Redevelopment

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.  To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”  Buckminster Fuller (below)

Best known for the geodesic dome and Dymaxion car, futuristic architect Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was a nonconformist who twice got expelled from Harvard.  An environmentalist concerned about sustainability, he coined the word “ephemeralization,” which basically meant doing more with less.  The concept Dymaxion derived from the words dynamic, maximum, and tension.   Fuller liked people to call him Bucky and kept a diary (he called it a Dymaxion Chronofile) throughout his life, explaining: “I decided to make myself a good case history of a human being going through the era from the Gay 90s, as far into the twentieth century as I might live, and it meant that I could not be judge of what was valid to put in or not. I must put everything in, so I started a very rigorous record.”

At the Gary YWCA I spoke to about 75 UIC grad students in Urban Planning whose class project is to come up with redevelopment ideas for Gary’s Midtown District.  Professor Janet Smith, who studied under Earl Jones, invited me for pizza beforehand and was pleased to receive a copy of “Gary’s First Hundred Years.”  Kyle Terry, who works part-time as a “Policy Fellow” for the city of Gary, greeted me warmly, as did Carol Brown of the University of Chicago abandoned buildings project.  There were a total of nine speakers.  Janet Smith put me in a group with Indiana Landmarks field director Tiffany Tolbert and Reverend Chet Johnson of New Tabernacle Baptist Church, who discussed Fuller Center for Housing, which has built or rehabbed several local dwellings and has ambitious plans to revitalize the neighborhood where Michael Jackson grew up.

After describing resources at the Calumet Regional Archives, including Dolly Millender’s pictorial history of Midtown, I mentioned that nearby was the site of one of the most famous schools in the world, Froebel, “Gary’s immigrant school.”  A few blocks to the east, I added, was one of the most innovative social settlements for African Americans, Stewart House, which aided “Steel City” newcomers during the 1920s and victims of the Great Depression during the 1930s.  I touched on Roosevelt School’s fabled history and Vivian Carter’s career as deejay, record storeowner, and founder of Vee-Jay Records.  I mentioned how Richard Hatcher dreamed big when he ran for mayor against the Democratic machine and described his vision for a Civil Rights Hall of Fame for Gary. 

I expressed the hope that they, too, would dream big and not only try to save landmarks still in existence such as St. John Hospital but even perhaps champion the building of replicas of Froebel and Stewart House for use as museums and community centers.  Though Midtown has suffered from middle class black flight, many Froebel and Roosevelt graduates still care about their roots and return for church and school functions.  Identifying myself as a practitioner of history from the bottom up, I exhorted them to involve the community and solicit its perceived needs.

I joined Fred and Diane Chary’s Trivia Night team at Temple Israel, along with  David and Michael Chary and Communication professor Evelyn Bottando.  We finished fifth out of 24 tables and would have won “survivor” had we known the number of states that have legalized marijuana (4 – we guessed 7) or the name of the former FBI director who died last year (James Schlesinger).  I wasn’t very helpful but did know Don and Phil Everly, “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” and the three brothers who were catchers in World Series games, Puerto Ricans Yadier, Jose, and Bengie Molina.  Jack Weinberg and Valerie Denney were on a team called The Marxists, while the Spicer brothers’ table dressed as Trivia Knights of the Roundtable.  Regarding a question about the three families (Adams, Roosevelt, and Bush) who produced two presidents, Ron Cohen and I both pointed out that the Harrisons, William Henry and Benjamin (both Hoosiers), deserved recognition.

Alexis Bratsakis, Steve Spicer; below, Martha Bohn, Jim Bratsakis, Gabriel Staht

As Judge James Moody prepares to sentence former Lake County surveyor George Van Til, Rich James of The Times, in a column entitled “Van Til has suffered enough already,” argued that he should not have to go to prison for something virtually every officeholder does and that it would serve no purpose.  He wrote:

He won’t be remembered for the many drainage projects that have some living without fear of future flooding.  He won’t be remembered for bringing towns together to solve water woes that a single town couldn’t handle on its own.  He’ll be remembered as a politician who departed on the wings of public corruption. That’s sad, especially given his life’s work.

Last May James asked, “Why did the Feds make a spectacle of [George] Van Til?” He wrote:

“I have covered dozens of these arraignments over the years. From a news standpoint, they are routine and boring.  For Van Til, it was dehumanizing.   Instead of being allowed to routinely walk into the courtroom, Van Til was offered up for public ridicule.  After being held in a jail cell, Van Til was shackled hand and foot, connected to a chain around his waist, and led into the courtroom.  Yeah, he was pretty much treated like Hannibal Lecter – the worst of the worst.

The guy who put on the shackles said it was ‘procedure.’ He lied.  In all the many arraignments I have covered in federal court, no defendant was ever been brought into the courtroom in cuffs and leg irons.

I don’t know about Van Til’s guilt or innocence.  But, I do know the feds owe him an apology. They owe the rest of us an explanation.”

The question remains: who had it in for Van Til?  He had many friends who’ve written testimonials on his behalf but at least one enemy who had the ear of the U.S. Attorney.

In class Nicole Anslover discussed why western states such as Wyoming and Utah allowed women to vote a half-century prior to passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment.  She showed part of a documentary about sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who hunted game to support her impoverished family and became a headliner in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show. 

If time allowed, I’d have mentioned “Stagecoach Mary” Fields, born a slave and just the second female postal service mail carrier.  Six feet tall, a cigar smoker, and skilled marksman, Fields, according to one admirer, “fought wolves, trudged through freezing rain, drank hard, brawled harder, and revolted against every cultural stereotype the planet had to offer.”  When Montana passed a law to forbade women from entering saloons, the Mayor of Cascade granted her an exemption.  Some historians claim she was a lesbian, but hard evidence of that is nonexistent.  Unlike some western women, she did not try to pass as a man.

Ann Fritz held a gallery reception for talented ceramist Mathew Groves, who teaches at Loyola, was on hand to talk about his sculptures.  They were colorful, expertly done, and engaging.  Also there was fellow ceramist Amber Ginsburg, who had a "Tea Party" show last year.

Calumet Heritage Partnership

“A hussle here and a hussle there

New York City’s the place.”

    “Walk on the Wild Side,” Lou Reed

Rock pioneer Lou Reed died at age 71.  A former member of the Velvet Underground and protégé of Andy Warhol, he transformed himself from street smart New Yorker to glitter rocker to punk innovator.  His distinctive voice will live on.

Steve McShane drove me to Pullman, Illinois, for the Calumet Heritage Partnership conference, held in the old Pullman Clock Tower Factory Building.  The place was without heat, and the temp inside was in the 40s, so despite keeping my winter coat on, I never really warmed up.  Even so, I had fun and sat at a table with filmmaker Pat Wisniewski and former student Jack Walter.  The first speaker, Arthur Pearson, was restoring an original Pullman house and was able to learn about the original architectural design and the names and occupations of previous owners from the Pullman Archives.  Next on the agenda,  four authors, including Ken Schoon, discussed how archival resources aided their research.  The neighborhoods examined by Michael Innis-Jimenez, author of “Steel Barrio: The Great Migration to South Chicago,” were similar to the Mexican-American enclaves in Gary and Indiana Harbor during the 1920s.

above, Pullman Clock Tower; below, Hotel Florence at Pullman

Steve chaired my session, entitled “Nodes and Networks,” and he opened with the joke about where Noah kept bees on his ark (in the ark hives).  I talked about starting the Calumet Regional Archives with Ron Cohen after saving records of Gary Neighborhood House.  Panelist John Beckman mentioned salvaging a piece of furniture from the very same abandoned building.  Active 40 years ago in the Calumet Community Congress, he knew several mutual acquaintances, old radicals whom I had met at Staughton Lynd’s Labor Workshop.  Indiana Landmarks representative Tiffany Tolbert asserted that the first books she read upon moving to the Calumet Region were my “City of the Century” and Ken Schoon’s “Calumet Beginnings.”  Diane Banta of the National Park Service twice started sentences with the phrase, “I’m not the smartest person in the room but. . . .”  Did she hone that phrase, I wonder, from frequently interacting with academics?  She has been one of the mainstays in furthering the goals of the Calumet heritage Partnership.

The 20 free copies of my latest Shavings that I brought were gobbled up.  When I did something similar at the last Indiana Association of Historians conference, I had a few left over, much to my surprise.   Waiting in line for lunch (delicious Mexican food), I spotted an old poker buddy, Scottie Marshall, whom I hadn’t seen in several years.  He was at a SOAR (Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees) table passing out buttons reading “Keep It Made In America.”  We chatted about mutual friends, and I was pleased that he had picked up a copy of volume 43.

On the drive back to Indiana I thought of the road trip Steve and I took 20 years ago to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, as consultants to folks launching a Museum of Industry and Technology.  While there we toured the Jacob Leinenkugal Brewing Company and enjoyed several 4-ounce samples of their beer products.

Dave and Tom came over for our first board game session in several weeks.  After enjoying Chinese food, we talked Alissa (down from Michigan) into a game of Acquire with us.  She had played once before with folks who really didn’t understand the rules or strategy but finished second to Tom.  I won Amun Re and Priests of Ra, both by a single point over Dave, who triumphed in St Petersburg.

Due in part to the many commercials during NFL games I finished “Another America: The Story of Liberia and the Former Slaves Who Ruled It.”  The Reagan administration’s supported the brutal and corrupt Samuel K. Doe after a bloody coup that the CIA may have abetted.   Ronnie once introduced the Liberian head of state by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, Chairman Moe (as in Moe, Larry, and Curley of the Three Stooges)) of Liberia is our visitor here today.”  By alienating most native tribes and living lavishly, Doe was forced to rig the 1985 election that kept him in power until overthrown five years later and tortured and killed.  Former ally Charles Taylor succeeded him after a bloody civil war.  Taylor is now in prison for committing crimes against humanity.

The World Series has been a comedy of errors.  St. Louis won game three due to a wild throw by Boston’s catcher Jarrod Saltamacchia and a rare obstruction call because third baseman Will Middlebrooks, sprawled on the ground, put his legs up to slow down runner Allen Craig.  I’d never seen a play like that.  Last night’s contest ended suddenly when, with St. Louis down two runs and the tying run at the plate rookie Kolten Wong got ignominiously picked off first by pitcher Koji Uehara.

Richard Baker

When the NWI Times reported that the Historian of the Senate spoke at an event sponsored by Purdue North Central, I thought it might be my buddy Don Ritchie.  It turned out to be former Senate historian Dick Baker.  Speaking on the topic “A Body in Motion: The Evolving U. S. Senate,” Baker characterized present relations among lawmakers as “awful” but added: “Relations among senators have always bordered on the frosty.  There is simply too much at stake and differences of opinion are too intense to keep intact.”

Samuel A. Love took the MLK mural prints to Culture Shock, sponsored by ARISE Gary, the final event of our two-month tour of Camilo Vergara’s posters.  The affair was supposed to be at IU Northwest, but some stupid rule prevented venders from bringing in food on campus, so it took place at the Live Arts Studio on the 4700 block of Broadway in Glen Park. 

above, 4700 block of Broadway; below, Anne Balay

Anne Balay participated in the half-marathon at Marquette Park Sunday morning and posted a photo on Facebook that daughter Emma took of her.

I took over Nicole Anslover’s while she was in DC to appear on the C-Span “First Ladies” series speaking about Bess Truman.  Steve went with me to put photos and short video clips on the screen.  I discussed Vietnam, in particular the experiences of veterans interviewed for my Shavings issue – how they got there, their experiences in country, and what lasting effects it had on them.  Because Jay Keck had sent me multiple copies of his book “Poems from the Bogeyman,” I gave them to the students and read “Vietnam Bogeyman,” which begins: “The Vietnam Bogeyman is in my head/ He’ll probably be there until I’m dead.”  Repeating Jim Tolhuizen’s caveat from when he spoke to my class, I said that soldiers’ experiences depended on when they were there, what their function was, and what part of Vietnam they were stationed.  I read to them Tolhuizen’s description of his best friend Paul’s death.  The students had scads of questions, especially about how the draft worked; several shook my hand or told me well done  when class ended.

Nicole Anslover was awesome facing the camera for 90 minutes along with host Susan Swain and historian William Seale.  The show was so seamless one would never have guessed it was live and unrehearsed.  Even with NFL, World Series, and Black Hawks games competing for my attention, I watched the entire 90 minutes without once flipping channels.

I knew when Seattle beat the Rams that I’d finished tied with two others in the football pool.  The tiebreaker was closest to total points scored in Monday’s game.  I had 38, three more than Kathleen Kuti, who is the apparent winner since only 23 points were scored.

 Frederic, Blandine, Jimbo, Jim Fowble

Frederic and Blandine sent me a photo taken when we bowled at Cressmoor Lanes and wrote: “We miss very much our friends from Gary.  It is so strange not to see you.”  It was signed, “Big kisses.”  I really miss them, too, but it nice we’re in close touch.