.” Let’s hope.

On hand were Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and Ogden Dunes State Representative Karen Tallian. Another former colleague, Charlie Brown, introduced the former Indiana State Assembly Minority Leader as a fighter and referred to an anecdote in Gregg’s 2008 autobiography “From Sandborn to the Statehouse” when the two of them gave Governor Evan Bayh a dressing down for abandoning his support for a bill based on expediency. Gregg quipped that the last mustachioed Indiana governor was Thomas R. Marshall a century ago but that one had to go back even further to find a United States Congressman who became governor, the only reference to his troglodyte opponent Mike Pence.  Marshall once expressed the wish (during the disputed mayoralty election of 1909) that Gary would fall into Lake Michigan. Gregg argued that people from southeastern Indiana feel the same way as Region folks, that politicians in Indianapolis don’t have their best interests at heart.  He asserted that if an important artery linking Indy to Carmel needed repairs, it wouldn’t be neglected or forced to be a toll road like happened to the Cline Avenue Bridge.

I asked Gregg why his election material makes no mention of his Democratic Party affiliation (something that annoyed George Roberts) and added that up here we’re proud to be Democrats.  He replied that he was seeking support from moderate Republicans and following the practice of previous nominees, who recognized that there are more Hoosier registered Republicans than Democrats.  Perhaps he could benefit from literature targeted for Lake County voters that stresses his being a Democrat.  I gave Gregg a copy of “Valor” and told him former Sheriff Roy Dominguez would help in any way he wanted.

Sunday after cooking eggs and kaibasa, I won two of four board games (Acquire and Union Pacific) and then edged out Dick Hagelberg in bridge before dining outside at Popolano’s in Chesterton.  I had the pot roast meal with two bottles of Brooklyn Ale.  Alissa called, excited over a weekend event connected with her new job at Grand Valley State.  One summer she interned for IUN Marketing director Chris Sheid, something she had that on her résumé that gave her a notch up on the more than hundred other applicants.  We’ll see her Wednesday when we attend grandson Anthony’s freshman soccer match.

Chris Young showed me how to post messages and syllabi on IUN’s OnCourse system.  Only three students have registered for my Fall class so far.  Oops.

Back on WVLP as Jerry Davich’s only guest, I got in a plug for “Valor” and mentioned that Jerry is in “Calumet Region Connections” (Steel Shavings, v. 41) nine times, in connection with columns he’s written on such topics as the passing of veterinarian Doc Okone, WW II casualty Irwin Fann, and Anne Balay’s search for gay and lesbian steelworkers (which created much controversy, something that newsman Davich welcomed).  He recently wrote about a Valpo teen dying of a heroin overdose and asked whether I thought drugs were as prevalent in the suburbs as in cities.  Speaking not as an expert, I said that starting in the Sixties, drugs seemed to be everywhere.  Davich told Facebook readers, “Cedar Lake was once a Midwest tourist destination?  Al Capone (gang members) once used to hide out in the Hotel Gary? Richard Hatcher was a political scapegoat for Gary's demise? This is what you missed on today's "Out to Lunch" radio show with special guest James Lane, local historian, author, and all-around fascinating guy. The show will be re-aired this Thursday at noon.”  Kim Hunt responded: “Doc Lane is a fantastic guy AND a great historian.”

Talking to Steve’s two Senior College classes about the Region during the Roaring Twenties, I ran into Veronica Rollins, who took courses from me 40 years ago.  After she mentioned her name, I remembered her.  Also in attendance was Morning Bishop, whose Theater Playhouse I wrote about in “Gary’s First Hundred Years” as an example of positive things going on during the 1990s despite the city’s economic woes.  Born, like me, in 1942, she moved from western Pennsylvania to Gary in 1967, the year Richard Hatcher was elected mayor, with six kids and a husband who deserted them soon afterwards.  After she called into WWCA’s “Talk with the Mayor” show, Hatcher got her a job at Metro Corps and she later became a substance abuse counselor at Gary Drug Treatment Center.  While working on a degree at IUN, she took Performing Arts courses with Garrett Cope.   The Morning Bishop Theater Playhouse started out as a children’s YMCA group. Her vision and doggedness enriched the lives of countless residents.

The Republican establishment is calling for Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin to resign after he claimed on TV that “legitimate rape” doesn’t cause pregnancy because in those cases a woman’s body shuts down.  Of course, the statement, which Akins has partially retracted, ignores the fact that 32,000 pregnancies occur each year as a result of rape.  Akin’s views on abortion are virtually identical to Romney’s, and running mate Paul Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Akin that would have provided abortion funding only in cases of “forcible rape.”  Let’s see Romney try to weasel out of this one.  I predict a backlash among Tea Party fanatics if Akin is forced off the ballot.  Akin’s opponent is Senate incumbent Claire McCaskill, a former prosecutor who specialized in sex crimes and knows Akin’s comments are complete bullshit.

Ann Balay posted this advice: “There’s one thing women’s bodies can shut down, and it’s called the Republican Party.”

Ray Smock repeated something told to him by Lindy Boggs, who served 18 years in Congress following the death of her husband, House Majority Leader, in a plane crash. She said "In politics the party you vote for is never as good as you expect it to be and your opponents are never as bad as you think they will be."  Ray continues, “She was one of that last generation of House members who made friends across the aisle. But her thought is a realistic one and a practical one. During campaigns we demonize one another and then most of the time figure out how to get things done after the election no matter who wins. This has been the case through most of our history.  I do think Lindy's point is harder to swallow in these times of continuous campaigns and never-ending demonizing.”

I checked out “Drood” by novelist Dan Simmons, which deals with the last weird years of Charles Dickens.  Normally I shy away from books that take liberties with historical facts, but Gaard Logan’s book club loved it.  The first few pages remind me of John Updike.