Happy Together

“Don’t question why she needs to be free

She’ll tell you it’s the only way to be

She just can’t be chained

To a life where nothing’s gained.”

    “Ruby Tuesday,” Rolling Stones

“Mad Men’s” Pete Campbell gets beat up twice in the latest episode.  George Bodmer must have loved it.  A woman undergoes electro-shock therapy, in retrospect what seems a barbarous practice. In 1968 George McGovern had to drop running mate Tom Eagleton from the Democratic ticket when revelations surfaced that he had underwent the procedure.  The season finale of “Mad Men” was set in the spring of 1967 when The Turtles’ “Happy Together” replaced “Ruby Tuesday” at the top of the charts.  None of the couples in “Mad Men” seem particularly happy together though.  On the other hand, the Turtles’ members Flo (Mark Volman) and Eddie (Howard Kaylan) are still together as a comedy and musical act.

I took the Corolla for an emissions test, required by the State of automobile owners living in Northwest Indiana.  I used to dread the procedure, waiting in line, keeping your foot steady on the gas pedal, and worrying, at least before we started buying Toyotas, about not passing.  These days there is little wait, no gas pedal maneuver, and slim chance of flunking.  Still, given industrial pollution and the volume of trucks passing through on the interstates, the process seems unnecessary.

Visiting the Archives was Lee Botts, working on a documentary commemorating Save the Dunes efforts.  2016 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the Dunes State Park and the 50^th anniversary of the National Lakeshore.  I showed her my “Lake Michigan Tales” issue that includes John Laue’s oral history of Edgewater.  It includes an interview with her, which she’d never seen before.  Laue wrote: “Lee Botts is a well-known environmentalist who bought a leaseback in Edgewater in 1986.  Originally from Kansas, she moved to Hyde Park in 1939 and worked for the Hyde Park Herald.  In the 1960s she started working for the Open Lands Project and in 1970 she founded the Lake Michigan Federation.  Since moving to Edgewater, she has continued her involvement with both local and regional environmental groups.”

In the interview Botts told Laue: “The house was originally owned by Dr. Wood, who lived on the second floor and ran his colonics business out of the first floor. (Wood believed that the cure for most anything was an enema).  I used the downstairs as a kind of gathering place for environmentalists and friends from the Great Lakes region.  I’ve hosted many retreats since I moved in full-time in 1990.”

Lillian Foley wanted a book autographed that she purchased when I spoke to the Ogden Dunes Historical Society.  She is related to a Judge Thomas Slick, who served Indiana’s northern district.  Lillian brought two memoirs about going to school in Glen Park and downtown Gary in the 1930s and early 1940s.  She wrote: “The streetcars were wonderful.  They made us bounce around a bit, but we didn’t mind.  They were all electric.  And they had a small box that blew out hot air in the winter months.  In the summertime, one was able to put down the windows to create a breeze.  What a wonderful and blessed time that was.”

Becca sang the National Anthem Wednesday in front of 3,700 people at a RailCats baseball game.  She was great, just belting it out near home plate with out any backup music.  Afterwards players gave her high fives.  It was kids and seniors day, so there were plenty of wheel chairs and groups of youngsters with matching t-shirts.  On hand were Becca’s great-grandparents, who’ve been together nearly 60 years.  The game started at 12:10, with ideal weather, sunny and in the 70s with low humidity.  The RailCats won 4-2 to bring their record up to .500.  I consumed two hot dogs, one less than James.  Toni’s chicken soup at supper settled my stomach.

The latest Traces issue contains an article by Indiana Magazine of History editor Eric Sandweiss entitled “A Fair Collection of Interesting Pictures: Charles Cushman’s Indiana, 1938-1966.”  Though from southern Indiana (Posey County not far from Evansville and New Harmony), Cushman took photos of Inland Steel and the Indiana dunes.  

A successful salesman of business machines, Cushman left over 14,000 Kodachrome slide transparencies to the Indiana University archives.  The collection is on line, and Steve McShane and I might put together an exhibit of his work pertaining to the Calumet Region.

I congratulated Eric Sandweiss on the article and his new book “The Day in Its Color: Charles Cushman’s Photographic Journey Through a Vanishing America” and mentioned the possibility of an exhibit.  He replied: “Many thanks; your interest in the Region/Chicago shots means a lot to me.  We’re going to have a general exhibit at the Mathers Museum in Bloomington; but certainly it’d be interesting to think about something specifically related to the Region.”

Producer Jay Mukoro of Oxford Film and Television company in London is coming with a team to Gary in three weeks and sought my advice.  He wrote: “We are looking for a former steel worker to speak to – who has a compelling story to articulate, and an engaging way of telling it. We want to hear their story, but we’re also looking for people that can speak to wider concerns: why people care less about making things, why Wall Street is seen as more important than ‘Main Street’.   We’ll be looking at a number of pressing social and political issues; for example healthcare, equality and poverty, the condition of the US middle class, and what’s happened to the American dream, and what’s happened to America as a place that manufactured things?”

I spoke at Lighthouse Charter School to incoming teachers about Gary history, with an emphasis on the public schools dating back to the work-study-play system of Superintendent William A. Wirt.  The group looked quite young but were very attentive and asked good questions, including why the Wirt system was discontinued.  I arrived at lunchtime but saved my pizza and salad until after my talk.  I discussed the Emersion and Froebel school strikes, mentioned the proud heritage of Gary Roosevelt, and ended by reading John Sheehan’s poem “Gary Postscript 1989,” which begins:

“The schools I taught in were noisy but friendly

The jiving mainly merriment

The gangs mostly clubs

The learning more than you’d think

Though six of my students were shot to death

Out of six thousand.”

Nobody cared more about Gary’s children than Sheehan.

Pop Up Art

“I’ve learned love is like a brick

You can build a house or sink a dead body.”

    “Judas,” Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga suffered a mild concussion in Aukland, New Zealand, when she got hit in the head with a pole while singing “Judas.”  Like a trooper, Gaga finished the show, belting out 18 more songs.

Gallery Northwest director Ann Fritz put together an interesting and well-attended alumni show featuring the work of Fine Arts graduates from as far back as 1982.  Many were delighted to see Gary Wilk, who retired last year after teaching photography for over 30 years. William Bosch’s piece was a scene from Thailand as seen in the reflection from a glass ball.  Molly Rakochy’s sculpture titled “Cooperation,” portrayed three people working together.  When I praised it, she said that most of her work was very gloomy. Attending with their wives were Tim Sutherland, Jean Poulard, and Peter Kesheimer.

Corey Hagelberg helped me hang a dozen Dale Fleming drawings at the front room of Lee Construction as part of the Pop Up Art events from 5 to 9 along Lake Street in Miller.  Around 7 he and Kate held the fort while I made myself a plate of food at Joyce’s Lake Street Gallery.  The place was jammed, but most folks were socializing, not paying attention to the artwork on exhibit.  On the other hand, at my site there wasn’t much to do except examine Fleming’s drawings and listen to my spiel.  I sold four pieces and talked up the idea of finding ways to bring Dale up from Bloomington to spend some months living near the dunes he loves so much.

What I especially liked were comments by other artists, especially young people who admired Dale’s work.  Eighth grader China Johnson (I think that was her last name), who attends Emerson School for Visual and Performing Arts, stayed quite a while and returned with a friend.  A fourth grader mentioned winning a contest for designing a logo for the RailCats, a local baseball team.  Recent East Chicago Central grad Miguel Cuevera, who was showing his art up the street, came in twice with his girlfriend.  Another Latino whose girlfriend was Macedonian spent about 15 minutes reading my Gary book.  Joanna Mulder has been collecting oral histories of Jewish Millerites.  Her parents live in Illinois but still own a home on Lake Shore Drive.  Valpo law professor Sy Moskowitz lives there during the school year but travels extensively summers so Joanna is staying there.

Alesia Metz, whom I hadn’t seen in 20 years, stopped by.  Toni gave her art lessons when she attended Alternative Public School with Phil and Dave.  Anne Balay came in with her daughters and two friends and bought a drawing that daughter Emma admired, one of four pen and ink renderings that I sold.  Artist Kay Rosen also bought one.

Near the end of the evening photographer Marty Bohn videotaped me about Dale Fleming’s works on display (most of them done for inclusion in my “Lake Michigan Tales” Shavings).  She intends to post the interview on the Miller Beach Arts website and YouTube (under Marty’s Flicks).  After I packed up, event organizer Karren Lee offered me a glass of wine, and we agreed the event was a big success.  Earlier, cops broke up a wine tasting event in the former Miller Drugs after a liquor storeowner across the street complained.  The participants moved the event to a pizza place down the street that had a liquor license.

Sunday at the Wades again for Game Weekend I prevailed in Amun Re and Acquire and would have won croquet except a new rule did not reward people who were poison another shot after they knocked someone out.  Tom and Brady’s balls were pretty far away but close to each other.  I aimed for Tom but hit Brady.  Under the old rules I could then have eliminated Tom.  Instead he became poison, too, and ousted me after I gambled and left myself less than six feet from his ball.  I left with a pint of Darcey’s yummy potato salad that she insisted would go to waste otherwise.

I’ve titled my upcoming talk to new Gary charter school teachers “The Fifth Wave.” A hundred years ago idealistic teachers were eager to be part of progressive educator William A. Wirt’s work-study-play system.  The 1920s population opened opportunities for African-American teachers who dedicated themselves to making all-black Roosevelt School a first-class institution.  A third wave came during the 1960s, many inspired by Black Pride and Richard Hatcher becoming the country’s first black mayor.  A quarter century later many homegrown teachers were replacing those who had once taught them.  So the Fifth Wave has big shoes to fill and hopefully will stand on the shoulders of four generations of dedicated educators and train future leaders.

I had lunch at the Redhawk Café with Anne and Leah Balay.  Earlier morning while running Anne got bit on the back of the leg by a miniature Doberman pinscher.  Bummer.  She went with the owner to examine the dog’s rabies shot record.  The woman was a surgical technician and cleaned the wound for her.  We shared some of Darcey’s potato salad.  Leah will be working on Obama’s re-election campaign until she returns to college in the fall. They wondered why Miller library has two names, Wildermuth-Woodson.  Pioneer resident Ora L. Wildermuth, a teacher and lawyer, lent out books form his collection and became known as the town’s first librarian.  Years later, while on IU’s Board of Trustees Wildermuth wrote letters to President Herman Wells opposing desegregation.  After this came to light, many residents wanted to rename the library.  As an ironically fitting compromise, the name of Carter G. Woodson, the “Father of Negro History” got attached to his name. 

Garden Party

“I learned my lesson well.

You see, you can’t please everyone

So you got to please yourself.”

    Ricky Nelson, “Garden Party.”

In 1971 Ricky Nelson participated in an Oldies show at Madison Square Garden. He came out with shoulder length hair, and when he mixed in new country-oriented material with his 50s hits, some audience members booed.  The event was gist for his final smash hit “Garden Party.”  One line goes, “Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan’s shoes wearing his disguise.”  Nelson was good friends both with Bob Dylan and ex-Beatle George Harrison, who uses the alias Mr. Hughes when traveling incognito.  Ricky, just nine months older than me, gained fame on the “Ozzie and Harriet Show.”  I saw him in concert in Atlantic City’s Steel Pier around 1960 when he was a reigning teen idol.  He died in 1985 in a plane crash.

Pat Heckler had a garden party for friends and Rusty Pipes members at her 98 year-old mansion in Hobart.  The food was great and grounds quite spectacular.  Rusty Pipes French horn player Dick Hagelberg took a late lunch hour in order to attend.  Pat’s son Bob, once keyboardist with Voodoo Chili, provided the music and put on quite a show, donning hats, hairpieces, shirts, glasses and other props to go with the song.  Hence a sailor’s hat for Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville.”  He has a regular gig at a bar near Wrigley Field and was playing later that evening at the Hobart band shell.  Brother Mike is really into trains and had one running outside that attracted almost as much attention from James and Becca as “Turtle Cove,” featuring three large, very much alive creatures.

Dan Kozlowski thanked me for the “Retirement Journal” and summarized his life in the 32 years since leaving IUN.  He joined the army, graduated from law school, was an attorney and city planner in Indy, and voluntarily returned to active duty after 9/11. Over the next nine years he was deployed in Iraq, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. A law school instructor, he wrote: “I have always tried to emulate you as a teacher.  What I remember most about you was your enthusiasm for the topic and your respect and appreciation for the students...I try to do the same.”

I checked out the space at Lee Construction where I shall be hanging drawings of Dale Fleming for Saturday’s Pop Up Art fest along Miller’s Lake Street.  I thought they’d just be in a window, but entire room will be open to the public, so I’ll be there the entire four hours.  Maybe I’ll hawk Shavings magazines that feature Dale’s work or have info on pioneer Millerite Drusilla Carr and Diana of the Dunes.  Archives volunteer Maurice Yancy helped transport two boxes on book to my car.

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker survived the recall election thanks to outspending his opponent almost ten to one.  Fat cats from all over the country took out their wallets to support the anti-union scumbag.  Hopefully it is not a harbinger of things to come in November.

I met with Henry and Ryan Farag at T.J. Mahoney’s in Merrillvile to strategize about turning “The Signal” into an e-book.  Ryan has converted it to a kindle format that looks quite professional.  We’re hoping to interest IU Press in adapting it rather than distributing it independently.  IU professor James Madison co-edits a series on Midwestern History and Culture, so I pitched the idea to him, writing: “Eleven years ago, as part of my Steel Shavings magazine series, I published Henry Farag’s “The Signal: A Doo-Wop Rhapsody.”  It is a fascinating story of someone growing up in an ethnic working-class neighborhood in Gary who goes on to a career as a producer of Oldies shows and a member of the singing group Stormy Weather.  It contains sketches of performers Henry has dealt with, such as Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis, to mention just a few.  Farag’s Canterbury Productions team would advertise it heavily (Henry, for instance, has an upcoming show in New York City and countless contacts in the music business).  Since it is virtually ready to go, it wouldn’t require much labor beyond making certain it measures up to the press’s high standards.  Twenty-five years ago IU Press distributed a book I co-edited entitled “Forging a Community” that was originally published by Cattails Press.  Cattails supplied the books and received half the proceeds.  We could set up similar arrangements for “The Signal” with Canterbury Productions   If sales take off, as I suspect they will, perhaps IU Press might consider investing the profits in publishing it as a paperback.”

One “Jeopardy” question had to do with the War of (Robert) Jenkins’ Ear between Great Britain and Spain, named for an the body part of a merchant ship captain that a Spaniard sliced off in 1731.  An answer in the category “Antiheroes” was Travis Bickle, the Robert De Niro character in “Taxi Driver.”

I packed a ham and sweet pickle sandwich on rye, IUN’s cafeteria being closed Fridays during the summer.  Game weekend at the Wades commenced at 3 p.m.  I went one for five, edging out Tom in Stone Age in a tiebreaker.  We introduced Brady’s friends to Pit, a once popular game that we hadn’t played in years.  I was about to leave when Dave arrived and got talked into playing Amun Re.  Darcy made delicious potato salad and meatballs and gravy.

Goin' My Way

“I’ve got a beautiful feelin’

Everything’s goin’ my way.”

    “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” from “Oklahoma!”

After a week of record high temperature the mornings have been sunny and crisp with the afternoon temperature staying in the seventies – perfect weather for the Chesterton 5k race that Tom Wade participated in.

The Chesterton library has a stack of free books.  The only condition is that one is not allowed to return them.  I found “The Fourteenth Chronicle: Letters and Diaries of John Dos Passos” among the rejects.  According to the old-fashioned card in the flap at the back of the book, the last time someone checked it out was 1984.  I once thought books in the library would be there forever but evidently not.  For the time being at least, my Shavings issues are in a locked bookcase with other local history volumes.  In his youth Dos Passos was a radical but became disillusioned with FDR because he distrusted big government.  I loved his U.S.A. trilogy and Manhattan Transfer novel about New York bohemians during the 1920s.  Reflecting postwar disillusionment, one character laments, “We are the peewee generation.”

Corey Hagelberg and girlfriend Kate invited us for a vegetarian lunch at their place on top of a huge dune near Lake and Forest in Miller.  It took 80 steps to reach, and the ticks were so prevalent that they recommended taking our clothes off when we got home, inspecting our bodies and then showering when we got home.  They are hoping to convert a second house on their property into apartments where artists can stay and work in connection with the Miller Beach Arts and Creative District Karren Lee and others started.

I will be hanging an exhibit of Dale Flemings’s work at Lee Construction for Saturday’s Pop Up Art festival.  A couple months ago, I heard that Dale is poverty stricken, so I’m hoping to sell drawings he did for next to nothing that are reproduced in my 1998 “Lake Michigan Tales” issue and give him any proceeds.  Two of my favorites are of the old Michigan City Lighthouse and a rendering of artists ready to board the South Shore after a day at the dunes. 

Sunday we saw “Oklahoma” at the Valpo Memorial Opera House.  The 1943 Rogers and Hammerstein musical was dated and the plot pedestrian (a hired hand is the villain), but the songs were fun and the acting superb. A recent graduated from Valpo High School played Persian peddler Ali Hamim, and I’d have never guessed his age.  Afterwards we ate at Lucretia’s (I brought over half of my lasagna home) and then played a round of bridge with Dick and Cheryl.  Turned on the TV in time to relish Boston’s two-point victory over the Heat as James fouled out and Wade missed a three-point shot that could have won it.

At lunch Alan Lindmark complained that IUN wants to charge emeritus faculty a hundred dollars for parking stickers next year rather than continue to hand them out free.  He thinks the policy change violates the faculty constitution.  Hopefully the reason is that someone decided mailing them out to people who mostly don’t use them is a waste.  I’d hate to think someone resents my parking free.

No Bed of Roses

“Life can lift you up

It can drag you down

Life don’t have to be no bed of roses.”

   “Bed of Roses,” The Indians

Janet Dermody informed us that husband Mike has throat cancer.  He will be going through extensive treatment at a center in Boston.  That really sucks.  My mentor was a true friend for comrades Al Samter, Fred Gaboury and Ken Applehans when they were battling the “Big C.”

A personable guy named Elvis from Monroe Pest Control sprayed the outside of our condo to eradicate carpenter bees that had infested areas near the roof.  Later two guys cut down the ash tree in front of our unit that an emerald ash borer was in the process of destroying.

Gloria Biondi and Ron Cohen informed me that Arch McKinlay mentioned in his Times column that he was disappointed with my “anything but complimentary” appraisal of Gary native Tom Harmon.  There is no denying that the Horace Mann graduate was the best all-around athlete in the city’s history, but in my account of the WW II years I concluded that photo journalist John Bushemi was a bigger hero.  For one thing he volunteered to enter military service whereas Harmon was a reluctant draftee.  Bushemi died in the Pacific and therefore figuratively was the hero who never moved away while Harmon told people Ann Arbor was his hometown and became a Californian.  I did not mean to disparage Harmon, who returned for the 1956 Jubilee and maintained contact with a nun at Holy Angels and radio personality Tom Higgins.

Thanking me for “Gary’s First Hundred Years,” Jack Buhner (above, with Chancellor William Lowe at Time capsule event) wrote: “I was in Gary during the fiftieth anniversary festival in 1956.  At that time some of the history you relate seemed much closer.  A few of the actors were still around as well as much of the scenery.  And you should have experienced the show U.S. Steel put on!  Betty and I were guests at most plants and were wined and dined along with hundreds of others almost to death.  Also thanks again for all you did to make my visit so memorable.  It was a great capstone for my long life with Indiana University.”

Lewis Sink visited the Archives from Fort Wayne seeking info about a restaurant his family owned in Gary 75 years ago. Using a city directory, I located its address and that of the Sink family residence.

The Redhawk Café manager saw me in the Cedar Lake documentary that still airs on PBS.  If my Shavings volume weren’t out of print, I’d have given her one.  She’s lived there for 20 years.  Cheryl from Accurate Hearing Aid Services ordered the Portage issue, going fast since I began using them during talks about the Region during the Roaring Twenties.

I helped Toni on two NY Times crossword puzzle clues, recognizing the answers to the Cambodian ruler (Lon) Nol and the Elvis clone who sang “It’s Only Make Believe, (Conway) Twitty.

Son Dave posted these remarks on his last day of class at East Chicago central: “Said goodbye to the senior class of 2012 today...I must say that today was a strong affirmation for the reasons I became a teacher. Emotions flowed and tears were shed, but the overall vibe from everyone involved touched me genuinely in ways I wasn't aware I could still be touched. The young people I worked with this year give me HOPE for the future and I will miss them tremendously. I LOVE the CLASS of 2012!!!!!”

“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” with Judi Densch and Maggie Smith is in its second week at Goodrich Portage 16.  I suggested the film to the manager after leaving an empty (except for me) showing of “The Dictator.”  At the time he was doubtful that they’d be showing it despite my claim that lots of seniors would come see it. I was prescient; the place was packed with elderlies.  The cast included the great Judi Densch and Maggie Smith.  Toni found it somewhat depressing, but I thought it was uplifting.

Gianluca invited me to join the History and Philosophy departmet at a Chinese restaurant in Chicago to celebrate Chris Young’s tenure and promotion, but we’ll be seeing “Oklahoma!” that afternoon. Too bad; it’s a nice place.  Diana Chen Lin took us there after she got tenure.

Long Weekend

“Each day as I grow older

The nights are getting colder

Some day the sun will shine on me.”

    “Big Man in Town,” Four Seasons

Saturday: Vanity Fair’s June cover features a sexy photo of Marilyn Monoe and inside are previously lost nude photos.  More substantive was an article by David Maraniss about young Barack Obama living in New York City in his early twenties.  An old Caucasian girlfriend recalled how serious he was sorting out his identity while associating with mostly Pakistani friends. The Prez returned to the Empire City to deliver the commencement address at Barnard College, the female counterpart to his alma mater Columbia.  On a somber note Everett Murdock has written a book entitled “Obama Will Win, but Romney Will be president” How the Republicans Will Target Electoral College Votes to Steal the 2012 Presidential Election.”  Let’s hope not, especially if women vote for him in landslide proportions.

While at the library I checked out “The Murder of the Century” by Paul Collins about a bizarre 1897 crime that William Randolph Hearst sensationalized until readers all over the world followed the story.  At Chesterton’s European Market I spotted a dead ringer for former campus Police Chief Andy Lazar, a gentle but formidable giant.  Lazar mentored Roy Dominguez, the first Mexican-American state trooper in Indiana (IUN just appointed its first woman chief, Patricia Nowak).  Selling me two organic grapefruits from Florida was a woman who recognized me and claimed I was her brother’s favorite teacher some 20 years ago.  Marianne Brush had a fun Pre-Memorial Day party because John and Lorraine Shearer were visiting from Traverse City.   Toni’s shrimp were a hit, with Becca devouring many of them.

Sunday: After going one for four in gaming in an Amun Re contest decided by a single slice, Toni and I saw “Jersey Boys” at Chicago’s Bank of America Theatre.  In addition to the great music, the play shed light on Four Seasons founder Tommy DeVito, lead singer Frankie Valli, songwriter Bob Gaudio, and arranger Nick Massi, who sang and played bass – all different, each flawed, but did they ever mesh. The group struck pay dirt with “Sherry” in 1962, and the hits continued until Beatlemania and the British Invasion.  I saw Frank Valli and a backup version of the Four Seasons in Indy during the mid-80s, and the songs sounded pitch perfect although I believe someone else was hitting the high falsetto notes.  Valli is still touring, as the play has brought him new fans.

The four of us ate at an excellent Tapas restaurant.  We stuffed ourselves, consumed a large pitcher of black raspberry sangria, and the bill came to $97.50, including tax.  Near the Art Institute we saw Muslims protesting the Syrian regime of Bashas al-Assad, whose troops have massacred thousands of civilians.  On Memorial Day we had a cookout and played bridge at Hagelbergs.

I got out a CD of 1962 hits that included “Sherry” by the Four Seasons and ended with “Green Onions” by Booker T and the MGs, “Little Town Flirt” by Del Shannon, “Palisades Park” by Freddy Cannon, and “What’s Your Name?” by Don and Juan, whose unforgettable last line goes, “Shooby-doo-bop-bah-dah!”

Columnist Jerry Davich wondered what deceased veterans would think about the NATO and Occupy Wall Street protests in Chicago.  While claiming that they died to protect our freedoms, he implied that most protesters were feckless publicity seekers, hippies and ideologues. His tone was condescending and his research nonexistent.  In the documentary “Dear America: Letters from Vietnam” a soldier who thinks he’s dying, wonders what he’s given his life for.  He was told he was fighting communism but realized he didn’t even know what communism was, much less why we should be killing Vietnamese willing to die for their beliefs.

Tuesday was granddaughter Miranda’s graduation.  Beforehand she starred in a soccer game that her school, Wyoming Park, won, 1-0.  The weather was perfect for the big day, sunny and in the 80s; in fact, had I not used sun block for the game, I’d have been burned.  Next year the two Wyoming schools will merge, so this was Park’s final graduating class.  Near the end of the ceremony students chanted “last class ever” and the orchestra played the school song one final time.  Other than oblique comments about choices and mistakes, some unimportant, others life-changing, by valedictorian Autumn Vanden Berg, nobody mentioned the auto accident that killed one senior, Timothy See, and injured two others, including the driver (a no show) and someone who escaped with minor wounds and received hearty applause from classmates (Miranda is in the first row, third from right).

Reporter Don Terry’s editors at “American Prospect” want as assessment of Gary’s current mayor.  I replied, “So far, Karen Freeman-Wilson seems to be good at consensus building and projecting a caring image.  The city is desperately in need of money, and she appears to be honest and capable of reaching out to state and federal officials for grants that will be essential for progress.  A nearly completed multi-million dollar Marquette Park project will help the Miller Beach neighborhood, and airport improvements also show promise.  The jury is still out on whether she can turn Gary around. Much will depend on whether Obama gets a second term and if the Democrats can keep the abhorrent Mike Pence from becoming governor.”

Mad Men

“I woke up this mornin’

And none of the news was good

And death machines were rumblin’

Cross the ground where Jesus stood.”

    “Jerusalem,” Steve Earle

 “John Walker’s Blues” on Steve Earle’s 2004 CD “Jerusalem,” which I’ve been playing recently, spurred controversy because of its sympathetic treatment of the so-called “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh.  While its doubtful that Lindh ever did anything threatening to the U.S. other than be at the wrong place at the wrong time, he was brutalized when our troops took him prisoner and handed a 20-year prison sentence.  He’s in a prison in Terre Haute, studying ancient Islamic texts, working on a liberal arts college degree, and recently sued to be allowed to hold daily prayer group sessions.

The last Egyptian president who tried to make peace with Israel got assassinated for his trouble.  Hope springs eternal, but the first democratic elections in Egypt ever, taking place over the past two days, will probably bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power.  The frontrunner is Mohammed Morsi, who vows to put his country on an Islamic basis.  His main rival, Ahmed Shafiq, was Mubarak’s prime minister and a law-and-order man.  Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is so powerful Time called him King Bibi.  He’s an archconservative, but sometimes that’s what it takes to make bold breaks with the past – like Charles de Gaulle pulling France out of Algeria.

Ryan Shelton showed me how to insert photos into the Adobe template for volume 42, which includes blog entries starting in April 2010.  On the first page is a sexy shot of Lady Gaga, one of the only photos that doesn’t have a specific Region connection. 

Jonathyne Briggs walked me through how to show a video and a movie off YouTube to his two classes Thursday while he’s in Florida.  At the condo handyman Jason fixed a fan and several other things on Toni’s to-do list.  After finding the venison salami too salty for my taste, I gave the rest to him.

On “Mad Men” Don came home late after drinking and flirting all afternoon with sexy Joan, causing Megan to throw a snit fit.  It seems just a matter of time before Don cheats on her even though she is a trophy wife.  He already has in a fantasy dream.

For speaking gratis at the Maria Reiner Senior Center I got invited to the “Margaret Kuchta Spirit of Volunteerism Celebration.”  The event, named for a former mayor, was at the Hobart Community Center near Lake George, which was formed over 150 years ago when George Earle dammed Deep River to provide for his grist mill that grinded grain.  I received a pin, ate pizza, salad, and apple strudel, and told director Pam Broadaway I could talk this fall on the “Roaring Twenties in the Calumet Region.”  Entertainment was a magician, and Mayor Snedecor, whom I’d met when I talked to Kiwanians, greeted me warmly. Maria Reiner was a wealthy widow who left all her money to benefit Hobart seniors.  Born in Germany, as was her husband, whom she met at the beach, and evidently was wealthy due to something her husband invented and patented.  Childless, she died at age 94 and bequeathed her inheritance to causes that benefit Hobart seniors.

The 76ers honored Allen Iverson (AI) prior to game six of their series against Boston.  What a big heart he had during his playing days.  In 2001 with virtually no star teammates, he led Philadelphia to the NBA finals and scored 48 points in an overtime win in game one against a Lakers team led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.  During the five-game series he averaged 35 points.  The crowd gave AI a thunderous ovation.  Perhaps inspired, the Sixers, coached by Doug Collins, won to force a game seven. Collins and AI are among the six most popular Sixers of all time, along with Julius Erving, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, and Charles Barkley.

I showed Jonathyne’s 11:30 class the 1994 film “Colonel Chabert,” based on an 1832 novella by Honore de Balzac.  The hero marries a former prostitute and, fighting for Napoleon, is so severely wounded at the 1807 Battle of Eylau, he’s thought to be dead and tossed into a mass grave. Years later he finds his wife married to a Restoration scumbag. The theme demonstrates the contrast between moral integrity and grasping materialism, compromise versus honor.  In the role of Chabert is Gerard Depardieu, who has played Jen Valjean in “Les Miserables” and even author Balzac.  I recall first seeing him co-starring with Andie MacDowell in “Green Card” a love affair that started out a marriage of convenience.

The afternoon movie was Russian progagandist Sergei Eisenstein’s “October: Ten Days That Shook the World” (the title taken from John Reed’s book).  Commissioned to celebrate the triumph of the Bolshevik revolution, it was first shown in 1928.  Joseph Stalin had recently purged Leon Trotsky and demanded that all positive references to him be stricken.  Since live music originally accompanied showing, a soundtrack was added in 1966.  Born in 1898, Eisenstein’s two previous movies were “Strike” (1924) and “Battleship Potemkin” (1925, the latter about a 1905 mutiny against Tsarist officers.  Perhaps his greatest film was “Alexander Nevsky” (1938), about a Russian prince who defends the motherland against an invasion led by Germanic knights.  The motive was to rally countrymen against the Nazis.  Ironically, soon after its release, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, and the film was suppressed.  It was re-released after Hitler callously invaded the Soviet Union.

The Hagelbergs took us to a Parkinson’s fundraiser at Avalon Manor in Merrillville.  The theme was “Evening in Paris” and a style show featured clothing from Elizabeth Fashions and John Cicco’s, the latter worn by men who, for the most part, hammed it up.  The women models, most of whom were on the planning board, including boutique owner Elizabeth Woodbury (front row, third from left), seemed to be having fun.    

Many of the blind auction items came from local merchants or the Michael J. Fox Foundation.  Two gentlemen were pouring free champagne, one so sparingly I gravitated to the other one.  I ran into Pamela Lowe, whose husband, IUN’s chancellor, is recuperating from back surgery, and filmmaker Nick Mantis, who is listening to old audiotapes of Jean Shepherd’s NY radio show and hopes to use clips in his documentary about Northwest Indiana’s “Bard” so that Shepherd would appear to be narrating.

Fred McColly was on campus to help start a community garden on property at the southwest edge of the campus that previously was a vacant lot.  I saw about a dozen folks participating when I drove to Country Lounge to have lunch with former student Jackie Gipson, who has been enjoying, as have I, watching good friends Doc Rivers and Doug Collins try to outsmart one another in the Boston-Philly series. 

A Jeopardy category entitled “Spelling by the Stars” featured the song titles RESPECT (Aretha), LOLA (Kinks), YMCA (Village People), SATURDAY Night (Bay City Rollers), and GLORIA (by Van Morrison and Patti Smith), which, surprisingly, two people missed.