Mad Dog

“The essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.” Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp”

Camp, according to Susan Sontag is a sensibility of reducing that which others take seriously to frivolity.  Examples include John Waters’ “Hair Spray,”  RuPaul’s “Drag Race,” and the science fiction spoof “Dr. Who.”  The purest forms of Camp take themselves seriously.  Thus TV shows such as the 1960s “Batman” series that intentionally strive to be funny are “campy” but not true Camp, according to Sontag’s standards. Mad Dog is a Marvel Comics super-villain and also the nickname of Jack Martin of the Deadly Dozen and evil Joe Fasinera, who appeared in a 1981 “Moon Knight” Marvel comic series episode. 

“Mad Dog” has been used both literally and in a campy context as the nickname for gangsters, rock stars (such as Joe Cocker, whose 1970 “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” tour was his path to fame)  and many pro wrestlers, rugby players, and other athletes. One of my favorites, Greg Maddux, pitched for the Cubs both at the beginning and near the end of a long career. Also known as the Professor, Maddux won four straight Cy Young awards and, according to legend, once deliberately yielded a home run to Astro slugger Jeff Bagwell so that when they faced each other in the upcoming playoffs, Bagwell would be looking for the same pitch but never see it.

The HBO series “Camping” straddles a thin line between Camp and campy.  Created by Lena Durham and starring Jennifer Garner and David Tennant as Kathryn and Walt Jodell, the premise is that four couples (plus a teenager) go camping to celebrate Walt’s 45th birthday.  Kathryn is an over-the-top control freak who won’t have sex with Walt but, when he is horny, offers to use her hand (he refuses). Kathryn’s carefully scripted arrangements go awry when free spirit Jandice (Juliette Lewis) shows up, the new girlfriend of one of Walt’s pals.  Another character is a recovering alcoholic who gets drunk and calls an African-American camper “Little Chocolate,” causing her husband to rush to her defense only to have his mate berate him for his trouble.  

Phrases.org describes “mad dog syndrome”as the capacity for unpredictable, dangerous actions, sometimes applied pejoratively for leaders like Saddam Hussein or admiringly for leaders like Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.  Phrases.org mentions the usage of “mad dogging” as a strategy of feigning outrageous or crazed behavior in order to stick a restaurant with the bill, something Toni and I once witnessed, a sorry spectacle indeed. Urban dictionary defines mad dogging as staring in an intimidating manner to convey disdain and a warning that fisticuffs are likely to ensue. “Mad Dog” is sometimes used ironically as a nickname for gentle folk.

Trump’s Secretary of War James Mattis, whose nickname “Mad Dog” emanated from the marine general’s exploits in Iran and Afghanistan, appears to be on the outs with his commander in chief. Mattis opposed the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, protested budget cuts that hindered his department’s ability to monitor climate change, and favors a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Once thought to be, along with Chief of Staff John Kelly, one of the few “adults in the White House” minding the store, Mattis allegedly once said that the President had the understanding of a fifth or sixth grader. Recently, Trump seems bent on insulting African-American women, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, Representative Maxine Waters (whom he’s labeled “Crazy Maxine” and “Low-IQ Maxine”), and several distinguished reporters, including Abby Phillip, April Ryan, and Yamiche Alcindor, who asked him perfectly legitimate questions.  He’s a disgrace.

R.I.P.: Billy Leo “Mad Dog” Madison, 71, born in Evarts, Kentucky, millwright at U.S. Steel for 41 years, married for 59 years to Virginia (nee Mann), great-grandfather to Lara and Emerson, and “Best Buddy,” according to his obit to brother-in-law Al Piunti.  On the Rees Funeral Home Guest Book Marshall Gjebre wrote: “I loved that man like a father. He was a gift to the world and will surely be missed.”

The Engineers won two games but lost series to Dorothy’s Darlings, named for octogenarian Dorothy Peterson, absent due to an outing with, to quote teammate Gene Clifford, her “church ladies.” I rolled a mediocre 430 but did pick up 3 splits, including a 3-6-7 and a 5-6-10.  More important, on a strike and facing a 6-7-10 split in the tenth frame of the one close game, I picked up the 6- and 7-pins for four points, exactly our margin of victory.  Opponent Ed Fox rolled a 686, the highest series all season.

In “‘I’m Not Gonna Die in This Damn Place’: Manliness, Identity, and Survival of American Vietnam Prisoners of War” (2018) Juan Coronado described the rise of Chicano militancy during the 1960s at a time when they were negotiating their American identity that also influenced who they were:

  Chicanos rallied behind an array of concerns ranging from addressing social inequality, along with police brutality, to supporting los pintos(Chicanos in Prison), to backing the struggles of farmworkers, to promoting cultural reaffirmation.  Chicanos were also adamant in endorsing their Mexican cultural and indigenous roots, which to a certain extent had faded due to forces and voluntary acculturation.  Cultural plurality became a key component as Chicanos embraced their heritage along with their identity as “Brown people” or “people of color.”  Chicanos took their pride to the streets during protest marches carrying signs that read “Brown Is Beautiful” and “Brown and Proud.”

In a chapter titled “The Manly Ideals of Machismo, Duty, and Patriotism,” Coronado writes that in captivity Latino POWs had their manliness tested in terms of how much torture they could endure.  On the other hand, by the late 1960s, many had begun to question the legitimacy of the cause they supposedly had been fighting for.

At the Gary Public Library doing research looking at back issues of the Gary American, a black weekly, on heavyweight champ Joe Louis’ participation in Par-Makers golf tournaments, I checked out Felix Maldonado’s mural depicting the history of Gary.  The Gary Crusaderphotographed visits by two Steel City natives depicted by Maldonado, “Peanut Man” Joe Mays and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.  For a half-century Mays hawked his wares on the corner of Twenty-First and Grant.  An adept juggler, he once toured with the Harlem Globetrotters and appeared several times of “Bozo’s Circus.”  One person I was unfamiliar with was builder Marcello Gerometta, whose structures included the Hotel Gary, the Palace Theatre, Holy Angels cathedral, and homes for 280 National Tube Works employees and their families. 

At the Hagelbergs for bridge Saturday, Brian Barnes mentioned receiving a letter from his 70-year-old brother in Bangladesh, who evidently was quite a hell-raiser in his youth but then joined the Roman Catholic Maryknoll Order of lay missioners. Known as the “Marines of the Catholic Church,” they move into impoverished areas and live side-by-side with indigenous people, not proselytizing but ministering to practical needs.   Brian’s brother travels by bicycle to remote villages and tries to help folks with no access otherwise to medical care.  He told Brian about asking an old paralyzed Muslim man who was dying if he could bring him a radio so he could listen to music.  The man shook his head no but whispered that he could do him one favor, bless him.

Cheryl Hagelberg told me that son Corey’s show at Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City was very successful except he had a severe allergy attack afterwards at the home of someone who owned a long-haired cat and was hospitalized for two days.  She also gave me an issue of Ball Bearings magazine that featured a write-up by Katie Savage who compared his work to social realists Ben Shahm and Philip Evergood. She wrote: 

  One of Corey’s woodcut prints, The Hoosier Slide, depicts a famous 200-foot sand dune that once sat in Michigan City, Indiana. Over a 30-year period beginning in the 1890s, the dune was dismantled and its sand hauled as far away as Mexico. In Muncie, the Ball Brothers used some of this sand to make their iconic blue-green canning jar. The logging of trees and removal of sand in the area destroyed a diverse habitat. More than 13 million tons of sand were taken from the Hoosier Slide until it was no more. Afterward, a coal-fired energy plant was built on the site and has been in operation for decades. Corey’s woodcut print depicts the sand dune and the ecosystem that once thrived there. The image includes a zigzag path, showing carts hauling the sand away.

A memorial service for Naomi Millender took place at Gary Genesis Center.  This eulogy appeared on Valparaiso University’s Welcome Center site:

  Today we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Naomi Millender, our friend and collaborator. Naomi was an important person for the growth of our Flight Paths initiative – always connecting us to good people to interview and keeping us in the loop about important city events and historical preservation efforts. She was a Renaissance person - a musician, writer, educator, and advocate. She ran a summer camp that kept kids engaged with learning and creativity. Three years ago when her mother, Dolly, passed, she took on the work of preserving the rich history of Gary. Always generous with her time and wisdom, this photo of Naomi is from when she hosted Allison Schuette’s “Who's My Neighbor?” class at St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Gary.  We will miss you, Naomi. Thank you for all the good you brought into the world.

At Gino’s I ordered a draft beer at the bar, and the manger brought me a large plate of delicious plate of angel hair pasta.  When a woman nearby turned down the bar food, claiming she needed to get home and cook dinner for her children, he went to the kitchen and returned with a a container filled, I’m certain, with enough to feed her entire family. Book club member Keith Anderson spoke on “John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War and Seeded Civil Rights” by David S. Reynolds.  The author insisted Brown was not insane, as many detractors have alleged, and compared him to Old Testament prophets and seventeenth-century English Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell.  Like Ulysses S. Grant, who finished that Brown started, he had failed in almost every economic endeavor he’d tried.  Reynolds pronounced the raid on Harper’s Ferry to be a “doomed, heroic effort”and explained the slaughter of five Missouri “Border Ruffians” with broadswords at Pottawatomie Creek as understandable retribution for acts of terrorism committed against anti-slavery “Free-Staters” Kansas.  Brown’s only role in the actual massacre itself was to administer the coup de graceto a victim dying of grievous wounds.

During discussion of whether slavery would have eventually been abolished had there not been a Civil War, I brought up Maryland professor George Calcott’s thesis that the spread of democracy in the antebellum South hastened secession.  Patrician plantation owners tended to be loyal to the Union while the firebrands, for the most part, were young “man on the make” who dreamed of an expanding slave empire that extended in Cuba and Central America. As I was saying my good byes, former Emerson grad and attorney Paul Giorgi introduced me to a friend as a Gary historian who had written about his grandfather, Dr. Antonio Giorgi, having founded a medical clinic that treated African Americans and poor people, often free of charge, at a time when blacks were prohibited from using the facilities of Methodist or Mercy hospital.

Behind That Curtain

“Mind, like parachute, only function when open,” Charlie Chan

Ron Cohen loaned me Yunte Huang’s “Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History” (2010).  Charlie Chan was an American original, a film stereotype both demeaning and admirable. Huang concluded: “Charlie Chan, America’s most identifiable Chinaman, epitomizes both the racist heritage and the creative genius of this nation’s culture.”  He continued:

Anyone who believes that Chan is Chinese would also probably believe that the fortune cookie is a Chinese invention.  He may have slanted eyes, a chubby and inscrutable face, and a dark goatee, but he prefers Western suits and wears a Panama hat.  Chan is voluble and enjoys spouting fortune-cookie witticisms that are alternatively befuddling and enlightening.  This is the strength of his character: his beguiling charm, his Confucian analects turned into singsong Chinatown blues.

In an Appendix are a list of, in Huang’s words, “Charlie Chanisms,”some profound, others enigmatic, often uttered in films (there were 44 in all, the most starring Swede Warner Oland) in pidgin English like heard in Hawaii.  Here's a sample:

* Biggest mistake in history made by people who didn’t think.

* Caution is good life insurance.

* No poison deadlier than ink.

* The wise elephant does not seek to ape the butterfly.

* Wrong pew perhaps, but maybe correct church.

* Death is the black camel that kneels at every gate.

What I found particularly fascinating in "Charlie Chan" was learning about real-life Honolulu detective Chang Apana, on whom the novels of Earl Derr Biggers were based, including “Behind That Curtain” (1928).  Apana’s father arrived in Hawaii as a coolie contract-laborer destined for a sugarcane plantation.  It was Chinese sugar masters  (tong see) who first harvested sugar from Hawaiian canes, which rescued the island kingdom’s economy after the collapse of the sandalwood trade and led to the importation of tens of thousands of Asian laborers. The talented Apana rose to become a paniola (cowboy) on the Parker Ranch on Hawaii’s “Big Island” and around the age of 20 was hired as a stableman for the Samuel Wilder estate in Honolulu.  Wilder’s daughter Helen founded a chapter of the Humane Society and hired Chang Apana to investigate cases of cruelty toward animals.  Thus his legendary career as a bullwhip-toting law enforcement officer commenced.

 Chang Apana

“In the hierarchical world of late-nineteenth-century Hawaii,” Huang concluded, “an uneducated yellow man like Chang Apana would not have stood a ‘Chinaman’s chance’ without luck or help.” Apana benefitted from his relationship to feudal barons (the Parkers and Wilders), a group that dominated Hawaii’s politics and economy. In colonial societies, Huang asserted, bonds between servant and master were often more reciprocal than in under capitalism. Thus, in his words, “the feisty and compassionate Helen Wilder gave Apana, a humble coolie’s son and an illiterate Chinaman who spoke broken English, a chance to show what he was truly made of.”

Through Jack London’s colorful character Koolau the Leper in “The House of Pride and Other Tales of Hawaii” (1912) Huang conveys how haole(white) ministers and traders and their predatory ancestors gained an iron grip on power in the Pacific paradise, often through intermarriage with King Kamehameha’s progeny:

They came like lambs, speaking softly. Well might they speak softly, for we were many and strong, and all the islands were ours.  As I say, they spoke softly.  They were of two kinds.  The one kind asked our permission, our gracious permission, to preach to us the word of God.  The other kind asked our permission, our gracious permission, to trade with us. That was the beginning.  Today all the islands are theirs, all the land, all the cattle – everything is theirs.

 Miranda at La Rambla, Barcelona, and in Valencia with Carly, Alissa and Josh

Miranda and Carly stopped in Barcelona after visiting Alissa and Josh in Valencia.  Toni and I were there ten years ago with the Migoskis and Hagelbergs for a Mediterranean cruise. In a room adjacent to the hotel lobby on our final day someone snatched Toni’s purse that contained our passports, but she shouted an alarm and followed in quick pursuit.  The thief tossed it away to avoid capture, and a passerby told Toni where to retrieve it. Close call!  We had been warned of pickpockets hanging out at La Rambla, Barcelona’s colorful promenade, but these thieves were brazen indeed.

 Quinn Buckner

Former IU basketball star Quinn Buckner, who led the Hoosiers to an undefeated season and the 1976 NCAA championship, is on the Board of Trustees and will attend a reception on our campus.  It’s on the day before Dave and I fly to Finland, but I need to print out our boarding passes that evening anyway.  Trustee Philip Eskew, a former football and track star at DePauw University and distinguished physician, responded to receivingSteel Shavings,volume 47, with this note: “You continue to amaze me, what a terrific collection of thoughts and observations.  Capturing the history of the Region is invaluable and I salute you for your effort.” 

The final question on Jeopardy was confusing.  The category was U.S. Quotes, and the clue stated: In a 1789 letter, Benjamin Franklin relates the durability of the new Constitution to these 2 things.”  I guessed checks and balances, but the answer was death and taxes.  Franklin’s 1789 statement to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy reads, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Hardly a case of cause and effect.  No wonder nobody knew the answer.

Hearing about Ron Cohen and my new edition of “Gary: A Pictorial History,” Naomi Millender made a pitch to include a photo by Korey Caroll depicting a Gary historic tour that took place on June 19, 2017.  The brainchild of VISTA workers Sam Salvesen and Alex Koerner and sponsored by the Gary Redevelopment Department,  what some nicknamed the Gary Ruins tour commenced at the original Gary Land Company Building.  The goal is to turn City Methodist Church and other vacant properties into tourist sites and urban gardens.  Members of the Gary Historical and Cultural Society, including Naomi Millender, greeted participants. I was nearby at an IUN booth manned by Diversity director James Wallace giving away Steel Shavings.  Dolly Millender (Naomi’s mother), founder of the Gary Historical and Cultural Society, was on the cover.

Kirsten Bayer-Petras wondered why “Whiter Shade of Pale” isn’t on other band’s cover lists. Matthew Petras responded : “The old Hammond organs are too large and expensive.”  Jessica Black Smith quipped: “Because too many of us would be in bed by the time it ends.” I wrote: “Nice to see it honored at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony - one of my favorite songs. Heard Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher sing it at a Ringo Starr Revue at the Holiday Star.”

 Alison Fiori with llama on "Let's Make a Deal"

The phrase “Behind that curtain” brings to mind the popular game show “Let’s Make a Deal” with host Monty Hall that aired continuously for 14 years beginning in 1963.  Contestants could choose one of three curtains and receive whatever was behind it.  At least one was a gag gift, such as a live llama.  Studio audience members dressed in outlandish costumes hoping to be chosen as contestants.  Prize winners commonly broke into ecstatic expressions of joy, often hugging, humping, and kissing Monty full on the mouth, sometimes with tongue.

cartoon from Jim Spicer

Paul Kern called from Florida to talk about IUN doings and said that wife Julie was stressing out over bridge.  Her club plays the same pre-dealt hands as hundreds of others, enabling comparisons with large samples rather than just those played face-to-face.  I’m happy we don’t do it that way at Chesterton.  According to Bridge Bulletin,I have accumulated 12.27 master points and am a Junior Master; I need 7.73 more to become a Club Master and 487.73 to be a Life Master. The magazine printed this pompous remark by Theo Lichtenstein of Tallahassee: “In order for a person to earn the title of LIfe Master, a player should have to earn at least one platinum point.  If that is too hard, then maybe these players don’t deserve to be called Life Masters.”Competing just once a week and only locally, I have no desire to join that exalted rank, rest assured Mr. Lichtenstein. Some people take the game too seriously.

When I arriving at Chesterton YMCA for bridge, I noticed that a crowd had gathered inside the front door.  My partner Dee had fainted.  Chuck Tomes was on the phone to her daughter and YMCA officials had called 911.  With extremely low blood pressure, Dee is subject to fainting spells.  Revived with the help of a wet towel, she insisted on staying.  A half-dozen EMTs thoroughly checked her vital signs and then left.  With five full tables, we proceeded to play nine rounds.  Marcia Carson mentioned fainting right after a youth baseball game that Jim was coaching, and he admitted to completing his postgame speech while a friend in the stands tended to Marcia.  One time Toni got numerous planters warts on her hand removed and insisted that she was fine when the doctor wanted suggesting leaving some for a future visit.  When he finished freezing all of them, she would have fallen to the floor had someone not caught her.

Former Math teacher Chuck Tomes provided some interesting facts to Barb Walczyk for her bridge Newsletter that compared playing cards to a calendar:

*There are 52 weeks in the year and so are there 52 playing cards in a deck. 

*There are 13 weeks in each season, and thus there are 13 cards in each suit. 

*There are 4 seasons in a year and 4 suits in the deck. 

 *There are 12 months in a year, so there are 12 court cards — those with   faces, namely jack, queen, king in each suit — 3 cards each in 4 suits. 

          *The red cards represent the day, while the black cards represent the night. 

 *The spades indicate plowing/working. 

 *The hearts indicate loving thy crops. 

 *The clubs indicate flourishing and growth. 

 *The diamonds indicate reaping the wealth. 

 Mayor Jim Kenney and Eagle Jason Kelce dressed like mummer at Super Bowl celebration

Trump abruptly cancelled a White House visit by the Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after getting wind that a dwindling number of players planned to show up.  He accused them of disrespecting the American flag even though not a single Eagle took a knee nor remained in the locker room during the National Anthem all season.  Fox network showed Eagles kneeling without revealing that they were praying and it not during the playing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney stated that disinviting the players “only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.” Referencing Samuel Johnson’s 1775 assertion that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel,” Ray Smock wrote: “Trump is the latest in a long line of “pretended patriots” who uses patriotism not for pride of country and time-honored tradition that unites the American people, but as a weapon to smite his enemies.”

 Max Blaszkiewicz at RFK gravesite

Margaret Gallagher

Bobby Kennedy passed away 50 years ago.  I was asleep when an assassin shot him in California after he won the primary that would have assured him the Democratic Presidential nomination.  How different America’s destiny would have been but for that senseless murder.  Robert Blaszkiewicz posted photos from a 2016 family visit to Kennedy’s gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery.  His mother, Margaret “Maggie” Gallagher, commented: “On this day 50 years ago, I was very pregnant and waiting the birth of my first child, my husband was in the service, so we agreed that if we had a son he would be named after RFK . So that is how Robert got his name.”  Dave, Phil, and Robert became good friends in high school. After the 2000 home invasion Maggie, a hair stylist, cut Dave and my hair, Dave’s by necessity and mine to match.  In my “Survival Journal” published in Steel Shavings,volume 33 (2002) I wrote:

    Got a brush cut from Maggie, who did wonders with Dave after one of the home invaders idiotically chopped off chunks of his hair.  The shorter hair brushed back is my first new look in more than 20 years.  Lots of gray hair came off.  My head felt cleansed. In high school Phil, Dave, and Robert went on a class trip to Mexico accompanied by Robert’s cool grandmother. who was born there.

My Own Pattern

“Over the line, can't define what I'm after
I always turn the car around
Give me a break, let me make my own pattern”

         “Shattered (turn the car around),” O.A.R.

Before taking off to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a weekend celebrating granddaughter Alissa’s graduating from Grand Valley State (GVSU) with a master’s degree (M. Ed) in adult and higher education, I picked up a 12-inch Philly steak at Subway for $7.49, taking advantage of the senior discount.  Counting out 49 cents in change, I said to the cashier, “You must hate it when old people do this.”  “We can use the change,” she replied tactfully.  With construction finally completed on the Tri-State, the trip took just over two hours.  Alissa and Josh had Miller Highlife in the fridge and cooked up two kinds of pasta from Trader Joe’s.  

Since the graduation ceremony started at 10 the following morning, I retired around 10:30 (9:30 back home). Beforehand, due to their road being a snow route, I had to turn the car around and park on the other side of the street, then repeat the procedure the following evening.  Josh said that violators sometimes get ticketed but evidently not towed, even though the avowed purpose of the ordinance is to facilitate snow plows.

Even though it was a mid-year graduation, Van Andel Arena was filled nearly to capacity.  The ceremony took almost 3 and a half hours, with each graduate able to walk across the stage. The retiring provost, referencing the GVSU nickname, told the graduates, “Anchors up, Lakers, it’s time to sail.” President Thomas Haas (T. Haas), ever the good sport, posed with students taking selfies as they received diplomas from him.  A dozen of us regrouped at City Built Brewery, which featured Puerto Rican fare, including delicious beef tacos and fried rice balls, as well as a plantain and shrimp dish Delia ordered.  Josh’s company had designed City Built’s website, so we were treated like royalty. Back at the house, we pigged out on two cakes Beth had bought, one with lemon slices on the top and the other, chocolate, covered with strawberries.  I was surprised the leafy stems had not been removed, but Toni said that was to hold them.  Also, they supposedly kept the fruit fresher. Playing music from Spotify, Josh mentioned that at work he often listens to Spanish songs because he can’t understand the words and therefore isn’t distracted.  

This spring, Alissa will be making a presentation at a scholarly conference in Miami on diversity strategies for university overseas programs.  I told her about a section in my 2017 Steel Shavings entitled “Campus Diversity” where I quoted from Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas (“considerable deference is owed to a university in defining those intangible characteristics, like student body diversity, that are central to its identity and educational mission”) and Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography “My Beloved World”:  

I had no need to apologize that the look-wider, search-more affirmative action that Princeton and Yale practiced had opened doors for me. That was its purpose: to create the conditions whereby students from disadvantaged backgrounds could be brought to the starting line of a race many were unaware was even being run.

Josh had brought home bagels from Panera, and I found one with brown sugar for breakfast topped off with a bite-size piece of lemon cake with my coffee.  It had snowed the evening before, and there was no sign of my ice scraper.  Fortunately, Alissa had a spare that she gave me. The day before, white-out conditions prevailed on the stretch of I-94 where northwest Indiana met southeastern Michigan, but on Sunday the sun was out and the highway clear of snow.

Jayne Bartlett as Ralphie with cap and glasses and with Parker family cast members

Two hours after we arrived home, Dick Hagelberg took us to the Memorial Opera House presentation of “A Christmas Story: A Musical.” JJ Boylan, so superb as Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables,” assumed the role narrator Jean Shepherd.  Leann Wright, who’d worked in IUN’s alumni office before taking a similar job at VU, was Ralphie’s mother. I didn’t realize until intermission that the character brilliantly playing Ralphie was a girl, Jayne Bartlett.  Douglas DeLaughter as The Old Man was properly dour until the final scene at the Chinese restaurant after the Bumpus hounds devoured the Christmas turkey, when the mood got warm and fuzzy.  I’m certain acerbic Jean Shepherd, who categorized his satiric brand of humor as anti-nostalgic, would have been horrified.  I had hated the Chinese stereotypes in the movie version, and the musical was even worse. In Shepherd’s original story in “Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters” it’s an Easter ham.  The Old Man’s rage at his hillbilly neighbors did not abate; he waged war against them until the day they suddenly vanished. Here is Shepherd’s account of the Old Man’s reaction to the hound attack after being closer to tears than Ralphie had ever seen him:

  Finally, he spoke in a low, rasping voice: “All right! OK!  Get your coats.  We’re going to the Chinese joint.  We’re going to have chop suey.”

  Ordinarily, this would have been a gala of the highest order, going to the chop suey joint.  Today, it had all the gaiety of a funeral procession.  The meal was eaten completely in silence.

In other words, no clichés about love and family.  And no making fun of the Chinese staff.

We topped off the pleasurable theater experience with dinner at Parea’s across from the theater.  Both Connie and Brian Barnes and the Hagelbergs ordered Saganaki, which the Greek owner set aflame at our table.  The beef tips, mashed potatoes, and green beans were go good, neither Toni nor I needed a doggie bag- -a rarity.  I was home in time to catch the exciting final minutes of the Eagles victory over the Rams, tempered by a season-ending injury to QB Carson Wentz.  Football is brutal, with players just a hit away from suffering career-threatening injuries.

 At Marquette Park Pavilion, Charlie Brown, Jimbo, George and Sam Van Til, John Petalas; 

photo by Karen Petalas

The Gary Civic Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas concert was moved to Marquette Park Pavilion (site of Dave and Angie’s wedding) because a pipe burst at the Genesis Center. A rumor has spread that the roof had collapsed, which Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson set to rest in her opening remarks, calling the new location an upgrade.  George Van Til had invited me to join his table, and I talked with Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez and deputy police chief Ed Jenkins until they were called away because two Winfield robbery suspects had just been apprehended.  When Naomi Millender was at the microphone, I mentioned to George’s cousin Sam Van Til that she lived in the house where Valparaiso mayor Jon Costas grew up. Sam had known the mayor’s father, owner of WILCO Foods in Miller, since both were in the grocery business. Several years ago, he hired IUN Business professor Charley Hobson to address Strack and Van Til employees about issues of sexual harassment. It was a treat sitting with county auditor John Petalas, a former student, and meeting his wife Karen; we reminisced about John’s days as editor of the Northwest Phoenix when I was its adviser.  State Representative Charlie Brown was to my right, and throughout the evening political dignitaries stopped by to say hello to him, Van Til, and Petalas.

 Michael Carson in 2015 rehearsing with Gary Symphony Orchestra

Having attended many Gary symphony concerts, George declared that the orchestra never sounded better.  Dick Hagelberg, who joined our table after the concert at Van Til’s invitation, attributed the full orchestra sound in part to there being three French horn players rather than the normal one or two.  Conducted by Wirt-Emerson music teacher Michael Carson, the program interspersed Christmas carols with selections from Handel’s Messiah. Particularly impressive was “The Trumpet Shall Sound” with solos by baritone Arthur Griffin and his father Robert Griffin on trumpet.  The final number was “Hallelujah Chorus,” with George Van Til and many others singing three-part harmony.

 Dolly Millender in 2014

Gary Historical and Cultural Society founder Dolly Millender started the orchestra in the mid-1970s when the original symphony moved to Merrillville and changed the Gary to Northwest Indiana.  It began, according to its website, as a musical ensemble, performing at teas, church events, dinners, “and usually for free (smiles)”:

As our reputation and number of musicians grew, we decided that it was time to perform a major concert.  So, under the baton of the late Bessye Tatum, we premiered our first major concert in Gary in 1982. The site was the new Genesis Convention Center, which was developed during the administration of Mayor Richard G. Hatcher. Mayor Hatcher also found resources that enabled us to purchase orchestra equipment and a symphonic repertoire.