Turkey Season

“What do you call a cluster of featherless turkeys?  A cluster pluck.”

             (First Thanksgiving by Jennie A. Brownscombe)

Renditions of the first Thanksgiving in 1621 are based on based largely on speculation and myth.  The separatists (later designated Pilgrims) who arrived  on the Mayflower the year before were indeed aided in the cultivation of corn, beans and squash by the Wampanoag Tisquantum (Squanto).  In 1614 he had been captured and sold into slavery before returning to America as a translator and finding his Patuxet band virtually wiped out by a smallpox epidemic.  There is no evidence that turkey was served at the three-day harvest celebration and certainly no pies, but fowl were plentiful in the area, so wild duck or turkey may have been available, and the Wampanoag (“People of the Dawn”) visitors probably provided venison.  Some might have perished in the 1637 Pequot massacre, others (or their descendants) in King Philip’s War during the mid-1670s.

At bridge Terry Bauer mentioned that a daughter was visiting her sister in Hong Kong and found it easy to get around and shop because there were virtually no tourists due to the continuing anti-government protests.  She was surprised to find mountains and hills with plentiful hiking trails.  On one such excursion 25 years ago, I recall encountering a beautiful waterfall and a troop of monkeys that, Dean Bottorff warned, loved to steal cameras from careless tourists.  Don Geidemann and Judy Selund had a final round sit-out.  As they left, Don said, “Happy Thanksgiving, turkeys” – as in jive turkeys. They were amazed to find out later that they scored a 73.61 percent, earning an acknowledgement in Barbara Walczak’s Newsletter.  Geidemann told her: 

  The super game was overdue.  Some may apply the idioms, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometime” or “Every dog has its day” but we believe that we have graduated from “The school of Hard Knocks” both in our personal lives and at the bridge tables. Judy and I initiated our partnership 13 months ago.  Our agreement includes tolerance for missed bids and missed plays.  We are still learning as we go.

Judy added: “Our objective is to minimize the bonehead mistakes.”

 Don Geidemann and Judy Selund, photo by Charlie Halberstadt

We had a great time at Evelyn and Herb Passos’ for Thanksgiving as did Don and Judy, a former gym teacher and longtime friend of Evelyn’s.  I enjoyed chatting with sons Max Passo, who started medical school in August, and Alex, a former student and now an attorney.  Next day, we had 23 family members and guests at the condo for our belated Thanksgiving, almost half of whom spent the night.  Toni served turkey, ham, and a tofu turkey roll that I did not sample, saving room for daughter-in-law Beth’s cherry and blueberry pie.  During the course of the day I played Lost Cities, Acquire, Perudo, and Werewolf.  I was about to turn in when Phil, Alissa, and Beth persuaded me to watch Super Troopers 2, the sequel to the 2002 campy cult classic.  After a hilarious dream sequence, it went downhill but was good for cheap laughs and groan-worthy puns.  Obnoxious Rodney Farva (Kevin Hefferman) tells fellow troopers, “You know they have Eskimo hookers up here [in Canada]?  When they have sex, they really get ‘Inuit.’”  It was fun spotting cameos by Rob Lowe (as minor league hockey legend Guy LeFranc), Lynda “Wonder Woman” Carter, grown up “Wonder Years” star Fred Savage, and black comedian Damon Wayans Jr.

The Memorial Opera House Holiday production, Meredith Wilson’s “Miracle on 34th Street,” was originally a 1947 movie.  In eighth grade at Barnum Junior High in Birmingham, Michigan, I saw the film 30 minutes at a time during a week of lunch hour.  The musical, first titled “Here’s Love,” opened on Broadway in 1963.  Set at Macy’s in New York City, the play references Macy’s competitor Gimbel’s. In the early 1960s when I worked in a law firm mailroom in Philadelphia’s center city, department stores appeared to be in their prime. There was no Macy’s but Gimbel’s, Wanamaker’s, and Strawbridge and Clothier were three of the grandest, with holiday window displays to attract shoppers.

"Miracle on 34th Street" photos by Ray Gapinski

The strong cast included charismatic Thomas Olsen as Kris Kringle (who co-starred in “La Cage Aux Folles”), Frank Allen as a drunk Santa and a fictitious R.H. Macy (the family sold the business in 1895 shortly after founder Rowland Hussey Macy died), and several talented youngsters, including preteen Goldie Samardzija in a prominent role as the store manager’s daughter.  Portage attorney Dan Whitten played several characters, including the Governor and the D.A. While the dialogue was dated (for example, the romantic lead referred to his love interest as a dame), the music and dance numbers were  great.  During intermission I spoke with bowling buddies Dorothy Peterson and Gene Clifford.  During turkey hunting season Gene, 82, arrived at Hobart Lanes sporting a black eye.  When a wild turkey surprised him, he fired his weapon and it recoiled while it was too close to his face. At the curtain call Kris Kringle (Olsen) asked the audience to join in an encore of “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.”
                  Dan Whitten, fourth from left

Chancellor Lowe and F C Richardson

At Pesko’s I ordered a Yuengling on draft and steak salad, enhanced by onions Dick Hagelberg discarded and several slices of delicious bread. Brian Barnes noted that he’d attended the annual IUN Chancellor’s Medallion banquet as guest of former dean F.C. Richardson and wife Bernice who were honored for their many years of service to the university.  After serving as Chancellor of IU Southwest, Richardson returned to Northwest Indiana and became an advisor to Chancellor Lowe, whom Brian briefly met. The citation stated:

    Only the second African-American to join IU Northwest’s faculty, F C is celebrated for his advocacy for Black rights during the Civil Rights movement. One of F C’s most important career contributions was his role as advisor for IU Northwest’s Black Caucus, now known as the Black Student Union. 

    F C’s wife, Bernice, earned degrees in elementary education from IU Bloomington in 1968 and IU Northwest in 1973 and spent most of her career in Gary schools, primarily in the roles of assistant principal and principal.  Bernice also served as an IU Northwest Alumni Association board member for several years.

 muddied up Andrew Weil with rosemary and mint plants

In “Food for Dissent” (2019).  Maria McGrath seemed conflicted about self-health guru Andrew Weil, a onetime hippie who kept alive counterculture precepts (i.e., the revolution must begin inside each person’s head) but profited by hawking of all sorts of products purportedly leading to physical well-being. I came across the name of Mike McGrath, editor of Organic Gardening during the 1990s and wondered if he was related to Maria.  The final chapter discussed Ron Dreher, author of “Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counter-Culture and Its Return to Roots” (2006).  McGrath concluded:

  Conservatives’ presence in the hippie-left movement surprised and disturbed natural foods proponents with countercultural biographies and affinities. It should not have. Cultural preservation, pastoral sentimentality, and moralistic consumerism – the movement’s fundamentals – were always there, ready for conservative adaptation.

I came across Rodger McDaniel’s “Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt” (2013).  Hunt, a former Democratic governor elected to the Senate in 1948, was an outspoken opponent of the Wisconsin demagogue Joseph McCarthy.  Rightwing Republicans Styles Bridges of New Hampshire and Herman Welker of Idaho attempted to blackmail him into not seeking re-election after Hunt’s son Buddy was arrested for soliciting sex from a male undercover cop in Washington’s Lafayette Park.  Normally, first offenders got off with a warning and notification to the family, but Bridges and Welker pressured District of Columbia law enforcement authorities into prosecuting Buddy and warned Hunt that they’d publicize the case unless Hunt retired from politics.  Hunt subsequently shot himself at his Senate desk.  The day before, McCarthy hinted that he’d make the sex offense public.  Senate reporter Allen Drury used a fictionalized version of the incident in the 1959 novel “Advise and Consent.”

Hold Steady

‘There's gonna come a time when the true scene leaders
Forget where they differ and get big picture’

    “Stay Positive,” The Hold Steady

Rolling Stone gave a plug to The Hold Steady’s forthcoming CD “Thrashing Through the Passions” on its latest “Quick List” of top new albums.  The Brooklyn band formed in 2003. Josh Leffingwell burned me their 2006 CD “Boys and Girls in America.  The first song, “Stuck Between Stations,” has a line that references Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” (1957):

There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right

Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together

“Chillout Tent” is about two young people at a rock concert who meet in a chill-out tent after being taken there by paramedics when they’d overdosed on mushrooms, then given oranges and cigarettes (for nourishment and stimulation?).  My favorite track is “Southtown Girls,” which contains a line “Hey Bloomington, what’d you let them do to you” (an IU reference perhaps?)and the much-repeated couplet:

Southtown girls won't blow you away
But you know that they'll stay

We celebrated Dave’s fiftieth birthday at BC Osaka in Merrillville, a Japanese restaurant whose buffet included a wide variety of dishes.  Many seemed spicy so I favored the roast beef, crab Rangoon, and salad along with small portions of Mongolian beef and a noodle dish, then finished with jello, ice cream, and cream-filled pastries.  Toni especially enjoyed the sushi selections, not my cup of tea.  The night before, Dave and Angie dined at Ivy’s Bohemia House, where Becca works, with several old friends.  Dave asked Toni details about the day he was born (in Washington, DC), and we discussed summer of ’69 news events, including the Apollo 11 moon landing, Chappaquiddick, and Woodstock. which would become a counter-culture symbol peace and harmony, with a half-million hippies gathering in a rain-drenched field without violence.  I’m not sad to have missed it, but those who went gained bigtime bragging rights. Toni and I saw Martin Scorsese’s documentary in the spring of 1970 at a venerable theater near Kensington and Allegheny in north Philly while visiting her parents Blanche and Tony. Performing at Woodstock fiftieth anniversary festival will be original artists John Sebastian, John Fogarty, Carlos Santana, David Crosby, and Country Joe McDonald, whose antiwar “I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ To Die Rag” chorus went, “One, two, three what are we fighting for?”

I could hardly watch the news with two mass shootings that took dozens of lives in El Paso and Dayton – within hours of one another. More people died at the hands of the white supremacist in ten minutes than the average in El Paso for an entire year. Trump stayed away from El Paso mercifully and instead delivered a mealy-mouthed address from the White House and said nothing about banning assault rifles or mandating universal background checks. Kyle Telechan posted this comment:

    It's weird how quickly mental health suddenly becomes important to Republican politicians and pundits the few moments after a mass shooter is found to be a white supremacist, and how unimportant it becomes soon thereafter. If you want to claim that "mental health" is the base cause of these shootings, sounds like maybe we should work on getting a system where everyone can get the help they need regardless of their economic status?  No? We're going to forget about this in a few days until the next white kid with obvious supremacist views extinguishes more human lives? Also related, can you imagine how quickly they'd be racing to address this instead of hand-wringing and "thoughts and prayers"-ing if the mass shootings were inspired by ISIS? If you don't see their inaction as speaking volumes of their motives, you're not paying attention.

Mike Olszanski posted this Carl Sagan quote: “For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock.”

On category in the Jeopardy Teen tournament was Vinyl.  I knew four of the five answers, including Juke box, revolutions per minute, turn-table, and 21 Pilots, a pop group Miranda turned me onto.

Knowing I’d seen Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Jonathyne Briggs asked if it was worth seeing  in a theater. I gave him an emphatic yes!  As Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers wrote: “The action jumps off the screen while setting up psychological provocations with a reverb that won’t quit.”

IUN math professor Jon Becker just published a book titled “The Flunked-Out Professor,” based on his college experience.  Here’s how Amazon advertised the Kindle edition:

   Jon has been kicked out of college.He spends his days playing video games and his nights delivering pizzas, with no motivation to develop a sustainable plan for the future. Recognizing this, Jon's girlfriend decides that she doesn't want to be stuck with a video game-addicted pizza delivery man for the rest of her life. So, she tells him to get his act together, or she will have to end their relationship. Jon feels like a total failure.
  SOUND FAMILIAR?

  Failure is a common part of life for everyone. But when we fail, most people make the mistake of identifying themselves as the failure instead of recognizing that they have experienced failure.In The Flunked-Out Professor,readers follow Jon as he makes a series of bad choices which get him kicked out of college and beaten down in life. Eventually, he chooses a new path--one that ultimately leads him back to the same college that kicked him out...as a faculty member!

Lou Nimnicht wrote a piece for Barb Walczak’s Newsletterabout competing in a tournament in Las Vegas.  He claimed that in the Friday Knockout he and his partner came in second of 25 teams, “despite losing to a squad whose average age was about 10!” Now if that was not a facetious exaggeration, it would be most unusual, as most competitors are seniors.  I will have to investigate.  Last year IUN student Meriah Isaza (below) interviewed Nimnicht for an oral history assignment.  I asked Terry Bauer, recently elected president of bridge Unit 154 for Northern Indiana, and he quipped that Nimnicht considers anyone under the age of 60 a kid. He added, however, that he’d lost at a tournament to 12-year-olds.

Rolling Thunder

“You might as well expect rivers to run backwards, as any man born free to be contented penned up.  Let me be a free man and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.” Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain (Chief Joseph) 

Young Chief Joseph

Rolling Thunder

Operation Rolling Thunder represented a dramatic escalation of the Vietnam War, as Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1965 ordered an intense bombing campaign against North Vietnam that lasted four years and though ineffective in shortening the war resulted in untold Vietnamese casualties andmany American pilots, including John McCain, being shot down and taken prisoner.  It became the name of a Vietnam veterans advocacy group. In the mid-Seventies Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue toured extensively with a supporting cast that included Joan Baez and Roger McGuinn.  Rolling Thunder is also the name of a Six Flags roller coaster.

Garrett Peck’s “The Great War in America” argues convincingly that World War I (as the conflict was called only after World War II) was the most momentous event of the twentieth century, breaking up the Ottoman and Austria-Hungarian empires, spawning Bolshevism, destabilizing the Middle East to this day, killing millions, sparking Third World nationalism, and, due to defects in the Versailles Treaty, sowing the seeds of World War II. It marked a vast increase in the power of the federal government and America’s “coming of age” in world affairs despite an isolationist backlash domestically and led to postwar runaway inflation, strikes, race riots, a Red Scare, and an ignoble experiment, Prohibition. In the introduction Peck wrote:

  War leaves a scar on a nation’s psyche, one that never fully heals. . . Arlington, Virginia, is my home, and every Memorial Day it witnesses tens of thousands of Vietnam war veterans who descend on the nation’s capital in the motorcycle caravan known as Rolling Thunder.  The veterans seek an answer to unanswerable questions: What good is war, and is the sacrifice worth it?

General William Westmoreland (Waste-more-land) once claimed with unintended irony that life was cheap in Asia.  During the World War II Japanese occupation of Vietnam, approximately 4 million peasants died of starvation because their crops went to feed foreigners.  Never again, nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh vowed, would Vietnam be at the mercy of a foreign power.

Charlie Halberstadt and I finished fourth in bridge with 52 percent, just one bad hand from second place.  In another we scored an unbelievable 2800 points.  An opponent opened one Heart and Charlie overcalled a Spade. The player to my right bid 2 Diamonds.  I held 8 points, including three Spades and five Hearts, King, Queen, Jack, nine, deuce. I bid 2 Hearts, alerting Charlie that I had that suit covered in case  he wanted to bid No Trump.  The player on my left, thinking I was indicating a void in Hearts, eventually bid 4 hearts, doubled and re-doubled.  We set the contract down 5. 

I gave Dee Browne a copy of Barbara Walczak’s Newsletter that paid tribute to Dee Van Bebber.  She was grateful, feeling she needed closure since there were no funeral services for her friend.   Terry Bauer, who finished first with partner Dottie Hart, mentioned that a car dealer asked him to fill out a survey that included this surprising question, “Do you identify as male, female or other?”  Earlier in the day I got my driver’s license renewed, needing a passport and multiple documents showing my social security number and proof of where I lived.  Ridiculous. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles folks were very nice and, after all, didn’t make up the stupid regulations.

Miller’s Aquatorium Society will show movies as part of its 2019 fundraising efforts, including the 1927 film “Wings” (the first ever to win an Oscar, starring Clara Bow and with a minor role for Gary Cooper), “Red Tails” (about the Tuskegee Airmen), and Fellini’s “Strada,” starring Anthony Quinn. According to Greg Reising, when Myrna Loy received her award for best actress, she claimed that the statue resembled her Uncle Oscar, and the name stuck.  The ten=dollar contribution will evidently include free popcorn.

A New York Times puzzle clue was “one keeping a secret metaphorically.”  Toni got it: clam.

Chicagoan Barbara Proctor died, Maurice Yancy informed me.  Before founding the largest black-owned advertising agency in America, Proctor worked for Vee-Jay Records writing liner notes. In 1962 she negotiated a contract with EMI Records in London obtaining for Vee-Jay the rights to 30 songs by the Beatles, then an unknown commodity. She grew up in a “shotgun shack” without electricity or running water in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Also dead at age 71 is Hobart H.S. and Notre Dame football great Bob Kuechenberg, a six-time All-Star guard with the Miami Dolphins who played on the 1972 undefeated team that went on to beat the Washington Redskins, 14-7, in Super Bowl VII. Washington’s only points were the result of a blocked field goal attempt in the final minutes.  In 2013 when President Barack Obama invited the 1972 Dolphins to the White House, Kuechenberg declined to attend, citing political difference.  What a jerk.

At bowling, with Melvin Nelson being on the DL with a bum shoulder, Terry Kegebein in Florida, and Frank Shufran serving as a pallbearer at a friend’s funeral, half-blind Dick Maloney filled in admirably, as did sub Bob Fox, wearing a Marvin Harrison Colts jersey.  After splitting the first two games, we were up 13 pins when the final bowlers, Bob Fox and Larry Hamilton bowled in the tenth frame.  Hamilton struck out, meaning Fox needed to mark and then pick up 8 pins for us to prevail.  He left the 6-10 but converted the spare and ended the series with a strike.

After summarizing a multitude of connections between Trump and the Russians in an essay titled “An American President as Russian spy,”  Ray Smock concludes:

  Trump may not even comprehend that he has acted as a tool of the Russian government. He sees Russia as a cash cow. I do not think national security concerns ever entered Trump’s head. He was and is thinking about personal riches from Russia. He thinks in transactions, not in long-term strategies. He likes the exotic thrills of a country where the rich and powerful don’t have to play by all the rules and laws of the United States. He sees himself as the American version of an unfettered Russian oligarch. He likes people who bully their way through life with their money and their power. He has a natural affinity for Russia. Russia treats him nice.

 front, Wayne Carpenter, Laverne Niksch; back, Yuan Hsu, Dave Bigler

Laverne Niksch achieved the rank of Ruby Life Master, having accumulated over 1,000 master points. Fellow bridge players celebrated with a cake provided by Trudi McKamey.  His partner Wayne Carpenter told Newsletter editor Barbara Walczak: “We started out playing bridge in college and played party bridge for over 30 years with our long-time friends. After graduating with a degree in “retirement,” we play as partners two or three times a week and plan on playing until we get it right. This has been a great ride, and I can’t think of a more deserving person.”

 Portage lakefront erosion by Kyle Telechan

Meteorologists are predicting that a monster blizzard is on its way over the weekend, with snowfall reaching 12 inches including lake effect.  So far, ice mounds have not formed on Lake Michigan’s southern shore but that may change with temperatures plunging into the single digits.  Lakefront erosion has already decimated beaches in Portage and Ogden Dunes, with man-made development hindering the ability of nature to replenish itself.

I might teach a once-a-week Fall History seminar at Valparaiso University dealing with the Calumet Region.  I have already spoken to VU classes taught by Liz Wuerffel and Heath Carter and will be lecturing this semester in a Sociology course and next semester in one of Allison Schuette’s.  I’d assign Powell A. Moore’s “The Calumet Region: Indiana’s Last Frontier” and Ramon and Trisha Arredondo’s “Maria’s Journey” and give students Shavingsissues on Gary, Portage, Cedar Lake, and Hammond.  They’d do a paper on a key event in one particular community’s history.  A second paper, a family history, would cover three generations and fit in with VU’s Flight Paths project, of which I am a consultant. I envision first summarizing topics such as the Region’s place in Indiana history and the coming of industrialization, and then have sessions on Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, Whiting, Cedar Lake, Chesterton, Portage, and Valparaiso with guest appearances and student presentations.  There will be a class devoted to family history and a possible field trip to Gary and perhaps Cedar Lake’s museum at the old Lassen Hotel.  

Jonathyne Briggs invited me to attend a History department meeting.  I replied in the affirmative and added that whenI saw him and others at the December Holiday celebration, it hit me how much I missed running my old colleagues on a regular basis at Hawthorn Hall. I also plan to bring up these two topics:

1.   Calumet Regional Archives: As I’m sure you know, the Archives is in disarray due to plans to fix the antiquated library heating and cooling system, but plans are afoot to open up some space for researchers on the second floor.  This is the latest from Steve McShane:

Due to the high costs of moving to Arts on Grant, that plan has been scratched.  The latest plan is to move the entire Archives to the library's second floor.  We mapped it out yesterday, and there appears to be enough square footage.  Physical Plant would create two "rooms", one very large, and one somewhat smaller.  They would be secured with locked doors and accessible, including a small space for our researchers to use the materials.  Before that plan can be enacted, however, the folks at IUB have to be satisfied that the temperature/humidity environment would be acceptable for archival materials.  Our head of Physical Plant, Gary Greiner, said he can provide data on the second floor's environment, but he hasn't sent it out yet.  Also, the space person from Bloomington is coming up next week, along with a rep from Iron Mountain, a company specializing in moving archives, to look over the situation.

2.   Indiana History course: I was disappointed that Steve McShane decided to cease teaching the course and that the replacements are only of the on-line variety.  Neither instructor has bothered consulting McShane or me regarding the content or research possibilities in the Archives, and I suspect that there is no longer emphasis on Northwest Indiana, as before.  I may be teaching a History seminar on the Calumet Region at Valparaiso University in the Fall.  Several instructors have made Gary and nearby communities an integral part of their course and already have had me as a guest lecturer.  Perhaps in the future I might consider teaching a similar course at IUN, maybe in conjunction with Chris Young,  although a previous effort to offer a Liberal Studies course died on the vine.  It had been my hope that Young’s interest in Hoosier history might eventually lead him to teach that subject, but his present duties apparently make that impractical, given the need to offer other upper division courses in his area of specialization

In Memoriam

“Police opened fire on a parade of striking steel workers and their families at the gate of the Republic Steel Company, in South Chicago. Fifty people were shot, of whom 10 later died; 100 others were beaten with clubs.”  Dorothy Day

police go on rampage during 1937 Memorial Day Massacre

I mourn for all the soldiers who lost their lives protecting America’s freedoms, Paul Curry, who died of the coast of Vietnam, and all the labor militants who sacrificed to help gain a living wage and safety protections for their comrades.  As is his annual tradition, former rank-and-file union stalwart Mike Olszanski reminded Facebook friends of the 1937 Memorial Day Massacre at Republic Steel.  He wrote: “SWOC, Lodge 1010 lost four members at the Memorial Day Massacre: Alfred Causey, Earl Handley, Kenneth Reed, and Sam Popovich. John Sargent, several times president of Local 1010, was there and survived to tell us about it.”  

I received this inquiry from Margaret Ford: 

My paternal grandfather, Joseph Zolondz, was killed at U. S. Steel in Gary in the early 1940’s when a tornado blew in and severely damaged a smokestack (chimney).In all there were four men killed that day. My mother told me the story. She said she knew my dad and his  family, but they were not married at the time. One of my brothers saw the plaque at the steel company with the men’s names on it, but I am unable to find a story on it. My grandfather and the family lived in New Chicago, Indiana at the time, and my dad had seven siblings. How do I go about finding information about my grandfather’s death? I live in Granger, IN, but have siblings still in the region. Any help would be appreciated.

I responded: “I don't know about the incident to which you refer, but you might contact Steelworkers Local 1010 (Gary Works) or 1066 (Gary Sheet and Tin) depending on where he worked.  Also Marc Chase of the NWI Times  may know something or inquire in a column if anybody recalls it.  Let me know if you find out anything.”

 Danica Patrick crash; below, Jerry Trump

Danica Patrick, participating in her final Indianapolis 500, crashed into the wall on Turn 2 of Lap 68.  In the stands, Packers QB Aaron Rogers watched.  Post-Tribcolumnist Jerry Davich wrote about 80-year-old Crown Point resident Jerry Trump, who attended “The Race” for the 70^thstraight time.  When his dad first took him in 1949, the trip took over five hours because I-65 didn’t exist. He recalled that the 1951 winner was driven by Lee Wallard and owned by Murrell Belanger, who had a Crown Point Chrysler dealership.  Jerry’s worst experience was in 1973. Salt Walther crashed and was badly burned on the first lap; then rain postponed the action for two days and shortened the race on the third after 133 laps.

 Linda Teague and Angela Lane

Linda Teague passed away; daughter Angie wrote this touching notice:

We lost my mom, Linda Teague, yesterday and we dearly miss her today and always. She fought a long hard battle with ALS, and was able to overcome obstacle after obstacle so that she could still be a part of our lives but her body finally couldn't take it anymore even though her mind was willing. Although we knew this day would come, it doesn't make it any less difficult and I wish she could have stayed with us longer. But, I know that she is at peace now and no longer in pain. She was a wonderful mom and grandma and she will live in our hearts forever. Love you Mom! XOXO

I first met Linda when she worked at the Kmart in Miller.  After it closed down, she became an A student at IUN and received a Bachelor’s degree in Allied Health with a specialty in Medical Coding.  Despite the ravages of ALS – during the past year she could communicate only by blinking – she lived to see grandkids James and Becca mature into talented and personable young adults.

photo above by Miranda, below by Alissa  (of Miranda, Carly, Jimbo, Josh)

Carly and Miranda at Krka National Park

Alissa, Josh, Miranda and friend Carly spent the night before catching flights to London.  Final destination for Alissa and Josh was Valencia on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.  Miranda and Carly were headed to Dubrovnik, Croatia, on the Adriatic.  Josh has been listening to Spanish music and plans on visiting Madrid for a live concert.  One reason Miranda selected Dubrovnik is because scenes from Game of Throneswere filmed there.  Also, it’s just a day trip to the waterfalls at Krka National Park.  Phil, meanwhile, is in Long Beach, where in 1986 Toni and I attended an Oral History Association conference on the RMS Queen Mary, converted to a troop transport ship during World War II.  In 1967 the Cunard Line retired the Queen Mary after a voyage from Southampton, England to Long Beach, where it remains permanently moored.

Laura Dern starred in the harrowing HBO film “The Tale,” a true story written and directed by Jennifer Fox, about a 13-year-old sexually abused by a female riding instructor and male track coach. Fox began examining her past after her mother, played by Ellen Burstyn, came across an eighth grade paper she’d written titled “The Tale.”  In the biopic we learn that this odious behavior was common practice for the two coaches.  When they wanted to involve the 13-year-old in a four-way with a collegian, she rebelled and broke off further contact.

A conversation with a high school classmate got me thinking about my 12th grade homeroom at Upper Dublin in Mrs. Margaret Davis’ large Home Economics classroom.  It contained folks I’d once been friends with but whom I’d drifted apart from due to the school’s academic tracking system. I was particularly fascinated by Italian-American Marianne Tambourino, who talked like the girls on American Bandstandfrom South Philly, exotic, tan-skinned Charmayne Staton, who was every guy’s fantasy, and red-haired Gaard Murphy from Maine, who sported a deep New England accent.  I was somewhat of a class clown, hoping to get their attention.  I gave and received back rubs from some of the girls at day’s end but don’t think I worked up the nerve to approach Marianne, Charmayne or Gaard.  In my 1960 yearbook Marianne wrote: “To a very nice boy who made my homeroom bearable.”  So, who knows, maybe I rubbed her back.  Charmayne died young.   I’ve been friends with Gaard since the 1980 reunion and Marianne since our fiftieth in 2010.

I recall Buck Elliott saying that Mrs. Davis had a great figure.  Previously, I hadn’t noticed, but after that, I enjoyed getting a rise out of her.  Each student was required to take a two-week turn doing the morning Bible reading.  Every day I read the same verse, Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, beginning, “Cast thy bread upon the waters, for you shall find it after many days” and ending with “in the morning sow thy seed,”which I found to be risqué.   Nobody seemed to notice.  The verse is from a letter by King Solomon of Israel, son of David and Bathsheba, advising sinners that generosity and hard work will in time be rewarded.  In my yearbook Gaard wrote: “Be good to your teachers.  Think of what you did to Mrs. Davis.”  Her best friend Linda Rutherford, no doubt dating college upperclassmen by then, wrote: “To a nice boy who can really be a pest.  I’ll never forget Ecclesiastes in homeroom.”  At our fiftieth reunion, I apologized to Music teacher Mr. Foust for my at times unruly behavior.  He replied, “Oh, you weren’t so bad.” I’m certain he experienced much worse.

I spoke to Steve McShane’s students about their oral history assignment: to interview a bowler.  My main point was that memories are tricky and so follow-up is important.  One student interviewed her 93-year-old grandmother and got her aunt to provide details on things granny was fuzzy on.  Citing my own experience, I initially had no recollection of bowling with my family or being in a youth program but did recall asking Vic how he did when he’d come home from bowling, incidentally smelling like cigars (the only other time the “Old Man” smoked cigars was playing poker).  He carried an average in the 180s and threw a ball that started near the right gutter.  The only way I could have known that was to have bowled with him.  In high school I’d outbowl most of my friends, and that must have been from having experience.  While dating, Toni and I bowled on a team with two others, but I can’t recall who they were or where the alley was.  We went to an establishment in Maryland that to our amazement used miniature balls and short, squat duckpins.  I suggested students inquire about the history of their subjects’ leagues.  My Sheet and Tin League at Cressmoor Lanes once consisted entirely of steelworkers.  Our present league, Mel Guth Seniors, is named for a bowler who recently died.  Previously, it was similarly  named for Rob Tucker, Sr.

ABC cancelled the sitcom Roseanne after Roseanne Barr tweeted a racist comment about former senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarret, calling her an offspring of the Muslim brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.” Barr attempted to claim that she was on Ambien and wrote: “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me - my joke was in bad taste.”  Ray Smock wrote:“Trump weighs in on Roseanne firing by demanding that ABC apologize to him!”  Matthew Simek responded:“Where is the vomit emoji when you need one?”  On “Full Frontal” comedian Samantha Bee is under fire for calling Ivanka Trump a “feckless cunt.”  She has also apologized and so far hasn’t been taken off the air, despite howls from Fox commentators.  In “For America” from the 1986 “Lives in his Balance” album Jackson Browne sang this final verse:

The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom that he found wasn't quite as sweet
When the truth was known
I have prayed for America
I was made for America
I can't let go till she comes around
Until the land of the free
Is awake and can see

              And until her conscience has been found

Terry Bauer, back left; Yuan Hsu front middle

Dee Van Bebber and I finished third in duplicate after being mostly on defense.  Terry Bauer reported on competing in the Grand National Team Finals in Southfield, Michigan, with Taiwanese native Yuan Hsu, who used a strong Club precision bidding system developed in Taiwan and now very popular among experts that Terry normally does not play. Teammate Mike Brissette told Newslettereditor Barb Walczak that Terry played above his potential, gained a lot of insight and was “a big nuisance against the precision players.”  I told Terry about flying to Taiwan after a month in Hong Kong.  He said his daughter will be moving to Honk Kong soon.  “You’ll have to visit her,”I interjected.  “I’m planning to,” he replied.

Dave and I hope to visit the Estonian coastal city of Talinn while in Finland.  Rick Stevens’ Scandinavia asserts: “Getting off the boat in Talinn is a bigger cultural step than you will take anywhere else in the Scandinavian region.”  Originally called Reval, it thrived during the fourteenth century as a member of the Hanseatic League, a mercantile and military alliance centered in Lübeck, Germany. I know about the League because of my former IUN colleague Rhiman Rotz.  In contrast, two hundred years ago, Helsinki was a mere village.