South Bend Memory

Here is a South Bend memory that made a big impression on me, and I wonder if Sid remembers it. When I came back from Germany after my junior year in 1963-64, South Bend seemed a little small to me, and (mostly in a pretty obnoxious way!), I did a lot of things to prove what a woman of the world I was. I stayed home the summer of 1965 before I started grad school at Wisconsin, and I insisted on listening all the time to classical music on the Chicago radio station WFMT, which didn't come in very well and was very static-y, and it used to make Marilyn so mad! But someone else I frequently heard on WFMT was Studs Terkel, a very wonderful radio announcer, who just died on October 31 at the age of 96. He started working for WFMT in 1952 and worked there for 45 years. I bet Sid knew about him--though in the recollections no one is saying that he was a Communist, he was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, so I'm sure he was, or at least a fellow traveller. You can read more about Studs Terkel at www.studsterkel.org. I also remember from that summer that, because I was so obnoxious, Sid kept saying to me, "You'll mellow!" But, happily, I didn't, and I bet both Sid and I are glad about that!